BfK News: November 2002
The Summer Reading Challenge 2003
The theme of next summer’s Reading Challenge, the largest children’s national reading promotion organised by The Reading Agency in partnership with Books for Students and children’s publishers is to be The Reading Maze. Lots of exciting possibilities for reading journeys and unexpected encounters with authors are promised! The Reading Agency will be working in a new partnership with The People’s Network to offer on-line Reading Maze activities. This new partnership will result in a website for the Reading Maze. The People’s Network is a £170 million lottery-funded project funded by the New Opportunities Fund and managed by Resource, The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. It provides internet access for everyone in all UK public libraries. Using the web children will be able to explore new reading experiences through a mixture of books and IT.
Formed by merging three existing agencies (Launchpad, The Reading Partnership and Well Worth Reading), The Reading Agency is a new charity which will be working with libraries to create the best possible access to books and reading for everyone. The Agency is funded by an alliance of arts, library and government bodies and marks a step change in public libraries’ work with readers. It will work across the public library service, supporting its work with adults and young people. The Reading Agency’s website: www.readingagency.org.uk
The People’s Network website: www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk
Potter Not a Plagiarism
A claim by US author Nancy Stouffer that J K Rowling copied her material in the Harry Potter books has been thrown out by a New York court who ordered Ms Stouffer to pay $50,000 plus costs to Ms Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Bros.
EVENTS
The Youth Festival at the Institut Français
From 21-23 November there will be a festival celebrating children’s books with some of the greatest authors and illustrators in France and the UK, catering to young people aged 6 to 18. This year’s participants are: Quentin Blake, Michael Morpurgo, Jamila Gavin, Julia Jarman, Satoshi Kitamura, Caroline Lawrence, David Roberts, Michelle Nikly and Jean Claverie, Mario Ramos, Daniel Pennac, Lionel LeNeouanic, Frédéric Pillot, Jean-Loup Chiflet, Véronique Lenormand, Antonin Louchard and Katy Cuprie… and Peter Rabbit. There is a choice of events in both French and English. For more information and bookings, contact Géraldine D’Amico on 020 7073 1307 or geraldine.d-amico@diplomatie.fr
The 9th Annual NCRCL/British IBBY Children’s Literature Conference
The theme of this year’s NCRCL/British IBBY Children’s Literature Conference on Saturday 16 November is Children’s Literature and Childhood in Performance. The programme will give delegates an opportunity to discuss adaptation, audiences, children as performers and construction of childhood and youth. Details from NCRCL/British IBBY Conference, National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, University of Surrey Roehampton, Digby Stuart College, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PH.
National Storytelling Week
The third Annual National Storytelling Week will be held from 1-8 February 2003. The Society for Storytelling wants as many people as possible to join in the celebration which will consist of nationwide storytelling events and performances. For further information or if you would like to take part, call Del Reid on 020 8866 4232 or 0118 935 1381 and view the website: www.sfs.org.uk
PUBLICATIONS
100 Best Books 2002
The new edition of Booktrust’s 100 Best Books 2002 (0 85353 493 4) picks the best paperback fiction titles published in the previous 12 months for all ages from babies to teenagers, including books by many favourite authors. It includes a useful subject index to titles in categories such as Families & Domestic, Friendships, Reluctant Readers and Something a Bit Different. Available from Booktrust, Book House, 45 East Hill, London SW18 2QZ at £4.00 (made payable to Booktrust).
AuthorZone 4
AuthorZone 4 is the fourth edition of Peter Sheldon’s excellent and fun guide to children’s authors and illustrators and the world of children’s books. It is aimed at children, teachers, librarians and anyone with an interest in children’s literature. £6.95 plus £1.00 p&p per copy from Peters Bookselling Services, 120 Bromsgrove Street, Birmingham B5 6RJ, Tel: 0121 666 6646, Fax: 0121 666 7033, Email: marthur@peters-books.co.uk
Correction
In BfK No. 136 we listed the Guardian longlist books as the shortlist and left off Marcus Sedgwick’s The Dark Horse. See above for details of the winner and shortlist.
AWARDS
The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize
The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize has been won by Sonya Hartnett’s Thursday’s Child (Walker). The other shortlisted books were Keith Gray’s Warehouse (Red Fox), Elizabeth Laird’s Jake’s Tower (Macmillan), Linda Newbery’s The Shell House (David Fickling), Terry Pratchett’s The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (Transworld) and Marcus Sedgwick’s The Dark Horse (Orion).
