BfK News: January 2014

Kate DiCamillo Receives the 2014 Newbery Medal for Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

Kate DiCamillo’s novel, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, illustrated by K.G. Campbell, has been announced as the 2014 Newbery Medal winner. This is the second Newbery win for DiCamillo: she was the winner for The Tale of Despereaux in 2004, and also received a Newbery honor for Because of Winn-Dixie in 2001.

The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

‘Using an unusual mix of narrative prose, comics, and illustration to tell a tale of

dreams and hope, in Flora & Ulysses Kate DiCamillo reaches out to all kinds of young readers with a new and boundary-breaking approach. We are so grateful to the committee for recognizing Kate’s daring and beautiful work with this wonderful award,’ said Karen Lotz, President and Publisher of Candlewick Press.

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by K.G. Campbell, Walker Books, 978-1406345186, £10.99 hbk.

Oxford’s Story Museum opens its doors

Oxford’s Story Museum will open this spring with a photographic exhibition featuring famous authors dressed as the characters they loved most as children.

The 26 Characters exhibition will feature children’s laureate Malorie Blackman as the Wicked Witch of the West in Frank L Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, Terry Jones as the comic strip character Rupert Bear, Terry Pratchett as Just William from the Richmal Crompton series, and Neil Gaiman as Badger from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, in a series of photographs taken by Cambridge Jones.

Other participating authors include Anthony Horovitz, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Jamila Gavin, Charlie Higson, Shirley Hughes, Terry Jones, Geraldine McCaughrean, Michael Morpurgo, Terry Pratchett, Francesca Simon and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Visitors will also get the chance to hear authors talk about their literary heroes and read new stories created for the exhibition by Jamila Gavin, Geraldine McCaughrean and others and read by actors Olivia Colman and Christopher Eccleston.

The museum is planning a full programme of events and activities, with a talking throne and a dressing-up area.

The Story Museum started as an online venture but drew up plans to move into a city centre location after receiving an anonymous £2.5m donation in 2009. Its patrons are children’s authors Philip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson

For opening times and more info: www.storymuseum.org.uk/26characters

Chris Riddell wins the Costa Children’s Book Award

Author, illustrator and political cartoonist Chris Riddell is the winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award for Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, which the judges described as ‘an instant classic for children of all ages.’

Four books were shortlisted, selected from a total of 151 entries.

They were:

Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door by Ross Montgomery (Faber and Faber)

The Hanged Man Rises by Sarah Naughton (Simon and Schuster)

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell (Macmillan)

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (Electric Monkey)

Previous Children’s Book Award winners include Sally Gardner, Moira Young, Jason Wallace, Patrick Ness and Michelle Magorian.

2013 UKLA Literacy School of the Year announced

The UK Literacy Association has named Victoria Junior School, Workington, Cumbria as the 2013 Literacy School of the Year: A school where literacy thrives

This is the first year of the award but UKLA hope that it will quickly become a recognised kite mark of excellence for schools. Any UKLA member can nominate a school which they believe to be worthy of the award and independent assessors will visit the school in question to see their practice in action.

Victoria Junior School is a large Junior School on the west coast of Cumbria. The school has worked year on year to raise standards in all areas of literacy. The assessors were most impressed by the way that literacy is placed at the heart of the school and children and visitors are immersed in literacy as soon as they enter. Children blog about their interests and communicate with a global audience as well as with the wider school community. They are engaged and motivated in lessons and speak enthusiastically about their learning in literacy. The main library area is an impressive, well used and attractive area. Reading for pleasure is encouraged and expected and evidenced from creative responses displayed throughout the school.