ACHUKA: April 2004 Archives

What exactly is a children's book?

If we are never too old for any good book, we can be too young, and this is where people make mistakes: competitive parents and teachers in particular, who want children to read above their age. But books are age-banded by publishers and reviewers not so much on the basis of stylistic difficulty but on emotional content. Few people consider the distinction. Jacqueline Wilson?s Girls In Love/In Trouble/Out Late/Under Pressure series, for instance, is aimed at teenagers with a not very advanced reading age; but the books are read ubiquitously by bright eight-year-olds perfectly able to cope with the language, even if the dating issues do not reflect their experience.

Nicolette Jones uses the announcement of the Carnegie shortlist as the occasion for an excellent meditation on the ideal age for reading particular books.

Highly recommended

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Author of the month

Dina Rabinovitch writes about Kevin Brooks in The Guardian's Author of the Month slot:

Brooks's first novel, Martyn Pig, won the Branford Boase award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie, and both his other novels, Lucas and Kissing the Rain, made several short-lists. His next novel, Candy, which is going to tell the truth about adolescent male love, is out this autumn.

See the recent ACHUKA interview.

Just back from the first session of judging the Branford Boase first children's novel award, and what a thrillingly strong shortlist we've arrived at. Can't reveal it yet, but it will be released very shortly. There are six books on it. And, in a strong year when the number of submissions was over thirty (the highest ever), quite a few really good books didn't quite make it. It's a shortlist that would flatter any award, let alone a first novel award. The judges (Kevin Brooks, Sarah Wilkie, Lesley Agnew, Julia Eccleshare and me - chaired by Anne Marley) meet later in May to pick the winner.

We each had to take half a dozen of the submitted novels to the judging, which meant there was no room in my bag for unread ACHUKA reading, which I am inevitably much behind with. So I slipped into Smiths on Victoria station, had a quick scan of the adult fiction shelves, and selected I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti, which comes with five pages of rave review clippings, and has been made into a movie. I didn't quite finish it on the train, but it is transfixing, once I had overcome my annoyance at frequent comma splices, which might be the fault of the translator, not the author.

There are two reasons why the start to ACHOCKABLOG's week has been rather quiet and why Mail List subscribers didn't receive an update on Monday. Firstly, a lack of reportworthy news items. Secondly, an impending deadline for reading this year's Branford Boase submissions (the first judging meeting is tomorrow).

Publishing News - News Page

In the middle of this fascinating and detailed Bologna report from Graham Marks comes a dispiriting observation from Francesca Dow. Dispiriting, because if any publisher should be trying to establish YA fiction as a saleable 'category' in the UK it should be Puffin, with their massive marketing machine. Personally, I think Dow's wrong and that, as in other things, we are moving ever closer to the US model for YA fiction, with an increasingly sophisticated teenage readership that is hungry for novels in the YA mould. Dow and her team should be actively trying to find the next Aidan Chambers or Robert Westall, or another David Almond and Mark Haddon, not, as this comment suggests, deciding to put all their Puffin eggs in the 12-and-under basket. And if she thinks the 'Puffin Teenage Fiction' label is a turnoff, why not switch to using YA?

"The US regards teen fiction - upper YA - as a growth area, but it's not really a category in the UK," said Puffin's Francesca Dow, "and I can't see us creating one, not with the way bookselling works and the fact that the audience don't want to buy anything labelled 'teenage'."

Neil Gaiman

From his online journal:

Thursday April 22 - I recorded a spoken word CD for Harper Collins which is currently called "The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection" although I hope that by the time it comes out it'll be called something more along the lines of "Two Goldfish, an Enormous Number of Wolves and One Tiger". On the CD are readings of: THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH [UK pub. Oct04], THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS, CINNAMON and the poem CRAZY HAIR.

Darren Shan Monthly 46

Includes a report of Shan's Thailand visit and itinerary for his imminent US tour.

Newsday.com - AP Entertainment

15-Year-Old Author Writes Best-Seller:

a syndicated article about Flavia Bujor

Macmillan Children's Books have anoounced that they are to be the 'new creative home' for Chris Riddell. In a major deal, concluded at last week's international Bologna Book Fair, Macmillan Children's Books acquired world rights in five new books to be both written and illustrated by Chris Riddell.

