[scroll down for competition details]

As you would expect, Disney have designed a feature-full website to accompany release of The Lion And The Witch And The Wardrobe on December 8th. Included at the bottom of the main screen, but easy to miss, is a link to the website of the excellent organisation Film Education. This organisation constantly produces and circulates curriculum materials to schools to encourage links between film and the teaching of various subjects, bu particularly (for obvious reasons) literacy.

http://www.filmeducation.org/primary/narnia.htmlThis page includes downloadable pdf study sheets suitable for KS2 Literacy and KS3 English.

As announced last week, we have a complete set of Narnia Audiobooks on CD to give away to a lucky winner. Deadline for entries will be December15th, to allow dispatch in time for Christmas.

BBC Audiobooks

listen to an extract

All you have to do to win is name the (original) illustrator of the Narnia Chronicles by emailing your answer to info@achuka.co.uk with NARNIA in the subject line. There is no need to include a postal address. We will contact the lucky winner initially by email.

Women of Paris in Pictures, accompanies the exhibition 'Quentin Blake and the Demoiselles des Bords de Seine' which coincides with the reopening of the Petit Palais in December 2005.

Quentin Blake presents a fascinating selection of works by famous and lesser-known artists, all from the wonderful collection at the Petit Palais in Paris, exploring the mystery, image and reality of Parisian women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

�Because we admire (Quentin Blake) and his work, and because we believe in his talent, the Petit Palais has given him carte blanche. Carte blanche to choose works from our reserve collections that he thinks have the power to charm. Carte blanche to salute our heritage by creating on the walls drawings that will charm our visitors. As a result the walls of our galleries have begun to float into the clouds, and the ladies of the banks of the Seine to talk, discuss, argue, laugh, cry, sing ��
Giles Chazal, Conservateur general du Patrimoine, Directeur du Petit Palais, musee des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris

Stan Berenstain, Co-Creator of Those Fuzzy Bears, Dies at 82 - New York Times

New York Times obituary for Stan Berenstain

PopMatters Books Feature | This Time You Pray For Real

Nikki TRanter, PopMatters Books Editor, takes a swipe at the current vogue for fantasy:

It's a plague of dragons.

Not that there's anything really wrong with dragons, they're just everywhere, and they've swallowed the grit and the drama of literary teenage reality... ...

Recommended

Stan Berenstain Dies; Co-Creator of Books On Berenstain Bears

CNN.com - Berenstain Bears co-creator dead - Nov 29, 2005

Stan Berenstain, who with his wife created the popular children's books about the Berenstain Bears, has died. He was 82 and lived in Bucks County. He died in Pennsylvania on Saturday, said Audra Boltion, a spokeswoman for HarperCollins Children's Books in New York...

Children's author Falkner one to watch - 29 Nov 2005 - Lifestyle & Leisure

Your average book launch is a perfectly pleasant affair, but �electrifying� is not a word you�d use to describe it. This is because your average book launch doesn�t kick off with an astonishingly loud 500,000-volt indoor lightning storm. New Zealand children�s author Brian Falkner has just brought out his third book, and it�s fair to say it arrived with a bang.

Falkner first appeared on the local writing scene three years ago, and has quickly established himself as someone to watch... ...

The Observer | Review | The best theatrical Christmas entertainment 2005

There's more to Christmas shows than a load of old panto. We pick the best Yuletide family entertainment around the country...

A really useful listing of two dozen seasonal shows.

Lotte's sketchbook

Lotte's latest:

Lotte Klaver is a young Dutch illustrator. ACHUKA is featuring her work because we are convinced she has a bright future as an illustrator generally, and as an illustrator of children's books in particular.

Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/27/2005 | Young Adult Reader | A young girl comes of age in tribe of warrior women

Told in rhythmic, lulling prose - the ancient beat of humanity - Alice Hoffman's new young adult novel reads like an oral tradition put down on paper for the first time.

