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SoA Interview: Jake Hope on the Importance of Children’s Literature

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Following the roaring success of World Book Day, the Society of Authors tracked down one of the masterminds behind this year’s flagship event, Jake Hope, to talk about children’s literature.

Jake Hope is a reading development and children’s book consultant. Impressively, he has judged nearly every major children’s book award in the UK, including the prestigious Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals, the Blue Peter Book Award, the Branford Boase and, most recently, the Costa Children’s Book Award.

Jake has also co-ordinated the Lancashire Book of the Year Award, the longest running regional book award and one of few where young people themselves are empowered to do all the judging – choosing the shortlist in addition to selecting the overall winner.

Jake chairs selection panel meetings for Booktrust’s gifting initiatives and has led promotions for Seven Stories. He is a regular reviewer and commentator on children’s books and edits an online children’s book magazine, The Woodlander.

Jake also organises a wide range of events and activities as part of his career and in his role as a board member for Lancaster Litfest.

See www.bookeventsnow.co.uk for further information or follow @Jake_Hope on Twitter.

The full interview via SoA Interview: Jake Hope on the Importance of Children’s Literature | Society of Authors – Protecting the rights and furthering the interests of authors.

Teen opinion: My top five YA book and music combos

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Teen opinion: My top five YA book and music combos, by Guardian Children’s Books blogger ShadowKissedHannah

Follow the link to the fullpiece for YouTube videos of all the music:

1. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin – No One’s Here To Sleep by Naughty Boy Ft Bastille

When I first heard this song, the first thing I noticed was the haunting, almost sad tone to the lyrics and notes played, but even then this song is quietly powerful and captured me from the first beat. I feel this song links to the UOMD trilogy by Michelle Hodkin as both the trilogy and the song are underlined with desperation and a dumbfounding weight of emotion; the feeling of not being able to escape a fate bigger and badder than you could have ever imagined and realizing that it doesn’t matter how hard you try to hide your feelings or issues, that they’ll always find you in the end.

2. Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead – The Wire by Haim

If you haven’t read the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead yet (shame on you! Joking, but this series is one of my top few favorite series EVER and you all should go and read them right now!), you may want to dodge this recommendation as spoilers! I do not want to be the cause of such a crime as spoiling someone of a book! SPOILERS FROM HERE. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I feel like this song can be heavily linked to the last book in the Vampire Academy series, Last Sacrifice, as I feel like this would be the song Rose would make Adrian listen to instead of her awful excuse of why she cheated on him with Dimitri. I may love Rose and Dimitri together with all my heart, but what she did was wrong and her explanation was not good at all. This song manages to convey all of Rose’s reasoning and emotions about the “I SLEPT WITH DIMITRI WHEN WE WERE STILL TOGETHER BUT I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY FOR ME” section of the book, but it also puts across Roses resilience about how Adrian will find love again and be happy: “I just know I know I know I know that you’re going to be okay anyway”.

3. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare – Run This Town by Jay Z, Rihanna and Kanye West

I love to make fan-videos on youtube and I found the most perfect video using clips from the sadly failing City of Bones film with RTT in the background. Let me just say my fangirl heart soared as the two go perfectly together and ever since that moment I’ve always, and I mean always, related that song to the series. The strong and determined beat of the song and the lyrics (“Feeling it coming in the air, hear their screams from everywhere, I’m addicted to the thrill, of this dangerous love affair. Can’t be scared when it goes down, got a problem tell me now. Only thing what’s on my mind, who’s gonna run this town tonight?”) are both almost a direct translation from the books into song form, and it is obviously one of the most bad-ass songs I’ve ever listened too and never fails to get me pumped up, as if I was going into battle and could do back flips and stuff like that. Obviously I can do all those things now *coughs loudly* but that doesn’t mean I still don’t need awesome songs to help me!

4. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas – Mercy by Hurts

Throne of Glass is one of the best YA fantasy sagas out there at the moment, and is packed with ALL of the feels. Mercy is such an emotive song, and links to Celaena’s character through the lyrics (lead me in chains, fill me with rage) and the conquering beat of the song sounds almost like a battle mantra. This song was yet again found through a fan video (a pretty amazing Teen Wolf one which you should ALL watch) and right from the moment I heard it I knew this song was for only the beautiful and bad-ass- meaning perfect for Celaena!

5. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter – Problem by Natalia Kills

For such an amazing trilogy, Gena Showalter’s White Rabbit Chronicles have hardly any hype surrounding them, which seems terribly unfair as this series is everything you could really want in a paranormal YA, and had me salivating for more as soon as I shut the last page. Ali Bell is a heroine born from grief and a burning vendetta, and learns that to be a bad-ass all you need to do is believe in the power you have inside of you, and never let anybody persuade you otherwise. Of course there is an extremely attractive male specimen who our Ali comes into contact with *sniggers*, and I feel the relationship between said specimen (his name is Cole) and Ali can be described with the lyrics of Natalia Kills’ song Problem. Ali is our good girl who is swayed to the darker side of life through a really bad thing which happens at the start of the book which I won’t explain as, well, spoilers, and Cole’s tempting purple eyes. Ali and Cole are a couple who are very, very hot together, but many others aren’t too sure of their relationship. They’re very problematic and sometimes down right rude to each other, but there’s definitely chemistry, and definitely some other emotions entwined in there.

 

via Teen opinion: My top five YA book and music combos | Children’s books | The Guardian.

Frank Cottrell Boyce: there’s nothing unusual for me about talking to saints

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Jake Hope has been doing some work with students at Brownedge St Mary’s in Bamber Bridge. Their Reading and Writing (RAW) group put together some interview questions for Carnegie medal winning author Frank Cottrell Boyce. Now live on the children’s book site of ‘The Guardian’.

Fabukous set of questions (and of course answers).

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/mar/02/frank-cottrell-boyce-interview-the-astounding-broccoli-boy

Summer Reading Challenge announces 2015 booklist

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This year’s book collection of 71 titles, which reflect the Record Breakers theme and introduce new authors where possible, are selected by children’s librarians, library suppliers and children from books submitted by a wide range of independent and corporate publishers including those from The Reading Agency’s children’s reading partners scheme.

The titles include the World Record edition of Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb’s Paper Dolls, Penny Dreadful is a Record Breaker by Joanna Nadin and 100 Speed Facts by Steve Parker for younger children; and James Patterson’s and Chris Grabenstein’s Kenny Wright Superhero, George’s Secret Key to the Universe _by Lucy & Stephen Hawking and Steve Backshall’s _Bizarre Beasts for older children.

Although children can read any library book towards their Challenge, the annual book collections provide a display focus and a chance to highlight new titles in the busiest time of the year for children’s libraries. Based on the data supplied by 84% of participating authorities, it is estimated that there were more than 18,000,000 children’s library issues in UK libraries during the 2014 Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge.

http://readingagency.org.uk/news/media/summer-reading-challenge-announces-2015-booklist.html

What Kids Are Reading 2015

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What an interesting report this is!


Coverage in the media yesterday made much of the fact that classic fantasy (Tolkien) has fallen out of favour amongst older readers and been displaced by ‘dark dystopia’.
But far more compelling is the data that shows how, in general, this demographic is not being challenged by their reading choices.

Children in the earlier part of their time at primary school are being stretched beyond what would be expected. Children are stretched by a smaller margin each year until Years 4 and 5, where they read at a level broadly equivalent to what would be expected. From Year 6 onwards, children are significantly under-challenged by their chosen reading material.

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In her analysis of the report, The Guardian’s Alison Flood pointed out:

Apart from Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo, in 17th place, every single title in primary-school children’s most-read list was by a male author, while in secondary schools, two Hunger Games titles by Collins, in fourth and 12th place, were the only books by female writers.

