Costa Book Awards 2012 Shortlist

Maggot Moon

by Sally Gardner, Julian Crouch

The Seeing

by Diana Hendry

What's Up with Jody Barton?

by Hayley Long

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

by Dave Shelton

See link below

http://blog.waterstones.com/2012/11/costa-book-awards-shortlists-announced-2/

Quentin Blake wins the Eleanor Farjeon Award 2012

We're delighted to announce that the winner of the 2012 Eleanor Farjeon Award is Quentin Blake!

We had so many incredible and inspirational nominees, who between them do so much for the world of children's literature, but we're sure you'll agree that Quentin Blake is a very worthy winner.

Thank you to everyone who came and made the evening such a success, and especially to our wonderful speakers, Shirley Hughes, Anne Harvey, and Emma Chichester Clark, who accepted the award for Quentin so brilliantly. We were also delighted that so many past recipients of the award could join us.

As usual, the Eleanor Farjeon award is the last event in our social calendar, so that's it for us for 2012, our 50th birthday year. Please renew your membership for 2013, to join in with all the fantastic events we've got planned!

Hachette Launch Top Picture Books in Digital Format

HACHETTE CHILDREN’S BOOKS PUBLISH TOP PICTURE BOOKS
FOR DIGITAL AUDIENCE

Hachette Children’s Books announce its picture books are to be available as eBooks from Monday 26^th November 2012.

Hachette Children’s Books will publish 21 of their top picture books in digital format, priced at £3.99 and available today from Amazon and Apple.

The initial launch list of 21 titles will focus on top selling authors and brands, including Giles Andreae, David Melling, John Hegley, Rainbow Magic, Beast Quest and the Jane Ray Christmas picture book, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Further picture book titles will publish in digital format going forward.

Andy Sharp, Group Rights and Digital Director, comments: “At Hachette Children’s Books we are recognised for excellence in picture book publishing, so we’re delighted to publish these books to our ever-growing digital audience. The launch titles are some of the best from our list and their new digital format forms a fantastic showcase for our authors and brands.”

The titles chosen to launch the digital list have a wide range of appeal; they include titles from Hachette Children’s Books bestselling and evergreen authors, David Melling and Giles Andreae.

David Melling has sold 1 million + of his picture books throughout the UK, whilst his latest creation, Hugless Douglas has been translated into 22 languages.  Four of Melling’s picture books will publish in digital format, including the classic The Kiss That Missed.

Giles Andreae is the creator of Purple Ronnie and The Interesting Thoughts of Edward Monkton, as well as the creator of many internationally acclaimed picture books. He is the country’s top selling living poet. Three of Andreae’s titles will publish in digital format, including the top ten 2012 title, I Love My Daddy.

For further information or to request a review copy please contact
Fritha Lindqvist, Head of Publicity for Hachette Children’s Books,
at fritha.lindqvist@hachettechildrens.co.uk or tel. 020 7053 6656

Notes to Editor:

·         Hachette Children’s Books is one of the most successful children’s publishers in the UK, with an excellent track record in creating bestselling and award winning books for children of all ages and interests. For further information please see http://www.hachettelivre.co.uk/Publishers/hachettechildrens

·         The 21 picture books to publish in eBook format on 22^nd November 2012 are as follows:
The Kiss That Missed by David Melling            

Good Knight Sleep Tight by David Melling      

Hugless Douglas by David Melling    

Don’t Worry Hugless Douglas by David Melling            

Stanley's Stick by John Hegley and Neal Layton

Wanted: The Perfect Pet by Fiona Roberton

Beast Quest: The Complete Book of Beasts by Adam Blade        

Rainbow Magic: The Complete Book of Fairies by Daisy Meadows           

I love My Daddy by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd

I Love My Mummy by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd

Mad About Minibeasts! by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz

Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe

Emergency by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe

Zoom Rocket Zoom by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe

Stomp Dinosaur Stomp by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe

Choo Choo Clickety Clack by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe

Boy by James Mayhew       

Ella Bella Ballerina and the Sleeping Beauty by James Mayhew 

Ella Bella Ballerina and Cinderella by James Mayhew  

Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan Lake by James Mayhew  

The Twelve Days of Christmas, illustrated by Jane Ray

·         Review copies available. Please provide Apple iTunes email account to receive your review copy

·         Book jacket and inside images are available on request

·         For further information, please contact Fritha Lindqvist, Head of Publicity for Hachette Children’s Books, at fritha.lindqvist@hachettechildrens.co.uk or tel. 020 7053 6656

Book Week Scotland is nearly here!