- toledoblade.com -

A profile of Chris Crutcher:

Children's book expert Anita Silvey says she found it "almost impossible" to limit the number of Crutcher's novels included in her forthcoming book, 500 Best Books for Young Adults. "He created most of the great sports novels of the '80s and '90s' - Stotan!, Ironman, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Running Loose, and Whale Talk," Silvey said. "They have all been popular with readers, but 'Whale Talk' seems to have developed a particularly devoted following.."

Independent Online Edition > News

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has defeated action-packed blockbusters and special effects-filled cartoons to be named by children as this year's best feature film at the 10thBritish Academy Children's Film and Television Awards....

The winners

* ANIMATION The Little Reindeer; Jonathan Peel, Dave Unwin. Millimages UK/CiTV

* DRAMA My Life As A Popat; Production Team. Feelgood Fiction/CiTV

* ENTERTAINMENT RAD: The Groms Tour America; Christian Stevenson, Wayne Yates. Sunset and Vine/Five

* FACTUAL Serious Arctic; CBBC/CBBC

* FEATURE FILM The Incredibles; John Walker, Brad Bird. Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios/Buena Vista International

* INTERACTIVE Smile; Darrall Macqueen Ltd for CBBC/BBC Worldwide

* INTERNATIONAL Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks; John Over. Mike Young Productions for Entara/CBBC

* PRE-SCHOOL ANIMATION Peppa Pig; Phil Davies, Mark Baker, Neville Astley. Astley, Baker, Davies/Nickelodeon UK

* PRE-SCHOOL LIVE ACTION Boogie Beebies; Clare Bradley, Brendan McCaul. CBeebies/CBeebies

* PRESENTER Michaela Strachan - Michaela's Wild Challenge; Two Hand Productions/Five

* SCHOOLS DRAMA Scene: Oddsquad; Hilary Durman, John Godber, Jane Thornton. Resource Base/BBC2

* SCHOOLS FACTUAL - PRIMARY Primary Geography - India: Mumbai, Urban India; Michelle Jones. CBBC Education/BBC2

* SCHOOLS FACTUAL - SECONDARY School of Hard Knocks; James Capria. UMTV Ltd/Channel 4

* WRITER - ADAPTED Barbara Cox - Wipe Out; CBBC Education/BBC2

* WRITER - ORIGINAL John Godber and Jane Thornton - Scene: Oddsquad; Resource Base/Channel 4

* THE BAFTA KIDS VOTE Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

* SPECIAL AWARD The Junior Television Workshop

Scotsman.com News - Features - Shadowlands of Narnia

Feature about C. S. Lewis in The Scotsman

Recommended

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Wonderland, witches and war

Julia Eccleshare's children's book roundup for Christmas from The Guardian

BBC - Radio 4 Front Row - Home

Listen again to the edition of Front Row broadcast on Radio 4 earlier this evening... Includes interviews with Lauren Child and David Almond, as well as book recommendations from Julia Eccleshare and Damien Kelleher

Highly Recommended

A roaring magical hit | This is London

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe *****

a rave review

Where is that sixth star when you need it?

AP Wire | 11/23/2005 | Weetzie Bat is back as her creator confronts middle age


Necklace Of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block

Weetzie, who made her first appearance in Block's breakthrough 1989 young adult novel, "Weetzie Bat," as the anguished teenage girl no one understood, is 40 now. With two girls of her own in college, and her longtime relationship with Max, her "secret agent lover man," seemingly about to crumble, she sets out to find herself among the mystical characters and magical happenings that make up life in Block's Los Angeles.

Recommended feature about a cult US author who has never really secured a UK fanbase.

Q & A with Norton Juster, author of 'The Phantom Tollbooth'

For this year's Kirkus Reviews Children's Books special, our editors picked the forty best children's books of the year, and then fought over the pleasure of talking to the authors. Norton Juster, the author of the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth, (illustrated by another of our top forty, Jules Feiffer), took some time to talk with The Book Standard about his winning book, The Hello, Goodbye Window, a charming�and charmingly illustrated�snapshot of a little girl's love affair with her grandparents.