Sainsbury’s Baby Book Award 2002
The Sainsbury’s Baby Book Award has been won by Annie Kubler’s Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (Child’s Play). Wendy Cooling, Chair of the judging panel, commented: ‘It demands participation, no baby will be able to sit still during the singing or reading of this book – it is perfect to introduce babies to the sheer pleasure of books.’ The other shortlisted books were Caroline Davis’s Shimmery Dinkies: Ring Ring! (Little Orchard), Annie Kubler’s Happy! (Child’s Play), Alison Bartlett’s Big Wild Animals: Panda (Campbell Books), Helen Stephens’s Baby Dazzlers: Twinkly Night (Campbell Books) and Diane Thistlethwaite and Lara Holtz’s Baby’s World: Splish Splash (Dorling Kindersley). The judges were Wendy Cooling (Children’s Book Consultant), Gary McKeone (Bookstart parent, Literature Director at the Arts Council of England and author of BfK’s first Baby Diary), Alison Higley (Health Visitor), Brenda Rowan (Children’s Librarian) and Julia Goodwin (Editor of Prima Baby Magazine).
The Tir na n-Og Awards
The winner in the Best Welsh-language Fiction category is Shoned Wyn Jones’s Gwirioni (published by Y Lolfa), a powerful novel concerning a complicated personal relationship and the problems resulting from it. The winner of the Best Welsh-language Non-fiction Book category is Non ap Emlyn and Marian Delyth’s Poeth!, an attractive volume of poetry containing fresh, varied poems in a modern, colourful format. In the category for the Best English-language Book with an Authentic Welsh Background the winner is Malachy Doyle’s Georgie (Bloomsbury), a novel set in a children’s home in north Wales. The work draws on the author’s experience of working in schools for children with special educational needs.
Menna Lloyd Williams, Head of the Children’s Books Department at the Welsh Books Council said: ‘The prize-winning volumes are a reflection of the high standard of books for children published in Wales at present, and also of the wide variety of titles available.’
The Fidler Award 2002
Laura Matthews has won the Fidler Award for her novel Fish. This is the final year of the award, as sponsored by Hodder Children’s Books and administered by Scottish Book Trust. Previous winners include Theresa Breslin and Catherine MacPhail.
PEOPLE
Ros de la Hey, Head of Children’s Sales and Marketing at Bloomsbury, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors and given responsibility for Children’s Publicity in addition to her other responsibilities.
The REACH Resources Centre closed at the end of August which is a sad loss to everyone concerned with providing resources for children with reading difficulties. However, Beverley Matthias, the ex-Director of REACH, is now freelancing as an independent consultant, working with schools, small groups or individual children, offering advice on special needs reading. Beverley can be contacted on: 01252 890202 or email: beverley@manorpark.fsnet.co.uk
Viv Chapman, formerly Head of Children’s & Schools Library Services in Dorset, has taken early retirement and is being replaced by Sharon Kirkpatrick from the London Borough of Richmond. Sharon takes up her post on 1 January 2003.
Fiona Clarke has been appointed Managing Director of Egmont. Ms Clarke was formerly Head of the Educational and Children’s Division at Oxford University Press.
Sally Gritten, formerly Children’s Marketing Director at Penguin, has been appointed Managing Director of Collins Children’s Division. Interim Managing Director, Katie Fulford, will continue to work for the company as Special Projects Director.
Clare Hall-Craggs of Random House Children’s Books has been promoted to Publicity Director and Naomi Cooper has taken on extra responsibilities within her role as Publicity Manager.
Elaine McQuade, Puffin Marketing Director, has been appointed Chair of the Publishers Association’s Children’s Book Group. Clare Hall-Craggs of Random House has been appointed Vice-Chair.
Karen Mountney has been appointed Children’s Programme Director at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Contributors: BfK team, Anne Marley. Submissions welcome.
Obituary
Eileen Colwell MBE, 1904-2002
The pioneering librarian and storyteller, Eileen Colwell, has died at the age of 98. From 1926 to 1967 she worked at Hendon Public Library and initiated regular Story Hours and other welcoming features into the children’s library, features which we now take for granted. In 1937 Eileen Colwell was instrumental in setting up the Association of Children’s Librarians, an action which expressed her clear conviction that children’s libraries are of vital importance in supporting young people’s learning and development. Despite much scepticism from the Library Association about her forthright views and her ‘communist’ intent, the Association became a section of the LA and is today the YLG of CILIP. She was the first children’s librarian to be a member of the Carnegie and Greenaway judging panel.
COMPETITION
Write4GOSH
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity has launched Write4GOSH, a national competition open to children aged 6 to 16. The competition theme is to ‘cheer up a child in hospital’, by inviting children to write stories, either about their own experiences or from their fertile imagination. Cherie Booth QC, as the prize’s patron, heads up the panel of judges that includes children’s authors Jacqueline Wilson and Philip Pullman, Australian pop singer Dannii Minogue, television presenters John Craven, Michael Aspel and George Layton, and Funday Times Editor, Dave Coombs. Full details of the competition, including how to enter and prizes, can be accessed online at www.write4gosh.nhs.uk. Contact Kathy Chellew/Gary Loach in the GOSH press office on 020 7829 8671 for more information, or e-mail loachg@GOSH.NHS.UK.
