I'm grateful to 'brillbex' for alerting me to the fact that I missed - before I went away - this Nick Tucker review (of teenage fiction) in The Independent from a fortnight ago...
October 2004 Archives
Just about to post a truncated Mail List update, not doing much more than pointing people to the dozen or so items blogged below. I'm sure there are a few things I've missed. If anyone spots significant omissions, let me know.
Mailing Monkey has submitted a superbly entertaining second installment, so watch out for that in the next day or two.
The hotel we stayed in in Glasgow had a broadband connection in each room, so I might well have been able to keep things updated had I taken a laptop with me, but although the notion of blogging while on the raod (a la Neil Gaiman and others) has always appealed, on balance I prefer to treat my rare trips away from base as a complete break from routine.
I've no idea yet what arrived in the post while I was away, as the Post Office was instructed to hold all packets back until tomorrow. I'm expecting a santasackful of stuff to be arriving in the morning.
Polka Theatre Press Release
Polka?s 25th Birthday season continues with a record-breaking Roald Dahl classic. At Christmas, Polka Theatre provides the perfect alternative to pantomimes, and this year is no exception. Continuing its 25th birthday season, Polka Theatre presents the much-loved Roald Dahl classic, James and the Giant Peach, adapted for the stage by David Wood OBE, recently described by The Times as ?the national children?s dramatist?. The show is the first time Polka has staged a Dahl story at Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach is currently breaking Box Office records. The story follows a young James Trotter who finds himself stuck living with his ghastly aunts ? Sponge and Spiker ? after his parents were gruesomely run down by a rhinoceros on Oxford Street! On receiving a gift from a mysterious man, however, James discovers a magical escape route when a single peach on the old, dead tree begins to grow to enormous proportions. So begins the trip of a lifetime, for both James and the young audience. Along the way, you?ll meet James? newfound insect chums, like Centipede, Earthworm and Ladybird, to name but a few. The show features brand new music, some technical wizardry, audience participation and plenty of laughs as Dahl?s wicked sense of humour is brought to life on stage. Directing the production is Polka?s Associate Director, Roman Stefanski, whose last Christmas show for Polka was the enchanting Cinderella in 2002. He is joined by designer Keith Baker (Young Europe, Boy, Just So) and composer Olly Fox, who also composed music for last year?s hit show, Stuart Little. As well as being one of the UK?s foremost producers of theatre for children, Polka Theatre is Britain?s first and only theatre venue dedicated to and purpose-built for young audiences. This Autumn, it celebrates 25 years of its unique building, where over 2 million of children have been introduced to the world of theatre. James and the Giant Peach is sponsored by City-based Tullett Liberty plc, one of the world?s largest firms of inter-dealer brokers. It marks the company?s nineteenth sponsorship of a Polka Theatre production.
For review tickets and all press enquiries, please contact
Rasheed Rahman on 020 8545 8328
or e-mail rasheed@polkatheatre.com
Laura Benson on 020 8545 8320 x348
or email laura@polkatheatre.com
The Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke translated from German by Oliver Latsch (The Chicken House, 2004)
First published in Germany in 2000.
(Age: 9+)
The Shamer's Signet by Lene Kaaberbol translated from Danish by the author (Hodder Children?s Books, 2003)
First published in Denmark in 2001.
(Age: 9+)
Playing with Fire by Henning Mankell translated from Swedish by Anna Paterson (Allen & Unwin, 2002)
First published in Sweden in 2001.
(Age: 13+)
Eye of the Wolf by Daniel Pennac translated from French by Sarah Adams
(Walker Books, 2002)
First published in France in 1982.
(Age: 9+)
Kamo's Escape by Daniel Pennac translated from French by Sarah Adams
(Walker Books, 2004)
First published in France in 1992.
(Age: 9+)
The winner will be announced at a ceremony at The Arts Club on 20th January 2005. Aidan Chambers, internationally acclaimed author and President of the School Library Association, will present the award and a prize of ?1000 to the translator of the winning book.
