children's & YA recommendations on the go
Well done to Toppsta for compiling this excellent summary of the main children’s book awards. It’s something I was thinking of doing myself, but I’m a great believer in not replicating work already done, so am happy to link to this list:
https://toppsta.com/blog/view/children’s-book-awards-2021:-shortlists-and-winners
The one glaring omission (at the time of posting) is the Klaus Flugge Prize, awarded annually to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s picture book illustration
Nosy Crow want to increase the diversity of their list.
If you’re a writer or writer-illustrator of colour, they want your picture book stories!
Please send no more than three picture book texts to submissions2021@nosycrow.com, along with a synopsis of each story and a short biography in the body of the email. The window for submissions is for a limited time only, from the 21st January 2021 to the 18thFebruary 2021.
It’s completely free to submit. Submissions must be in the English language and unpublished anywhere in the world. Writers and writer-illustrators must be aged 18 or older.
Picture book texts should be no more than 1,000 words each and submitted as aMicrosoft Word document (or similar document that can be opened in Microsoft Word) or Adobe PDF document. They should be sent as an email attachment (no paper submissions).
If you are a writer-illustrator, texts can be accompanied by your artwork. PDFs should be no more than 5MB in total. If you’re a writer-illustrator, please also include a link to your website and/or social media.
More details here:
https://nosycrow.com/blog/an-open-call-for-submissions-from-writers-and-writer-illustrators-of-colour/
Amanda Gorman read her poem The Hill We Climb in front of a sea of masked Americans during Joe Biden’s Presidential Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony. She stood in the U.S. Capitol on January 20th, 2021, to recite a poem about hope and change, echoing some of the messages Biden has used during his campaign…
This amazing young poet is (b. 1998) comes from Los Angeles. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015.
Gorman grew up it with limited television access and had a speech impediment as a child. She has said she was something of a “weird child” who enjoyed reading and writing and was encouraged by her mother, a teacher. She graduated from Harvard last year with a degree in sociology.
The Hill We Climb is a poem fresh off the page, most of it written while watching pro-Trump extremists storm the Capitol on January 6th. A debut poetry collection is due to be published this autumn (2021), as will a children’s picture book, Change Sings, A Children’s Anthem, llustrated by Loren Long.
Follow Amanda Gorman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandascgorman/
A fully illustrated novel from comics creator Neill Cameron – the first title in a new series from David Fickling Books.
POW! PEW! FWOOSH! Meet Freddy – the most super-amazing superhero robot EVER. His unbelievably Amazing Robotic Abilities are mind-blowingly cool. But it turns out that teachers get really angry when you use your rocket boosters in class. Which is rather a problem for Freddy…
Adored comics creator Neill Cameron has written and illustrated a hilarious, heartfelt novel, with an unforgettable protagonist. Freddy vs School is guaranteed to make readers of all ages laugh out loud, while also providing an insightful look at diversity and celebrating children who are different. Fully integrated illustrations make the book perfect for more reluctant readers. This is the story of one superhero robot’s quest to stay in school, save his friends from disaster, and – hardest of all – stay true to himself.
See also:
How To Make Awesome Comics
Tamsin And The Dark
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neillcameron/
“A wordless, singing infusion of love and energy into a home.” KIRKUS
In this bustling wordless picture book, JonArno Lawson’s touching story and Qin Leng’s gentle illustrations capture all angles of the building’s transformation, as well as the evolving perspectives of the girl and her grandparent. A wordless picture book that celebrates the power of community, the joys of new friends and the magic that happens when you open your heart, and fill your home with love and joy.
Leng uses unbordered panels, sometimes full-page, sometimes small and square, sometimes horizontal. Her ink-and-watercolor paintings are gentle and dreamy, with a real beating heart. KIRKUS
A lonely little girl and her grandparent need to fill the run-down apartment in their building. But taking over the rooms above their shop will mean major renovations for the new occupants, and none of the potential renters can envision the possibilities of the space – until one special couple shows up. With their ingenuity, the little girl’s big heart, and heaps of hard work, the desperate fixer-upper begins to change in lovely and surprising ways.
Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop [unlisted]
After all those years of hard work and her single Chinese-American mother’s many sacrifices, 12 yr-old Ana-Marie Jin, reigning U.S. Juvenile Figure-Skating Champion, is determined not to let anything spoil her dream of achieving another national title.
But she is far from thrilled to learn that the new choreographer has designed a skating program that requires her to portray a princess. She’s just not a frilly-dress princess kind of girl!
When Hayden, a transgender boy new to the rink, mistakes Ana for a boy she decides not to correct him, and soon settles into a comfortable, boyish identity whenever he’s around. As their friendship develops, Ana realises that it’s not easy to juggle two different identities on one slippery sheet of ice and, with a major competition approaching, she must decide whether the truth is worth risking everything they’ve trained for.
The novel provides a behind-the-scenes look into the world of competitive figure skating, while also giving readers a nonbinary protagonist to root and cheer for along the way.
The author comments: “It was an intentional choice to include two trans characters because I wanted to highlight how no two trans experiences are the same. Hayden’s known who he is for a while by the time he and Ana meet, whereas Ana is just starting to explore the layers of her identity. As I touched on in an earlier answer, I think it can sometimes be a revelation to see an aspect of yourself reflected in someone else. That’s what happens when Ana meets Hayden: Hayden’s identity doesn’t match Ana’s precisely, but she recognizes a shared commonality, one that spurs her to dig deeper and learn more about herself.”
extracted from an online interview
The author has a highly informative website: https://sassinsf.com
1984 Hans Christian Andersen winner, Mitsumasa Anno, has died aged 94. He was known especially for wordless pictorial bird’s-eye view “Journey” books, in which a character’s travels embrace a country’s art, literature, culture, and history. His first book, English title Topsy-Turvies – described by Anita Silvey as “an amazing collection of improbable constructions filled with impossible perspectives and angles” – was published in 1968, when he was already in his forties. Before that he had been a primary school teacher. Anno’s Alphabet, published in 1974, received the Boston-Globe Horn Book Award and was specially commended for that year’s Kate Greenaway Medal (awarded that year to Pat Hutchins for The Wind Blew).
