This weekend’s Guardian Review led with a strange, controversial piece by Leo Benedictus on the current state of Young Adult fiction, notable for its length and its air of behind-cupped-hand secrecy.

Many of the battles around YA books display the worst features of what is sometimes called “cancel culture”. Tweets condemning anyone who even reads an accused book have been shared widely. I have heard about publishers cancelling or altering books, and asking authors to issue apologies, not because either of them believed they ought to apologise, but because they feared the consequences if they didn’t. Some authors feel that it is risky even to talk in public about this subject. “It’s potentially really serious,” says someone I’ll call Alex. “You could get absolutely mobbed.” So I can’t use your real name? “I would be too nervous to say that with my name to it.” None of the big three UK publishing groups, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins or Hachette, was available for comment.

Another author I will call Chris is white, queer and disabled. Chris has generally found the YA community friendly and supportive during a career spanning several books, but something changed when they announced plans for a novel about a character from another culture. Later, Chris would discover that an angry post about the book had appeared anonymously on Tumblr, directing others to their website. At the time, Chris only knew that their blog and email were being flooded with up to 100 abusive messages a day.

The inability to cite sources, and the author’s apparent ignorance that YA had a healthy and vibrant existence as a genre well before “the Harry Potter years”,  seriously undermined the points Benedictus was trying to make, to the extent that I am surprised The Guardian published the piece and gave it such prominence. 

The essay was really about the impact of social media, the blogging community and the atmosphere of fandom on Young Adult publishing. Benedictus cited the dramatic fall-off in YA sales in recent years without properly exploring the relationship between that trajectory and the publishing mood he was describing.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/15/torn-apart-the-vicious-war-over-young-adult-books

Ben O’Donnell (currently head of learning at Discover Children’s Story Centre, and previously primary school programme manager for BookTrust) will be taking over from Anne Sarrag as head of children and young people’s learning at The Reading Agency, where one of his principle roles will be overseeing the annual Summer Reading Challenge, which last year saw a small drop in take-up (8%) compared with 2017.

Information from The Bookseller…

Three exciting and innovative librarians have made it onto to the Honour List for the SLA School Librarian of the Year Award 2019.

Ros Harding
Head Librarian and Archivist at The King’s School Chester (www.kingschester.co.uk,  an independent selective school for 3-18 year olds), Ros Harding contributes in many ways to the life of the school and to the wellbeing of its students and staff.  She was described variously as  “caring, for people but also for the library itself”, “inspiring curiosity” and a “tour de force”.  As well as establishing a School Book Award, Ros is an excellent ambassador of research skills and ensures all aspects of the school to have a place within the library.  She empowers pupils and gives outstanding support and pastoral care.  

Chantal Kelleher
Learning Resource Centre Manager at Herne Bay High School, (www.hernebayhigh.org, an above-average-sized, mixed, non-selective Secondary academy), Chantal Kelleher, is dedicated to developing a whole school approach to reading and information literacy, ensuring the LRC is a vibrant and colourful hub at the centre of the school. From filming staff reciting poems to creating book-filled goody bags for transition students, via the LGBT pupil group she supports and her innovative use of the library to support different departments in the school, it is clear that Chantal has great passion for promoting the LRC with creativity and flair.      

Helen Cleaves
Librarian/Learning Resources Manager at Kingston Grammar School (www.kgs.org.uk, an independent, co-educational day school), Helen Cleaves has an impact which extends well beyond the library doors. From welcoming new staff with a breakfast croissant and liaising closely with pastoral staff through to promoting academic rigour at Head of Department meetings, Helen is utterly committed to ensuring that the library is welcoming, relevant and purposeful. Innovative reading promotions including establishing the school’s first Poet Laureate and regularly producing The Guilty Librarian podcast .

The work of these inspirational librarians will be celebrated at a ceremony  on 27 June 2019 at the at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, Kensington, London Kensington where 2019 YA Book Prize winner Sara Barnard will announce the SLA School Librarian of the Year 2019.

Recently posted out to subscribers, Teen Titles 74 includes features on Jason Reynolds, Alex Wheatle, L J MacWhiret, and Kendare Blake. Plus brief Author Factfiles on Dan Freedman, Paolo Peretti, Sara Shepard, Simon Lelic, Natasha Carthew, Janina Ramirez, Joey Graceffa and Lucy van Smit.

Recommended as always…

For subscription enquiries contact learning.publications@ea.edin.sch.uk

Part of Michelle Martin’s job is being intimately familiar with the wide-ranging canon of children’s literature. As the Beverly Cleary Endowed Professor for Children and Youth Services at the University of Washington’s Information School, she trains future librarians in how to best serve young readers, and as a children’s-book critic, she assesses the craft and messaging of swaths of new additions to children’s literature every year. So when Martin notes that something is mysteriously missing from the genre—that there’s a curious absence in kids’ books where one could argue there shouldn’t be—she’s someone who would know.

In the early 1990s, when Martin was in graduate school, she wrote papers about wilderness-survival stories for kids. Over time, Martin began to notice something: Of all the picture books about children exploring the wild outdoors for fun, only a scarce few feature African American kids as protagonists.

Exploring nature is not some obscure topic in children’s literature. Quite the contrary, children’s literature has a considerable focus on the natural world—on plants and bugs, woods and mountains, animals of every variety. And of the books with this focus, Martin found, the majority of the best-known—from acclaimed older titles such as Owl Moon, Blueberries for Sal, and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt to recent works such as Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? and Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods—are about white kids. A few (such as The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses and The Not-So Great Outdoors) feature protagonists of color who aren’t specifically African American, but broadly speaking, depictions of black kids as small wilderness adventurers are largely absent from the genre. (Similarly, classic young-adult literature about outdoor exploration or wilderness survival is largely white and nonblack; think Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain, Julie of the Wolves, and Dogsong.)

So begins an excellent piece in The Atlantic by Ashley Fetters on the lack of diversity in children’s books about nature.

Highly recommended read:
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/05/the-lack-of-diversity-in-childrens-books-about-nature/590152/

Kate Wilson, founder and MD of Nosy Crow, was featured in The Sunday Times Business section yesterday, following the independent publishing firm’s inclusion in the listing of Britain’s 100 SME’s With Fastest-Growing Overseas Sales. “The children’s book publisher is pursuing Latin American opportunities for its Portuguese and Spanish editions,” the report said.

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?