David Maybury | Blog

Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter appeared in the December issue of Vogue in a photo-shoot bringing Roald Dahl’s stories to life. (Thanks to Tussled Tom for the link)

With less than a month to go before Christmas the reviewers have started the round-up ‘Best of 2008′ lists – and I’m sure there are plenty more of them to come.

The Times (UK) start the ball rolling with Amanda Craig’s list of Children’s 2-10 – her book of the year is Franck Cotrell Boyce’s Cosmic (though PJ Lynch’s Gift of the Magi gets a mention too). Christina Hardyment runs through her favourite children’s audio-books including Phillip Pullman, JK Rowling and Vivianne French’s Robe of Skulls.

>More of The Times UK Christmas lists.

The Guardian has taken a different approach and asked as many people as they could think of for their books of 2008. The list is impressive and has some great recommendations – though it could take all of 2009 to read through it.

> Season’s readings, the Guardian’s pick the best of 2008

Frank Cotrell Boyce appears in the Guardian’s review pages after reading Philippa Pearce’s A Finders Magic.

All Pearce’s books have this strange, unobtrusive power. They seem like simple fantasy or adventure stories, but somehow they never leave you. Her secret was that she put so much of herself into them.

And Keith Stuart looks at what games are out for younger gamers – including Peppa Pig on the Wii…

And I thought this was funny:

Doing it for the books | Supporting CBI

Children’s Books Ireland have launched a new initiative to raise funds and keep the huge number of projects they are involved with running. (The three primary goals of CBI are engaging young people with books, resourcing the children’s books community and reminding everyone of the importance of books for young people.)

If you’re reading here then the chances are you are already interested in Irish publishing. At the Children’s Book Forum yesterday the who-be-whats-its mentioned a new generation of active and talented writers/illustrators online – why not put your money where your mouse is and add your name to the list?

Many more details about why the initiative is so important are all available on CBI’s website and if you’re still not convinced - why not!? – have a read here about what they are planning to do in the future. And then donate from as little to as much as you want:

• davidmaybury.ie
• carbags.wordpress.com
• sineadkeogh.wordpress.com
• eoinpurcellsblog.com
• emesq.com
• 100morelikethese.com

Total so far: €500
(There is no deadline for donations to CBI – but if you want to throw into this we’ll be sending it all over on the 10 December 2008)

I know I promised notes from the Arts Council Conference, but instead here are some notes from yesterday’s One-Day Children’s Book Forum. There were a lot of who-be-whats-its there, including the panel: Eoin Purcell, Conor Kostick, Mary Esther Judy, Seosamh Ó Murchú, Ivan O’Brien and led by Seamus Cashman. The gist of what I picked up included:

• Irish Publishers exist outside of London to produce books for reading audiences that have no interest in The Famous Five.

• There is a strong push to de-Irish books to make them more accessible to wider audiences.

• Ivan O’Brien and Seosamh Ó Murchú agreed that digital books are no relevant or immediate threat to children’s publishing. Eoin Purcell disagreed, along with Síobhan Parkinson and Oisín McGann. According to Eoin, publishers should be Platform Agnostic (yeah, I like that, stolen and all as it is) and that they should be far more open to publishing in as many areas as possible.

• Eoin explained that Mercier Press are pushing to develop their children’s list (8-12yrs) and his experience of a new, strong association of children’s authors appearing online in Ireland.

• Mercier bought The Children’s Press Imprint with a back catalogoue of Irish authors and have plans to develop it.

• Mary Esther Judy notes that 5% of children’s books sales are by Irish publishers on a good day in Dubray books, Galway.

• Top sellers are: Irish Myths and Legends, Artemis Fowl, the Alice series by O’Brien Press and Marita Conlon McKenna’s Under the Hawthorn Tree.

• Dubray segregate Irish children’s books from international titles – but not young adult fiction.

• There is a lot of scope for a mechanism of communication between booksellers and Irish publishers.

• Conor Kostick noted that – despite the tax exemption, the upcoming lending rights agreement and the massive support of five arts organisations – Irish authors and illustrators cannot survive on writing alone.

• Ivan O’Brien added that, though good sales in Ireland were not enough, foreign rights sales added up and helped support authors.

• Children’s Irish language publshing is predominantly in education or for younger readers according to Seosamh Ó Murchú. Once readers begin choosing their own books they mostly stop reading in Irish.