2004 Governor-General's Award for Children's Literature Shortlists:
Text
Martine Leavitt - Heck Superhero (Red Deer Press)
Sharon McKay - Esther (Penguin Canada)
Kenneth Oppel - Airborn (HarperCollins)
Judd Palmer - The Wolf King (Raincoast Books)
Ange Zhang - Red Land:Yellow River (Groundwood Books)
Illustration
Nicolas Debon - Dawn Watch (Groundwood Books)
Marie-Louise Gay - Stella, Princess of the Sky (Groundwood Books)
Stephane Jorisch - Jabberwocky (Kids Can Press)
Kim Le Fave - A Very Unusual Dog (Scholastic/North Winds Press)
Barbara Reid - Peg and the Yeti (HarperCollins)
Wizard Books press release:
GREAT NEWS FOR ALL FANS OF THE LEGENDARY FIGHTING FANTASY? GAMEBOOKSIAN LIVINGSTONE, CO-CREATOR OF THE MULTI-MILLION SELLING GAMEBOOK SERIES, HAS WRITTEN A NEW BOOK ? HIS FIRST IN TEN YEARS
WIZARD BOOKS WILL PUBLISH EYE OF THE DRAGON IN APRIL 2005
Fighting Fantasy? was the children?s books phenomenon of the 1980s. Over 15 million copies were sold, and authors Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson became heroes to hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide (mainly boys aged 8 ? 12). Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were the original interactive books in which YOU the reader were the hero. Misunderstood at first, there was some controversy in the media as parents were concerned that their children were too obsessed with role-playing. Now twenty years on there has been a resurgence in the genre. Wizard Books launched new editions in 2002 and have since sold over 800,000 books. Many thirty-something men still remember the excitement of Livingstone?s and Jackson?s adventures and are now buying them for their own children!
A BRAND NEW FIGHTING FANTASY ADVENTURE
Now Wizard Books are to publish a brand new Fighting Fantasy? adventure, written by Ian Livingstone. It is called Eye of the Dragon and is his first new book in 10 years.
Bradenton Herald | 10/31/2004 | R.L. Stine still gives us 'Goosebumps'
Recommended feature about R. L. Stine:
Stine's new series, "Mostly Ghostly" is the first series of books he has written with continuing characters. The series chronicles the escapades of Max Doyle, an ordinary middle-school-aged kid who discovers two child ghosts, Nicky and Tara, living in his bedroom.
Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Illustrated books: Oct 24
Kate Kellaway reviews a batch of piture books featuring father-son relationships...
Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Young adult fiction: Oct 24
Hephzibah Anderson, in last Sunday's Observer, was less than excited by a batch of recent 'crossover' novels, saying of Charmian Hussey's The Valley Of Secrets, for example: "The prose lacks sparkle, however. There is something stubbornly one-dimensional about its simplicity, something fogeyish about its reactionary retreat into a rural idyll."
Recommended
Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Author of the month: Meg Cabot
Dina Rabinovitch interviews Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries:
"Although it was British publishers who first took on The Princess Diaries, the back current of Cabot's stories really make better sense to American sensibilities. She writes about girls, who, like herself, weren't cheerleader types, preferred black clothes to pristine Abercrombie and Fitch, and were into art, drama and music instead of schoolwork."
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | His master's voice
Nicola Morgan reviews Frozen Billy by Anne Fine:
"Frozen Billy is a charming story. The opening led me to expect something more sinister, but that may be my horror of wooden dolls that talk through clacking red mouths. If you share my fears, fear not - Frozen Billy is soft at heart."
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Hooray for the hearth-sprite
Jan Mark reviews Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish:
The trolls are fun, the children are brave, the villains hissable and the plot involving, but Langrish's talent lies with what the late Katherine Briggs would have included in the term "fairies".
Amana Craig reviews Going Postal by Terry Pratchett:
Pratchett, contrary to what his detractors say, doesn?t offer escapism. His world, increasingly subtle and thoughtful, has become as allegorical and satirical as a painting by Bosch.
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
Children Of The Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by P. B. Kerr
"ingenious, but with perhaps more smart than heart" NICOLETTE JONES
Forgive the hiatus, both in blog entries and Mail List update. I'm away from base...
Continue reading Away From Base.
