ACHUKA: November 2004 Archives
After much deliberation and some rereading I have arrived at my Top Ten Teen Titles of the Year for The Scotsman.
This year's list includes one Australian, three American and seven British novels. (There is a tie for tenth place.)
A number of titles prominently featured in award shortlists are not in my Top Ten - an example being Not The End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean, a book so superlatively good that it should be entered for the Booker Prize. It is not, however, in my view, a book that speaks predominantly to a Young Adult audience.
Other books from the Guardian and Whitbread shortlists are also missing from my Top Ten. Although a re-reading of one of them has persuaded me to give it a place, I am not persuaded that it should have displaced some of my higher-placed titles from the aforementioned shortlists.
There will be a prize for the person who can most accurately replicate my Top Ten prior to its publication in The Scotsman. Suggested Top Tens can be posted here on the Blog, via Comments, or on ACHUKACHAT.
Publishing News reports that Bloomsbury is to strengthen its children's marketing and PR with two new appointments:
Ian Lamb, currently at Puffin, will join Bloomsbury as Children's Publicity Manager. And Joanne Owen, a buyer at Borders, will join the marketing team.
We were flattered, yesterday, to receive an invitation from the British Library to participate in a Web Archiving pilot:
The British Library would like to invite you to participate in this pilot project by archiving your web site... We have judged this web site to be an important part of our documentary heritage and would like it to remain available to researchers in the future. If the pilot is successful the archived copy of your web site will subsequently form part of our permanent collections.
Copyright will remain unaffected: "You still retain full copyright in your web site, both in the live version of your web site and the archived version in the Consortium?s archive. If any third party wanted to copy more than an insubstantial portion (as defined by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) either from the live version of your web site or from the archived version, they would still be obliged to seek your permission."
Kate Wilson has acquired another member of her old Macmilllan team. The latest press release from Scholastic announces that Alyx Price is to be the Scholastic Group's PR Director on her return from travelling in February 2005:
Alyx Price has been appointed as Group PR Director for Scholastic UK . This is a new role that will project the public face of all of the Scholastic UK group's businesses - Scholastic Children's Books, Scholastic Book Clubs and Fairs and Scholastic Education. Alyx will work closely with the heads of those businesses - Gavin Lang, Miles Stevens-Hoare and Max Adam.Kate Wilson, Group M.D., said, "I am delighted that Alyx is joining us. She has a huge talent for making connections with a wide range of people including authors, illustrators, educators and the media, which will be invaluable to Scholastic in this new phase of its growth and development."
Alyx was formerly the Publicity Director for Macmillan Children's Books. She is currently travelling, and will join the business on 28th February 2005.
Alyx looks forward to the challenges ahead. "I am delighted to have the opportunity to take on this challenge of working with all parts of the Scholastic business in the UK. Scholastic has an exciting range of publishing programmes linked uniquely with the capacity to make direct contact with children and teachers, getting children reading and giving books to schools. I look forward to communicating this to the outside world."
Hotlink to item blogged yesterday - or scroll down.
Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Author of the month: Michael Rosen
The subject of Dina Rabinovitch's monthly feature in Wednesday's Guardian was:
Michael Rosen
Recommended
Marion Lloyd and Alison Green are to leave Macmillan and work with Kate Wilson (also previously at Macmillan) who is now Group MD at Scholastic.
They will both head up eponymous children's book imprints, Marion Lloyd Books and Alison Green Books.
Kate Wilson, Group MD, Scholastic UK, says:
I am very happy to have the opportunity to work with both Marion and Alison once again. I value Marion's astute judgement of potential, her editorial rigour and her caring approach to authors and colleagues very highly. Alison's editorial skills and instincts and her eye for illustration and for paper-engineering are unparalleled. I believe that Scholastic can give them, and the authors and illustrators they work with, remarkable opportunities to succeed in the UK and internationally.
From time to time a review title is sent to me at school, rather than to the ACHUKA address. These titles tend to be self-published, often by teachers. I wish it happened more, just as I wish more of them were worthy of mention.
The package I opened just after lunch today was sent by an ex-teacher but contained a title published by Hodder. Look out for it. Better still, ask for it, as bookshops are likely to have dificulty deciding where to shelve/display it.
How To Spot A Hadrosaur In A Bus Queue by Andy Seed is a children's miscellany of useless but fascinating lists, such as
the top 5 causes of broken biscuits
Beckham's Haircuts 1991-2004 (all 12 of them)
how to say yes in 13 languages
An ideal stocking-filler
Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | How I jumped out of the sack race
Meg Rosoff takes an amusing look at her own c.v. and reflects that the best thing about being a writer is not having to work in advertising anymore, which makes her glad that she didn't have her first book published until her mid-forties.