Read the rest of the Press Release...

Belfast Telegraph

Online interview with Belfast author Derek Kielty:

"I entered the Downtown Radio/Eason's short story competition and won my section with Fussy Felicity and Grotty Griselda. You can read it and others on my interactive children's website, www.keilty.btinternet.co. uk. Then I was taken on by Philippa Milnes-Smith of London literary agency LAW Ltd. She used to be a publisher and was head of Penguin Puffin books. She pitched my Back Up The Beanstalk title to Rena Dardis at The Children's Press and that was my first to go into print."

Opinion Page

Highly recommended:
Peni Griffin, in her latest Opinion Column for ACHUKA, focuses on William Mayne...

You too have evil in you - maybe not in your heart, maybe not in your mind - maybe in your hands or mouth or eyes. It comes with being human. Call it original sin, if you're religious; call it evolutionary baggage, if you're not. But you and I and J.K. Rowling are only better than William Mayne if we work at it; if we take note of our temptations and weaknesses, whatever they are, and resist them, consciously.

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Dynamic doodles

A treat! Not to be missed...
Joanna Carey profiles Sara Fanelli.

With nine books so far, Fanelli's originality has brought a breath of fresh air to the world of picture books. Even in her first book, Button (1994), it was clear that her work doesn't have its roots in the British traditions that have shaped so many of our finest illustrators. With an off-beat humour and an inventive approach to everything from page design and typography to choice of materials, she has the kind of vision you might associate with illustrators such as the Czech Kveta Pacovska or Wolf Erlbruch in Germany, or the American Lane Smith (of Stinky Cheese Man fame).

Sara Fanelli's latest book, Pinocchio

News

The X-rated additions to the lid, which was based on an illustration by Kate Greenaway, the early 20th-century children's illustrator, went unnoticed for years, until a vigilant shopworker spotted them. Production was halted immediately, but thousands of the tins had been sold.
One of the few remaining examples will be auctioned next week after being found in a collection built by a West Country aristocrat.

Publishing News - News Page

"THE BIG NEWS at the opening of the Bologna Children's Book Fair this week was that Shadowmancer author G P Taylor has signed a substantial, multi-book, five-year deal with Faber, jointly with Penguin Young Readers Group in the US - which gets North American rights," reports Publishing News

Gillie Russell, Editorial Director of Fiction at HarperCollins Children?s Books, has acquired two action-packed books by first time novelist, 23 year-old, Joe Craig, about a character called Jimmy Coates.

A 5 figure sum was paid for a two book deal. The first book, Jimmy Coates: KILLER, will publish in paperback in April 2005 and is aimed at the 9-12 boys? adventure story market.

Joe Craig says, "I'm amazed and excited to be signing up with HarperCollins. The enthusiasm from the HarperCollins team won me over immediately. I stumbled out of university 18 months ago, slightly embarrassed about wanting to be a writer, but the idea for this story wouldn't go away. I can't believe how quick the whole process has been. I sent a synopsis to Sarah Manson to find out whether it was worth pursuing my writing; she became my agent, and here I am, less than a year later with a dream book deal!"

Agent, Sarah Manson adds, "I was delighted that HarperCollins immediately recognised the exciting potential of this title and of Joe Craig as a promising new author."

BBC Radio 4 - Factual - Desert Island Discs -Michael Morpurgo

Sue Lawley's castaway on Radio4's Desert Island Discs this week is the widely respected children?s author and the current Children?s Laureate Michael Morpurgo.
The website lists his choices. The prgramme was first broadcast on Sunday and is repeated tomorrow at 9am.

Entertainment News Article | Reuters.com

"Miss Missouri, Shandi Finnessey, a 25-year-old graduate student who has published a children's book, was crowned Miss USA at the 52nd annual pageant on Monday. Finnessey succeeds former Miss Massachusetts, Susie Castillo, and will compete for the Miss Universe crown on June 1 in Quito, Ecuador."

