For full details of shortlisted and longlisted illustrators (together with links to their websites and Instagram feeds) see the previous post…

Julia Eccleshare & Anthony Browne

Julia Eccleshare was in conversation with Anthony Browne as a prelude to the shortlist announcement.

Browne showed us a drawing he had made as a 6 year old and went on to speak about his career with reference to some key titles, revealing at one point that he and his publishers had come under fire from the Magritte estate. He talked too about his new book, Little Frida: A Story of Frida Kahlo

copies of which were available for signing:

Most of the longlisted illustrators attended the presentation and four of the six shortlisted illustrators were present to hear the news. The winner will be announced later in the year:

Longlisted Illustrators

Shortlisted Illustrators

Klaus arriving at the event

Informal images from the evening… Who had a banana poking from their bag?

This wonderful portrait of Jan Pienkowski (by David Bebber) is taken from the Booktrust website.

Jan Pienkowski has today been presented with the Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award. The presentation took place in the Barbican’s Garden Room with many luminaries of the children’s books world present.

Now aged 82, Pienkowski has Alzheimer’s and finds it difficult to speak in public. David Walser therefore spoke on his behalf, giving a moving account of Jan’s early life and harrowing escape from Poland, and revealed that Jan cannot stand to hear screaming or any very loud noise to this day.

Walser also spoke with humour about his partner’s Alzheimer’s. “Since being told about it, he has forgotten it many times so when I, or any friends in the know, remind him, it always comes as a lovely surprise. He has been able to enjoy the news many times over.” Penkowski sat beaming graciously on a chair set out for him at the side of the stage. After being presented with the award plaque, I noticed him taking a cloth from his pocket and giving it a shine.

Before the presentation those involved with the judging (Nicolette Jones, Smriti Prasadam-Halls, SF Said) paid glowing tributes to Pienkowski’s work.

from the Booktrust site:

The BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates the body of work of an author or illustrator who has made an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. The award has been running since 2015 to recognise an author or illustrator’s lifetime of work. Previous winners include Shirley Hughes, Judith Kerr, Raymond Briggs, Helen Oxenbury and the late John Burningham, who were awarded the first ever double prize in 2018. 

Jan Pieńkowski, aged 82, was born in Poland in 1936 and spent his early years there and in Bavaria, Vienna and Italy before arriving in England at 10 years old. 

Jan is renowned for being one of the greatest innovators in book illustration, particularly for his signature silhouette cut-out illustrations and his pioneering pop-ups. His books tread the perfectly fine line between being slightly frightening but also humorous and fun. Jan says: ‘It’s ok to have scary books, as long as you’re tucked up in bed, because it’s a safe distance.’

CILIP have launched a new magazine, Pen&inc with the aim of promoting diversity in children’s books.

The first edition of Pen&inc has information about 450 titles, interviews with Catherine Johnson and Aisha Bushby, and a poem by Nyanda Foday, former Young Poet Laureate for Birmingham, as well as articles about publishers and academics such as Aimée Felone and Dr Melanie Ramdarshan Bold. The front cover [see above] features a piece of artwork from Yu Rong, winner of the Quentin Blake Award for Narrative Illustration.

The magazine will be biannual and distributed for free to 1,500 bookshops, 150 library services and 10,000 individual librarians and library organisations.

The magazine will be funded through adverts and enhanced listings, with publishers paying for books to be featured.

The magazine was launched at an event last night (Thursday 2nd May).

This is the 20th anniversary year of this prestigious first (children’s) novel award, the presentation of which is always a highlight of the calendar. To mark the anniversary Henrietta Branford’s novel Fire, Bed and Bone is being reissued.

The shortlist for the 2019 Branford Boase Award (given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children, and also honouring the editor of the book) was announced on Wednesday 1^st May 2019.

It is twenty years since the Branford Boase Award was founded to commemorate author Henrietta Branford and influential Walker Books editor Wendy Boase and it is now recognised as one of the most important awards in children’s books with an impressive record in identifying outstanding authors at the start of their careers. Over its 20 year existence, winners and shortlisted authors include Siobhan Dowd, Meg Rosoff, Mal Peet, Philip Reeve, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Frances Hardinge, Patrick Ness and Marcus Sedgwick. 

The complete shortlist list is as follows:

The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson, edited by Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker (Usborne) 

The Train to Impossible Places by P.G. Bell, edited by Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker (Usborne)

Rosie Loves Jack by Mel Darbon, edited by Sarah Stewart (Usborne)

The Goose Road by Rowena House, edited by Mara Bergman (Walker Books)

I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan, edited by Lucy Pearse (Macmillan) 

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen, edited by Sarah Stewart and Kendra Levin (Usborne) 

The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Raúf, edited by Lena McCauley (Orion Children’s Books)
 

This year’s judges are

• Sanchita Basu De Sarkar of the Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill
• Ellen Krajewski, librarian at Hemel Hempstead School, Hertfordshire
• Louise Johns-Shepherd, chief executive of CLPE
• Mitch Johnson, author of Kick, winner of the 2018 Branford Boase Award.

The panel is chaired by Julia Eccleshare, children’s director of the Hay Festival

The winner of the 2019 Branford Boase Award will be announced on Thursday 27^th June at a ceremony in London. The winning author receives a cheque for £1,000 and both author and editor receive a unique, hand-crafted silver-inlaid box.

The Branford Boase Award is sponsored by Walker Books who have pledged new funding to ensure its future.

Keep trying to find a safe way of putting into words what I found troubling about the match between caption and image in this tweet

We wanted to work in a publisher that reflected the world we knew.

It didn’t exist. So, we made one: pic.twitter.com/LJUxZkrPq1

— Knights Of (@_KnightsOf) April 10, 2019