thisisDevon : Western Morning News : News : BOOK BY FARMER'S WIFE IS A LITERARY
"Demand for a novel written by a farmer's wife from Cornwall has reached as far afield as Australia, with copies of the book fetching up to ?1,000. Lucy Cockcroft reports A FARMER'S wife turned author has fast become a literary phenomenon with her first novel changing hands at more than ?1,000 a copy, prompting major publishers to bid for her work."
see also this Sunday Times news report
BBC Radio 4 - Factual - Desert Island Discs -Judith Kerr
Sunday 29 February
Repeated
Friday 5 March
This week Sue?s castaway is Judith Kerr - a writer and illustrator known to generations of children both for her charming Mog picture-books and for her careful rendering of the life of a Jewish child fleeing Nazi Germany.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Paperback writer: Eoin Colfer
In a highly amusing article, Eoin Colfer describes why his World Book Day title does not feature a three-legged horse named Tripod:
...The man thumped the table, causing my Lord of the Rings figurines to hop off the Formica.
"The farting, Colfer! The farting, OK? We want the farting dwarf."...
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Off the shelf
Babar's Gift by Beverley and May Naidoo, ill. Karin Littlewood
"This is a story about how, when the racism is right inside your family, compassion and keeping the blinkers on can defeat the prejudice far more effectively than aggression. And it all ends up with a picture book newly published by Puffin with no white faces at all..." DINA RABINOVITCH
The best section of the recently-revamped BOOX website is the search page. The sixteen search criteria - from Bereavement to Stress - can be further refined with a supplementary criterion.
BOOX 9 (the print magazine) is now available. Features and quizzes include: Cover Story - should you ever judge a book by its cover?, I'm a book character, let me out!, Soul Mates - work out who, Double Vision - books you loved so much you read them twice, interview with Kate Thompson, Mystic Numbers - what your numbers say about you plus celebrities talk books.
To see the full range of Reading Agency resources go to: www.readingagency.org.uk
A third track sample ('Dancing By Myself') from 'When We Were Twins' by Tanuja Desai Hidier and her three supporting bands, has been added to the main page, and 'Born Two' has been extended.
Telegraph | News | Kipling's 'missing Stalky and Co chapter' found in school library
"Kipling intended it to be the first chapter of Stalky and Co, one of his most popular children's books, published in 1899..."
"Children's novelist Malorie Blackman was the highest-placed living black writer in the BBC's Big Read poll. Nicholas Tucker talks to her about love, hate and race..."
Highly recommended
Malorie Blackman's Knife Edge is featured in a 2 x half-page spread in the current edition (Feb 23) of TIME Magazine.
The article is headlined "Sharper Image - with Knife Edge, writer Malorie Blackman tests the outer limits of kid lit".
The piece is predominantly a journalistic feature, giving readers a bit of background on the UK young adult fiction scene and then talking about Blackman's role as a black author. The writer, Michael Brunton, does finish with a paragraph of criticism:
"As literature, Knife Edge is a bit of a let-down, sagging with serial indignities where Noughts & Crosses was taut with sheer indignation. For example, Sephy's attempt to cut it as a singer in the noughts' underground music scene feels peripheral (and lyrically, she's no Eminem)."
This is legitimate critical comment because it's related to a specific aspect of the book, and shows that you do not require huge chunks of direct quotation to justify a point.
It's not a point Blackman will relish reading, but she'll be delighted with the global exposure.
How many UK children's authors, besides J. K. Rowling, have made an appearance in TIME Magazine? Does anyone know?
MPR Books - "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman
'Kids' edition of Talking Volumes from Minnesota Public Radio.
This link features a 53 minute radio interview with the author of Coraline.
Not to be missed.
Best sequence is just towards the end when Neil answers questions from two girls in the audience, one about 'winging it' when writing a story, the other about having nightmares.
Look for this link in the left-hand panel:
AS HEARD ON
Talking Volumes,
February 15, 2004
The author discusses Coraline with Katherine Lanpher and the Talking Volumes audience at the Fitzgerald Theater. Featuring the music of Folk Underground.
LISTEN
One of the things that seems to have touched a nerve in my letter to the Guardian is my use of the word 'hierarchy'. Am I, I thought to myself, completely barmy in thinking that a notion of hierarchy can be applied to children's literature in the same way that it can be applied to general literature? And even if it can, am I, I thought further, completely out-of-order using the term in 2004?
So I was somewhat gratified to find this recent review, by Brian Morton in the Sunday Herald, of Iain Finlayson's biography of Browning, in which Morton writes:
"Feminist revisionism has attempted to put Barrett above Browning in the literary hierarchy. She was the more natural and in some respects the more polished talent, but she is also unmistakably a slighter poet. Browning?s other unexpected resemblance to a writer like Norman Mailer is that he is first, last and always that very thing: a man who writes and who works out his meaning as he writes. Browning recognised one of the differences between his and his future wife?s work. ?You speak out, you ? I only make men and women speak.? He was right, but that was his strength and her weakness."
________________________________________________
An argument could be made for thinking that the notion of hierarchy is only useful when applied to literataure of the past. Certainly, hierarchies are fluid things, open to periodic revision. But children in a classroom are acutely aware of their comparative talents and abilities in the here-and-now, however much a teacher may avoid overt reference to them. That's not something people grow out of.
