August 2011 Archives

Groundwood Publisher to tour Iran, Afghanistan, Dubai, and Tunisia

The publisher of Groundwood Books and former president of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is embarking on a month-long speaking and networking tour of Iran, Afghanistan, Dubai, and Tunisia. During her travels, Aldana will meet with the Children's Book Council of Iran (CBCI) to speak about Groundwood's approach to international children's book publishing; consult with local children's literacy workers and the Afghan minister of culture about establishing IBBY chapters in Afghanistan and Tajikstan; fundraise for IBBY initiatives in the emirates and North Africa; and deliver the keynote address at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions conference on intergenerational reading in Tunisia.

Ivan Bilibin

Russian artist and illustrator - Imaginaria feature

iPad App Review - Who Says Moo?

review from freshapps.com

Taking the board book into the next century is Who Says Moo? from developer KneeBouncers, LLC. Incorporating animated interactive drawings, sound effects, read-aloud features, and even the ability to record your own custom voice-over narration, Who Says Moo? is a children's book that aims to educate and entertain...

Frances Hardinge Feature

by Alison Flood

"A trip to Romania, "that bruised and beautiful country", as she puts it in an acknowledgement, "with its tiny shrines, name-day celebrations and 'weddings of the dead'", was also important in the [new] novel's creation..."

Hardynge's latest novel is Twilight Robbery:

Ladybookbird

Belatedly discovered books blog, jointly created by Dinah Hall (Telegraph reviewer) and her daughter.

Highly recommended, and refreshingly wicked... see the latest entry...

Guardian Review

There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff, reviewed by Anthony McGowan

There really isn't another young-adult novel like There Is No Dog, but that very uniqueness made me strive to find parallels. I was reminded of Muriel Spark's The Hothouse by the East River, although Rosoff is a warmer and more forgiving writer than Spark. There is something of Kurt Vonnegut's intellectual playfulness, while the scenes set among the gods are pure Evelyn Waugh. But in the end, this is a novel as hard to pin down and categorise as another of those Greek gods - Proteus. One must simply revel in the joyful singularity of Rosoff's latest masterpiece. ANTHONY MCGOWAN

Children's Books On The fringe

Scottish Book Trust's pick of events on the Edinburgh fringe...

William Sleator - NYT Obit

William Sleator died last Wednesday in Bua Chet, Thailand. He was 66.

Link is to the New York Times obit.

Guardian Review

Reckless by Cornelia Funke, reviewed by Marcus Sedgwick

what saves this book from being merely a smörgåsbord of the fantastic? Two things. First: the confidence with which Funke has created her world, being careful not to explain new ideas any more thoroughly than the ones with which she knows we'll be familiar. This creates a mixture of recognition and uncertain discovery that keeps the book from being mundane. Secondly, as the plot thickens, incorporating the political intrigues of the Mirrorworld, with the fate of our heroes dependent upon the machinations of kings, empresses, princesses and generals, it is the genuine human dramas of love, desire, loyalty and betrayal that bind. MARCUS SEDGWICK

Book trailer for Dark Angels by Katherine Langrish (published as The Shadow Hunt in US)