ACHUKA: August 2004 Archives

This fall, it'll be raining men

Feature about ABC's US TV adaptation of Melvin Burgess's Doing It:

ABC, however, is hoping that girls and young women will want to look very closely indeed at these men and their musings - "vile" or not. The network has adapted the controversial novel for American TV, and it will deploy it this fall on Thursdays opposite "CSI" and "The Apprentice." Now going by the less carnal title "life as we know it," it is a candid journey into the lust, the loves, and the fears of the teen male animal. It's a TV expedition into the heart of the men's locker room.

maitland.yourguide

A Life in Children's Books includes the story of how Walter came to publish John Marsden's first book, So Much to Tell You.

It also includes anecdotes about figures such as Maurice Sendak, Alan Garner and Colin Thiele, as well as McVitty's own story, from childhood to establishing his publishing company.

Sounds like an interesting title. Can any of ACHUKA Australian readers tell us more about this book, which isn't listed on Amazon?

Predictably enough I suppose, and in keeping with the 'you-don't-know-what-you've-got-till-it's-gone' truism, it's only with the passing of the ACHUKA Events Calendar (due to security issues as previously explained) that people have begun to mail in asking about it and enquiring how they can submit information about forthcoming happenings. So, the Events Calendar is in the process of being reborn.

www.achuka.co.uk/events

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Interview: Julia Donaldson

Robert McCrum writes about Julia Donaldson in The Observer:

it is part of her down-to-earth appeal that this utterly sensible fiftysomething wife and mother of three remains apparently untouched by her astonishing international success. Her contemporary verse fable about a clever little mouse who goes for 'a stroll in a deep, dark wood' and meets that fearsome fantasy creature, the Gruffalo, is one of the word-of-mouth sensations of recent years.

Recommended

The History Man - Alan Garner knows every brick, tile and timber of his ancient home - The Times

It is in this medieval hall, in a room known as The Buttery, where liquor and expensive food were once stored, that Alan has written all his books. They include The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Owl Service, which won two literary prizes and was made into a television series by Granada, and his latest work, Thursbitch. Today there is no desk, computer or even typewriter, as Alan , who was appointed OBE in 2001 for services to literature, writes by hand, sitting in a low upholstered chair, his pad resting on a board on his knee.

Highly Recommended fature about Alan Garner, whose latest book Thursbitch is just out in paperback:

Madonna: Madonna launch's new children's book

Madonna has launched her new children's book by getting daughter Lourdes to read it to a group of sick youngsters.

The 46-year-old singer, who is currently on the British leg of her 're-Invention' tour, visited the children at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and treated them to extracts from her latest novel, 'Yakov and the Seven Thieves'.

Journal

Interesting entry from Jane Yolen's Blog/Journal:

I believe that chapters have a character to them. The last two were adventure story-lets. They were about plot and movement and fighting. But this chapter hasn?t revealed itself yet so I may get no further than those two paragraphs for some while. This may turn out to be what I call a "travel chapter" in which we may learn more about hero or villain, but really I am just moving them all from one place to another. Sometimes one writes a travel chapter and then, once it is revealed to the author where everything is going, the chapter is deleted except for a paragraph or two.

The best writers know that deletion is an important tool in the Author Kit. Do not mourn words or chapters that must go. Let them go. Wave. Smile. Move on.

Mirror.co.uk - FIVE NO1 GO TO

THE Famous Five tales of happy adventure beat epics such as Treasure Island and Lord of the Rings in a poll to find the top children's book... ...

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Who's telling tails?

A one-page piece from Guardian Weekend Magazine.

The Fanous Four alliterates just as well, but few young readers question Timmy the dog's right to be counted as a fully-fledged member of the Famous Five.

Scholastic are to spend ?40,000 (Publishing News reports) on promoting Philip Reeve in the UK's ten most popular shopping malls by means of one hundred billboard panels. Gavin Lang is quoted (PN) as saying, 'This is part of an ongoing campaign to build Philip Reeve's profile in time for the launch of the third book, Infernal Devices." However, Reeeve's fans have to wait until next spring for that title.

Storyquest

Official website of Storyquest 2004, a programme of festival events in the autumn launched by children's laureate Michael Morpurgo earlier this week. The events, aimed at parties of schoolchildren, have apparently sold out already. The website will in due course hald an 'audio archive' as well as other resources, so it's worth bookmarking.

Enjoyment - The Independent

The trustees at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, which was given the copyright to Peter Pan by J M Barrie in 1929, is offering authors the opportunity to write a sequel. Using the same characters, they will be asked to update and develop the story for a new book, which promises to generate substantial cash for the hospital's work.

ic Huddersfield - Prize-winning writer visits village library

"Ms Donnelly will be flying in from New York for events in London and Edinburgh, stopping overnight in Huddersfield..."