Book Week Scotland, Scotland's first national celebration of books and reading, is taking place from 26 Nov - 2 Dec. The inaugural programme is packed with fantastic events, projects, and opportunities for people of all ages, interests and reading abilities, to celebrate books and reading.

Scottish Book Trust has worked with partners across the country to create a diverse series of events with some of Scotland’s best-loved authors including Iain Banks in Loch Leven, Val McDermid in Orkney, Debi Gliori in Carnoustie, Janice Galloway in Benbecula, Christopher Brookmyre in Greenock and Vivian French in Glenrothes.

Highlights of the week include:

• A pack of three free picture books by leading Scottish authors for all Primary 1 schoolchildren in Scotland.
• A pop-up festival at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow featuring authors such as Iain M Banks, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Mairi Hedderwick and illustrator-in-residence John Fardell who will be creating a marvellous Mitchell inspired mural. Aspiring teen authors can attend the Young Writers Conferenceand get practical advice from established authors, playwrights, poets and performers. In the evening there is an exciting programme for adults including: Charles Jencks on art and life; Liz Lochhead and Aidan Moffat celebrating My Favourite Place; Sci-fi legends Iain M Banks and Ken McLeod; a writing masterclass with Alan Bissett; and Literary Death Match comes to the Mitchell!
• A great book giveaway – more than 150,000 free copies of My Favourite Place, a collection of stories and poems written by the people of Scotland in association with BBC Radio Scotland.
• A national Reading Hour on St Andrew’s Day to encourage everyone to take the time to read.
• Celebrations in schools including an Authors Live Poetry Slam with Lemn Sissay and other poets, broadcast live to all secondary schools in Scotland.
• The League of Extraordinary Book Lovers – a band of book loving volunteers, aged from five to 75 who will save the nation from boredom by making reading recommendations throughout the week. Tweet @bookweekscot or email theleague@scottishbooktrust.com for book-related info!

Initiated and funded by the Scottish Government, Book Week Scotland will be delivered on behalf of Creative Scotland by Scottish Book Trust, the leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing in Scotland.

Find out more at bookweekscotland.com.

Quentin Blake wins the Eleanor Farjeon Award!

CHILDREN'S BOOK CIRCLE

We're delighted to announce that the winner of the 2012 Eleanor Farjeon Award is Quentin Blake! We had so many incredible and inspirational nominees, who between them do so much for the world of children's literature, but we're sure you'll agree that Quentin Blake is a very worthy winner. Thank you to everyone who came and made the evening such a success, and especially to our wonderful speakers, Shirley Hughes, Anne Harvey, and Emma Chichester Clark, who accepted the award for Quentin so brilliantly. We were also delighted that so many past recipients of the award could join us. As usual, the Eleanor Farjeon award is the last event in our social calendar, so that's it for us for 2012, our 50th birthday year. Please renew your membership for 2013 to join in with all the fantastic events we've got planned!

Children's Book Circle Celebrating 50 years of passion for children's literature  Website: www . childrensbookcircle . org . uk  Email: childrensbookcircle@gmail.com Twitter @ChildBookCircle

Robert Winston wins the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2012

Robert Winston’s Science Experiments scoops books prize

Robert Winston’s Science Experiments, a book packed with fun, exciting and often explosive experiments young people can do at home, has won the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2012. 