The full report is available for download:
http://whatkidsarereading.co.uk/2015/download-the-full-report-2015/

The report, which is produced annually, is written by Keith Topping, Professor of Education at Dundee University, and is published by Renaissance Learning, one of whose products is Accelerated Reader.

Daniel Handler, interviewed about his taste in books in the New York Times

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New York Times

Daniel Handler, interviewed about his taste in books:

What books are currently on your night stand?

As usual, I have three books on my bed-stand: one prose book, one poetry book and one book I’m reading slowly. The first is Forrest Gander’s sad and gritty novel “The Trace”; the poetry is Emily Kendal Frey’s “Sorrow Arrow,” which is sharp and terrific. My slow read is “Even Now,” the selected poems of Hugo Claus — one hardly ever goes wrong with Archipelago Books.

Who is your favorite novelist of all time?

Today I’ll go with William Maxwell: such astonishing generosity of spirit, and a sneaky, near-invisible experimental streak. I’ve read “Time Will Darken It” 10 times, and I’m still not done.

Who are your favorite fiction writers working today?

Haruki Murakami, Mary Robison, Percival Everett, Joy Williams, Alice Munro, Stephen Dixon, Beverly Cleary and various writers I know personally and don’t want to embarrass.

And which children’s book authors do you especially admire? Any you’ve especially enjoyed reading with your son?

Let’s just pause for a moment to light a candle for Zilpha Keatley Snyder, a tremendous writer, recently deceased, who almost single-handedly enchanted my childhood. My son, meanwhile, likes to read to me from Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, a series of historical graphic novels, which works out well: I get to tell him that the K in “William Knox” is silent, and he gets to tell me who William Knox is.

For the full piece: Daniel Handler: By the Book – NYTimes.com.

Give boys screen time and they’ll start to read

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Froma a Guardian Ebooks post by Anna Baddely:

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Research recently published by the National Literacy Trust and educational publisher Pearson shows that among low-income families, technology can be a “more engaging learning tool” for three- to five-year-olds than books. Boys were twice as likely as girls to spend more time with stories on touch screens than printed stories.

Early years are the vital time to get hooked on books. As boys get older, quiet reading takes a back seat to friends, homework, sports and computer games. Children’s author Jeff Norton was himself a “game-obsessed… very reluctant reader” as a youngster. His popular series MetaWars was deliberately conceived to be as immersive and addictive as a video game. Former teacher (and keen gamer)Simon Scarrow’s novels about Roman gladiators Cato and Macro have been wildly successful, and have now inspired a free app game. With the ability to unlock book extracts, it’s a clever way of connecting with reluctant readers.

Tempting boys into fiction isn’t just about building literacy skills for the sake of passing tests: it’s about developing empathy and encouraging escapism. Novels, according to Scarrow, “offer a far greater degree of creative action for a reader and therefore [a] greater sense of immersion”.

via Give boys screen time and they’ll start to read | Books | The Guardian.

Cressida Cowell launches Christmas reading challenge for young readers

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The Reading Agency’s Christmas Mini-Challenge is back for a second year and here’s Cressida Cowell, author of How to Train Your Dragon, to tell you more…

How do I get started?

  1. Head to your local library
  2. Read any three books over the school winter holidays (from 12 December 2014 to 6 January 2015)
  3. Log the books onto your profile on the Reading Challenge website (sign up here)
  4. Claim your prize! A special “virtual badge” to add to your profile, plus a secret reward video message from Cressida Cowell herself!

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/dec/12/cressida-cowell-childrens-christmas-reading-challenge-reading-agency

Barrington Stoke – Information for parents leaflet

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Barrington Stoke, the dyslexia-friendly publisher, has created a new information leaflet for parents, librarians and ‘learning professionals’.  I have been sent several copies of the 4-sided (A4 folded to A5) leaflet and I assume teachers and librarians can request copies by contacting the publisher’s website.

The front of the leaflet shows Barrington Stoke titles, and the second page explains what makes the publisher’s books so dyslexia-friendly, but the remaining two sides of advice are of general interest to all those working with children who don’t take easily to reading.