In the wake of my letter to The Guardian and additional blog comments, I have opened a new discussion topic - Peer Reviewing - on ACHUKACHAT, to debate the following:
Does the encouraging of a critical fray amongst authors in a community as intimate as that of children's books in the UK, whilst being diverting for mediawatchers such as ACHUKA, risk damaging the geniality of children's publishing?
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | The pied piper of Kingston
Massive Guardian Profile of Jacqueline Wilson by Claire Armitstead:
"The most borrowed author in UK libraries, Jacqueline Wilson has written almost 70 books for children. She began writing for teenage magazines and her success as a novelist has been built on often harrowing tales of girls surviving family breakdown and bullying, written with humour and telling detail..."
Highly Recommended - includes anecdotes from her (girl)friend since schooldays, Chris Wiltshire.
The woman who runs rings round Harry Potter
By Penny Wark
"Jacqueline Wilson's books for children sell at a rate of 100,000 a month and today she is Britain's most borrowed author, beating J. K. Rowling into a distant 42nd place. What is her secret? This author finds children and how they cope with problems more interesting than adults..."
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Granny Spice becomes queen of the libraries
"Jacqueline Wilson yesterday stepped into the limelight by being crowned the queen of library borrowing.
Wilson - author of some 70 children's books- ended the romantic novelist Catherine Cookson's 17-year reign at the top of the Public Lending Right figures..."
"From 2001-2003 leading children's author Anne Fine was Children's Laureate. During that period she persuaded many of Britain's top illustrators and cartoonists to help her set up a website with scores of freely downloadable modern bookplates in both colour and black and white. The original copies of over 150 of these superb bookplates have now been donated to the Dyslexia Institute..."
They are On Sale, with prices ranging from ?50 - ?500.
Go to the Bookplate Gallery pages, and click an image to get the price.
I am warming to The Ultimate Book Guide [see Feb 3rd entry]. I have just read Michael Lawrence's recommendation for Five Children And It. It's so good it makes you wish that the alphabetical list of contributors at the back of the book also included page references for their contributions. I hope Michael Lawrence has written about other books, but I shall have to flip through the book to find out.
There are even times when I find the rampant shriek marks welcome, as in Hilary McKay's introduction to The Sword In The Stone. "How I envy the people who have not read this book! They have a present still to unwrap! An unexpected piece of luck! An extra holiday!" This is better than the trailing wow lines - "leaves you breathless!" "three great sequels!" "Don't miss out!" "lots of fun!" - but I now find there are fewer of these than I thought.
Oh, I've just spotted another entry by Michael Lawrence. Excuse me a moment.
...
Mm, OK, but not as good as his Nesbit entry. This short entry for Jill Paton Walsh's Gaffer Samson's Luck is rather more subdued. On the opposite page I see Daniel Hahn (he of the ghastly Tom Sawyer entry) writing about Frindle by Andrew Clements. Hahn has several entries in the book and I am getting a feel for his style now - familiar, informal, conversational. "I laughed loads as I read this, and really, really wanted Nick to make it. And I readily confess to a big old lump in my throat at the end..." That's good.
It makes me read the Tom Sawyer entry in a different light. That doesn't make it any better an entry, but I can hear Hahn's voice now, and it comes across as sincere and genuine - the voice of a warm-hearted advocate of children's books. I hope I haven't made an enemy of him.
Bangkok Post Tuesday 10 February 2004 - Children's books lead retail sales market
"Children's books were the most active category in Thailand's book industry, according to data released by Se-Education Plc, the country's largest bookstore chain operator. There were 1,500 new children's books released last year..."
Scotsman.com News - Features - Confessions of a children's author
J. M. Grant describes the process of writing and selling (to Puffin via agent Giles Gordon) her first novel, Blood Red Horse.
"I had been doing some reading up for the access course in medieval history that I take at the local Department of Adult and Continuing Education - a singularly dreary and unwieldy title for something full of vim and vigour - and I was struck by a small section in the Estoire de la Guerre Sainte, a long work by the Norman poet Ambroise about Richard the Lionheart's crusade..."
BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour - Malorie Blackman
Woman's Hour talked to Malorie Blackman about her uncompromising treatment of difficult issues, and how far her writing is based on her own experiences.
There's a Listen Again link to the 8-minute interview on the BBC webpage.
Times Online - Newspaper Edition
I missed this feature about Barefoot Books at the wekend, in The Sunday Times:
"Barefoot Books fell into loss after a badly timed expansion into America. Now it needs to boost sales to secure a happy ending
WHEN Tessa Strickland and Nancy Traversy first met they had nothing but a vague plan to publish children's books. Just over 10 years later their company, Barefoot Books, is a ?2.9m business operating in Britain and America..."
This is an edited transcript of Mark Haddon's online Q&A with Guardian Unlimited readers, in which he answered questions about research, perseverance, painting, crisps, and what comes next...
Malorie Blackman is featured on Woman's Hour tomorrow (Tuesday) and there will be an interview with her in TIME Magazine, as well as further UK press coverage. The new book has a launch party this Thursday, at Strictly Hush.
ACHUKA's new interview with Malorie is due around mid-month.
