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Children’s books say: the world is huge. They say: hope counts for something, bravery will matter, wit, empathy, love will matter.

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Katherine Rundell, introducing the five children’s books she thinks every adult should read, says:

The books say: look, this is what bravery looks like. This is what generosity looks like. They tell me, through the medium of wizards and sexy Jesus lions and talking spiders, that this world we live in is a world of people who tell jokes and work and endure. Children’s books say: the world is huge. They say: hope counts for something, bravery will matter, wit, empathy, love will matter. These things may or may not be true. I hope that they are.

She chooses:
The Paddington books by Michael Bond
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
One Dog and His Boy by Eva Ibbotson
Peter Pan by JM Barrie

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/26/story-time-five-children-s-books-everyone-should-read-katherine-rundell

Dan Metcalf On Notebooks

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Dan Metcalf, author of the Lottie Lipton Adventures series, is today’s contributor to An Awfully Big Blog Adventure.

He sings the Song of the Notebook, “the bedrock of the writing profession”:

Digital pretenders try to usurp the throne of the mighty notebook; the elephantine Evernote – the social Pinterest – the humble blog. None can take the place of the battered book in my pocket, waiting to be folded, felt, fondled, to be torn, scribbled on and abused. The tactility of the notebook its USP. An individual feel which can not be replaced.

Two Book Deal For Brighton Based Illustrator

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Brighton-based illustrator, Alice McKinley, who completed her MA at Cambridge School of Art last year, has signed a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster, to include the previously optioned picture book Nine Lives Newton.  

S&S editorial director Helen Mackenzie Smith told The Bookseller: “From the moment that we spotted the blissfully carefree canine, Newton, at her degree show last year, we knew that we wanted to work with the fabulously talented Alice McKinley. We are so proud to be publishing her debut picture book here at Simon & Schuster.”

Alice McKinley’s blog: https://mckalice-illustration.tumblr.com
Alice McKinley’s Insta: https://www.instagram.com/mckalice/

Boston Globe and Horn Book Awards 2019

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First presented in 1967 and customarily announced in June, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are among the most prestigious honors in the field of children’s and young adult literature. Winners are selected in three categories: Picture Book, Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction. Two Honor Books may be named in each category. The winning titles must be published in the United States but they may be written or illustrated by citizens of any country. The awards are chosen by an independent panel of three judges who are annually appointed by the Editor of the Horn Book.

This year’s winners:

Fiction & Poetry
 
Amazon
The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon (Lamb/Random House)
Honor Books: Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (Dial/Penguin Random House); On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

Amazon
 
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy (Bloomsbury)
Honor Books: Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Graphix/Scholastic); Nine Months: Before a Baby Is Born by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Jason Chin (Porter/Holiday House)

Picture Book

Amazon
 
The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd (Candlewick)
Honor Books: Dreamers by Yuyi Morales (Porter/Holiday House); We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frané Lessac (Charlesbridge)

All previous winners >>>

Newbery And Caldecott 2019 – VERY Belatedly

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I am shocked to discover that I omitted to report on the the Newbery and Caldecott winners at the time of the announcement this year.

Let me put that right!

The 2019 Newbery winner was Merci Suárez Changes Gears, written by Meg Medina, published by Candlewick Press…

Amazon

There were also two Honor books:
The Night Diary, written by Veera Hiranandani and published by Kokila
The Book of Boy, written by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, illustrated by Ian Schoenherr, and published by Greenwillow Books

The 2019 Caldecott winner was Hello Lighthouse, illustrated and written by Sophie Blackall, published by Little, Brown…

Waterstones

There were also four Honor books:
Alma and How She Got Her Name, illustrated and written by Juana Martinez-Neal, published by Candlewick Press
A Big Mooncake for Little Star, illustrated and written by Grace Lin, published by Little, Brown
The Rough Patch, illustrated and written by Brian Lies, published by Greenwillow Books
Thank You, Omu!, illustrated and written by Oge Mora, published by Little, Brown 

Look how Little Brown maxed out in the Newbery this year, publishing the winning title as well as two of the four Honor books.