TURNING POINT
Saturday November 27th, Nottingham
A one day conference devoted to the subject of teenage/YA writing will consist of a series of discussions including What Is Young Adult Fiction? The condition of the ?issue? novel, Reviewing and promoting YAF and The Future. There will be a keynote speech from Melvin Burgess, the author of Junk and Doing It. The other writers speaking will be David Belbin, Kevin Brooks, Anne Cassidy, Keith Gray, Graham Marks, Nicola Morgan, Beverley Naidoo and Bali Rai. Academic Alison Waller, Publicist Justin Somper, Guardian Children?s Books editor and David Fickling (publisher and editor of Mark Haddon and Philip Pullman) will also be bringing their perspective to the day. Many other writers ? some very distinguished - have booked as delegates and will speak from the floor.
Full price tickets are ?35 plus ?6.12 VAT. Students in full time education pay ?25 plus ?4.37 VAT. Prices include lunch. Turning Point is aimed at those writing and promoting YAF , rather than its core audience, so tickets are not on sale to under 18s.
Conference admin/press ticket enquiries ? Simon Dawes simon.dawes@ntu.ac.uk Tel. 0115 8483273
Further comment/interview requests ? David Belbin david.belbin@ntu.ac.uk
The Norma Fleck Award recognizes outstanding non-fiction books for young people. The $10,000 award is the largest of its kind in Canadian Children's Literature.
2004 Norma Fleck Award Winner
Val Ross for The Road to There (Tundra Books)
Andrea Deakin writes:
Val Ross is a well-known and respected journalist who has won a National Newspaper Award. She is the deputy comment editor at "The Globe and Mail". This is her first book.
"The Road to There: Mapmakers and their Stories" introduces children to several mapmakers and reflects on how their characters and the times influenced the way they worked. There is Cheng Ho, a Fifteenth Century Chinese admiral whose travels were suddenly limited by a change in government; slaves on the run who were guided by specially-pieced quilts; Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese prince who had a passion for exploration, Lewis and Clark, Captain Cook, and a woman who mapped the streets of London. Ms. Ross writes of fraudsters who changed maps for gain; present investigators who who try and to map the ocean floor, and those who practice aerial photography, mapping not only the present, but also the past.
The book contains reproductions of contemporary maps, illustrations, and photographs and ends with a chapter by chapter bibliography.
"The Road to There" is also the 2003 winner of the Mr. Christie Book Award Seal; included in VOYA's ninth annual Nonfiction Honor List and
shorlisted for the Children's Literature Roundtable Information Book of the Year.
The Silver Donkey - Reviews - www.theage.com.au
Hartnett is one of the finest writers of fiction in this country. Her dark and catastrophic novels such as Sleeping Dogs and Of a Boy, for which she won The Age book of the year award, are written for anyone who has eyes to see and ears to listen to the tumult and sadness in the world. It is ludicrous that she has been burdened with the label of writing for the "young adult" market. The Silver Donkey , however, is a genuine children's book, not that this will stop readers of any age from enjoying it... ...
New York Post Online Edition: entertainment
Short interview with Walter Dean Myers, on the occasion of publication of his new book, Here In Harlem, a collection of poems about his hometown.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Squaring up to the Troubles
Keith Gray reviews Alan Gibbons:
At a time when many writers for young people are determined to play down "issues" in their fiction, Gibbons seems to relish hitting them head on. His thrillers are guaranteed to keep the reader flipping the pages, but also to make them tackle subjects they may initially have shied away from.
Philip Kerr on tour in America...:
...nothing prepared me for the rigours of a three-week tour of the United States, as a first-time children's author. Three weeks without uttering a single profanity and without once getting drunk; three weeks of politeness and diplomacy that would have exhausted Kofi Annan.The first thing I noticed about Scholastic, who specialise in publishing children's books (they publish JK Rowling in America) is how nice they all are. How nice and how enthusiastic. Such a pleasant change from the glum old world of adult publishing where booksellers moan about point of sale (or more likely the lack of it), and editors and marketing people regard you with shifty indifference - as if it must have been someone else's bright idea to have you read to several rows of empty seats and a lost dog at some dismal bookshop in St Albans. Everyone in children's books is smiling.
Lemony Snicket's The Grim Grotto Surpasses 1.1 Million Copies Sold
From a New York newswire:
HarperCollins Children's Books announced [yesterday] that in its first month on sale, A Series of Unfortunate Events Book the Eleventh: The Grim Grotto (on sale: Sept. 21, 2004) has sold 1.1 million copies in the U.S. Furthermore, the book has topped the bestsellers lists of the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal, in some cases besting Dr. Phil, Jon Stewart and even Stephen King. Snicket is purportedly "inconsolable" and "hiding in a corner."