Q & A with Jules Feiffer

For this year's Kirkus Reviews Children's Books special, our editors picked the 40 best children's books of the year, and then had the pleasure of talking to the authors. Author, illustrator, cartoonist and expert telephone conversationalist Jules Feiffer made our list for his new book, A Room with a Zoo...

'Kirkus Reviews' Announces the Best Children's Books of 2005

Traction Man Is Here by Min Grey is listed in the top ten of Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Books of 2005

Lotte's sketchbook

Lotte's latest:

Lotte Klaver is a young Dutch illustrator. ACHUKA is featuring her work because we are convinced she has a bright future as an illustrator generally, and as an illustrator of children's books in particular.

The Reading Association of Ireland have announced the shortlist for their prestigious children's book awards. Six of the seven books on the shortlist are published by the O�Brien Press.

RAI established the award to celebrate children�s literature written and published in Ireland. The award is made every second year and presented to the authors/illustrators/publishers of outstanding books for children and adolescents published in Ireland. The 2005 award-winners will be announced on 1st December.

The shortlist is as follows:

Epic - Conor Kostick O'Brien Press
The Gods and Their Machines - Ois�n Mc Gann O'Brien Press
The Harvest Tide Project - Ois�n Mc Gann - O'Brien Press
Wings Over Delft - Aubrey Flegg - O'Brien Press
Something Beginning with"p" - Edited by Seamus Cashman - O'Brien Press Times
All About Gaelic Football - Gerry Grogan and Tom Fitzpatrick - O'Brien Press
Amach - Alan Titley - An G�m

USATODAY.com - National Book Award brings more than praise

After Jeanne Birdsall's debut novel, The Penderwicks, won the award for young people's literature, Random House announced it was printing 20,000 more copies beyond the 40,000 already in print. Children don't buy children's books, but adults do. And that, Birdsall says, is where the award will most affect sales. Until now, she says, she has relied mostly on independent bookstores that have "hand-sold the book � one at a time."

David Fickling Books will publish The Penderwicks in the UK next year.

Lotte's sketchbook

Lotte was away for a while. She's back now and here is one of her latest sketches:

Lotte Klaver is a young Dutch illustrator. ACHUKA is featuring her work because we are convinced she has a bright future as an illustrator generally, and as an illustrator of children's books in particular.

The Observer | UK News | Strip lit is joining the literary elite

it is truly a sign of the times that the front cover of the annual RSL magazine for 2006 will be devoted to two graphic novelists. Posy Simmonds and Raymond Briggs were both made fellows of the society this year, the first in their genre to receive the honour. They are designing a cover for the journal together, which will trumpet the arrival of graphic novels as a respected literary form... ...

Literary Life by Posy Simmonds

Black Hole by Charles Burns, described as the 'Ulysses of graphic fiction'

New York Blade Online

Geography Club one of 10 nominees for the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award 2006, has been banned in one of America's school districts:

University Place school officials have removed a book about gay teens from the district's library shelves following parents' complaints.
The school superintendent said the banning of 'Geography Club' was not due to the gay theme of the book, but rather how one of the characters uses the Internet to meet a fellow gay student.
In banning "Geography Club," Superintendent Patti Banks said she was alarmed by the "romanticized" portrayal of a teen meeting a stranger at night in a park after meeting the person � revealed to be a gay classmate � in an Internet chatroom. She said her decision was not due to the gay theme of the novel by Brent Hartinger of Tacoma.
"We want to send a strong consistent message to all our students that meeting individuals via the Internet is extremely high-risk behavior," Banks wrote in a letter Nov. 2 to two parents who requested the book's removal.
"To the extent that this book might contradict that message, I have determined it should not be in our libraries... ...