The book, Science Experiments by Robert Winston and Ian Graham and published by Dorling Kindersley, was chosen from a shortlist of six by over 1000 young people from 120 schools and youth groups around the UK:

The 1st Strathpeffer Brownies said: “This book was inspirational - the best science book we've seen. It is eye catching, filled with great pictures and vivid colours. This book caused a storm at our meeting - loads of excited chatter, interesting facts and a real eagerness to get experimenting.”

The panel from Queen Victoria School Dunblane said: “It was like a Recipe book for Science with loads on the menu!”

Aria (8) from Kew Green Preparatory School said: “Wow, I never knew you could get electricity from lemons.”

The shortlist from which the young people chose a winner was selected by an expert adult judging panel, made up of Professor Andrea Brand FMedSci FRS (Chair), Inventor-in-residence at the Science Museum Mark Champkins, BBC science presenter Greg Foot, science teacher Dr Anna Parrish and Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow Dr Angela Taylor.  When selecting the book, they said:

“This brilliant book contains clear instructions for loads of great experiments, from things that you can try yourself (without getting in trouble from your parents), to spectacular tricks to try with adults present.  Lots of books on experiments cover the same old ground, but this book goes way beyond the usual content and contains plenty of experiments that we’d never seen before.”

The prize was awarded at a ceremony at the Royal Society in London on the evening of Thursday 15^thNovember. The book wins an award of £10,000 and the shortlisted books each receive £1000.

This is the second time that Professor Robert Winston has won the prize (having previously succeeded in 2005 with What Makes Me Me?).  Upon accepting the prize, Professor Winston said:

“It is fantastic that this prize has been won by Science Experiments.  But I really want to congratulate the Royal Society on holding the prize, particularly for young people, because it seems to me that it is ever more important that we communicate science to everybody in society.  So this prize - and prize money - will go towards the Reach Out Lab at Imperial College, where we bring children of all ages into the college and they do science experiments with a background of maths to improve science literacy.”

Awarding the prize, Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said:

“The childhoods of many great scientists in history are littered with experiments in kitchens, backgardens, parks and beaches.  These explorations of the world allowed countless extraordinary minds to discover the joy and excitement of science and, occasionally, to make a mess.  This year’s winner, Robert Winston’sScience Experiments, is a brilliant book that can help many young people to reach this febrile ground where our future Nobel prize-winners may develop.  I am also delighted that Professor Winston has chosen to donate the prize to Reach Out Labs, which will help more young people to experience the real, exciting world of scientific research.”

The Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize did not take place in 2009 - 2010 due to funding issues but from 2011 the Prize is offered thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

More information about the prize can be found at:

http://royalsociety.org/awards/young-people

For further information contact:

Alice Henchley

Press and Public Relations

The Royal Society, London

Tel: 020 7451 2514

Email: alice.henchley@royalsociety.org

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1.      Book synopses and jacket cover images plus author and judge biographies and photographs are available on request from the Royal Society press office.

2.      The Royal Society is the UK’s national academy of science.  Founded in 1660, the Society has three roles, as a provider of independent scientific advice, as a learned Society, and as a funding agency. Our expertise is embodied in the Fellowship, which is made up of the finest scientists from the UK and beyond.  

For further information on the Royal Society please visit royalsociety.org. Follow the Royal Society on Twitter at http://twitter.com/royalsociety or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/theroyalsociety. 

3.      The judges on the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize panel this year who selected the six shortlisted books are:

o       Professor Andrea Brand FMedSci FRS (Chair) is Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and a member of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.  Her research looks into the development of the nervous system.

o       Mark Champkins is the Inventor-in-residence at the Science Museum in London. He appeared onDragon’s Den in 2007, receiving investment from Peter Jones.

o       Greg Foot is a BBC science presenter, most recently seen on BBC3 giving away The Secrets of Everything.

o       Dr Anna Parrish is a science teacher at Coloma Convent Girls School in Croydon.

o       Dr Angela Taylor  is a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow and Research Fellow at St Peter's College, University of Oxford.  Her research is currently exploring remnants of the Big Bang in space.