In 1985, Shirley Hughes wrote a profile of him for Books for Keeps, describing the artist as having “about him more than a touch of the genial magician, a flamboyant westernised style combined with the formal politeness of his fellow country-men; he is quick, observant and very, very intelligent.”
Hughes goes on to observe, “He shows a similar brilliant sleight-of-hand with perspective as the artist he is sometimes compared with, M. C. Escher. They both play on the way our eye perceives three-dimensional form on a flat surface. But Anno is the more humanly fanciful and, unlike Escher, works in colour which he uses with stunning fluency. He is not, one senses, particularly drawn to the role of interpreting other people’s texts. Responding very strongly to poetry, he feels (as many writers do) that a good piece of literature needs no further illustration to enhance its meaning. His books explore the converse of this reaction; that a visual medium doesn’t need words to explain the story.”
There is a Mitsumasa Anno Art Museum designed by world-renowned architect, Tadao Andou.
Second in this new, action-packed series from an author with an avid following.
The first title – Hacking, Heists And Flaming Arrows – was a Book of the Day last April (2020).
When Clare Gisborne and Little John return to school after the Locksley Riot, there’s rebellion in the air and Robin Hood’s name graffitied on every wall. Power dynamics are shifting – now, instead of being a feared bully, the daughter of Locksley’s most hated criminal finds herself shunned by classmates and pelted with yoghurt and rotting fruit. Meanwhile at Sherwood Designer Outlets, Robin has plans of his own. He is determined to hack Sheriff Marjorie’s office so that the rebels know her every move – and to work with animal rights activists to end a cruel trophy hunt inside the grounds of Sherwood Castle.
MUCHAMORE.COM is an excellent author website, designed by himself, using Squarespace.
His Wikipedia entry is full and up-to-date.
The most recent press profile appeared in The Times (Sunday Times Culture 17 Jan 2021)
This, I believe, was ACHUKA’s first mention of Muchamore, when he won one of the book categories at what-was-then the Red House Children’s Book Awards in 2005, and I commented: “Not only was The Recruit by Robert Muchamore the biggest suprise on the shortlist, it went on to win the Books for Older Readers category, which made me wonder why none of Darren Shan’s titles have ever made it on to the CBA shortlist. The Cherub series, of which The Recruit was the first title, is picking up an avid following, with a website – www.cherubcampus.com – that is a model of how a site can be used to nurture and sustain a readership. Muchamore was there, enjoying the limelight, as well he might, in a Cherub T-shirt, thanking his mum for bringing him doughnuts while he worked, and thanking everyone else for coming.”
self-portrait © James Mayhew
We’re delighted to have James Mayhew as the second guest in ACHUKA’s new Meet An Illustrator feature, which launched last week with Jim Field.
This year we can look forward to:
As a child, what were the first illustrations you remember being pleased with?
By myself? A painting of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, when I was about 7!
Who/what inspired you when you were young?
A book called “Art Treasures of the World” – it directly inspired my first book, Katie’s Picture Show. But I also loved book illustrators: Edward Ardizzone, Maurice Sendak, the Johnston sisters, Ronald Searle,Tove Jansson, Errol le Cain, Brian Wildsmith, John Burningham… these are the illustrators I grew up with.
Who inspires you today?
So many… I’m still inspired by older illustrators: Edmund Dulac, Roger Duvoisin, John Minton, Edward Bawden… Amongst my contemporaries, I greatly admire Angela Barrett, Jackie Morris, Sarah Massini, Ehsan Abdollahi, Benji Davies, Sarah McIntyre, P J Lynch, Komoko Sakai, Emily Sutton…(I could go on!)
Did you study art or illustration? If so, where?
Yes, first in Lowestoft (Foundation Course), then Maidstone (Illustration BA)
What is your favourite artist tool/product?
I have two. First is a dip-pen – I love using pen and ink. Second is a pair of Moomin scissors, gifted to me by Clara Vulliamy, which I use for my collage work..
Where do you buy your art supplies?
The Art Trading Company in Bungay, Suffolk. Happily the Waveney Valley is full of artists, so this tiny town manages to have a fantastic art shop.
What software/apps do you use?
None.
What was your first commission?
The front cover of Nell Dunn’s novel “Up The Junction” for Virago Press
What are you working on at the moment?
Book 6 in the Mouse and Mole series
Mouse and Mole 2020
Twitter or Instagram? Twitter
Coffee or tea? Neither – hot water and lemon
Cat or dog? Dog
Grape or grain? Grape
Sunrise or sunset? Sunrise
What do you listen to when you are working?
Podcasts; ABBA; Classical music; Opera. Today it is Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snowmaiden”
Where can we follow you on social media?
@mrjamesmayhew on Twitter
@mrjamesmayhew on Instagram
Facebook – James Mayhew – Author & illustrator
Christopher Little, the agent who signed J. K. Rowling, died earlier this month. The opening paragraphs of this Times obituary describe how his office received three chapters of the first Harry Potter book, Rowling having picked “his name from a list of literary agents in an Edinburgh library, thinking that he sounded like a character from a children’s story”.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/christopher-little-obituary-03s3l3tgs