Children's book of the week - Sunday Times - Times Online

Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week

Dawn Undercover by Anna Dale

Funny and cleverly written (but for one misuse of the word �inferred�), this light-hearted and engaging story parodies the spy genre without sacrificing the reader �s involvement.... NICOLETTE JONES

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Review: Ingo by Helen Dunmore

Philip Ardagh reviews Ingo by Helen Dunmore in The Guardian:

... ...Though the first in a series, this book works perfectly as a standalone title, with a satisfying resolution but enough left hanging in the air to make the characters and situations live on in the reader's mind. Ingo has a haunting, dangerous beauty all of its own.

Philip Ardagh's latest book is a novelty title aimed mainly at adults and the Christmas market:

Books - reviews and literary news from The Times and The Sunday Times

Amanda Craig finds Ithaka by Adele Geras "an intelligent, warm-hearted novel about the lives of women and children in Homeric Greece" but has one reservation. Find out what, by reading her review.

CBBC Newsround | UK | Michael Morpurgo wins book award

Michael Morpurgo has been announced as the 2005 Blue Peter Book Award winner. The popular children's author was awarded the top prize for his book Private Peaceful which also won the "book I couldn't put down" category. ...

Michael Morprugo's latest book is I Believe In Unicorns:

Theatre: Coram Boy - First night reviews - Times Online

A review of the new Coram Boy production...

COMPETITION

Winners so far:

J DUDDY / M WATERFIELD



We have one more fabulous family ticket-set for this new production
to give away!

Each set comprises
:4 tickets to see the play + a backstage tour + two copies of the book Coram
Boy.

The tickets can be used any time during November. We will be giving away a set of tickets each week during the first three weeks of November.

Here is the final competition question:

Jamila Gavin recently contributed to a collection critical of the current approach in school. Name one of the authors who also contributed..

email your answer to editorial@achuka.co.uk with the word Coram in the message title.

There is also a specially-priced opening ticket offer for all achuka readers (see below).

Coram Boy runs in rep at the National from
2nd November - http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

OPENING TICKET
OFFER
Tickets only �16 (best available)

Save up to �20! Until November 25


BOOKING INFORMATION
Call 020 7452 3000 and quote �achuka offer�.

Offer valid all Monday � Friday
evening performances at 7.30 & all matinees at 2pm until 25 November. Subject
to availability.


w/c 31 Oct:
Wed � Sat @ 7.30

w/c 7 Nov:
Mon � Sat @ 7.30
+ Sat @ 2.00

w/c 14 Nov:
Mon, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday @ 7.30
Tuesday @ 7.00
Thursday & Saturday @ 2.00

w/c 21 Nov:
Mon � Fri @ 7.30
Wed @ 2.00

Governor General's Award for Children's Literature 2005

Text

Pamela Porter: The Crazy Man (Groundwood/House of Anansi Press)

The award for text went to Pamela Porter for The Crazy Man, published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi. It is set on a south Saskatchewan wheat farm in 1965. When Emaline chases after her runaway dog, her father accidentally runs over her leg, leaving her with a permanent disability. Grief-stricken, her father shoots the dog and abandons the family. Her mother hires a patient from the nearby mental hospital to help with the farm. The small town's prejudice towards Angus almost ends in tragedy; but Angus is a healer who helps Emaline come to terms with her injury and with her father's abandonment. The story is told in free verse.

