ACHUKAblog
Really useful set of nature activity cards for primary aged children (from Laurence King Publishing), pleasingly designed by the illustrator Chakrabarti with inviting accessible instructions and information written by experienced non-fiction author, Anna Claybourne.
There are 20 double-sided, sturdy thick cards in total categorised into
PARK & GARDEN
WATER
BEACH
FOREST & TREES
ANYWHERE
Perfect to share between groups of children and a handy aid for KS2 classteachers.
Oscar’s Book Prize is an annual prize for the best under-fives book of the year.It is awarded in memory of Oscar Ashton and in partnership with Amazon, the Evening Standard and the National Literacy Trust.
It has taken author and former school teacher John Dougherty more than 20 years to get his story about a cute pig who disappears up a little girl’s nose published. But thanks to the combination of his tenacity — he never stopped submitting the book to different publishers — and Laura Hughes’s engagingly scatty illustrations, There’s a Pig Up My Nose has won this year’s Oscar’s Book Prize, set up in 2012 to celebrate the best in pre-school literature. Princess Eugenie, whose sister Princess Beatrice is patron of the annual prize, presented the pair with a £5,000 cheque at the ceremony at St James’s Palace on Monday night.
via And the winner of the 2018 Oscar’s Book Prize is … | London Evening Standard.
also see main Prize Website: http://www.oscarsbookprize.co.uk/news
The Lifters is his first work of fiction for 9-12 year olds, and is part underground adventure fantasy, part realistic examination of some oft-overlooked aspects of growing up. Twelve-year-old Granite Flowerpetal (he calls himself Gran, until it’s pointed out to him that Grant would be a much better alternative) has just moved to the economically depressed and sinkhole-ridden town of Carousel. Gran is neither popular nor ridiculed at his new school. It’s much worse; no one notices him.
“I think invisibility afflicts far more kids than almost any of the other stereotypical attributes,” Eggers says. “In so many schools that I’m in, I see kids that are shy, but not so shy that they’re crippled socially. But they sort of move through without garnering a lot of notice from their teachers or their peers.”
…
Eggers thinks this is indicative of what a lot of kids crave. “That was the key driver for me to write the book and what kept me intrigued – this sense of purpose that I think kids want. They want nothing more in the world than to be given a task that they can own and that they can be successful with. They want to be treated like valuable fellow humans and not infants.”
A new person has been chosen as Ireland’s Laureate Na Nóg. It’s a very high honour which recognises a person’s contribution to children’s writing. They then help promote children’s writing for two years. pic.twitter.com/AkVlrApNPR
— RTÉ news2day (@news2dayRTE) May 17, 2018
From a longlist of fifteen picture books by debut illustrators, a panel of judges comprising Children’s Laureate and acclaimed illustrator Lauren Child; Francesca Sanna, 2017 Klaus Flugge Prize winner; leading art director Goldy Broad; and Charlotte Colwill, head of children’s books at Foyles, selected a shortlist of five.
The shortlist includes a wide range of subjects, including true stories as well as domestic and magical adventure, while the range of artistic techniques is equally varied. The five books are:
The Night Box, Ashling Lindsay (Egmont)
Written by Louise Greig, editor Melissa Fairley, art editor Tiffany Leeson
My Name is Not Refugee, Kate Milner, (Barrington Stoke)
Editor Emma Hargrave, art editor Julie-Ann Murray
Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover, Markus Motum, (Walker Studio)
Editor Denise Johnstone-Burt, art editor Louise Jackson
The Real Boat, Victoria Semykina, (Templar)
Written by Marina Aromshtam, editors Katie Howarth & Lisa Edwards, art editor Genevieve
Webster and Maya Schleifer
Big Box, Little Box, Edward Underwood (Bloomsbury)
Editor Emma Blackburn
The winner will be revealed at an award ceremony in London on Wednesday 12th September 2018 and will receive a cheque for £5,000.
The shortlist was announced by Lauren Child at a special event at Foyles Charing Cross Road. Before the announcement Lauren discussed her own picture book illustration in front of the live audience with Julia Eccleshare.
Children’s book illustrator Axel Scheffler, best known for his work on Julia Donaldson’s books including The Gruffalo series, was named illustrator of the year.
It is the first time that an illustrator of the year award has been given out at the event, also known as the Nibbies.
Pullman was named author of the year – another new award – to recognise his “outstanding commercial success alongside a genuine contribution to the general health of the book world”, organisers said.
Accepting the award, Pullman said he “couldn’t be more happy with way” La Belle Sauvage – the long-awaited addition to his Dark Materials trilogy – had been received.
Joint winners of Children’s Book of the Year were:
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris (Penguin Random House Children’s)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Walker Books)
Bloomsbury Children’s Books was named Children’s Publisher of the Year.
Publicity Campaign of the Year was won by Rosi Crawley and Emma Draude of ED Public Relations for The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Walker).
The Book Nook in Hove was awarded Children’s Bookseller of the Year.
The first ever official National Poetry Day anthology, Poetry For a Change, is packed with an exciting variety of poems for children by a top team of fantastic poets, including the National Poetry Day Ambassadors, who bring poetry alive all year round.
It includes new poems by Deborah Alma, Joseph Coelho, Sally Crabtree, Jan Dean, Marjorie Lotfi Gill, Chrissie Gittins, Matt Goodfellow, Sophie Herxheimer, Michaela Morgan, Brian Moses, Abigail Parry, Rachel Piercey, Rachel Rooney, Joshua Siegal and Kate Wakeling (winner of the CLiPPA, 2017).
