BfK News: November 1983
AWARDS
American Award
The 1983 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for children’s fiction went to Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park. Honor Books included Ask Me No Questions by Ann Schlee and The Scarecrows by Robert Westall.
The Kurt Maschler Emil
This is the second year of this award, established in the name of Kurt Maschler in memory of Erich Kastner and Walter Trier (author and illustrator of Emil and the Detectives).
It is made to `the work of imagination, fiction or non fiction, in the children’s field in which text and illustrations are of excellence and so presented that each enhances yet balances the other’.
The judges, Elaine Moss, Fiona Waters and Tom Maschler chose a shortlist of five from this year’s entries.
Copycats, Marianne Ford, illustrated by Anna Pugh, Deutsch, 0 233 97584 5, £6.95
Gorilla, Anthony Browne, Julia MacRae, 0 86203 104 4, £4.95
The Mouldy, William Mayne, illustrated by Nicola Bayley, Cape, 0 224 02092 7, £4.95
The Troublesome Pig, Priscilla Lamont, Hamish Hamilton, 0 241 10921 3, £4.50
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by John Burningham, Kestrel, 0 7226 5746 3, £7.95
From these they selected Gorilla as the overall winner. Anthony Browne, the author/artist receives £1,000 and a bronze figure of Emil.
Elaine Moss said of the winning book “Gorilla is a picture book of great originality and power that explores the loneliness of a little girl (whose mother is nowhere in evidence and whose father is always pre-occupied) and her compensating obsession with a gorilla who, in her fantasy, fits exactly into father’s overcoat and boots and is always willing to play. The text is straightforward, yet carefully weighed; it is used as the springboard for pictures that are as dramatic as they are full of poignant touches and witty visual jokes. Gorilla is a picture book of our time that makes bold statements with great subtlety.”
The Young Observer/Rank Prize for Teenage Fiction
The prize this year has gone to Peter Carter for Children of the Book, OUP, 0 19 271456 2, £6.95
A historical novel which takes as its background the Siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683. Perspective on events is provided through the stories of three young people: Anna, a Viennese baker’s daughter, Stefan, the son of a Polish knight and part of the army marching to Vienna’s aid, and Timur, a recruit in the Turkish infantry.
USEFUL BOOKLISTS
Peace at Last. Books for the pre-school child.
Selected by the Children’s Services Team of Birmingham Public Libraries.
Over 60 authors, no ISBNs. YLG Publications, 0 946581 00 2, £1.95 Available from Maggie Norwood. Central Children’s Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3HQ.
We All Live Here, Selected by Anne Kesterton. Over 100 books make up a useful list of multi-cultural books, mostly up to middle school level.
NBL, 0 85353 377 6, £1.50 (£1.20, members).
From Book House, 45 East Hill, London SW18 2QZ.
Knowing and Doing – Information Books, Ed John Rees.
Third in the SLA’s series of three lists ‘to help teachers and librarians in primary and middle schools develop sound criteria and build up balanced collections’.
SLA, 0 900641 42 8, £2.00 (£1.50, members). From Victoria House, 29-31 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AY.
The Whitbread Literary Awards
The three books shortlisted for the children’s novel section of the Whitbread Awards are:
The Witches, Roald Dahl, Cape, 0 224 02165 6, £6.50
A tale of REAL WITCHES. They don’t wear black hats, they don’t have broomsticks. The look just like ORDINARY PEOPLE. And they DON’T LIKE CHILDREN.
The Donkey’s Crusade, Jean Morris, Bodley Head, 0 370 30985 5, £6.95
The extraordinary adventures of 15 year old Thomas, a professional guide to the old trade routes across Asia. With him goes a wise and philosophical donkey.
A Parcel of Patterns, Jill Paton Walsh, Kestrel, 0 7226 5898 2, £5.50
Based on the true story of the people of Eyam in Derbyshire who in the year of the great plague vowed to contain the pestilence within the boundaries of their village.
The judges, Frank Delaney, John Elsley, Jane Gardam and Elizabeth Longford announce the winner on November 18th.
The award carries a prize of £3,000.
From Blackbirds to Redwings
Two and twenty Blackbirds have been successfully launched from the Julia MacRae nest to the benefit of a host of fledgling readers. Now come Redwings, slightly longer than Blackbirds and for slightly older children but still with plenty of black and white line drawings integrated in the text.
The first three titles are by Jane Gardam, Ruskin Bond and Bernard Ashley who have all had notable successes in the Blackbird series.
Kit, by Jane Gardam,
(0 86203 132 X) is another story set on a farm high in the Yorkshire Dales. Kit, who is seven, is afraid of most things but not of the farm’s huge bull.
Ruskin Bond’s Tigers Forever (0 86203 133 8) is set in the Himalayas and in Your Guess is as Good as Mine (0 86203 134 6) Bernard Ashley has written a story which deliberately aims to be a warning against accepting lifts from strangers.
All three titles are £3.50.