Illustration

Rob Gonsalves: Imagine a Day text by Sarah L.Thompson (Simon and Schuster)

The award for illustration goes to Rob Gonsalves for his paintings for Imagine A Day, published by Atheneum/Simon and Schuster. His surreal paintings for Sarah L.Thompson's text are a voyage into the realm of the imagination which takes the viewer from the realm of the everyday into that of the possible, allowing children to expand their view of the world around them.
Rob Gonsalves paintings in the 2003 publication, Imagine a Night, were finalists for the Governor-General's Award that year.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Hornby, Rushdie in Whitbread race

Whitbread Children's book shortlist

Frank Cottrell Boyce - Framed
Geraldine McCaughrean - The White Darkness
Hilary McKay - Permanent Rose
Kate Thompson - The New Policeman

Daniel Handler | The A.V. Club

A Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) interview

Recommended

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Emma Brockes interview: Roger McGough

Feature interview with Roger McGough in yesterday's Guardian, in which he says:

[he]finds it demoralising when he goes on children's TV: "They say, 'Come on and read a poem,' and they're all very excited, but 'Keep it short, keep it short, it's for children.' OK. 'Keep it 30 seconds.' OK. Then you do your 30-second poem, and it's followed by someone coming on with a hedgehog for 20 minutes."

The Narnia Skirmishes - New York Times

Long piece in New York Times by Charles McGrath ending

Lewis once characterized the imagination as a faculty that "stirs and troubles" the reader with a "dim sense of something beyond his reach," and the Narnia chronicles, however stodgy their apparent message, surely succeed at doing just that. Like all the great children's books, they're not really concerned with explaining or defending this or that orthodoxy. They're interested in mostly the same thing Hollywood is: escape.

Highly recommended

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Children's book of the week - Sunday Times - Times Online

Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week

The Wizard, The Ugly And The Book Of Shame by Pablo Bernasconi

[Bernasconi] is a master of photographic collage, making startling, original, cubist-inspired caricatures composed of unlikely elements: a wizard�s face, for instance, is made out of a cheese grater and a carrot.

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Flaps and maps

Philip Ardagh admires the atttrention to detail that has gone into the design of Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll but in the end feels a little cheated to find that the maps and other features contribute little to the story:

As for the maps, plans and so on, beautiful though most of them are, they're not integral to the story. They may look great, give a little background and add credibility, but they're not indispensable and neither do they contain "clues". Sure, you might spot a concealed room or gun that later crops up in the text but - with one notable exception - little more than that.

Books - reviews and literary news from The Times and The Sunday Times

Amanda Craig profiles Cressida Cowell

FT.com / Arts & Weekend / Collecting - Where fairy tales keep coming true

Financial Times feature about John Huddy of the Illustration Cupboard.
Highly Recommended

Huddy specialises in "classic contemporary children's book illustration". His delightful world of magical realism, fantasy and fairytale brings out the child in all of us. But despite its playful themes and its menageries of anthropomorphic animals (sheep in jeeps, bunnies on bicycles, talking hippopotami), this is a serious business.

Arthur and the Minimoys

The official website for writer/director Luc Besson's animated fantasy Arthur and the Minimoys has launched.

Scheduled to premiere at the edn of 2006, the film is adapted from a series of children's books written by Besson

Deakin Newsletter November 2005

Andrea Deakin's November newsletter features reviews of several UK children's titles...

Highly Recommended

We have two more fabulous family ticket-sets for this new production to give away!

Each set comprises: 4 tickets to see the play + a backstage tour + two copies of the book Coram
Boy.
The tickets can be used any time during November. We will be giving away a set of tickets each week during the first three weeks of November.
Here is the second competition question:
Name the second book in the Wheel of Surya trilogy.

email your answers to editorial@achuka.co.uk with the word Coram in the message title.
There is also a specially-priced opening ticket offer for all achuka readers (see below).
Coram Boy runs in rep at the National from
2nd November - http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk



