ACHUKA: May 2004 Archives

Scholastic Launches Marketing Blitz for Fall Books at 2004 BookExpo America in Chicago

BEA will mark the launch of Scholastic's worldwide marketing campaign for acclaimed adult thriller writer P.B. Kerr and his first of three novels in his planned book series, Children of the Lamp. Kerr's first children's novel, Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure tells the story of John and Philippa Gaunt, twelve-year-old twins who develop an extraordinary gift for making other people's wishes magically come true. Scholastic has acquired the worldwide English publishing rights for Children of the Lamp and will support the trilogy with a $250,000 United States and United Kingdom marketing campaign including an American tour in the fall. Film rights have been acquired by DreamWorks' top producer team Lorrie MacDonald and Walter Parkes. Kerr is traveling to Chicago from his home near London to "star" in Scholastic's main event -- its highly anticipated BEA breakfast on Saturday, June 5 -- and will be signing in Scholastic's booth #302-402 at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | The author abused children: should we read his books?

Catherine Bennett, in The Guardian, considers the impact on publishers of William Mayne's conviction:

Walker books is withdrawing its Mayne titles from bookshops, Jonathan Cape has "postponed" a book called Emily Goes to Market, which should have been published this month and Hodder Children's Books has put "on hold" one novel due out next year, and, according to Charles Nettleton, managing director, will assess the response from its customers in school, bookshops and libraries, before issuing further reprints. "We are trying not to make any judgments," he says. "If we find that nobody is ordering his books any more, it makes it pointless to publish".

An article from yesterday's Times, by Michael Glover, discussing an exhibition of art for children, 'A Child's Play, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, till July 18:

Surprisingly, this is the first major survey in Europe of art made for children. Look for scholarship on this subject and you won%u2019t find any. Its chronology runs from the early 1900s to the end of the 20th century, and it begins in Vienna, where educational reforms and attitudes towards children in places of learning were becoming of crucial importance. In the first section are toys - fantastical animals, soldiers, a doll's house - with an educational bias and a fine sense of aesthetic values.

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - JK Rowling Launches Website as Harry Puts Spell on Big Apple

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has launched a personal website which gives fans unprecedented access to the fiercely private writer's life and work.

The homepage of www.jkrowling.com features her untidy desk, complete with a spider running across the screen, and has links to pages of news, family snaps and hints about the plot of the sixth Harry Potter book.

ic NorthWales - Top writers pitch in to help centre

Various authors are supporting the National Writers' Centre for Wales this summer by providing courses for no fee:

Children's author Jan Mark from Oxford, a frequent visitor to Toe Newydd, offered to teach a course and donate her fee to the centre's development fund appeal. Jan said: "I've been tutoring there for years. I suggested the idea might catch on and it has"

Watch the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award presentations on your PC in a live webcast broadcast today at 2.30pm UK time:

Award homepage

Live webcast

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | French parents approve of Noddy

Enid Blyton's famous children's character Noddy has been voted parents' favourite in a poll in France. Noddy - or "Oui-Oui" as he is known in France - beat Babar the Elephant and Asterix in the poll of parents of toddlers by marketing firm Logistix.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Making of children's books

This splendidly acidic piece by Nicholas Lezard was published in The Guardian way back on May 5th, but for some reason it escaped me at the time, and I have only just come across it.
Recommended

I would like to name and shame Diane Redmond, author, if that is the word, of Scoop Saves the Day, one in a series of Bob the Builder books published by the most cynical arm of the BBC. Ms Redmond knows she has written a work of pure dreck which goes on for about as long as Hamlet, and so her name only appears in minuscule print on the back cover. Well, she can run, but she can't hide. If ever there was a candidate for book-burning, this is it, but even I am not mean enough to do that.

Abebooks showcases recent findings: Used book sales are soaring online

A report on the healthy online second-hand book market.