The Printer's Devil - not its original title, as we learnt at tonight's launch dinner - is a rewarding, historical, London-set adventure in the tradition of Joan Aiken. What I particularly like about the book is that it is pitched fairly and squarely at the 8-11 audience. It is good to have a substantial, quality children's novel that you can recommend unreservedly to primary age children without worrying that it is only suitable for the very oldest or most literate amongst them. In that connection it was revealing to hear the author unashamedly admitting that it was Enid Blyton who first engaged him as a young boy, before he moved on to Aiken and Leon Garfield. Another likeable characteristic of the book is its willingness to embrace elements that more cautious authors might have rejected as too cliched. The dog, Lash, leaps to mind.
As a first novel, The Printer's Devil is impressive. The plot twists in its second half did begin to leave me reeling and - perhaps this is because of my own gender - I resented the major revelation when it came, and still fail to see the point of it, other than a fear (on the part of the author? the publisher? the sellers?) that the book might have insufficiently wide appeal without it. Unfortunately, I was sitting too far down the dinner table to ask the author himself about this, and had to leave to catch a train before the dessert musical chairs. But I very much enjoyed sitting next to a red-shirted Justin Somper, who was on fine form, sharing off-the-record stories about author events, and giving me a little advance news of his forthcoming 'punchy' short fiction pirate-vampires sequence, sheduled to begin appearing early next summer.
Jill Slotover (Financial Times) informed me, apropos of a discussion about marketing & publicity 'extras', she had received a bunch of roses earlier in the day, along with a proof of Hilary McKay's next book. Texting home from the train, I found that no such bouquet had, as yet, been left at ACHUKA's door.
Earlier, I had arrived at Smiths, by chance, with Dinah Hall of the Sunday Telegraph. As we walked through pounding bars in search of the private dining room, she remarked, "Aren't you glad not to be young any more?" And then, both admiring David Frankland's cover art, she wondered, "Do you think that's because it makes us nostalgic for books we remember?" During the short dinner speeches the pounding from the neighbouring bars became increasingly insistent, and posed the question, "Is there still an audience for this kind of novel (a book that could have been written in 1964, 1954 even, as easily as 2004)? We shall see. The book has already gone into a second printing but that, I suspect, is mostly the result of speculative interest from bookdealers and collectors, rather than from a genuine rush of early sales.
New mystery fiction features writers' 'firsts'
Susan Wittig Albert's The Tale of Hill Top Farm is her first in a planned series featuring children's book author Beatrix Potter as an amateur sleuth.
Charlotte's plan - Film - www.theage.com.au
Greendale, in rural Victoria, has been chosen by Paramount Pictures as the location for a major Hollywood movie - Charlotte's Web... ... The latest Charlotte's Web is scheduled for a 2006 release and will be directed by Gary Winick with actors yet to be cast.
Terry Pratchett interview, from the Sunday Times:
?Look at this,? he says, gesturing to a lectern that holds an ancient tome from Discworld?s university of magic. Light sparkles along its edges and pulses beneath the parchment pages. It is a gift from his publisher on the 21st anniversary of Discworld this year.
Terry Pratchett proudly shows his interviewer the book and lectern presented to him at a recent London event (see entry for September 29th)
Handler's editor at HarperCollins Children's Books, Susan Rich, says she and the author aren't eager to damage "the integrity" of the series by keeping it going beyond its scheduled life expectancy of 13 books.
Feature about Daniel Handler
Recommended
LeGuin returns to young adult fiction with 'Gifts'
A review of Gifts, the new YA book by Ursula LeGuin.
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
The Little Gentleman by Philippa Pearce
Typically for Pearce, this is not only a story of page-turning compulsiveness, written with elegance and wisdom, but is also rich in history. Pearce?s powers certainly have not lessened. NICOLETTE JONES
see entry for October 15th for pictures of launch event
Times Online - Books
Amanda Craig's latest review in The Times includes recommendation for The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud ["The alternating perspectives between three central characters add depth, detail and humour to the action-packed thrills."]
and for Children of the Lamp by P. B. Kerr ["pure action-packed fun of a kind any child of 9+ will revel in."]
