I stumbled on this video on the National Trust website – TV producer, Stephen Moss, explaining why he believes children need outdoor play.
It has had only a little over 1000 views in a year and deserves wider broadcast.
The Carnegie Medal – Can children have their prize back please?
In a controversial blog post that already has (at the time of posting) 13 replies, Shoo Rayner asks (with reference to the Carnegie Medal) “Can children have their prize back please?”
The Carnegie Medal is not given to writers of books for children anymore. The prize has lost its way, caught up in the glamour of hollywood – for that is what Young Adult publishing is really about and also the main attraction for writers of Young Adult fiction.
We seem unable to see children as children anymore and want them to grow up as soon as possible, to witness and learn stuff way beyond their years. The grown ups do their best to stay teenagers, so they are indistinguishable from the young adults.
Children are children – always have been and always will be. When they stop being children, they want to be adults and will want to read books for adults to find out how to be one. Reading Young Adult books only teaches them to stay young adults for the rest of their lives, just like their parents!
Young adults need to grow up to be adults.
Children need to be allowed to be children.
Can children have their prize back please?
Book doctor: Are childrens books darker than they used to be? | Childrens books | guardian.co.uk
Have children’s book stopped being entertaining adventures and become more about issues than they used to be? Julia Eccleshare responds.
The quote is only a snippet – read the full reply by following the link.
Currently, imaginary dystopias are replacing familiar fictional backgrounds of historical upheaval such as the French Revolution or the second world war as places where children are forced into managing their own lives. These are not darker places than their historical precursors and, like them, they provide a space where children, especially todays much-watched children, can tackle demons, take risks and grow up.
via Book doctor: Are childrens books darker than they used to be? | Childrens books | guardian.co.uk.
Michael Rosen on Education
Michael Rosen sums up where the UK education system is at… Grainy video, but worth your time.
Are celebrity kids’ books bad for literature?
A considered piece in The Scotsman on the topic of celbrity-authored children’s books:
Donaldson, one of the country’s bestselling authors and the third most borrowed writer from the UK’s libraries last year, is not surprised Lampard struggled. “Writing for children is not easy. In some ways children are probably harder to please than adults and there are so many excellent children’s writers out there who in terms of style, plot and characterisation are just as good as any writer for adults. Maybe if there was more serious coverage and analysis of children’s books by expert reviewers, instead of just the little round-ups you usually get in the papers which mention plots lines or just say (something such as) ‘buy this book if your son likes football,’ then it might be taken more seriously. People wouldn’t think it was so easy. That’s not to say that just because someone is famous they can’t necessarily write a good children’s book. David Walliams is a great example, but he (was already) a script-writer and not just a celebrity who’s asked to write a book,” she concludes.
Walliams’ stories certainly seem to have captured the hearts of the literati as well as those of small children across the land. “His books now sell phenomenally well, from Ratburger to Mr Stink and The Boy in the Dress, and win prizes too,” says Charlotte Williams, who reports on children’s news for The Bookseller magazine. “I think that Walliams’ success shows that titles by a celebrity can work best when they are authentic and quirky, rather than being treated as being seen to be a means to boost a celebrity’s profile.”
But Williams recognises there’s a growing demand within the industry for celebrity authors for financial reasons above all else. “There has been a real trend towards celebrity publishing over recent years, and I think publishers always keep one eye open for sports or showbiz stars that might appeal to children or their parents. If the fit is right, then the potential for sales is huge,” she says. “Also, as the retail environment has got tougher for books, publishers are looking for more ways to connect authors and readers themselves. If the author is already well known, with lots of followers on social media and a natural performer at school or festival events, then that can be a big help.”
via Are celebrity kids’ books bad for literature? – Features – Scotsman.com.
Blackman will not be a quiet laureate
Not my paper of choice, but Martin Chilton, Culture Editor for the Telegraph Online, writes some good pieces and his coverage yesterday of Malorie Blackman’s appointment as Children’s Laureate was a good example.
When we spoke at the Telegraph Hay Festival last week, she joked that she remembers when the cry “there’s a black person on the telly” would have had her family running down the stairs to check out this rare phenomenon. “There were so few black role models on TV. That’s why I loathe Gone With The Wind. In the 1970s TV shows black people were often just slaves or criminals.”