... ...by the way, the second book is proving slower to write, sadly smashing my early dreams of four bestsellers per year. But it's still infinitely more fun than selling instant coffee.
Telegraph | Education | The making of a monster
An article about Henrietta and Paul Stickland:
To mark its 10th birthday, Paul Strickland [sic] has created Dinosaurs Galore!, a pop-up version of the original which uses the same illustrations plus one new little dinosaur which guides the readers around... ...
Apologies, particularly to the author, Anne Cassidy, for failing to report the fact that she has been judged the winner of the second Booktrust Teenage Prize Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy.
Fine-spun tales of empathy - Books - www.theage.com.au
Anne Fine, interviewed while on a recent visit to Sydney, in fine dyspeptic mood...
Highly recommended
"I think mobile phones have done more to infantilise and reduce children's resources and ability to be on their own, even in their own head, than anything else. "If you watch them, the minute they are on their own, they start to text someone. It is an even more facile contact with the world than television. That's facile enough because there is no inner life to television. If I could give advice to parents, I'd say don't allow children to watch any more than three hours a week of television and don't let them have a mobile."
Scholastic Inc. announced today the winners of its extensive trans-atlantic "Three Wishes for the World" essay contest where children in the United States and United Kingdom have the chance to win all-expense paid trips to New York and London. The essay contest was inspired by Scholastic's New York Times best-selling Children of the Lamp trilogy by acclaimed British author P.B. Kerr.
War IS sad. Don't hide it from your children
Michael Morpurgo - THE TIMES
Printed in Wednesday's London Times, this long piece by Michael Morpurgo, on the impact of televised wars on children...
of all my books that touch on war Private Peaceful might seem the one that is too harsh, too painful for a young audience. I wrote it because I discovered on a visit to Ypres that more than 300 British soldiers were shot by firing squad in the First World War for cowardice or desertion. Trials for a man?s life were brief, sometimes less than half an hour. Witnesses were often not available. At best it was rough justice, at worst not justice at all. I read of one young man of 18 who had fought through the Somme. In rest camp one day with the guns still firing he turned to his friend and said that he ?couldn?t stand the sound of the guns any more, that he was going home?. He was arrested, tried and condemned. Men from his own company were obliged to make up the firing squad. In protest they stood over his grave till sunset. I wanted to write that young soldier?s story...
Entertainment News - Prolific Pratchett rides Discworld wave in NZ
Terry Pratchett interviewed, while on tour in New Zealand...
EDP24 - Kids told: Dump the computer games
Jacqueline Wilson, speaking in Norfolk on Friday, gave some advice on reading and writing...
"People are trying hard to get children to read lots more but writing is difficult because creative writing is not taught properly in schools.""Teachers prime concern is to construct proper sentences but if we want children to develop imaginations it is more fun to let them rip,"
For the first time, Books for Keeps has posted selections from the current content on its website, and this is something they "intend to expand in upcoming months". The current online content includes
an article by Jennifer Donnelly
an Authorgraph interview with Axel Scheffler
and suggestions for Books for Giving
From Publishing News:
PAN MACMILLAN HAS promoted from within to fill the vacancy of MD of Macmillan Children?s Books, with the appointment of Emma Hopkin, previously Children?s Sales and Marketing Director. The vacancy was created by the departure of Kate Wilson to be Group MD of Scholastic. At the same time, Sarah Davies is promoted to Publishing Director across all Macmillan Children?s imprints, including picture books and Campbell... ...
Received in the post today: a sick bag promoting Hellbent by Anthony McGowan ( due to be published early next year), warning me that it will be "the most disgusting book you'll ever read"...
The bottle of emergency foul mouth wash, also mentioned on the sickbag but not enclosed, is (I trust) to follow.
childrensillustrators.com - picture book artists and published books showcase
From this new site's launch press release:
With over 30 years experience, NEW specialist online illustration resource, www.childrensillustrators.com launched on November 1st. Founded by digital marketing specialist, Tom Thorogood, the site aims to create the most comprehensive source of childrens illustration available on the Internet... ...
Overdue Media, home of Unshelved - a comic strip about a library
I've just stumbled on this daily webcomicstrip about library life, with a children's and young adult librarian as two of its main characters. As well as showing the latest daily offering, there's an archive with a random button to help you catch up with past strips. Warning - it's addictive.
Highly recommended
Just back from his whistlestop, month-long UK tour, Darren Shan manages to release his Shanville Monthly right on time...
Pop-Ups for older children and adults... ...
