children's & YA recommendations on the go
reviewed by Kitty Empire
Generalising loosely, you could group these books for the 8-12 age group into three species: the coochie-coo tendency, the exotic wing and those books where animals slot into a wider human story. As far as literature goes, the coochie-coo tendency is probably the least enduring.
via Fiction for older children – reviews | Books | The Observer.
For those who can access it, here is the link to Nicolette Jones’s summer roundup of children’s books from the Sunday Times:
Nicolette Jones picks the children’s books — fun, zany or just plain gripping — that will keep the young ones entertained throughout the holidays
Rebecca Davies has announced that she will be posting items regularly to a children’s books blog on The Independent. Her announcement includes a call for review suggestions…
Welcome to the Independent’s brand new children’s book blog! If you’re 16 or under and love a good story, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’re a parent, teacher or anyone else with an interest in children’s reading, this is for you too. And if you’re an aspiring children’s writer or illustrator, there’ll be plenty for you as well – including the chance to see your work reviewed in this blog.
If you’re looking for a good children’s book to get stuck into, check back once a week for my ‘recommended reads’. I’ll be covering new releases and old favourites, including picture books, adventure stories, teen fiction and much, much more. I might even go all modern and review the odd storytelling app.
Once a month I’ll reserve my recommendation slot for a brilliant children’s book that I feel hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves.
via Introducing: The Children’s Book Blog | Rebecca Davies | Independent Arts Blogs.
The UK’s outgoing Children’s Laureate:
BRITAIN’S failure to value children’s literature may be an indication that Britons do not value their children, according to Julia Donaldson, the outgoing children’s laureate.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Donaldson, whose best-known book The Gruffalo has sold millions of copies worldwide, said: “Children’s literature deserves the same respect as adult literature.
“I do feel very strongly in this country that not much store is set by children’s books by the media.
“Is it because we don’t value children? Yes, that does seem likely. In other countries it’s a very different story.”
Although children’s books account for nearly a quarter of all book sales in Britain, Donaldson, whose term of office ends on Tuesday, said less than a fiftieth of review space in printed newspapers was dedicated to them.
via Britain gives its kids a Gruff deal, says laureate | The Sunday Times.
The new edition of Teen Titles (Issue #56) was posted out to subscribers this week.
There are interviews with Damian Dibben (author of The History Keeprs), Philip Caveney (author of Crow Boy), Clare McFall (author of Ferryman), Moira Young (author of Blood Red Road) as well as all the usual reviews and additions to the Author Factfiles.
Interested in subscribing? Click here
Margaret Sullivan, on a New York Times Public Editor’s Journal, explores the non-system behind selecting books for review:
I often hear from Times readers who are puzzled, and sometimes annoyed, that a single book is getting so much attention when other worthy books get no notice at all. It can seem odd, especially when two reviews appear within days of each other.
I talked to Scott Heller, theater and books editor, about the frequent duplication and the amount of attention sometimes heaped on one author. He explained that The Times’s three staff book critics — Michiko Kakutani, Janet Maslin and Dwight Garner — make their own decisions about what to review. They do so without regard to, or knowledge of, what the editors of the Sunday Book Review, a separate entity, may have assigned or have planned. The Book Review has its own editor and staff.
via On Book Reviews, Authors and 'the Hat Trick' | The Public Editor – NYTimes.com.
It is worth reading the comments, which are almost universally critical of the systemless system described. What do you think?