Each featured poet has also chosen a favourite poem to share, providing readers the chance to (re-) discover works by Lola Ridge, Christina Rossetti, W.B. Yeats, Shakespeare and Paul Laurence Dunbar among others at the same time as discovering new and inspirational poems.
Bob Bura, who has died aged 93, was one of Britain’s most prolific animators. Working with his long-time collaborator, John Hardwick, he produced hundreds of films and live-action puppet sequences. Through their pioneering techniques of stop-motion, they brought to life characters in classic children’s television programmes from the 1960s to 80s such as Camberwick Green, Trumpton, Chigley and Captain Pugwash… …
Independent Obit [2004] of colleague John Hardwick
The Explorer – Katherine Rundell
Things a Bright Girl Can Do – Sally Nicholls
Letters from the Lighthouse – Emma Carroll
Sky Song – Abi Elphinstone
A Skinful of Shadows – Frances Hardinge
The 91-Storey Treehouse – Andy Griffiths & illustrated by Terry Denton
We Come Apart – Sarah Crossan & illustrated by Brian Conaghan
The 1000 Year Old Boy – Ross Welford
Nevermoor – Jessica Townsend
Release – Patrick Ness
A Spoonful of Murder – Robin Stevens
The Bolds on Holiday – Julian Clary & illustrated by David Roberts
Where the World Ends – Geraldine McCaughrean
CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK
Fantastically Great Women who Made History – Kate Pankhurst
Lots: The Diversity of Life on Earth– Nicola Davies & illustrated by Emily Sutton
You Choose in Space – Pippa Goodhart & illustrated by Nick Sharratt
Grandad’s Secret Giant – David Litchfield
Katinka’s Tail – Judith Kerr
The Squirrels Who Squabbled – Rachel Bright & illustrated by Jim Field
I Love You, Stick Insect – Chris Naylor-Ballesteros
The Everywhere Bear – Julia Donaldson & illustrated by Rebecca Cobb
The Grotlyn – Benji Davies
Kevin – Rob Biddulph
What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday – Julia Donaldson & illustrated by Lydia Monks
Superbat – Matt Carr
BA president Nic Bottomley and co-chair o f the judging panels told The Bookseller, “This award is unique, in that its shortlist is generated from the opinions of the nation’s independent booksellers – the daily curators of an immense breadth of fiction and non-fiction titles. When a customer walks into a bookshop and asks for a recommendation, they never know what might fall into their hands; it could be a memoir of multiple close scraps with death, a novel set in 18th century Bristol or anything else in between. For myself and the rest of the panel, judging the variety of titles on offer is going to be a challenge, but an absolute joy to be a part of.”
The IBW Book Award judging panels will be chaired by former BA President, Rosamund de la Hey and current BA President Nic Bottomley, and will include Joanna Cannon, author (The Trouble with Goats & Sheep, Three Things About Elsie); Debbie James, The Kibworth Bookshop; Sandy Mahal, UNESCO Nottingham City of Literature; Will Smith, Sam Read Booksellers; Yasmeen Ismail, author and illustrator (I’m A Girl!, Time for Bed, Fred); Wei Ming Kam, author (contributor to The Good Immigrant), blogger; Natasha Radford, Chicken & Frog Bookshop and Tony West, Alligator’s Mouth Bookshop.
The winners of each category will be announced on Friday 15th June, the day before IBW starts.
CLOSING: 9am GMT on Friday 1st June 2018
In partnership with the House of Illustration and the Betjeman Poetry Prize, Lauren Child, Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2017-2019, announces an international illustration competition:
An international illustration prize for illustrators aged 18- 25 years
Illustrate a poem by a Betjeman Poetry Prize finalist
£1000 first prize, plus prizes for commended illustrators
Top 12 illustrators will be commissioned to create further work to be exhibited at St Pancras International station, London, in September 2018
Judges: Lauren Child, award-winning author and illustrator; director of the House of Illustration Colin McKenzie and Imtiaz Dharker, Queen’s Gold Medal winning poet and artist
Competition opens February 1st 2018 and closes 9am GMT on Friday June 1st 2018
HOW TO ENTER
Create an illustration for one poem of your choice from the 12 poems listed HERE
Each illustration entered must be accompanied by the poem title
We require full-page illustrations in black and white. Do not illustrate around the words. The illustrations can be in any medium suitable for reproduction. However, all entries must be appropriate for the dimensions given here: Your illustrations can either bleed off the page or be surrounded by a white border for a trimmed page size of 210 x 297mm (A4)
Original artwork should not be submitted. You should submit your illustration at 150 dpi, Greyscale, JPEG (jpeg setting 8). If you are shortlisted, we will contact you for the master artwork. Master artwork must be a 300dpi Greyscale TIFF
To enter, email your artwork as an attachment to . In the body of the email you should give your name, age, address and a contact telephone number. You MUST state to which poem your illustration corresponds
Pay your entry fee of £15 by PayPal HERE. The email used for the PayPal payment MUST be the same used to send your illustration
Your entry will be confirmed by email once we have received both your payment and your illustration. Original artwork sent by post will not be considered
Artists may enter more than once with a separate entry fee for each illustration
The 12 winning illustrators will be commissioned to create a fresh illustration for the Lauren Child Poetry Illustration Prize exhibition of poems and winning illustrations to be held on the Upper Concourse at St Pancras International, London in September 2018
Read the terms and conditions HERE
Any problems, email
The final deadline for entries to the competition is 9am GMT on Friday 1st June 2018