4.      The shortlist for this year’s prize was made up of::

o       How the Weather Works, by Christiane Dorion, illustrated by Beverley Young (Templar Publishing)

o       Out of this world: All the cool bits about space, by Clive Gifford (Buster Books)

o       Plagues, pox and pestilence, by Richard Platt, illustrated by John Kelly (Kingfisher)

o       Science Experiments, by Robert Winston and Ian Graham (Dorling Kindersley)

o       See Inside Inventions: An Usborne Flap Book, by Alex Frith, illustrated by Colin King (Usborne)

o       The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins, illustrated by Dave McKean (Bantam Press)

Alice Henchley
Deputy Head of Media Relations

The Magical Kingdom of Illustrations

1-12 December 2012, Hong Kong.

Illustrationcupboard in association with Two Blue Eggs is delighted to present its inaugural exhibition in China.

Hosted at Identity Gallery in Hong Kong we warmly welcome all our friends and collectors to join us on Saturday 1 December for a glittering opening night reception.

We also welcome you to extend our invitation to all who may be interested or should wish to attend this event.

We look forward to seeing you in Hong Kong, December 2012.

Further detail below:

“The Magical Kingdom of Illustrations” 

1 – 15 December 2012 
Identity Art Gallery 
53 Tung St, Sheung Wan 
Hong Kong 

Illustrationcupboard Gallery (London) and Two Blue Eggs (Hong Kong) are delighted to present an innovative and truly inspirational exhibition of original artwork that celebrates the fantastic, skilled and imaginative world of contemporary book illustration. 

Featuring many of the world’s leading artists in this field this exhibition will introduce a fascinating array of talents including world-famous names such as Maurice Sendak, Anthony Browne, Brian Wildsmith, Shirley Hughes and Dick Bruna to a rising stars such as Bruce Ingman and Alexis Deacon. 

Over sixty works representing over twenty artists will be featured in this event that is set to enthral both adults and children alike. Entrance is free, and families are most welcome to attend. All artwork will be offered for purchase and a broad range of prices starting at HK$8,000. 

This exhibition has been organised by Illustrationcupboard (London) and Two Blue Eggs (Hong Kong). 

OPENING PRIVATE VIEW NIGHT: Evening private view reception with refreshments on Saturday 1 December 5.00pm onwards. 

Artwork and media enquiries to Two Blue Eggs (HK) twoblueggs@gmail.com +852 9720 8078 
John Huddy (London) john@illustrationcupboard.com, +44 (0)207 976 1727 

Illustrationcupboard Gallery is a unique central London art gallery exhibiting original artwork by modern and contemporary book illustrators and filmmaker's from around the world. With exhibition space on three floors, this central London gallery displays a constant and revolving programme throughout the year of single artists shows, guest exhibitions from around the world, specialist events, author signings and family afternoons. 

John Huddy, founder of Illustrationcupboard, says “We are privileged to exhibit such world-class original artwork and offer collectors and fans the opportunity to invest in some of the most unique and talented artists of modern times. Despite the current economic climate, the market for illustration has never been better and the value of such works is only growing.” Original artwork is offered for a price to suit all pockets, limited artist edition prints, and signed books are also available at the gallery or through special request. 
Twitter: @illustrationcup 
YouTube/illustrationcupboard Facebook.com/Illustrationcupboard 

Two Blue Eggs is a passion project dedicated to marketing and promoting artists, collections and exhibitions of children’s book illustrations. This inaugural show in Hong Kong establishes a platform for book illustrators to exhibit their works in this cosmopolitan Asian city and supports the dynamic and collectable field of original illustrations. 

Seven Stories - The National Centre for Children's Books!

Seven Stories has been given approval by Arts Council England to be formally recognised as the National Centre for Children’s Books. 

Seven Stories has gained this status in recognition of the national significance of our work to protect and celebrate children’s literature. It recognises that we hold and are building a collection of national significance and international interest, that we provide excellent engagement, learning opportunities through our exhibitions, displays, events and learning programmes, and through the expertise that we provide to researchers, other museums, galleries and collections. 
 