Hot Key Signs Carnegie Winner In Three Book Deal

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The Bookseller reports that Bonnier imprint Hot Key has signed Elizabeth Acevedo (winner of this year’s Carnegie Medal) in a six-figure three-book 3-book deal, consisting of:

  1. Avedcodo’s first prose novel, With The Fire On High, pulblished in the US in May this year – Hot Key will publish this title in September (2019)
  2. Clap When You Land, a new novel in verse, will be published simultaneously in May 20120.
  3. A thirs, as yet untitled novel, will follow in 2021.

 

2019 UKLA Book Award Winners

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The UKLA Book Awards are the only awards to be judged entirely by teachers. The awards are presented to books that are considered to “enhance all aspects of literacy learning”.  The judging process ensures teachers are able to share the books with their classes and discover what genuinely works with young readers in each of the three age categories. Judgements are therefore soundly based on pupil response.   

For an unprecedented second year in a row the 3-6 category has been won by Morag Hood. She said “I am so honoured that I Am Bat has been chosen as the winner, and to win for the second time is just incredible! What better accolade than from the teachers who know and understand children the most. It fills me with joy to know that my little bat is being used in classrooms and, I hope, helping to encourage a life-long love of reading.” 

Equally unprecedented was the fact that the judges, after intense debate, decided to award a Highly Commended in each of the three age categories to books that were very different but equally valuable and too good not to be specially recognised. So the Newbery Medal winning After the Fall by Dan Santat has been Highly Commended in the 3-6 category with S.E Durrant’s Running On Empty in the 7-11 and Carnegie medal winning Elizabeth Acevado’s verse novel The Poet X in the 12-16. 

This has been a triumphant year for poetry. Indeed, the verse novel Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds won the 12-16 category, while The Explorer by Katherine Rundell took the 7-11 category.  

The 2019 awards were presented at a special ceremony on July 12th at the UKLA International Conference, Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University. Student teachers from 20 universities around the UK take part in Shadowing the awards and read and use the shortlisted books on teaching practice in schools before having their own online vote to select their own winners. Mini Grey‘s The Last Wolf was the 3-6 winner and S.E Durrant’ Running on Empty won the 7-11 student vote too. The National Education Union sponsors  student shadowers to attend the conference and they also announced and presented their awards at the ceremony.

10 teachers nominated from the 58 involved in the shortlisting, who came from Midlands region around Sheffield, formed the final judging panel and had the challenging task of reading all the shortlisted books in all three age categories, which meant nursery teachers reading fiction for teenagers and secondary teachers reading picture books.

Research carried out by members of UKLA (Cremin et al 2008) clearly demonstrated the links between teachers’ knowledge of children’s books and the likelihood of pupils becoming successful readers. Despite this evidence, teachers are seldom given time to read new books or funding to purchase them when they do.

 

The Shortlists in full

3-6

After the Fall written and illustrated by Dan Santat (Andersen Press)

The Last Wolf written and illustrated by Mini Grey (Jonathan Cape)

Bob’s Blue Period written and illustrated by Marion Deuchars  (Laurence King)

Stardust written by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Briony May Smith (Nosy Crow)

The Big Book of the Blue written and illustrated by Yuval Zommer (Thames & Hudson)

I Am Bat written and illustrated by Morag Hood (Two Hoots)

7-11

The Explorer written by Katherine Rundell illustrated by Hannah Horn (Bloomsbury)

Running on Empty written by S. E. Durrant illustrated by Rob Biddulph (Nosy Crow)

Sky Dancer written by Gill Lewis (Oxford)

The Wild Robot written and illustrated by Peter Brown (Piccadilly)

The Murderer’s Ape written and illustrated by Jakob Wegelius. Translated by Peter Graves (Pushkin Press)

Kick written by Mitch Johnson (Usborne Publishing)

12-16 

Moonrise written by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury)

The Poet X written by Elizabeth Acevedo (Egmont Electric Monkey)

