children's & YA recommendations on the go
The former home of children’s book writer Astrid Lindgren, known internationally for the “Pippi Longstocking” series, is being opened to the public — except for children.
Starting Saturday, the Astrid Lindgren Society is offering guided tours of the Stockholm apartment where Lindgren lived and worked until her death in 2002.
Images of inside the house via ‘Pippi Longstocking’ writer’s home opening to visitors | Daily Mail Online.
The new Foyles Birmingham store opened today (30th September) featuring audio-visual ‘author pods’ reading stories to customers.
In a new move for Foyles, the Birmingham’s Grand Central Station bookshop contains three audio-visual ‘author pods’ and a children’s ‘story pod’ where customers can hear and see best-selling writers read their work aloud.
The first authors to feature in the AV pods, designed by Audionation, will be Simon Schama, Neil Oliver and some of the Man Booker Prize shortlisted authors yet to be announced. Children’s author Michael Rosen will also be performing some of his new poems in the children’s ‘story pod’.
via Foyles Birmingham opens with audio-visual ‘author pods’ | The Bookseller.
Jon Walter, whose debut novel Close To The Wind is ACHUKA’s current hot recommendation, chooses and comments on some great opening sentences in children’s/YA fiction, and has some interesting things to say about his own opening sentence and the role of the editorial process in shaping it.
The boy and the old man arrived at the port at night.
That’s the first line in my debut novel, Close to the Wind, and I’m rather proud of it. The line doesn’t shout out at you, but it does a lot of work establishing the tone of the book and giving you the setting and characters without any fuss.
It’s always difficult to know how to begin a book. Originally, I had a much bolder first line but during an editorial meeting it was suggested I lose it and start with the second line in.
Of course, I objected. I said it was the best line I’d ever written and had taken me months to construct, but I promised I would have a think about it. By the time I arrived back home I knew it would have to go. For a different book it would have been perfect but for this one it just wasn’t right.
An opening sentence should draw the reader from their own head and take them somewhere completely different. It’s the start of a whole new world and for that reason, probably the most important line of any book.
via Top 10 first lines in children’s and teen books | Children’s books | theguardian.com.
A mini UK bookshop boom appears to be under way as a fifth new store opening is announced in a week.
Winstone’s, owned by Wayne Winstone, is to open a second branch in the South West seaside resort of Sidmouth in Devon at the end of this month.
The 860 sq foot store will stock 8,000 titles at its location on the high street and be managed by Carl East, formerly of Waterstones in Exeter.
The news follows the recent opening of the new flagship Foyles branch on London’s Charing Cross Road last weekend (7th June), and the announcements this week that Waterstones will open a branch in Lewes and a Hatchards shop will open in St Pancras Station this summer. Former Borders boss Philip Downer has also revealed he is to open a second branch of Calliope Gifts in Alton, Hampshire, following in the footsteps of his first shop opening in February last year.
Winstone, a former Waterstones employee, currently owns Winstone’s in Sherborne, Dorset, which opened in 2012 and has twice been named the South-west Independent Bookseller of the Year at the Bookseller Industry Awards.
He said he planned to support local writers and societies in his new Sidmouth store, while hoping to raise the profile of books and reading within the town, focusing particularly on children’s literature.
via 'Bookshop boom' under way as Winstone's opens second branch | The Bookseller.