Through our National status we will endeavour to meet the expectations and responsibilities that it brings us, playing a leading role in saving, celebrating and sharing our nation’s rich literary heritage for children. It does not bring additional funding, so support from our friends that helps us to continue to give children’s literature a National home, bringing it to life for thousands of children, will be important in the years to come.

Our current fundraising challenge aims to raise funds to support the 3 As that are central to our work: 

A is for acquisitions

In order to grow our extraordinary Collection, so that it represents the best of British children’s literature and saves archives that are in danger of being lost to our nation’s heritage, we need to build our acquisitions fund.

A is for access
We want our Collection to inspire children, young people and future generations to love reading and to realise their own creative potential. Our exhibitions and learning programmes inspire and excite children about books and reading – we want to reach more children, especially those who are disadvantaged or who have special educational needs.  

A is for achievement 

We want to invest in our learning services so that we can meet the needs of more schools and help to bridge the aspiration gap that still persists in many parts of our region. 

Our goal is to raise at least £160,000 over the next two years.  Every £ we raise will be matched £ for £ through an Arts Council England grant scheme that is helping us, and organisations like us, to raise more funding from philanthropy. In other words every £ we raise will be doubled through this grant.

If you are able to help us to develop our Collection, to take advantage of the matched funding opportunity or to help us to build our funds in any other way, please let me know or contact amanda.beckham@sevenstories.org.uk

 .
 
Kate Edwards
Chief Executive

Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2012: Book Trust

Dark Lord eliminates comic competition by seizing the Roald Dahl Funny Prize for 2012

Also stomping to victory is a picture book about toddler tantrums which grabs the Prize for the six and under age category

A book about a dark lord who unwillingly inhabits the body of a chubby teenager has cast its evil spell over this year’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize judges. Dark Lord: Teenage Years by Brighton-based games developer Jamie Thomson, conquered competition from books by David Walliams and Olympics Ceremony scriptwriter and award-winning author Frank Cottrell Boyce to seize the winners prize for the funniest book for children aged seven to fourteen. The book, which centres on the trials of Dirk Lloyd in his bid to be taken seriously as an evil force on Earth and to return home to his reign of terror, is the first of a new series by Thomson and the first book for illustration undergraduate Freya Hartas.

Equally terrifying is a book about a toddler terrorising her mother and everybody around her with her tantrums. My Big Shouting Day by Cambridge based author/illustrator Rebecca Patterson has stomped its way to victory in the six and under category, beating award-winning illustrators, including Oliver Jeffers. Parents up and down the country will find much to laugh (and perhaps cry) about in this book which finds its humour in the terrible twos. The book follows Bella, a toddler who is having a particularly bad day, finding something to shout about in every activity.

The winning books are:

Funniest book for children aged six and under: My Big Shouting Day by Rebecca Patterson (Random House Children’s Books, Jonathan Cape)

Funniest book for children aged seven to fourteen: Dark Lord: Teenage Years by Jamie Thomson, illustrated by Freya Hartas (Hachette Children’s Books, Orchard Books)

Broadcaster and Roald Dahl Funny Prize judge Mel Giedroyc comments:
‘It's been a sheer honour and joy for me to be on the judging panel for the 2012 Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Dark Lord: Teenage Years is a worthy winner - it's funny-clever as well as funny-silly, which in my book is the best combination. I say "in my book", I don't mean that I had a book in the shortlist. That would be very unfair, to be judging books, one of which I'd actually written. Let me just make that clear, that did not happen. Long
live comedy and funny books - they give you crows' feet but they reassure you that life is worth living!!’

Both winners will receive £2,500, which will be presented at an awards ceremony at the Unicorn Theatre in London today, Tuesday 6 November. This year is the fifth year of the Prize which celebrates the funniest books for children.

The adult panel of judges for this year’s Prize comprised: author and Chair of Judges Michael Rosen; broadcaster and comedian Mel Giedroyc; author and journalist Lucy Mangan; author, illustrator and winner of the 2011 seven to fourteen category Liz Pichon; and illustrator and author Ed Vere.