ADAPTED by Helen Edmundson FROM THE WHITBREAD AWARD-WINNING CHILDREN�S NOVEL BY JAMILA GAVIN
A tale of two cities: Gloucester and London.
A tale of two orphans at the Coram Hospital for Deserted Children: Toby, saved from an African slave ship and Aaron, the abandoned son of the heir to a great estate.
A tale of fathers and sons, set in the dark heart of 18th-century England.
An epic adventure filled with danger and excitement.
� A rich and almost gothic drama unfolds, full of dastardly villains, cold-hearted aristocrats, devoted friends and passionate lovers� Philip Pullman
THIS STIRRING AND EPIC PRODUCTION, IS ACCOMPANIED BY A CHOIR ONSTAGE SINGING
MUSIC FROM HANDEL�S MESSIAH.
OPENING TICKET OFFER
Tickets only �16 (best available)
Save up to �20! Until November 25
BOOKING INFORMATION
Call 020 7452 3000 and quote �achuka offer�.
Offer valid all Monday � Friday
evening performances at 7.30 & all matinees at 2pm until 25 November. Subject
to availability.

w/c 7 Nov:
Mon � Sat @ 7.30
+ Sat @ 2.00

w/c 14 Nov:
Mon, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday @ 7.30
Tuesday @ 7.00
Thursday & Saturday @ 2.00

w/c 21 Nov:
Mon � Fri @ 7.30
Wed @ 2.00

EducationGuardian.co.uk | eG weekly | True crime: Sats are killing our stories

Highly Recommended

Children's authors, illustrators and poets Philip Pullman, Quentin Blake, Jamila Gavin, Michael Rosen, Jacqueline Wilson and Bernard Ashley have published a boradside attacking the govenrment's 'literacy hour' and regime of testing.

Rosen questions whether tests tell teachers or parents anything. "The one solid law of testing is that, as people get used to tests, they get better at doing them," he says. "When I am told my child is a level this or level that, I don't know what it means - and I've been involved in this lark for 30 years."

Waiting For A Jamie Oliver: Beyond Bogstandard Literacy is available from www.ncll.org.uk for �4.95

New Zealand voice hard to find for authors - 08 Nov 2005 - Lifestyle & Leisure

A feature about Margaret Mahy:

"You�d think you�d automatically be able to write about the place you�ve lived in all your life, but the stories I�d had read to me as a child somehow disinherited me.�

Recommended

�The Tale of Jack Frost' nominated for British Academy Award .:. NewKerala - India's Top Online Newspaper

Zoo Films and Jack Frost Productions Ltd's co-production, the CGI animated Christmas special �The Tale of Jack Frost', has been nominated for children's BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award... ...

�The Tale of Jack Frost' is based on the best-selling Hodder Headline children's book written and illustrated by David Melling. It has narration by Hugh Laurie and two songs by Mercury-nominated singer-songwriter Kate Rusby.

Lotte's sketchbook

Latest sketch:

Lotte Klaver is a young Dutch illustrator. ACHUKA is featuring her work because we are convinced she has a bright future as an illustrator generally, and as an illustrator of children's books in particular.

Independent Online Edition > News

An old-fashioned Gothic story for teenagers has beaten Julie Burchill's book about lesbian love to win a prize dedicated to writing for young people. Sarah Singleton, 39, a local newspaper journalist and mother of two daughters, has won the �1,500 Booktrust Teenage Prize 2005 with her first novel for children, Century.

See this Bookheads page about the winning book and author...

Mirror.co.uk - News - SPELLBOUND

Amazingly, Madonna, 47 and a children's author herself, admitted she had never picked up a Harry Potter novel. The pop queen - there with daughter Lourdes, nine, nicknamed Lola, revealed: "I'm here for Lola. I'm her date. "I haven't read any the books. Lola has though. "I get my kicks from the movies - I think JK Rowling's brilliant. I love her work because it's clever and smart.

Children's book of the week - Sunday Times - Times Online

Sunday Times Children's Book Of The Week

The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child, captured by Polly Borland

"this glorious and enticing picturebook NICOLETTE JONES"

Lotte's sketchbook

Latest sketch:

Lotte Klaver is a young Dutch illustrator. ACHUKA is featuring her work because we are convinced she has a bright future as an illustrator generally, and as an illustrator of children's books in particular.

