Children's TV is social poison, says top novelist | UK News | The Observer
Pullman is concerned the damage done to children's television has gone too far to be corrected without more effort. 'The ideology of "profit before everything" in children's television is toxic,' he said. 'When young audiences are regarded as customers to be separated from their money as quickly and efficiently as possible, there is no chance for life-enhancing work to flourish.' ...
To read or not to read-Arts & Entertainment-Books-TimesOnline
Just caught up with this spirited piece in support of comics and other light reading from yesterday's Sunday Times.
What a star Michael Morpurgo is! If only he could have had longer in situ as Children's Laureate.
There is no more rewarding sound than the silence of 35 children hooked into a story, hanging on every word.
Just so. I was called away at short notice last week to join a Y5 residential visit when one of the accompanying teachers injured her ankle, and found myself reading to a class of children in their bedclothes, slippers and dressing gowns. The book I'd grabbed in a hurry on leaving the house turned out not to be the one I'd intended, so I ended up reading a story I wasn't familiar with - The Fate of Thomas P. Kanne by Brian Jacques from a collection 'Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales', a dark cautionary tale about a graffiti vandal. It was much longer than I realised and had to be continued on a second night but it evoked just the silent response described by Morpurgo above.
"The best teachers," Morpurgo says, "will love books for themselves and want to pass this on."
If only he were still Laureate, repeating this over and over at the highest levels, because it isn't getting through. The question most likely to discomfort newly qulaified teachers (and, even more sadly, sometimes more experienced teachers) when they come to interview is always one about what they would choose to read to a particular class of children.
Very Highly Recommended
The Herald : Features: MAIN FEATURES
A Highland health board has enlisted the help of a well known children's author and illustrator, Mairi Hedderwick, to promote breastfeeding. Hedderwick, an outspoken proponent of the "breast is best" approach, had to battle with her publisher to include illustrations of the mums in her stories breastfeeding, but has done so repeatedly over the years. Now her pictures are to be used to promote the practice in the Highlands...
Much to ACHUKA's pleasure, Andrea Deakin's newsletter for May 2007 reverts to its former format.
Read especially the feature on Tundra Books' 40th anniversary.
This May Tundra Books is celebrating its 40th Anniversary. In 1967 May Cutler, an innovative lover of the arts and a Montreal-based writer and editor, founded a company devoted to creating the best possible books for Canadian children. By the time I had started reviewing, in March 1971, the company had already made its mark with the excellence of its production.
Following receipt of an Arts Council grant, Kate Jones, magazine founder, has appointed someone to take over as editor of Young Writer. Clare Pollard is a 28 year old poet and playright. She also teaches creative writing for the Arvon Foundation.
On the 22nd April Puffin had to lock the What Is Robert/being forum and prevent any new posts or discussion. This was because the forum had been hit by a wave of spam.
We now hear that a decision has been taken to hand over administration of the forum to "a much bigger website with higher technical ability".
http://www.chronicles-network.com is a dedicated science fiction/ fantasy fiction website with many forums in which to discuss literature. Kevin Brooks will now have his own section on that site:
http://www.chronicles-network.com/forum/kevin-brooks/
This means that when users click on the forum link of http://www.whatisrobert.co.uk they will be redirected to the specific Kevin Brooks area. In this area they will be able to post as usual and hopefully resume their previous discussions.
SECONDARY SCHOOLS GET FREE BOOKS TO BOOST READING AMONG TEENAGE BOYS [Press Release]
Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, has invited every maintained secondary school in England to choose 20 free books for their library as part of a £600,000 initiative to encourage more teenage boys to read for pleasure.
Schools will be able to select the books from a new “Boys Into Books” list commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills and created by the School Library Association (SLA). It has put together a collection that incorporates classic novels with action, adventure, fantasy, crime, horror and sports titles, as well as fact-based books, history and humour.
[Press release continues, with info. about of titles on the list]
Oenone Crossley-Holland takes her dad to school | eG weekly | EducationGuardian.co.uk
Although I frequently fall behind with newspaper reading, I never throw a copy away without at least giving each page a good scan, even if it takes me weeks to get to it. Case in point being this account from April 17th of a visit by Kevin Crossley-Holland to the school where his daughter teaches.
All sorts of ideas were challenged when our teacher columnist Oenone Crossley-Holland took her author dad to schoolKevin Crossley-Holland and Oenone Crossley-Holland
On the crest of her wave-Arts & Entertainment-Books-Children-TimesOnline
Profile of adult and children's author Helen Dunmore by Amanda Craig, with reference to Dunmore's latest children's title, The Deep
Working Partners have announced the creation of a new literary agency based in the USA, to be headed up by Sarah Davies, currently Publishing Director of Macmillan Children’s Books. The agency will focus on children’s fiction and will start trading in early autumn this year. Sarah will be based in Washington DC. Plans regarding the UK are to be announced in due course.
Sarah Davies has had a long career in children’s publishing, having spent several years at HarperCollins and Transworld before moving to Macmillan Children’s Books in 1994. In 2004 she became Publishing Director of MCB, with editorial responsibility for the whole children’s list, which comprises fiction - including the Young Picador teen imprint - picture books and gift books, non-fiction and poetry, and the Campbell novelty books imprint. Sarah has maintained her particular involvement in fiction and has worked with many leading authors, including Meg Cabot, Judy Blume and Sarah Mlynowski in the US, and Gwyneth Rees, Julia Donaldson, Geri Halliwell, Julie Burchill and Julie Bertagna in the UK - as well as acquiring and helping to build many new writers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Working Partners has had considerable success as a packager of children’s fiction and has sold series to nearly every US and UK children’s publisher.
Sarah Davies says: ‘I have long admired Working Partners for their entrepreneurial spirit and incredible commercial track record. To be asked to set up a business in the USA for them – and to find and nurture talent from its grass-roots – is a really thrilling opportunity.’
Chris Snowdon, Managing Director of Working Partners, says: ‘Sarah will be leaving Macmillan at the end of July 2007 and will join Working Partners in September prior to her move to the USA in October. We are over the moon and extremely excited that Sarah has chosen to make her next career move with WP.’
You will have noticed that ACHOCKABLOG has been a bit thin on launch events and party picture galleries so far in 2007. This recent post from fusenumber8's blog gives us an idea for the next event we do attend.
Stats:# of Males in Attendance: 2 (this is actually quite high)
Outdoor Temperature: 60 degrees or so
# of Agents: 2
# of Cards I Received: 2
Librarians: 6(?)
Total Number of Attendees: Dunno. Could have been 30. 30 sounds right, right? Let's say 30.
Hot Shoes of Children's Literature: Don't remember her name, but there was a pair of black leather boots on one of the Queens librarians (memory foggy) that probably took the cake.
Bit late posting the link to the latest Shanville Monthly, and therefore have just missed, by a day, a significant anniversary:
January 2010 will mark the tenth anniversary of when "Cirque Du Freak" first saw print. But I started work on the book two and a half years before that, on May 8th, 1997 to be precise!!! That means on this coming Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 it will be TEN YEARS since the actual conception and birth of "Cirque Du Freak"
Publisher Random House Children's Books has launched the Jacqueline Wilson online fan club, developed by UK digital content and design agency Prism Entertainment.Wilson is best known for The Story of Tracy Beaker, which has been adapted into a highly successful television series for CBBC.
The new site, www.jacquelinewilson-online.co.uk, allows Wilson fans to 'social network' in a safe environment with their peers and discuss the topical issues that her books reflect, as well as submit reviews, play games and receive free downloads.