But the review's lead title is a book first published in 1937: My Friend Mr Leakey by J. B. S. Haldane, recently reprinted by Jane Nissen Books. Craig calls it "one of the funniest books yet written for children".
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Light at the end of the tunnel
Jan Mark reviews Philippa Pearce's new book:
a deeply moving meditation on the transience and mutability of childhood, the necessity - indeed, the desirability - of death at the end of a natural span, and on the painful truth that the highest expression of love is not to possess but to relinquish.
see also entry for October 15th...
Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | England's time lord
Long feature about Alan Garner.
Not to be missed!
Enjoyment
Christina Patterson of The Independent talks to Jacqueline Wilson about both the positive and negative aspects of popularity...
It's just as well she likes it because there's no going back. Her five-hour signing in Weston-super-Mare was practically skiving. In Bournemouth this year, Wilson signed books for eight hours "without a loo break", a feat that's set to enter the Guinness Book of Records. It's hard to think of any other writer who has made such efforts to satisfy the needs of her fans. "All the time I'm signing," she says, "I'll talk to the child, ask their name, chat a bit. You don't stand in the queue all that time just to have your book signed and for it to be a 'next'."
Puffin held a celebration party last night, in honour of Philippa Pearce, who has just published The Little Gentleman, her first full-length fiction for twenty years. Illustrated by Patrick Benson, who could not be at the event, it is a wonderfully written story about a girl's friendship with a mole, who has been given the power of speech and the mixed blessing of immortality. The author, now in her eighties, stayed late at the party, signing books for guests.
BBC NEWS | UK | England | North Yorkshire | Author burns original manuscripts
Best-selling children's novelist, GP Taylor has accidentally burnt three of his original manuscripts while clearing his house before moving... ...
Chronicles Part 1 by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan's eagerly-awaited first volume of autobiography is mainly about his early days in New York City, as a young folksinger just arrived from the MidWest. Strikes me it would make great teen reading. School librarians should stock several copies - as should they also of the new edition of his Lyrics:
Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week
Not The End Of The World by Geraldine McCaughrean
This extraordinary novel imagines the ?reality? of Noah?s Ark: what it would be like to be saved while your neighbours and friends drown around you. It evokes the grief, loss and cruelty of the almost complete destruction of mankind, as well as the grimness of a floating zoo... ...NICOLETTE JONES
Haaretz - Israel News - Magic from a block of wood
An Israeli review of a new version of Pinnochio: "Harpatkaotav shel Pinokio" ("The Adventures of Pinocchio") by Carlo Collodi, Penguin, $19.99 [translated into Hebrew from the Italian with an afterword by Anat Spitzen, illustrations by Uri Ashi, Carmel Publishing House, 432 pages, NIS 94]... ...
It could be that English children's books are better than others. It could be that the 20th century, at least at its beginning, did well by children. The talk of misery and making the child miserable became two different things. "Winnie the Pooh" or "The Wind in the Willows" are genuinely fine literature. Yet nevertheless, the father and the mother who read to their children are all too often faced with too easy a choice, "what we ourselves read." No wonder, then, that the most popular children's books among adults, according to The Guardian at least, are the children's books of Enid Blyton, the author of "The Famous Five," which became "The Secret Seven."
Guardian Unlimited Books | Special Reports | Love, loss and loyalty
Julia Eccleshare on the winner of the 2004 Guardian Children's Fiction prize, Meg Rosoff..
Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | The accidental realist
The accidental realist
Edith Nesbit rejected Victorian silliness about childhood and conjured magical worlds that were as solid and chaotic as everyday life. Natasha Walter celebrates a 'genuine Bohemian' in The Guardian...
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Talents of underachieving boys identified in survey
Government policies to help underachieving boys who fall behind in reading and writing at primary school have been influenced by misleading stereotypes which label them reluctant, resistant or weak and even unteachable, a new report claims today.
Childrens Book Festival 2004 - childrens' book festival Dublin - kids events in Dublin
The Irish Children's Book Festival 2004 will be launched on October 13th....
Guardian Unlimited | Arts features | Off the shelf
Guardian Author of the month: Jacqueline Wilson
More than a week old (I can't think why I failed to blog it at the time) but - as you would expect of Davina Rabinovitch's monthly profiles - superbly, revealingly and slightly disturbingly worth reading.