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Lollies [Funny Book] Shortlist 2017

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Picture Book shortlist

The Prince of Pants
The Prince of Pants

 

Eat Your People!
Eat Your People!

 

Danny McGee Drinks the Sea
Danny McGee Drinks the Sea

 

Oi Dog!
Oi Dog!

 

6-8 years shortlist

Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms
Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms

 

Eddy Stone and the Epic Holiday Mash-Up
Eddy Stone and the Epic Holiday Mash-Up

 

Thimble Monkey Superstar
Thimble Monkey Superstar

 

Hamish and the Neverpeople
Hamish and the Neverpeople

 

9-13 years shortlist

AniMalcolm
AniMalcolm

I Don't Like Poetry
I Don’t Like Poetry

The Best Medicine
The Best Medicine

My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord
My Gym Teacher is an Alien O

The shortlist was judged by Michael Rosen, children’s novelist, poet and former Children’s Laureate, and a panel, consisting of CBBC presenter Katie Thistleton and The Sunday Times’ Children’s Books Editor, Nicolette Jones.

Voting on the shortlists is now open and closes on 8th December.

Winners will be announced in January 2018.

via Lollies home – Scholastic Shop.

Andy Griffiths: a feature from Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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When Andy Griffiths was teaching high school students in Mildura in the late 1980s, he was struck by how different their experience of reading was from his own. In his youth, books were omnipresent, and were wild, fun places to be—an escape from the adult word of logic.

In my experience as a child I loved being a little bit scared and I loved a good story. There are very few kids that can resist the lure of both of those.
ANDY GRIFFITHS, AUTHOR
But many of the kids at his school had never had a good experience with a book. Books were for nerds, they told him, and to be avoided at all costs.

‘I wanted to turn my class around,’ he tells Sunday Extra.

‘I started writing down silly little stories, provocative stories, about bums growing arms and legs and running away. And they laughed … “This is cool, sir! Can I write a story like that?” I said, “Yeah! And I’ll photocopy them and we’ll put them in a book in the library and look, you’ve just become authors.”

‘They had this sudden organic connection to words and stories and got the idea that you’re actually entertaining an audience.’

A quarter of a century later, Griffiths is one of Australia’s best-known children’s authors, having sold more than five million copies of his books around the world. The stories about bums growing arms and legs turned into a three-part series with increasingly silly titles—The Day My Bum Went Psycho, Zombie Bums from Uranus, and Bumageddon: The Final Pongflict—and even an animated TV series.

via Andy Griffiths: from crafting outlandish lyrics to writing ‘funny stuff for kids’ – Sunday Extra – ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Roald Dahl Funny Prize killed off by Dahl Estate

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Was shocked to read all the tweeets about this yesterday, and in particular the veyr strange explanation given by the Dahl estate…

ACHUKA will give full support to any new event/prize organised by Michael Rosen (see below) :

guardiansmall

Rosen, who is also professor of children’s literature at Goldsmith’s University, where he gave his first lecture on humour in children’s books, said he was now planning to set up an event celebrating funny books, which would also look at how to get the award up and running again. “The issue with prizes is money – you need a sponsor, and a secretariat to run the thing,” said Rosen. “So the event is now my plan, and if by chance off the back of it some friendly sponsor comes along, I’ll be up for it.”

The bestselling writer stressed the importance of funny literature in getting children reading. “We keep talking about ‘reading for pleasure’ – it’s almost official government policy … A substantial part of that for young children is reading funny books … They’re a bridge to enable children to be confident with the written word,” he said.

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According to Rosen, “we rarely talk about laughter. We’re northern Europeans – we shouldn’t laugh too much unless we fart. There is a reserve. And there are worries about children laughing hysterically, because they’re ‘out of control’.”

via Roald Dahl Funny prize for children's books is closed down | Books | The Guardian.

Philip Ardagh: I can’t help writing funny. It’s true. Funny chose me

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Philip Ardagh interviewed for the Guardian by members of the Imagine children’s festival “ideas cloud”:

guardiansmall

Literature did wonders for my early vocabulary By the age of five, I was writing couplets that featured the word “alas”. I suppose I had a way of speaking that was not always suitable for my age. It made me stand out at school – and not in a good way.

School can be hell I was bullied from the age of seven, and I had to share a classroom with the main bully, my nemesis, for the next nine years. I was made fun of, stabbed with pencils in the back. It was all pretty unpleasant, and made me very anxious, very scared. I didn’t talk about it to anyone, I didn’t ask for help; I just thought that this was what life was. I coped by reading; books were a window to another world.

via Philip Ardagh: I can’t help writing funny. It’s true. Funny chose me | Children’s books | The Guardian.

