BfK News: January 1994

AWARDS UPDATE

1993 Emil/Kurt Maschler Award

Think of an Eel, Karen Wallace and Mike Bostock, Walker, 0 7445 2250 1, £6.99

Radical Reading And Writing

From Book Trust (Scotland) comes a package of admirable initiatives of which Radical Reading is perhaps the most striking – a full-colour, handsomely produced leaflet funded by the Scottish Arts Council that foregrounds 82 titles targeted at that ever elusive 11-15 readership. `This is not a recommended reading list’ claim the authors. BfK agrees… for a start it’s much too snappy, open-minded and persuasive to fit a DFE ringbinder.

Also, miraculously, it’s free. Single copies with order details are available on receipt of an A4 sae sent to Lindsey Fraser, Book Trust Scotland, Scottish Book Centre, 137 Dundee Street, Edinburgh EH11 IBG.

Available from the same source is Off the Shelf – A Guide to Scotland’s Writers and Illustrators for Children, a lively, comprehensive round-up, historical as well as current, of authors whose regional base is perfectly consistent with world-wide appeal. Deftly illustrated by Debi Gliori and, for all its details, light-hearted in tone, it’s a model of the way this sort of thing should be done.

So is Picture Books for Sharing by Alan Hill and Sheilah Jackson with its commentaries on selected titles and its suggestions about ways to stimulate conversation with young children. Send £4.50 plus 10% for post and packing to Moray House Publications, Moray House Institute of Education, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AQ.

… and that’s not all. Book Trust (Scotland) also administers The Kathleen Fidler Award which is sponsored by Blackie Children’s Books. This offers a cash prize of £1,000, a rosewood and silver trophy and – the biggest lure of all – guaranteed publication. It’s an international award so BfK readers everywhere are eligible. A leaflet with details and conditions of entry is available from Book Trust (Scotland) at the address given above.

This year’s winner, by the way, is 48 Hours with Franklin by Mij Kelly. It will be published by Blackie and is a book with much child-appeal and considerable promise for books to come.

SMARTIES BOOK PRIZE 1993

0-5 Category:

Hue Boy, Rita Phillips Mitchell and Caroline Binch, Gollancz, 0 575 04798 4, £7.99

6-8 Category and Overall Prize Winner:

War Game, Michael Foreman, Pavilion, 1 85793 069 X, £9.99

9-11 Category:

Listen to the Dark, Maeve Henry, Heinemann, 0 434 96388 7, £9.99

KEY DEBATES IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

From the Roehampton Institute’s Children’s Literature Research Centre comes the first of a proposed series of one-day courses:

Introducing European Children’s Books In Translation

with Aidan Chambers

26th February 1994 – Roehampton Institute

23rd April 1994 – Sheffield Hallam University

4th June 1994 – University of Bristol

• • Why are British readers resistant to translated books’? Is it something we learn when young?
  • Are British children missing out on the innovative fiction produced on the continent?
  • Could reading the same books help in the development of a shared culture within Europe?

For details contact Maria Walker, External Relations Dept, Senate House, Roehampton Institute, Roehampton Lane, London, SW15 5PU, tel: 081 392 3192.

CONFERENCE

THE POWER OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN

A one-day Conference

Saturday 5th March 1994

Oxford Brookes University, Wheatley, Oxford

For for details contact Lesley Mackay on 0865 485913.

`MY TUMMY HAS A HEADACHE…’

A neat title for the latest publication from the National Library for the Handicapped Child. Over 100 titles, compiled and annotated by Beverley Mathias and Desmond Spiers, give information and advice on helping children understand illnesses such as chicken pox and measles and often occurring conditions like asthma, eczema, epilepsy and hearing loss. Like previous publications from the same source, this offers parents, teachers, librarians and other carers invaluable support that incorporates sharp-eyed recognition of those crucial ABC factors – accessibility, brevity and comprehensiveness.

Price £3.99 plus p&p, it’s available from The NLHC Reach Resource Centre, Wellington House, Wellington Road, Wokingham, Berks RG11 2AG.

On Death and Bereavement

From Camden Leisure Services comes this list of books that help children come to terms with the loss of a loved one – an experience with which many an adult can’t cope. It ranges from picture books to teenage fiction and covers titles suitable for a wide spread of abilities. There’s also an information section, a where-to-get-help section and a warmly endorsing introduction from Dr Dora Black of Cruse Bereavement Care. True, many of the list’s recommendations are well known and there are some startling omissions (Morris Gleitzman’s Two Weeks with the Queen, for instance) but the pamphlet is free to Camden residents and costs only 50p, inclusive of postage and packing, to anyone else. That must make it Bargain Booklist of the Year, says BfK!

Write to Grace McElwee/ Natasha Innocent, Children’s Services Librarians, Schools Library Service, Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Road, London, NW3,3HA or telephone 071 413 6509.

STORIES IN TRANSLATION

This latest Penguin Booklist has been compiled by Aidan Chambers. It’s a comprehensive guide to children’s books in translation from the companies within the Penguin group, and includes titles originally written in Swedish, Norwegian, German, Dutch, French, Italian and Danish.

For details of how to get hold of this free Guide contact Helen McAleer on 071 416 3134.

please look after this Bier

Alas, there was no room in our last issue for a wonderful howler that appeared in The Times, 15th October 1993, as follows:

… In another unprecedented ruling against a BBC programme, the council also criticised a schools’ television programme, English File, on BBC2. It ruled that an episode of Tuesday, a drama written by Edward Bond, the author of the Paddington Bear books, contained material of a violent nature unsuitable for broadcasting between midday and 12.30 pm.

The BBC claimed that viewing at schools was supervised by teachers. However, the council upheld a complaint about a scene depicting a young man being shot dead by police.’

BfK’s thanks to both Quentin Blake and Mary Hoffman who drew our attention to the above. No doubt Michael Bond, who really did write the Paddington Bear books, is consulting his lawyers. Come to think of it, maybe Edward Bond is doing the same.

Readers of BfK who spot similar Kid-Lit Clangers in the national press are invited to pass them on to us post-haste. We’ll pay the senders handsomely on publication… well, a crisp fiver, perhaps.