Long Way Down written by Jason Reynolds and illustrated by Chris Priestley (Faber)

Piglettes written and translated by Clémentine Beauvais (Pushkin Press)

After the Fire written by Will Hill (Usborne Publishing)

Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein written and illustrated by Lita Judge (Wren & Rook)

 

https://ukla.org/awards/ukla-book-award

Reading Is Magic Says New Children’s Laureate, Cressida Cowell

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Writer and illustrator, Cressida Cowell, who has just been appointed the eleventh Children’s Laureate, in succession to Lauren Child (with whom she was best friends at school), was born in London but spent most summers on Little Colonsay, a remote uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland owned by her father, an hereditary peer and prominent environmentalist, who was at various times Chairman of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew and the RSPB.  “The house [in Scotland] was lit by candle-light, and there was no telephone or television, so I spent a lot of time drawing and writing stories,” she remembers.

Cowell read English at Keble College, Oxford and studied illustration at Brighton University.

She has a track record of being heavily involved with campaigns to get children reading. In 2014 she launched a Christmas Reading Challenge for the Reading Agency. In 2015 she was one of the key participants in a huge World Book Day event held in Preston North End Stadium.  In 2016 she had a spell as BookTrust Writer-in-Residence.

Cressida Cowell’s own books require no special campaigning on their behalf.  Her titles regularly appear in lists of bestselling children’s books.

The Cressida Cowell Waterstones Children’s Laureate Charter:

 

PRH Summer Party 2019

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Most invitations these days (to launches, awards and other events) are sent via email attachments. But there remain a few special ones for which an invitation through the post is still de rigueur and one of those is the annual PenguinRandomHouse Summer Party.

The venue had been chosen to tie in with Puffin’s new emphasis on non-fiction. Francesca Dow dwelt on this in her speech…

and guests were sent away with a copy of the recently published On The Origin Of The Species as retold and illustrated by Sabina Radeva.

Not only was the venue thematically apt, it was also a wonderful open-air setting for a summer evening party, and one in which it was always easy to hear conversations.

As ever there were lots of people there I would have liked to speak with but didn’t manage to… not least of whom was Nicholas Allan, whose recently announced The Queen’s Knickers Award has attracted much debate on Twitter. As the award is being introduced under the auspices of the Society of Authors I cannot imagine that there was not a good deal of discussion regarding its naming before the announcement was made, and the amusing spectacle of some illustrators declaring that they would not want to be associated with an award that has ‘knickers’ in its title was, I can imagine, entirely anticipated.

Nicholas Allan, with back to camera – I am not good at interrupting people in mid-conversation and he was busy throughout the evening

As ever it was a delight to catch up with the O’Hara sisters (check out Hortense and the Shadow and The Bandit Queen if you’re not already familiar with this special and very talented pair). I was privileged to be shown a hot-off-the-press smuggled-in copy of Madame Badobedah, which Lauren O’Hara has illustrated for Sophie Dahl, a picture book that will be a highlight of this coming Autumn. The book is coming from Walker Books not PRH, hence the sense of secrecy 🙂

It’s always a pleasure at these events to bump into people who have a special energy and creativity just buzzing out of their pores, and such was the case with Marta Kissi (an illustrator friend of Lauren’s) and her partner James Lancett.

Marta illustrates the Mummy Fairy and Me series (written by Sophie Kinsella) for Puffin, and James is an animator as well as an illustrator. Follow both Marta and James on Instagram:
Marta: https://www.instagram.com/kissikissi_illustration/
James: https://www.instagram.com/jimek_draws/

And here is one of James Lancett’s animations:

For a flavour of the evening see the snaps gallery below (click an image to bring up slideshow):

CLIPPA 2019 Winner

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The winner of the CLiPPA 2019 Award is Steven Camden for his debut collection Everything All At Once

The award, now in its 17th year and managed by CLPE, was announced and presented at a special Poetry Show (attended by shadowing schools) held at the National Theatre on this afternoon, 3rd July.

For details of the shortlist see this previous post…