The Scotsman - UK - Harry Potter and the adult market
"JK ROWLING'S publishers will launch a renewed bid to sell her first four Harry Potter books to grown-ups this summer, issuing them for the first time as "adult hardbacks... ..."
ACHUKA: March 2004 Archives
Scotsman.com News - News Archive - Clever Nonsense
"Good books work on many levels. But how many levels can we find in a children's book using only 50 different words, Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham? Or The Cat in the Hat, with 220? Far more than you would imagine, is the answer..."
Excellent Scotsman article by Nicola Morgan about Dr Seuss. Recommended.
Pippi Longstocking gets the pointe
"Pippi Longstocking, the freckle-faced girl whose antics have fired the imaginations of children around the world for years, will strut her stuff for the first time in a new ballet created by the Royal Swedish Ballet..."
Roald Dahl, Beyond the Chocolate Factory (washingtonpost.com)
Roald Dahl, Beyond the Chocolate Factory - a reappraisal by Jonathan Yardley
Daily Telegraph Author Profile
The author claims all charges are fabrications.
"Mayne, who told police the claims were "total fabrication", denies two charges of rape against a female under 13 and 13 counts of indecent assault against seven other children..."
Nicolette Jones previews the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival by talking to a number of authors about the current state of children's publishing. Philip Pullman warns:
?The whole structure of the book world works against the long apprenticeship that I and other writers had ? writing a lot of books without making a lot of money, and slowly establishing a style.?
"The uproar over an elementary school library book in Wilmington is now international..."
There have been complaints in America about the picture book King And King by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland. In this article, the illustrator responds.
MSNBC - McCartney wants to be a paperback writer
Paul McCartney is set to publish a children's book.
Although reported on MSNBC's gossip page, there is sufficient circumstantial detail to lend the report credence. It will be called High in the Clouds and is apparently about two squirrels and a frog who try to rescue animals endangered by urban development. More interestingly, it will be co-written by Philip Ardagh, and illustrated by Geoff Dunbar. Faber will publish in the UK.
Peni Griffin's March Opinion Column fro ACHUKA is a really fascinating one, titled Literary Synchronicity
ic Liverpool - Heart scare for author Jacques
Brian Jacques is in hospital today after suffering a mild heart attack.
Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Cinderella Is Favourite Children's Book
Cinderella has been named as Britain's favourite children's book [according to the survey of 1,016 adults by Fox?s Cubs].
Telegraph | News | Pullman may give Jesus a novel role
A report, with a rather silly headline, on the debate between Philip Pullman and Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) held at the National Theatre last night.
Children's books market grows up - The Times of India
The Times of India reports a big increase imn the market for children's books.
In today's Telegraph, Julie Myerson much prefers Nicholas Allen's Where Willy Went to Babette Cole's The Sprog Owner's Manual, which she and her children find too full of 'comic lapses'. "I don't see the point of a book which shows a couple sending off for a child via mail order," Myerson says, and her 11 year-old son, Ralph, detected a remblance between the 'bad' sprog and a certain member of his class. "That's not very nice," Ralph is quoted as saying, "as he's actually a very kind person."
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Letters: Mar 13
"I'm sorry that a recent review I wrote..."
Philip Ardagh responds to last week's Guardian letter complaining that his review of Graham Marks' How It Works did not give sufficient warning of the language and content within. Ardagh apologises, but points out that he did say the "book is aimed at young adults, contains swearing, has a protagonist who's a drug-taker and a thief (and is severely beaten in an attack) and that the angel who rescues him breaks the attacker's jaw."
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Faces of the week
BBC Online fature about Philip Pullman:
"Atheist author Philip Pullman has this week received his CBE from the Queen, and heard the Archbishop of Canterbury hail his work as "a near-miraculous triumph".
But while the children's author is being saluted from the highest echelons of the Anglican Church, to some he remains a figure of suspicion and controversy..."
British Book Awards W H Smith Children's Book of the Year:
The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud
The Curious Incident of
the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Eagle Strike - Anthony Horowitz
The English Roses - Madonna
Goodbye Mog J- udith Kerr
Lyra's Oxford - Philip Pullman
Shadowmancer - G P Taylor
The Snail and the Whale - Julia Donaldson
& Alex Scheffler
Author of the Year:
Harlan Coben
Mark Haddon
Alexander McCall Smith
D B C Pierre
Philip Pullman
Jacqueline Wilson
The awards will be announced live on Channel 4 on 7 April
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Signing lasts 8 hours
"Jacqueline Wilson walked out of a Bournemouth bookshop early yesterday having unexpectedly chalked up what could be a record for the longest book signing in British history..."
ACHUKA is missing our daily visits to the Neil Gaiman and Sarah Dessen author blogs. They are both currently on 'vacation'. In the case of Gaiman, the quotes are very pertinent. Other authors keep online journals, but none that we know of keep up the near-daily entries that these two manage.
Please let us know [in a Comment] if there are others that we should be aware of.
This is one of those Amanda Craig filler articles that I would much rather see relegated to her website. It was in Saturday's Times, but I only came across it tonight.
It riles, because it's money for nothing. Craig didn't have to read anything she hadn't read previously. Just pick up the phone and get a soundbite from David Fickling. Be prepared to make a [hardly brave] disparaging remark about Paolini's Eragon and, lo, there's freelance money in the bank.
p17 of The Times Books Review would have been better given over to a single title children's book review, a la ze Guardian, than to this piece of hack journalism, which would be easier to stomach without the grandiose ending: "In great fiction the pain of experience is not avoided, and a parallel world is not a place where you can escape when this one becomes too difficult, though it returns you to yourself refreshed and encouraged." Though, lo, so, day, ray, me, fah, fah f-f-f...
Reading into crossover trends - MARCH 8, 2004
An article from Singapore about crossover / kidult trends. No earth-shattering observations, but contains quite a few soundbites from key players, so worth a quick scan.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Letters: Mar 6
Two Guardian readers have requested, by way of the letters column, a clearer age categorisation in the paper's reviews of children's books.
You will need to scroll down the Letters page till you get to 'Mind the age gap'.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Writers fight to keep cover prices
"The Whitbread prize-winning children's author Mr Pullman, writing in the Guardian today to mark World Book Day, argues that abandoning the RRP will be a disaster for middle of-the-range authors, such as writers of successful but not bestselling first books or detective stories..."
The article is titled 'Books Are Not Eggs'.
David Belbin has broken a 10 year stretch as a fulltime writer to become the new Course Leader of the Nottingham Trent University's MA in Creative Writing.
Belbin reported this on his website at the beginning of February, and ACHUKA received an official press announcement from the university in today's post.
The latest Shanville Monthly includes the provisional giglist for Darren SHan's April/May US tour:
"Plans for my American tour in April and May are falling quickly into place!! Here's the list of events and dates which have so far been confirmed..."
