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Pitchfork: Stars' Torquil Campbell Preps Second Memphis Album

Daniel Handler s set to co-direct the video to accompany release of a new single by Memphis (from their second album A Little Place In The Wilderness)

"I'll Do Whatever You Want" is an upbeat, likeable piece of dreamy guitar pop with a couple of keyboard flourishes thrown into the background for good measure. That is, it sounds a lot like a Stars song, which is not a bad thing. Daniel Handler, author of the Lemony Snicket children's books, will co-direct (with Campbell) the song's video, which will be filmed in Vancouver in early September.

newswire.co.nz - news of consequence

US actress Renee Zellweger has attended the unveiling of a statue honouring the children's author Beatrix Potter.

The Oscar-winning star said she hoped the 4.5 metre bronze statue at Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria, would become "a distinctive local landmark".

Bloomberg.com: Culture

J. K. Rowling's ``Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,'' won the WHSmith Book of the Year prize at the 17th annual British Book Awards.

The awards will be broadcast on Saturday on Channel 4.

Scholatic Press Release

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler sign up to Scholastic UK Ltd

Alison Green Books, the new eponymous imprint of Scholastic UK Ltd, is delighted to announce the acquisition of TIDDLER, the latest picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Julia and Axel are the best-selling and award winning picture book team behind many favourite books for children, including THE GRUFFALO and ROOM ON THE BROOM.

In TIDDLER, Julia Donaldson has created a hugely appealing character - a little fish with a very big imagination. It’s a story about the importance of story-telling and is written in rhyme, with loads of opportunities for children to join in. Axel Scheffler loves the story and is looking forward to the challenge of creating a new and distinctive visual world for it.

Alison Green joined Scholastic UK in 2005 to set up her own imprint, publishing picture books and novelty books. Regarding this latest acquisition for her list, she says:

“I have worked with Axel and Julia for over ten years and I'm thrilled to be working with them again. They are an extraordinary team - every book they make is a classic. I love the story of TIDDLER; it is packed full of the warmth and humour that only Julia can create. Children of all ages are going to love it.”

Publication is set for September 2007, and Scholastic look forward to continuing their relationship with Julia and Axel into the future.

Meanwhile, Julia Donaldson will carry on writing a variety of books for Macmillan Children’s Books, which will be illustrated by, amongst others, Nick Sharratt and Lydia Monks.

Books - reviews and literary news from The Times and The Sunday Times

Amanda Craig reviews some recent children's poetry collections, objecting to some - either on the grounds that the poems included will appeal to adults but not to children, or because they have been selected to act as First-Aid For Parents (the subtitle of one of the books reviewed) - and liking best the collections put together by poets:

The best collections of poetry are inevitably made by poets, and while both The Rattle Bag and Charles Causley’s collection for Macmillan are equally essential, the next best is The New Faber Book of Children’s Verse edited by Matthew Sweeney. This is not new (it has been around since 2001) but has been reissued by the publishers to be in the shops for Christmas. I don’t much care for the illustrations by Sarah Fanelli, but what is so good about this refreshingly astringent collection is the freshness of much of the material — Sweeney has looked out for “poems written for adults that I felt would speak to children”, and they do.

Guardian Unlimited | Family | There was an old man with a beard

Starting next week, Michael Morpurgo will be writing a monthly column for The Guardian about being a grandparent.

This article is a sort of introduction to the monthly column.

ACHUKA's Ebay page is a week old. The response has been good, but with several of the Auctions reaching their deadline this weekend, there are still bargains to be had.

It's ACHUKA policy to list everything at a very low first-bid price, with no reserve, allowing items to find their own value.

The current bid on our first STAR Auction, an Artemis Fowl proof copy, is just over ?30. Elsewhere on Ebay, another Fowl proof, has reached ?143.10. See for yourself.

A recent addition to the listings is a signed first edition UK hardback of Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, a title that dealers can ask anything between 250 and 300 dollars for. So far there has been only one opening bid - ?4.99! [Correction as of 7.24 am - 2 bids] Watch this space!

There have been quite a few hits, but no bids yet, on this... Perhaps people are just 'watching'.