Two areas of rising demand for used books are children's books and textbooks. Adults are purchasing the books they read as children to give to their own children. Since over 95% of all books ever published are now out of print, the main source for these books is with used, rare and out-of-print book sellers online.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Boomerangs a 'British invention'

...Children's author Terry Deary claims the famous "Swastika Stone" on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire proves the boomerang was invented in the UK.

A new article has been added to the 'Cuttings' list in the right-hand sidebar.
A compelling article by Ariel Dorfman on the subject of torture.

The Times

Debate: Human nature: Universally acknowledged
by Celia Dodd
Philip Pullman talks about his atheism, passion for science, view of consciousness and this extraordinary business of living...

As an adjunct to this article, for those who have it to hand, it is worth picking up the latest copy of Books for Keeps, in which The Science Of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials by Maryand John Gribbin is given the lowest possible rating of one star!

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Diary: May 8

An interesting report about the way Penguin are targeting the paperback of Doing It by Melvin Burgess at young men in their twenties rather than teenagers, following feedback from focus groups that male readers "wouldn't have read it at 15, but now, at 24, there was an embarrassing recognition factor."

Doing It has received a big marketing makeover. The cover, which used to feature a condom bearing the words "Doing It", is now a sexy picture of a young girl slipping off her underwear. The advance copy promises a "major advertising campaign in lads' mags, on national radio and in clubs and bars across the country". [Publishing director, Tony] Lacey is pleased with advance response; the first print run is 28,000 copies, all destined for the adult sections of book stores. The book has acquired a subtitle: "Do you remember the first time?" - and Fine is quoted on the back: "Filth, whichever way you look at it."

Is it just me, or do the legs on this cover look either dangerously pre-teen or anorexic?

Her ending won some, lost some

Lois Lowry speaks about audience reaction to her open-ended novel, The Giver

Lois Lowry's "The Giver" is one of the most popular and important young-adult books of the last decade. It won the Newbery Medal in 1994 and has been compared with George Orwell's "1984." It's attracted an adult audience and been chosen several times for "one community-one book" events... It also has an ambiguous conclusion. Many readers weren't happy that everything wasn't clearly resolved, and they let Lowry know it.

allAfrica.com: Angola: Cremilda De Lima Releases Children's Book

"Children's book writer Cremilda de Lima will release in the first fortnight of June, in Luanda, the book called "O maboque m?gico e outras est?rias (the wild magic fruit and other stories)", informed a source from the editor..."

Telegraph | Arts | Culture quake: Where The Wild Things Are

Will Hodgkinson on art that shook up the world. This week he considers Maurice Sendak's children's classic

A selection of news reports, the day after William Mayne's sentencing.

The Guardian

Telegraph

BBC

The Sun

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Author Jailed on Child Sex Charges

William Mayne has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail. But he wishes to retract his 'guilty' plea, claiming it was made under duress, and has vowed to clear his name.

Mayne, a divorcee, issued a statement after sentencing through his solicitor Mark Harrison saying he intended to appeal as his guilty pleas had been entered while he was "under huge stress and pressure".

Mr Harrison added: "He will endeavour to withdraw the convictions, clear his name and restore his professional and personal reputation."

I have received notification of a scheduled upgrade to ACHUKA's Topica account. It means that the next Mail List dispatch is likely to be delayed.

Here - from his Journal - is what Neil Gaiman thinks of Dave McKean's chances of winning the Greenaway medal:

I just read the Greenaway shortlist and while all the other books get described in glowing, heartwarming and entirely positive terms, The Wolves in the Walls seems to have troubled the person writing the descriptions no end. It is, we learn, "a scary, strange but highly imaginative picture book .... highly unsettling". Oh well. I don't know what the UK bookies odds on the Greenaway are (although I found the odds on the Orange with no problems), but I suspect that Dave will not be the odds-on favourite.

Actually, Neil, I shouldn't set too great store by those resumes. They're not written by the judges.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Chorion captures Mr Men

"Chorion, the company that owns the rights to Agatha Christie's works as well as Noddy, yesterday announced a long-awaited ?28m deal to take control of Mr Men from the family of their late creator, Roger Hargreaves..."