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Branford Boase Award 2021 Winner

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Struan Murray is the winner of the 2021 Branford Boase Award for the year’s outstanding debut novel for children for  Orphans of the Tide.

Set in the last city of a drowned world, the book opens with a dead whale washing in with the tide, only for a living boy to climb out. The City’s religious authorities believe his body to house The Enemy, the god they hold responsible for putting the world in its watery grave but Ellie, a young inventor, is convinced he’s innocent. The award is shared with Murray’s editor, Ben Horslen, of Puffin.

The announcement was made by Liz Hyder on Thursday 15 July as part of a public event presented by the LoveReading LitFest. The event featured contributions from all the shortlisted authors plus previous winners and culminated in a discussion with Struan Murray and his editor Ben Horslen.  Struan Murray received a cheque for £1,000 and both author and editor were given engraved trophies.

The 2021 shortlist was particularly strong. Described as ‘a showcase for all that children’s literature can be’ it featured powerful contemporary stories, a wildly energetic comedy adventure, an ‘own voices’ novel starring a young girl with autism, a dark story of witches and witchcraft in the 17th century, and the first verse novel to feature in the award’s history. Orphans of the Tide was the only fantasy adventure on the list and impressed all the judges with its originality and the beauty of its writing.

The full shortlist consisted of:

  • When Life Gives You Mangoes
    by Kereen Getten, edited by Sarah Odedina (Pushkin Children’s Books)
  • Witch
    by Finbar Hawkins, edited by Fiona Kennedy (Zephyr)
  • And the Stars Were Burning Brightly
    by Danielle Jawando, edited by Jane Griffiths (Simon and Schuster)
  • A Kind of Spark
    by Elle McNicoll, edited by Eishar Brar (Knights Of)
  • Run, Rebel
    by Manjeet Mann, edited by Carmen McCullough (Penguin)
  • Orphans of the Tide
    by Struan Murray, edited by Ben Horslen, illustrated by Manuel Sumberac (Puffin)
  • The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates
    by Jenny Pearson, edited by Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker, illustrated by Rob Biddulph (Usborne)

Judge Liz Hyder, author of Bearmouth and winner of the 2020 Branford Boase Award winner said of Orphans of the Tide, ‘This book utterly stole my heart. Exquisitely written, it’s a phenomenal page-turner with characters that leap off the page and straight into your imagination. Orphans of the Tideexplores lots of big themes – environmental issues, friendship and xenophobia to name but a few – all wrapped up in an utterly compelling tale told by a master storyteller. Struan is an exceptional talent and I can’t wait to read everything else he ever writes.’

Struan Murray said, ‘I am so honoured and thrilled to have won the Branford Boase Award. This award is extremely special as it celebrates not only the author but the editor too, and understands and recognises that writing is a collaborative process that wouldn’t be possible without the commitment, imagination and skill of the editor. Working with Ben has stretched me as a writer and his insight contributed so much to the world of Orphans of the Tide that I couldn’t imagine it without him.’

Ben Horslen commented: ‘The author-editor relationship lies at the very heart of our industry, and to have an award that celebrates and showcases that relationship is a very special thing indeed. To be nominated is a career highlight that every editor hopes for. To win is simply a dream come true.’

This year’s judges were:

  • Zoey Dixon, YLG Librarian of the Year 2020
  • Scott Evans, teacher, consultant and founder of TheReaderTeacher.com
  • Natasha Radford of Chicken and Frog bookshop, Brentwood
  • Liz Hyder, author of Bearmouth, winner of the 2020 Branford Boase Award.

The panel was chaired, as usual, by Julia Eccleshare, children’s director of the Hay Festival.

The Branford Boase Award is supported by Walker Books.

Founded in 2000, the Branford Boase Award was set up in memory of award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase of Walker Books, who both died in 1999, and is unique in honouring editor as well as author. It is regarded as one of the most important awards in children’s books and has an impressive record in picking out star authors at the start of their careers. Previous winners include Meg Rosoff, Mal Peet, Siobhan Dowd, Marcus Sedgwick, M.G. Leonard and Frances Hardinge. Winning editors shape contemporary children’s literature and include J K Rowling’s editor Barry Cunningham, Philip Pullman’s editor David Fickling and Fiona Kennedy, publisher of Michelle Paver, Marcus Sedgwick and Sally Gardner.