One exception was Nichelle Nichol, who played Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in Star Trek. Blackman relates, with great respect, the story of how Nichol was treated badly and wanted to leave the series but was persuaded to stay so she could continue presenting a strong image of a black officer. The man who persuaded her was Martin Luther King. Blackman, incidentally, has remained a Star Trek fanatic (she has a replica uniform and raves about Benedict Cumberbatch in the new film).
As well as being extremely well-read – 15,000 books are crammed throughout her home – she has a popular touch and exudes a natural empathy with children and teenagers. This sense of knowing how difficult life can be for teenagers is also what makes her such an interesting choice for Laureate.
She has no time for the “demonisation” of young people and describes the lack of youth facilities and poor employment prospects for many teenagers as “scandalous”. Blackman will not be a quiet Laureate.
Black characters put parents off books, new Children’s Laureate says
The 51-year-old author of the Noughts & Crosses teenage book series vowed to use her two-year tenure to “bang the drum” for diversity, saying it was vital for young people to learn about different cultures.
“Children will go with any story as long as its good but white adults sometimes think that if a black child’s on the cover it is perhaps not for them,” she said.
“Books teach children to see the world through the eyes of others and empathise with others. It’s about the story.”
Blackman, a London-born author whose parents came to Britain from Barbados, said there was a distinct lack of black and Asian children in picture books.
She said that when she was younger, she never once read a book that featured a black child, which left her feeling “totally invisible”.
via Black characters put parents off books, new Children’s Laureate says – Telegraph.
Children’s laureate Malorie Blackman – video interview
Author Malorie Blackman is announced as the new children’s laureate, taking over from Julia Donaldson for the next two years. Three competition winners ask her questions submitted to the Guardian’s children’s books site, including what she intends to do as laureate; how to encourage reading; how to avoid writers’ block; and her recipe for a brilliant book
via Children’s laureate Malorie Blackman – video interview | Children’s books | guardian.co.uk.
Go to the link to watch the 8-minute video.
And, Hooray for Malorie!
Guardian Review
Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, reviewed by Simon Mason
Simon Mason quite likes this ‘dotty’ novel. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it when I read it, and felt it somehow missed being a great read. I shall be interested to see what children make of it…
Katherine Rundell’s charmingly lyrical style is dotty in the way Charles is dotty. In the London section she seems interested mainly in conversations, which have a high quota of witticism (wearing a skirt, Sophie looks as if she’s "mugged a librarian") and aphorisms (lawyers have all "the decency and courage of lavatory paper"). In general, her metaphors are determinedly original. Such verbal showiness, though entertaining, has the disadvantage of showing up the misses as well as the successes, and in the early stages the story has the contrived manner, but not the solidly exciting matter, of a fairytale.
This changes the moment Sophie climbs up through the skylight in her Parisian hotel bedroom to the rooftop above. All her life she has been a keen tree-climber, drawn to heights. Now, standing above the city, she is liberated – and the story is liberated with her. Almost immediately she realises she’s not alone up there. A feral boy called Matteo lives on the roof of the law courts, and the drama of his encounter with Sophie and their subsequent partnership is thrilling. The roof-top world is grittily real, the stuff of broken toes and roasted rat and howling gales. Breaking away from Charles’s protection, Sophie finally expresses the Pippi Longstocking-like wilfulness only coyly hinted at before. Even the showy metaphors thin out. There’s a gripping journey of exploration, an extraordinary feast and a tremendous fight between Sophie, Matteo and their tree-dwelling friends and a wolf-like pack of boys from the station area.
via Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell – review | Books | The Guardian.
Husband-wife team launch Zoobean to make searching for kids books smarter
Zoobean launched [yesterday] to make it easier for parents to find books that are the most relevant for their children.
Zoobean is a curated catalog of children’s books. Every book on the site is recommended by parents and categorized using “common sense” tags. Parents can search for books that explore specific themes, like bullying, the death of a pet, or magic as well as browse by age group, character background, or genre.
Zoobean was founded by a husband-and-wife duo who both built a carer in education. Felix Brandon Lloyd was named a Washington, D.C., Teacher of the Year for 2000-2001. He went on to build and sell a platform called Skill-Life that taught children about financial literary through online games. Jordan Lloyd Bookey is a former teacher who also directed a DC-based nonprofit supporting literacy efforts in low-income neighborhoods and is the outgoing head of Google’s K-12 Education Outreach.
via Husband-wife team launch Zoobean to make searching for kids books smarter | VentureBeat.