Her children's book, The Furrtails, is a moral fable about rabbits.

ic Wales - Top author's books adapted for Welsh-speaking children

Two Jacqueline Wilson books are now available in Welsh. Publishers Gwasg Gomer have released Pecyn Bwyd y Deinosor (The Dinosaur's Packed Lunch) and Yr Anghenfil Dweud Straeon (The Monster Story-teller) for children aged between five and seven.

The Hindu : Book fair for young readers

Information about 'Wonderland', a week-long children's book festival... ...

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | B is for bestseller

Not to be missed... Mark Haddon on the perceived difference between writing for adults and writing for children

The other question I find myself having to answer at least once a week is: 'What's the difference between writing for children and writing for adults?' I generally take the union line. There is no real difference. Writing for children is bloody difficult; books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts and they should therefore be accorded the same respect. Most children's writers do the same. And rightly so. Despite His Dark Materials at the National, Jacqueline Wilson being crowned Queen of Library Lending and the continuing global reach of Hogwarts, the job still sits in many people's minds somewhere between reporting for the local paper and doing watercolours of cats.

...

...

The truth, however, is more complex than the union line.

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | How Johnny learned to read

Highly recommended - Michael Rosen discusses the appeal of Dr Seuss...

"It's difficult to say why Seuss books haven't become quite the cult here that they are in the US. Perhaps it's the comic-book quality of the drawings or the fronting up of something moral in the midst of the lunacy; our nursery rhyme tradition is bereft of this tone... ..."

CBn - Latest News - 007 Fans Take Aim at IFP's 'Young James Bond' Concept

"James Bond fans have their Walther PPKs out and are talking aim at Ian Fleming Publications who announced Monday that they will be launching a new series of James Bond books featuring the promiscuous, fast-driving, hard-drinking, licensed to kill super secret agent as a 13-year-old solving mysteries along side his fellow Eton classmates in the 1930s. The books will be written by BBC comedy writer and thriller novelist Charlie Higson... ..."

Following the link that we ran on ACHUKA's front page for a couple of weeks, the 2 Steves submitted a report about their Outernet series to the elearningeuropa site that was offering a free trip to the Bologna Book Fair - and won.

But the free trip being for just one person, they had to toss for it, and Steve Skidmore won. Tough one Steve B; enjoy the trip Steve S.

Enjoyment

"Once upon a time, a struggling author wrote a book inspired by a little-known folk tale. Five years on, she's sold a million, won every award going, and has Hollywood at her feet. Oliver Bennett reveals how The Gruffalo became the biggest beast in children's fiction..."

Recommended feature about Julia Donaldson and the runaway success of The Gruffalo...

BIG NEWS:
Charlie Higson, Fast Show writer, is to publish two novels about a teenaged James Bond. The first 'young' James Bond novel will be published by Puffin with rights acquired from Ian Fleming Publications Ltd in March 2005

Read the full Puffin Press Release:

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Fastselling children's books for 2003

There are few surprises in this table of 'fastselling children's books for 2003' compiled by The Guardian.

Recommended: More interesting is Alex Hamilton's commentary, which includes quotes from David Fickling - "I've almost become a terrorist, blowing up educational warehouses full of endless project books, and books that have had every last drop of imagination and excitement squeezed out of them" and Richard Scrivener - "Publishers are being sent a synopsis and told 'We need your offer by six o'clock, and we're looking for a six-figure advance.' People worry whether this is the next big hit - can they afford to let it go? But I think it'll blow itself out."

The Circle of the Greek Children's Book

"The sponsor for 2004 ICBD is the Greek Section of IBBY, in cooperation with the National Book Center . The writer Angeliki Varella has prepared the message to the children of the world and the illustrator Nicholas Andrikopoulos has designed the poster...."

CONTEXT - This Week in Arts and Ideas from The Moscow Times

"It should come as no surprise that Japan, the country that fell for Hello Kitty, has also warmed to Cheburashka, a cuddly, furry animal dreamed up by Soviet children's author Eduard Uspensky... ..."

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Authors of the month: Christopher Paolini and Flavia Bujor