 

 

 

 

Branford Boase Award Shortlist Announced

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The shortlist for the 2021 Branford Boase Award has just been announced:

  • When Life Gives You Mangoes
    by Kereen Getten, edited by Sarah Odedina (Pushkin Children’s Books)
  • Witch
    by Finbar Hawkins, edited by Fiona Kennedy (Zephyr)
  • And the Stars Were Burning Brightly
    by Danielle Jawando, edited by Jane Griffiths (Simon and Schuster)
  • A Kind of Spark
    by Elle McNicoll, edited by Eishar Brar (Knights Of)
  • Run, Rebel
    by Manjeet Mann, edited by Carmen McCullough (Penguin)
  • Orphans of the Tide
    by Struan Murray, edited by Ben Horslen, illustrated by Manuel Sumberac (Puffin)
  • The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates
    by Jenny Pearson, edited by Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker, illustrated by Rob Biddulph (Usborne)

 

The judges are:

  • Zoey Dixon, YLG Librarian of the Year 2020
  • Scott Evans, teacher, consultant and founder of TheReaderTeacher.com
  • Natasha Radford of Chicken and Frog bookshop, Brentwood
  • Liz Hyder, author of Bearmouth, winner of the 2020 Branford Boase Award.

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

Julia Eccleshare, co-founder of award and chair of the judges says, “The range of stories and voices on this year’s shortlist is thrilling. Each year the Branford Boase Award highlights the most exciting new talent and most gifted editors, and it regularly identifies changes in the direction of fiction for children. These seven books showcase all that children’s fiction can be. Here are stories that explain and provoke; reassure and challenge; that present the world through different eyes, or make us recognise what we knew but didn’t understand; and, of course, they entertain, all readers, and on repeated readings.”

The winner of the Branford Boase Award will be announced on Thursday 15 July. The winning author receives a cheque for £1,000 and both author and editor receive an inscribed plaque.

Death Of Richard Jackson, Judy Blume Editor

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The death of, Richard Jackson, a significant children’s books editor and champion of Young Adult themes has been announced:

Richard Jackson, an editor who published books by Judy Blume, Paula Fox, Virginia Hamilton and other award-winning authors that broadened the scope of children’s literature, then late in life became a children’s author himself, died on Oct. 2 in Towson, Md. He was 84.

…His work as an editor beginning in the 1960s that changed the landscape of literature for young people. At a time when many people still thought of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries as the height of sophistication for young readers, he published authors who wrote about bullying, race, sexuality, adolescent angst of all kinds.

He often found himself defending the books he published against complaints from librarians, school boards and parents who deemed them too strong. 

Of publishing Judy Blume, Jackson said, “I felt her voice was so extraordinarily pure, I just couldn’t worry that we were going to raise hackles… There’s always someone to be offended. But it was never to raise hackles that we published her. It was the voice, and the absence of adult regret, instruction or nostalgia in those novels. She turns them over to the kids, over to the characters.”

More >>> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/books/richard-jackson-dead.html
Updated full-length obit. >>> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/books/richard-jackson-dead.html?smid=tw-nytobits&smtyp=cur

Odedina moves to Pushkin Children’s Books

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bookseller

Sarah Odedina, former m.d. of Hot Key Books and children’s publisher at Oneworld, has been appointed to the new role of editor-at-large of Pushkin Children’s Books.

Odedina will acquire and edit up to six titles per year for Pushkin Children’s Books.

Pushkin publisher and managing director, Adam Freudenheim, said Odedina was “undoubtedly one of the great children’s editors in the UK.”

He said: "In less than three years since its launch Pushkin Children’s Books has become a major part of our entire publishing programme. I’m a huge admirer of Sarah’s editorial nous and look forward to seeing what gems she brings to the Pushkin Children’s list which we look to grow even further in the coming years."

via Odedina moves to Pushkin | The Bookseller.

A Visit to David Fickling Books, Oxford

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david01

Hardly was I through the door to David Fickling’s office than he was up from his desk eager to share with me some special preview boxes for a forthcoming illustrated project that he is particularly excited about.