R.L. Stine’s Secret to Scaring the Crap Out of Kids

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Interview with R. L. Stine ahead of a busy month:

DailyBeast

October is a busy month for R.L. Stine.

The author behind the blockbuster Goosebumps and Fear Street book series—pulpy horror novels that became points of obsession for a generation of kids just learning that reading can be fun—has become expectedly accustomed to being associated with the ghouls, spooks, and scares of Halloween season.

“And then in November, they forget about me,” he jokes.

Not that, at least in this particular October, Stine isn’t a bit complicit in his in-demand status. The best-selling author—to the tune of over 400 million copies sold since his first Fear Street book in 1989—is busy promoting the return of his Emmy-winning TV series Saturday on The Hub network, The Haunting Hour: The Series, and just released the first new Fear Street book since ending the series in 1995.

via R.L. Stine’s Secret to Scaring the Crap Out of Kids – The Daily Beast.

Vicky Allan looks back at the Edinburgh children’s books programme

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Vicky Allan, for the Herald, looks back on the children’s and young adult programme of the recently concluded Edinburgh International Book Festival:

The children’s book festival is a testimony to a vibrant sector of the book industry. Earlier this year The Bookseller reported that the pre-school and picture books genre has grown every year since 2001. Janet Smyth, director of the book festival’s children’s programme, says that almost all pre-school events sell out. Smyth believes that is partly "because parents are really quite keen on the whole reading together thing". But also because many of these events feature singing and "make and do". Julia Donaldson has long been reeling in audiences with this kind of show, but almost as big a lure was Kristina Stephenson, author of Sir Charlie Stinky Socks, a writer-illustrator who Smyth describes as "a show-maker who packs them out, and entertains the little ones with singing and dancing".

Sometimes it seems as if the ideal children’s book festival event is some kind of kid-friendly gesamtkunstwerk involving singing, talking, reading, drawing, and possibly glue. James Mayhew, the illustrator in residence, is also a musician who dresses up as Van Gogh. Aidan Moffat, formerly of the band Arab Strap, presented his rhyming tale of The Lavender Blue Dress, while the young audience busied themselves creating a dress design. I can see why words are not enough. My kids get restless after more than a few minutes of just talking. After 10, they’re hunting around inside my handbag for entertainment.

Smyth has also observed that this year more people are moving from different art forms into children’s literature. Since David Walliams became the new Roald Dahl, it seems that many a comedian has turned his or her talent to children’s books. Among those at this year’s Book Festival were Mackenzie Crook, Catherine (Catie) Wilkins and David O’Doherty. The connection works for two reasons. One: they’re often famous, which helps sales. Two: they’re funny. And, as Roald Dahl once said of children’s writing, "It’s got to be funny."

via Rallying call for greater diversity | Herald Scotland.

My inspiration: Jeremy Strong on Spike Milligan

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Jeremy Strong has just published his 100th book:

The author of My Dad’s Got an Alligator and The Hundred Mile an Hour Dog explains why author and script-writer Spike Milligan is to blame for everything silly in his books!

via My inspiration: Jeremy Strong on Spike Milligan | Children’s books | theguardian.com.

As a child one of the books I kept dipping into was the Faber Book of Nonsense. It was full of delightfully silly stuff by the likes of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. Evidently my interest in humour began at an early age. In the 1950s, when I was aged aged six-10 or so, my family didn’t have a television so we listened to the radio a lot. My parents loved the funny programmes and one of them – The Goon Show – really caught my imagination.

It was so ridiculously silly. The man who wrote The Goon Show was Spike Milligan and when I was a bit older I discovered he wrote for children. Silly Verse for Kids, and Badjelly the Witch were two such books and in them I found that same, very silly, utterly crazy humour, so if you read one of my books and find yourself thinking “that is SO stupid!”, you can blame Spike Milligan. He was a comic genius who used not just words but sound effects too and often accompanied his poems with daft drawings, as in A Book of Milliganimals. He pushed away any barriers surrounding humour and made almost anything possible.

Times Review – Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers by John Dougherty

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Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers by John Dougherty, reviewed by Alex O’Connell

Dougherty is very funny and I like an adventure that has a natter with itself, a postmodern novel for tweens if you will. Thankfully — due to Dougherty’s clever storytelling and lightness of touch — you don’t need to be Terry Eagleton to appreciate it.

via Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers by John Dougherty | The Times.