BfK News: March 2003
NEWS
Philip Pullman wins the Eleanor Farjeon Award 2002
Philip Pullman has been awarded the prestigious Eleanor Farjeon Award for 2002. The Award, which is administered by Children’s Book Circle, recognises an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. Recent winners include Michael Rosen and Julia Eccleshare. Through expressing his views so vociferously and publicly, Philip Pullman has had a huge impact on altering the public perception of children’s books. Being taken seriously by the adult book world is a very significant step for children’s books and Pullman’s substantial input into this change and his overall contribution is being recognised by this award. Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass was the first children’s book category winner to go on to win the Whitbread Book of the Year.
World Book Day
If there are any World Book Day vouchers still lying around unused, may we recommend Showstopper! by Geraldine McCaughrean. Accidentally omitted from the list of World Book Day books in our last issue, this is an all-new, specially commissioned adventure featuring the same characters as in her prize-winning novel Stop the Train. Young readers who have already redeemed their vouchers can still buy Showstopper! for just £1.
NATIONAL AWARDS
Whitbread Children’s Book Award
The Whitbread Children’s Book Award has been won by Hilary McKay’s Saffy’s Angel (Hodder) and is now eligible for the Whitbread Book of the Year, competing alongside the other category winners.
The Blue Peter Awards
The winner of the ‘Best Books with Facts’ category was Lucy Lethbridge’s Ada Lovelace (Short Books). The winner of the ‘Best Illustrated Book to Read Aloud’ was Ted Dewan’s Crispin, the Pig Who Had It All (Corgi). The winner of the ‘Book I Couldn’t Put Down’ category was Nicky Singer’s Feather Boy (Collins).
The Marsh Award
The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation has been won by Anthea Bell’s translation (from German) of Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s Where Were You Robert? (Puffin). The judges described it as ‘an immaculate translation with not a flicker of an eye-lid missed’. The other shortlisted books were Lene Kaaberbol’s translation (from Danish) of her own novel, The Shamer’s Daughter (Hodder), Lance Salway’s translation (from Dutch) of Ted van Lieshout’s Brothers (Collins), Sarah Adams’s translation (from French) of Daniel Pennac’s Dog (Walker) and Anthea Bell’s translation (from German) of Reinhardt Jung’s Bambert’s Book of Missing Stories (Egmont Books). The judges were translator Patricia Crampton, critic Wendy Cooling, and Artistic Director of the Centre for the Children’s Book, Elizabeth Hammill.
REGIONAL AWARD
Sheffield Children’s Book Award
The overall winner of the Sheffield Children’s Book Award was Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses (Corgi) which also won the Longer Novel category. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Room on a Broom (Macmillan) won the Picture Book category and Catherine MacPhail’s Tribes (Puffin) won the Shorter Novel category.
PEOPLE
Fiona Kennedy has been appointed Managing Director of Orion Children’s Books. She succeeds Judith Elliott who has been appointed Chair of the division.
Linda Banner, Associate Director for Promotion and Marketing with The Watts Publishing Group, is now working from home as a freelance consultant. She can be contacted at Cottage Farm, Dudswell Lane, Berkhamsted, Herts HP4 3TQ (tel: 01442 864588, e-mail: linda.banner@btopenworld.com).
Susan Barry has been promoted to Head of Marketing at the Watts Publishing Group, which includes Orchard Books. Mariesa Knights is made Senior Marketing Manager. A new Marketing assistant, Sarah Hammerton, has been appointed.
Charles Nettleton has been appointed Managing Director of Hodder Children’s Books following Mary Tapissier’s appointment as Personnel, Training and Administration Director across the Hodder Headline group.
Suzanne Carnell has been appointed Editorial Director for picture and gifts books at Macmillan Children’s Books.
Following Martina Challis’s departure from Simon & Schuster, Ingrid Selberg has been appointed Publishing Director. She was previously Vice-President, UK and International Publishing at Gullane Entertainment.
Ian Ronald has been appointed Managing Director of Scholastic. He was previously Chief Executive of the Wine Society.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Mightier Than the Sword
Dear Editor
As the Librarian at a Jewish primary school in London I am a subscriber to Books for Keeps and find reading it a pleasant way of keeping up to date with what is being published for children.