Journalist and author Lucy Mangan on My Big Shouting Day: ‘What can I say? It just made me laugh and laugh. Who HASN'T had - or, if you're a wretched grown up who is supposed to keep control of herself at all times, at least WANTED to have - a big shouting day? Who HASN'T just wanted to go to pieces when faced with 'the TERRIBLE EGG' or toothpaste that is just TOO minty? And then it has the lovely ending, when our heroine is exhausted and overcome with remorse but wakes up to a better day tomorrow.’

Lucy on being a Roald Dahl Funny Prize judge:  ‘I was very scared of being a judge at first, and not just because I am a little bit frightened of Michael Rosen (he is too tall and you can always hear his brain fizzing) but because I didn't know how to go about it. But once I got stuck into all the lovely, lovely books that arrived, everything got easier and I started to enjoy myself very much. Good luck to whoever gets this brilliant job next year!’

Chair of Judges and author of Fantastic Mr Dahl, Michael Rosen comments on Dark Lord: Teenage Years: ‘This is a wonderfully absurd take on beings from another planet or another world and like all books with this theme it makes us think about how odd and crazy we are.
The book also makes us do several 'double-takes' as we find ourselves asking whether this Dark Lord is a boy's imagination or if he's really from outer space. Winners of this Prize have to give us a great concept, laughs throughout and a great twist at the end, which does indeed come with an excellent reversal of expectations which I couldn't possibly divulge. Just be prepared to be reversed! And be warned, the word 'Goth' will never be the same again.’ 

Michael on the fifth year of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize:  ‘I'm very proud of the fact that this is the fifth year of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, an award I cooked up when I was Children's Laureate in order to celebrate books that make children laugh. That's five years worth of books which are written with fun and enjoyment in mind. We know that reading for pleasure is an engine for attainment and achievement in all walks of life. Children, parents, teachers, librarians and all concerned with reading can find a rich vein of books for all ages in the back lists of this Prize, and this year's shortlists and winners are engaging, fascinating and above all, very funny.’

This year’s Prize saw schools across the country involved in the judging process. Over 500 pupils from across the UK were selected to read the shortlisted titles, discuss with their classmates, and pick their favourite funny book in the relevant category for their age. Their votes were combined with the votes of the adult judging panel to find the two winners for 2012. Classes from Hawkes Farm Primary School and Hitherfield Primary attended the awards ceremony, with Hawkes Farm pupils giving a special performance based on scenes from Michael Rosen’s biography Fantastic Mr Dahl.

The 2012 Roald Dahl Funny Prize shortlists were: The Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under:

The Baby that Roared by Simon Puttock, illustrated by Nadia Shireen (Nosy Crow) My Big Shouting Day by Rebecca Patterson (Random House Children’s Books, Jonathan Cape) Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton (Walker Books) The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle (Templar) Stuck by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books) The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie (Simon & Schuster)

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen: 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce, illustrated by Joe Berger (Macmillan Children’s Books) Dark Lord: Teenage Years by Jamie Thomson, illustrated by Freya Hartas (Hachette Children’s Books, Orchard Books) The Dragonsitter by Josh Lacey, illustrated by Garry Parsons (Andersen Press) Gangsta Granny by David Walliams, illustrated by Tony Ross (HarperCollins Children’s Books) Goblins by Philip Reeve, illustrated by Dave Semple (Marion Lloyd Books) Socks are Not Enough by Mark Lowery (Scholastic Children’s Books)

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize is unique: launched to honour those books that make young people, and all of us, roar with laughter. Concerned that the really side-splittingly funny books were being overlooked by other book awards, Michael Rosen created the Prize in 2008 with Booktrust, as part of his work as Children’s Laureate. The Prize aims to reward those authors and artists who write and illustrate their books using humour.

Winning author biographies

Rebecca Patterson grew up in Bolton, and first studied Fashion due to a love of fashion illustration. After graduating, she worked at an assortment of jobs, including being a classroom assistant in a primary school, while sending out manuscripts for picture books. Once her own children started school. Rebecca began an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art and had her first picture book commissioned at the end of the course. Rebecca’s work is inspired by her own childhood and her children’s lives, with stories often starting as games or something made up in the back of a car to amuse a child. She lives in Cambridge.

