BfK News: May 2009

AWARDS

The 2009 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards Shortlists

The shortlisted titles for the CILIP Carnegie Medal are Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan, 978 1 4050 5464 5), Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks (Puffin, 978 0 14 138145 9), Airman by Eoin Colfer (Puffin, 978 0 14 138335 4), Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling Books, 978 0 385 61426 9), Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray (Definitions, 978 0 09 945657 5), The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker, 978 1 4063 1025 2) and Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson (The Bodley Head, 978 0 370 32929 1).

The shortlisted titles for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal are The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, ill. by Angela Barrett (Hutchinson, 978 0 09 189382 8), Varmints by Helen Ward, ill. by Marc Craste (Templar, 978 1 84011 323 5), Little Boat by Thomas Docherty (Templar, 978 1 84011 826 1), How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham (Walker, 978 1 4063 0716 0), The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins, 978 0 00 718228 2), The Savage by David Almond, ill. by Dave McKean (Walker, 978 1 4063 0815 0), Harris Finds His Feet by Catherine Rayner (Little Tiger Press, 978 1 84506 589 8) and Molly and the Night Monster by Chris Wormell (Jonathan Cape, 978 0 224 07073 7).

The winners will be announced on Thursday 25 June. For introductions to the shortlisted books, and author and illustrator biographies, visit www.ckg.org.uk/2009awards.

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Aidan Chambers, author of This is All and the Carnegie-winning Postcards from No-Man’s Land, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Blue Peter Book Awards

Shadow Forest (Corgi) by Matt Haig is the Blue Peter Book of the Year. A panel of eight child judges selected this dark and grisly tale about two orphans and a forest full of one-eyed trolls as the winner. As well as being crowned Book of the Year, Shadow Forest also won the ‘Book I Couldn’t Put Down’ category. The other two category winners are Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear (Egmont) by Andy Stanton and illustrated by David Tazzyman in the ‘Most Fun Story with Pictures’ category; and Horrible Geography Handbooks – Planet in Peril (Scholastic) by Anita Ganeri, illustrated by Mike Phillips, in the ‘Best Book with Facts’ category.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor

In Janice Morris’s article ‘Picture Books for Everyone’ (BfK No. 174) she mentions that Hampshire is the only County she knows which promotes picture books for older children. Can we bring to her attention the Dundee Picture Book Award which has exactly that aim.

With this Award, primary 6 children (10/11) in schools across the city get to know four short-listed titles really well. They champion the books to their peers, discuss them in class, read them to primary 1 pupils (age 5/6), talk to the younger ones about the books, create displays featuring the books which are exhibited in libraries across the city, vote for their favourite title and organize a vote for the younger children.

Around 800 children are involved each year and the project runs through February and March. An Award Ceremony takes place in June at which all the authors and illustrators are present and to which all the P6 children are invited. Children themselves host the ceremony at which the overall winner from across the city is announced by the Lord Provost (Lord Mayor). The winning author/illustrator receives £1,000 and there are cash prizes for the runners-up. Trophies are also awarded.

All copies of the titles are given to schools for the project and buses are laid on for transport to and from the Award Ceremony so schools incur no expense. This model has been adapted for the Royal Mail Book Awards and information about that award can be found at the Scottish Book Trust website. Further information about the Dundee Award can be found at www.dundeecity.gov.uk/library/picturebooks.

Feedback from both teachers and pupils about the project has been overwhelmingly positive. Older children love picture books and gain a tremendous amount from working with them. Teachers are always surprised at the enthusiasm older children have for them. We have been actively promoting picture books with older children for a number of years and will continue to do so.

Stuart Syme, Senior Library and Information Officer, School Library Service, The Wellgate, Dundee DD1 1DB

Moira Foster, Education Support Officer, Educational Development Service, Lawton Road, Dundee DD3 6SY

Obituary

Margery Gill

1925-2008

Brian Alderson writes…

Margery Gill’s first work as an illustrator was done for the rejuvenated OUP in the 1940s and she went on to become one of the most frequently commissioned artists for children’s fiction during the golden years of the 60s and 70s. Working in the now apparently lost art of pen-drawing she illustrated over a hundred books, showing great sensitivity to both characterization and scene-setting, and finding always an enlivening angle of observation for fitting the drawing to the events of the text. She died on 30 October 2008.