Fickling is the kind of editor who exudes excitement for all his enterprises of course, but he did appear to be particularly animated on behalf of this one, the details of which I am sworn to secrecy about, except to say that I was shown and heard enough about the concept to say that I am just as excited to see the project’s eventual fruition, which is not likely to be before the later part of 2016.

The boxed preview editions are being lovingly produced and assembled by hand with the express view of becoming collectors’ items and having a value of their own in the future, but their primary purpose is to interest foreign publishers to buy into and extend the print run.

There had been a longstanding open invitation to me to visit the offices of David Fickling Books ever since it had been established as a Random House imprint based in Oxford over twelve years ago. It is now a fully independent publisher, working out of the same Beaumont Street offices, with its sister company The Phoenix just a couple of doors away.

For a publisher of such influence and renown, with an annual lecture named after him, Fickling’s Wikipedia entry is woefully inadequate. But for all his larger-than-life, booming-voice, bow-tied presence, self-promotion and self-perpetuation do not really interest him, although he is very keen to leave behind a legacy and to create an enterprise that will have longevity.

He likes to consider himself a merchant – someone who is producing fine artefacts, and bringing them to market. And he wants the David Fickling books logo to be a stamp of enduring quality.

He is unabashed about the involvement of several family members in the publishing team. We joke about how he might be one of those publishers who retain an association with the firm well into old age, regularly turning up at the office into his nineties, keeping an eye on how the younger generations are steering things along.

Now in his sixties, there is little sign of him taking things easy. The only indication I saw of his age was some tentative mobility on the steep flight of stairs down to the basement offices, from where, amongst other things, orders from the online shop are processed and dispatched.

david03

If an author is published by DFB, all that author’s works are available to buy from the DFB shop, even if published by a rival firm.

We spoke quite a bit about his early days at OUP, working alongside Ron Heapy for whom there is no Wikipedia entry at all and about whom Fickling speaks just as warmly as everyone I have ever met who was associated with him. [I remember James Riordan, in particular, being more eager to speak about Heapy than himself when I interviewed him for the TES over lunch at Arundel.]

Fickling still has on his office shelves many of the poetry anthologies from the 1980s that he worked on at OUP (including one illustrated by a fledgling Nick Sharratt, hired by Fickling) and says that poetry is something he is keen for DFB to feature prominently on its list. He is proud of having published a sumptuous edition of Wayland by Tony Mitton, illustrated by John Lawrence (and winner of last year’s CLiPPA Poetry Award). Taking a copy from the shelf, unperturbed by my confession that I had not enjoyed it as much as Mitton’s earlier, more lyrical work, he proceeds to read aloud several stanzas.

But if there is one subject that energises Fickling beyond all others it is that of comics. “We have lost them all,” he laments. “All bar The Beano.”

He sees this as one of the great tragedies of children’s reading over the last few decades, and is why he is so pleased that The Phoenix, successor to the DFC, a comic launched by Fickling seven years ago, is, now under the editorship of Fickling’s son, Tom, proving to be viable with a steadily growing subscriber list.

phoenix

The cover price of £2.99 seemed somewhat steep for a weekly comic when it launched in 2012, but now seems perfectly reasonable – The Beano is £2.20.

I am taken two doors down the street to The Phoenix’s domain, and the atmosphere there is electric. Three of the most recent copies are thrust into my hand and I’m shown a mind-boggling grid mapping out features against weekly editions, as well as various illustrations and home-made copies sent in by readers.

phoenix01

Amongst the editorial, illustrating and writing team in the back room is novelist John Dickinson (son of Peter Dickinson), author of the futuristic SF novel WE, whose official role with the comic is Chief Finance Officer, but also writes some of the strips.