The Norma Fleck Award for Non-Fiction, worth $10,000, has been given to Shari Graydon for In Your Face (Annick Press) a critical look at the culture of beauty throughout the ages.It is also a guide for teens to the modern culture of beauty and the workings of the beauty industry. It provides the information and encourages young people to make their own decisions about the value of the advertising aimed at them.

Telegraph | Arts

S F Said sees Beatrix Potter through new eyes:

I thought [Varjak Paw] owed nothing to Potter, whose creations I'd always imagined would be sentimental and twee. This impression was thoroughly demolished by a visit to the exhibition of her art now showing at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

The sequel to Varjak Paw

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Swede dreams

Jan Mark reviews A Bridge of Stars by Henning Mankell:

... This is a deep, serious story, written with the lightest of touches and no hint of condescension. Mankell pays his readers the compliment of taking them seriously and the Joels among them will respond to this philanthropist -one who literally likes his fellow humans.

Books - reviews and literary news from The Times and The Sunday Times

Amanda Craig considers the adaptation of children's books for the cinema:

NEVER BEFORE HAVE SO many children�s books been on the big screen...

David Almond, together with Marlene Johnson (MD Hachette Children's Books) and Wendy Cooling, pictured at the launch event for his new novel, Clay, held at the Globe Theatre earlier this week.

Publishing News - News Page

THE RED HOUSE Children�s Book Award, which claims to be the only major UK book prize entirely voted for by children, is moving to the Hay Festival next year. The winner will be announced at the Festival on 2 June 2006. Marianne Adley, Coordinator of the Award, said: �The relocation of the award ceremony to the Hay Festival heralds an exciting new era for all of us involved in promoting children�s books.�

One of the reasons given for the move is that it will give attending children the opportunity to take part in a fullscale literary festival. What this will amount to in practice is a little hard to envisage, and it may well be that children and their parents will regret the lost opportunity of having a daytrip or weekend in London, where attendance at the award could be mixed with some completely different form of leisure. Certainly, getting to the award will present attendees with significant travel issues. How many people will be able to get there and back home in one day? I couldn't, for a start.

The Herts Advertiser - Author returns to old school

Short local press feature about Jonathan Stroud returning to his old school for a Book Week event.

achukareviews

Time to celebrate - the reviews are back in town. ACHUKA's brand new section is a review blog. When the site was redesigned just over a year ago, we lost the individual title review space, and it's been too long returning. I've been immensely heartened by the number of people who were keen to join the ACHUKA reviewing team. We've got a great mix of new and more experienced voices.

Read what Dina Rabinovitch thinks of Jan Pienkowski's The Fairy Tales; discover what recent title contains, according to Jake Hope, "one of the most beautiful, heartening and life-affirming speeches to be found in children's literature"; and see which titles have been the first to receive the ultimate ACHUKA accolade - a 5-chick rating.

NewsFromRussia.Com Marthe Jocelyn wins Canadian Children's Literature Award

Marthe Jocelyn, a writer who has also designed clothes and toys for kids, has won the first-ever TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for most distinguished book of the year. Jocelyn, who lives in Stratford, Ont., received the prize for Mable Riley, a story of a young girl and her sister living in Ontario in 1901...

Spotlighting News - Britney Spears To Write Kabbalah Books For Children?

According to late rumours, the pop princess Britney Spears has been asked to write a Kabbalah book for children, following Madonna's steps, who already published five children's books... ....

Lotte's sketchbook

Latest sketch:

Lotte Klaver is a young Dutch illustrator. ACHUKA is featuring her work because we are convinced she has a bright future as an illustrator generally, and as an illustrator of children's books in particular.

Adam Guillain, author of th Bella Balistica series, has been appointed Writer in Residence at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. Katy Sullivan, Education Manager at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, said of the
appointment: �Adam is a lively writer who we felt would inspire a love of stories in a wide range of
children through football, music and fun!