Jamie Thomson is the minion and slave of the Dark Lord, Dirk Lloyd. Jamie has been writing books, comics and computer games for his Dark Master for many years now. He lives in the dungeons below his Master's Iron Tower, chained to a desk, where he spends every day writing for his overlord. Or else.

Freya Hartas is currently a student studying illustration at Falmouth University, keenly awaiting to start her second year. Dirk Lloyd has been her first commission and one that she is very grateful for. She has thoroughly enjoyed interpreting Dirk's absurd escapades with elaborate landscapes of the Darklands, classrooms of goblin school children and evil Headmasters. She hopes to pursue a career in children's book illustration in the future (if Dirk will let her out of his dungeon that is).

About Booktrust

Booktrust is an independent reading and writing charity that makes a nationwide impact on individuals, families and communities, and the nation's culture. Booktrust makes a significant positive contribution to the educational outcomes of children from the earliest age. We work to empower people of all ages and abilities by giving them confidence and choices about reading. And we want individuals of all backgrounds to benefit from the wellbeing that a rich and positive engagement in reading and writing can bring. Booktrust is responsible for a number of successful national reading promotions, sponsored book prizes and creative reading projects aimed at encouraging readers to discover and enjoy books. These include the Blue Peter Book Award, the Children’s Laureate, and Bookstart, the national programme that works through locally based organisations to give a free pack of books to babies and toddlers, with guidance materials for parents and carers. www.booktrust.org.uk

About Roald Dahl and his legacy

Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was one of the world’s most imaginative, successful and loved storytellers. Since his death, his work has not only endured but is still increasing in popularity. His stories are currently available in almost 50 languages. UK sales alone are over 50 million books and rising. Two charities have been founded in Roald Dahl’s memory: the Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity – created in 1991 – makes life better for seriously ill children by raising money to fund charities, hospitals and individual families in the UK. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre – a unique cultural, literary and education hub – opened in June 2005 in Great Missenden where Roald Dahl lived and wrote many of his best-loved works. On 13 September 2006, the first national Roald Dahl Day was celebrated, on what would have been the author’s 90th birthday. The event proved such a success that Roald Dahl Day is now marked annually all over the world.  For further information on the wonderful world of Roald Dahl please visit www.roalddahl.com

IBBY Christmas Cards 2012

                

Illustration cupboard: The 17th Annual Winter Exhibition

http://www.illustrationcupboard.com/  See website for further details

New website from Laurence and Catherine Anholt

Dear Friends,

For those of you interested in such things, we invite you to visit our new website:  http://www.anholt.co.uk

...otherwise, apologies for the intrusion.

Love from, 

Laurence and Catherine Anholt

Exhibition Launch! A Vikings Guide to Deadly Dragons with Cressida Cowell

A new exhibition has opened at Seven Stories, Newcastle. A Viking’s Guide to Deadly Dragons is based on the books of Cressida Cowell. Check out the many activities which accompany the exhibition by visiting the website below.

Seven Stories

STOP PRESS!   Frank Cottrell Boyce wins The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.

Just as the current issue of Carousel (52) emerged from the printers, the winner of The Guardian Prize was announced.  An article in this issue examines the eight books on the longlist, all worth closer inspection.  Now we know the winner is Boyce’s The Unforgotten Coat, his story, based on a real event, is about two young Tibetan refugees who find themselves in a Merseyside primary school.  Julia Eccleshare, The Guardian’s children’s books editor, described the book as a “heart-warming, imaginative, funny story with a very serious message at its heart.”  Congratulations to Frank Cottrell Boyce, to the judges, authors Cressida Cowell, Tony Bradman and Kevin Crossley-Holland, whose choice of longlist and winner compliments and enriches children’s reading and to The Guardian which makes it possible for this attention to be drawn to these eight books of substance, insight and humour.

Pat Thomson

See also link below

Frank Cottrell Boyce: schools risk putting children off reading forever