I was a bit alarmed therefore to see the article by Shereen Pandit (BfK no. 138). I was alarmed, not because you include an article about the experiences of Palestinian children, but because it portrays the Israelis as the aggressor in the Intifada. In actual fact the Intifada was started by the Palestinians, after their leaders decided to reject very generous peace offers made them by Ehud Barak, the then Prime Minister of Israel, elected because he favoured making such generous peace offers.
The vast majority of Israelis are in favour of the Palestinians having their own state, with them of course recognising the right of the State of Israel to exist, both states being free from threats of violence and their population allowed to go about their business. The current leadership of the Palestinians has yet to demonstrate its agreement to this.
I hope that in due course you will publish an article that describes the experiences of Israeli children, who have over the past months been blown up in buses on their way to school and while eating pizza in a café in Jerusalem during the school holidays.
Evelyn Hornig
Kerem School, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London N2 ORE
Dear Editor
I write with reference to the article by Shereen Pandit, and the item by Kifah Al Aaraj of Khan Yunis (BfK 138). I was not aware that yours is a political publication. I thought you reviewed books. Your reason for publishing Pandit’s article seems to be that ‘…the Israeli army’s destruction of the (Palestinian Education) Ministry’s offices, physically taking them apart … Such attacks, plus shootings, deaths and curfews gravely endanger literacy amongst Palestinian youth.’
In that case, will you also publish an article on dangers to literacy among Jewish Israeli children? In that scenario, the danger is brought about by the everyday anxiety of reaching school, not knowing which of them is going to be blown to bits and pieces by some dedicated suicide bomber who thinks he/she will be in paradise as a result of sending these Israeli children to their coffins, and then where is ‘literacy’? If the various media reports are correct, you also conveniently omitted to mention certain unsavoury aspects of Palestinian ‘educational literature’.
As with many conflicts, there are two sides to the story of that part of the Middle East. Both sides have wronged and both have legitimate grievances. If you are going to follow this trend of becoming political (which, as a reader of your magazine of some 10 years’ standing, I sincerely hope not), I suggest that you publish balanced articles that give both sides of the story. The magazine can then retain its integrity as a resource for children’s books rather than become a political organ.
Fay Sinai
Address supplied
Not sadomasochistic?
Dear Editor
Re your editorial attacking my book Robbers on the Road (BfK No.138)… Readers can find a fuller response to this on my website (http://web.onetel.net.uk/~melvinburgess) but there are a couple of points I’d like to make here. First, as regards my advances – Robbers was for A & C Black, not my usual publishers, and no large sums changed hands. I did the book because I enjoyed writing a previous Flashback, The Copper Treasure. As regards whether or not the book was ‘crudely written’, that is for readers to decide, although it has had excellent reviews elsewhere.
But the ‘sadomasochistic scenario’ that you perceive is a ludicrous misapplication of psychological theory and yet another example of the kind of political correctness that so often plagues children’s books with adult pets. This was an historical novel, and my aim was to capture something of the period as suggested in the literature of the times. Celia Keenan, director of the MA in children’s literature at St Patrick’s college, Dublin, with a special interest in historical fiction, said in the Children’s Books Ireland magazine, Inis, ‘The story in its mood and tone seems true to the spirit of Tudor England. The crude humour, trick-playing and play-acting are all there. The real danger and cruelty are also suggested in grimly comic descriptions of the brutal torture and execution of robbers, highwaymen, spies and priests. Forget about political correctness here.’
The key word here is ‘comic’. The sharp-eyed Ms Keenan even picked out the inspiration of the story in the robbery plot from Henry VI Part One. It was the feel of the period I was after and the black humour in the story is best seen in that light, rather than a psychological one.
Melvin Burgess
Via email
A child deliberately and repeatedly provokes his teacher, knowing that it means that he will be whipped and on each occasion, without being asked, gets up and bends over the table to wait for the whipping? This is sadomasochism and arguments about historical fiction and comedy do not wash. I’m sure Melvin did not intend to create a sadomasochistic scenario which is why my comments were rather directed at his publisher, A & C Black. I suggested they may have been so dazzled by Melvin’s fame that they were unable to provide editorial help. Ed.
Letters may be shortened for space reasons