Puffin Books have announced the official title of the first Young Bond novel by Charlie Higson. The title, which until today had been kept a closely guarded secret, will be SILVERFIN.

Puffin acquired the rights from Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, owners of the James Bond literary copyright, last Spring and will be publishing SILVERFIN in March 2005.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Michael Rosen: The mystery of the vanishing parcels

I noticed that on the torn envelope there was a ParcelForce sticker, so I rang ParcelForce and told them. Can you read me the number, the person asked. I read the number. They said that it wasn't a ParcelForce number. But it was the number on the ParcelForce label. Yes, they said, but that's a Royal Mail number, you need to ring Royal Mail. So I rang someone else at Royal Mail and explained that the envelope had a ParcelForce sticker on it but the number on the sticker wasn't a ParcelForce number. I read them the number. No, said the man, that's a ParcelForce number. I threw the envelope away.

CBBC Newsround | SCI TECH | JK reveals Potter titbits at show

CBBC report of J K Rowling's appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival...

Full transcript of the Q&A session, introduced by Lindsey Fraser

David Robinson's report in The Scotsman

DenverPost.com - BOOKS

An article that takes a positive look at adult authors' adventures in the children's market:

"...plenty of good children's literature is being produced by these scions of adult best-seller lists.

With that in mind, here's a list of some recent "Children's Lit" titles by big-name writers that stand out from the crowd..."

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | Bookseller's debut novel hailed

"A bookshop worker is being tipped for success with her debut novel after signing a deal with a major publisher..."

Whispering To Witches by Anna Dale

Enjoyment

"Anthony Horowitz put his unhappy childhood behind him to create the junior spy Alex Rider. Now, he tells Barry Forshaw, he's turned his attention to adult fiction..."

Highly Recommended feature from The Independent

What does life tell us about love? This week: Judith Kerr

'JUDITH KERR, 80, is the creator of the children?s character Mog the cat and author of the children?s classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Her books have sold more than three million copies worldwide. Next month she and her husband, the scriptwriter Nigel Kneale (known to his family as Tom), celebrate their golden wedding... ...

I started drawing and writing the books when the children were learning to read. Mog was our cat then ? we have had eight, and all of them are buried in the garden. When Matthew was 8 he saw The Sound of Music and said ?now we know what it was like when Mummy was a little girl?. I wanted him to know what it was really like, so I wrote When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit...

The Observer | Magazine | Raffaella Barker, Stiffkey Beach, Norfolk coast

Today I have been mainly reading...
Phosphorescence by Raffaella Barker

and enjoying it immensely, as a book that captures both the external and the internal life of its main character with equal success. So I did a quick websearch and found this Observer Magazine profile from back at the end of June...

Raffaella Barker's most recent Country Life column...

Edinburgh International Book Festival What's On

Browse the programme and book tickets online:

Click on the link and you'll be able to
Find Events
All events by:- Adult events by:- Children events by:-
Day
Author
Event
Location
Strand
Sponsor
Changed / Sold out

although when I tried searching the events by 'Children's author' I was given a combined adults/children's author listing which was not all that helpful - so it would appear the site needs to do some work on their search filtering code.

Meg Rosoff, author of How I Live Now, is featured on this coming Thursday's edition of BBC Radio's arts programme, Front Row:

How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff
Front Row Thursday, 12 August@7.15pm / BBC RAdio 4

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Calm down, dear...

think there is room for development in this area. Children are really interested in the bigger questions of life and how they fit into the world around them. Maybe that goes with coping with things like peer pressure and branding from a much earlier age. Maybe now they do need active support below the age of 10

Caroline Horn of The Bookseller, quoted in this Observer article about children's books that use the language of self-help, such as Nightlights: Stories for You to Read to Your Child - To Encourage Calm, Confidence and Creativity

Julie Burchill, interviewed by Graham Marks in the current edition of Publishing News, calims to have written her teenage novel, Sugar Rush, "in about eight afternoons".

Puffin have just issued a special 40th Anniversary edition of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

Oxford are presenting limited 50th Anniversary editions of:

~ The Eagle Of The Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe

~ Lavender's Blue, A Book of Nursery Rhymes compiled by Kathleen Lines and 'pictured' by Harold Jones

~ Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Sex Comes To Storytime

My eye was off-the-ball, so to speak, at the weekend and I didn't spot this Sunday Times reprint of an article by Rachel Johnson originally published in The Spectator.

Our thanks for pointing it out go to Malachy Doyle, one of whose novels provides Johnson with a suitable scatalogical opening quote...