At the time of my visit there were Five Golden Keys to be found in order to SAVE the Phoenix from Doom. The finder of each key gets a feature page. Two of them had already been discovered, so two such features were included in the issues I took away.

phoenix02

The comic has a a regular format with weekly features such as the Phoenix Phictionary, a FanFare page featuring contributed artwork, and Phoenix Soup – a double spread that includes a Q&A with one of the writers or illustrators, a book recommendation and more. There’s a great variety of comic strips which come and go through different sequences of editions (hence the need for the complicated planning grid).

phoenix03

In issue 186 Dark Lloyd (a strip based on Jamie Thomson’s The Dark Lord novels) returned having been last seen in issue 170. I particularly liked Pow!, an almost wordless strip by Alexander Matthews that reappeared in issue 185 after an absence of nine weeks. As a regular reader one of the excitements about getting a new issue must be to see which strips are continuing, have returned or are taking a rest.

As David led me out of The Phoenix offices and back along the street he stopped beside the specially commissioned stone engraving by Bernard Johnson which stands in place of a brass nameplate.

david02

When I got back to my car there was a note on the windscreen which read “Please don’t use my parking space again.” I cannot have followed Rosie Fickling’s directions to the unmarked secret parking space correctly, so my apologies to the disgruntled resident.

Q&A: Kids Can Press senior editor and author Stacey Roderick – Quill and Quire

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Ever wondered what it’s like to (temporarily) hang up your editor’s hat and write your own book? To have it published by your employer? We asked Kids Can Press senior editor Stacey Roderick, whose first picture book, Dinosaurs from Head to Tail (illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya), was released by Kids Can in March.

You’ve been editing children’s books for almost 15 years, but (other than collaborating on Centsibility in 2008), haven’t really ventured into author territory. What prompted you to write a picture book now? It is something I’ve always wanted to do – I have a lot of story fragments sitting in a file on my computer. And now that I have a young son, I spend even more time reading picture books than I did before. But to be honest, I’m not sure I would have dared try it if the opportunity hadn’t presented itself through my development work as an editor.

For the full interview: Q&A: Kids Can Press senior editor and author Stacey Roderick – Quill and Quire.

Her Stinging Critiques Propel Young Adult Best Sellers – Julie Strauss-Gabel Profile

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A really excellent profile of Dutton YA editor, Julie Strauss-Gabel.
Reading the whole piece is highly recommended…

New York Times

In the cosseted world of children’s book publishing, getting an editorial letter from Ms. Strauss-Gabel, the publisher of Dutton Children’s Books, is the literary equivalent of winning a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. It virtually guarantees critical or commercial success, and often brings both.

She doesn’t hand out many of them. “I am naturally exceedingly picky,” she said. “If I’m not in love with someone’s writing at the sentence level, then I’m not going to sign up the book.”

Her knack for spotting and developing talent is apparent on this week’s New York Times young adult best-seller list, where novels that she edited hold five of the top 10 spots. She has edited 22 New York Times best sellers.

With her stable of blockbuster writers, Ms. Strauss-Gabel has become one of the most influential players driving and shaping a surge in young adult fiction, a shift that is not only transforming the publishing industry but changing American reading habits.

via Her Stinging Critiques Propel Young Adult Best Sellers – NYTimes.com.

The value of personal curation in a reference book, by Daniel Hahn

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Daniel Hahn tells us why, in the interent age, there is still a place for good reference books…

Basic information is easy to come by. Reference books need to do more, these days, than merely tell you that Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain and published in the US in 1885. There aren’t many people who would turn to a reference book for that kind of information, I think.

So they need to be full of colour and full of stories – did you know that Huckleberry Finn was meant to be published in the US in 1884, but was delayed because a disgruntled engraver tampered with the plates, adding a penis to one of the illustrations so publication had to be postponed while it was removed? – but it also needs, I think, an editorial voice.

In the Wikipedia age, reference books should embrace the fact that they have a kind of personal curation, that the entries on writers aren’t merely bibliographic lists but a kind of assessment, too, that they are evaluative, editorialised. (I hope there are also a handful of good jokes, perhaps.)

So my Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature often doesn’t merely tell you which books an author wrote when and what they’re about (though that’s important, too, and accuracy is vital), but how they fit together, and which works are the most accomplished, and what the flaws are, and who are the other writers in the same chain of influence; who I think is amazing but underrated, who produces work that may be massively best-selling but is also desperately derivative.

via Children's literature: How I wrestled with Gruffalos and Huck Finn and put together a new guide to the genre – Reviews – Books – The Independent.