The conference had speakers from the floor too – including Sam Holman, Sarah Bannan, and Penguin Ireland – who announced potential plans to launch Puffin Ireland later next year. There was an interesting shift in attitude from everyone I spoke to – a much greater level of optimism and a more unified push for development in Irish children’s publishing. The announcement of Mercier’s commitment and development to their 8-12 list, as well as the continued work from O’Brien Press all points toward very positive changes. Plans are already afoot for at least one more forum early next year and I’m sure that the discussion will go on – hopefully so will the passion for publishing good books.

Update: The Very Hungry Caterpillar mentioned one very important point that I had completely forgotten. The forum all seemed to agree that a children’s laureate – similar to the role Michael Rosen is playing in England right now – could be a huge hook to raise media awareness. There are so many authors who could do incredible work as laureate.

More:
Conor Kostick expands on his alternative models of publishing.
Eoin Purcell has some notes on the Forum
Sinead Keogh gives her own plea for books and reading

And if you really like what we’re talking about – click here to see if you can help.

Fresh faced from the New Media Conference (notes from that tomorrow I hope) I found a string of emails with interesting bits and pieces when I got back home:

Achockablog never misses Andrea Deakin’s Newsletter – the next issue is up for enjoyment. And stolen borrowed from the pages of Andrea’s newsletter: The NYT’s Children’s Books Special issue. And within it’s pages -the Best Illustrated Children’s Books 2008.

And Eoin Purcell appears on theBookseller.com with an interesting look at the state of play for Irish publishing.

Of the top 50 fiction titles only four were published by native Irish publishers, seven of the top 50 were from Irish-based arms of foreign publishing concerns and the rest were published by foreign publishers.

More events tonight – the launch of PJ Lynch’s new book – The Gift of the Magi – and if you haven’t seen it yet… go visit PJ’s online Retrospective Exhibition, with prints from his books for sale.

Loads happening all this week – and last weekend, including the grand final of ShowBizKidz (Centre Stage, that’d be us, won!) The ISSCL conference in Belfast was on Saturday, as well as the Dublin Comic-Con, and tomorrow will see all the interweb who-be-whats-its come to Dublin for the New Media conference. And don’t forget the Children’s Publishing Seminar on Thursday afternoon – now being held in Liberty Hall. (Add your name to the list by emailing here.

And now for something different:

The interwebs most famous blogging agent, Kristin, is off conferencing in New York. Her notes from the world of publishing and what they are looking for:

Looking for contemporary stories with a paranormal element. Contemporary main story with just a touch of paranormal.

Voice and character driven fiction (isn’t that what all editors want?)

A family-oriented story with complicated relationship between main character and parents or main character and siblings etc.

Gritty fiction

Novels where the reader watches as the main female protagonist making bad choices or learning to survive

Quirky funny, outcasts, dark but weirdly funny

MG fantasy

Literary voices in YA or MG, well-crafted stories

More Meg Cabot-type stuff

Hip or hot topics

MG or YA with boy protagonists

Over on the Scottish Book Trust site news has broken of the winners of the Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children’s Books. The awards are voted on by kids in schools and libraries across Scotland. And the winners are, interestingly:

Billy Monster’s Daymare by Alan Durant and Ross Collins

Dark Isle by D A Nelson

Bunker 10 by J.A. Henderso

Congratulations to all three! More on the Scottish Book Trust and the Guardian.

Head over to dublincitycomiccon.com for more info on the weekend of fun, pictures and well… comics.

I’m flabbergasted – out of the blue hazy mist of the interweb the loverly Colleen from bookphilia.com found me. And asked to interview me. (Me?) I thought it was my job to do the interviewings… and then the questions started and my ego adopted this altogether shocking new role of interviewee. And there was no shutting me up.

Go read the results of my Reading Lamp Interview (taster below)

What about a dessert book, a book you could read and then eat?
There’s a series of cookbooks my Nan has from the sixties. They’re covered in splashes, dried up bits of pasta and cookie dough. If I had to eat a book it would be one of those. Tasty.

I managed to miss the announcement of the shortlist for the Costa Book Awards – congratulations to everyone listed!

Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray
The Carbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd
Just Henry by Michelle Magorian
Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

A really great and very different list in comparison to some of the others this year – it is hard to say who will clinch it but I have a firm favourite… Interesting that you can read the judges comments for each book online – here.

Winners will be announced in early January so not too long to wait.

The final installment of the BBC Four series on children’s literature – Now We Are Growing Up – airs tonight at 9pm. The show features interviews with Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson, Eoin Colfer, David Almond, Ralph Steadman and Dave McKean.

More on the series here and here.

There can’t be too many awards that Patrick Ness hasn’t won yet. The man in question was announced as the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize winner in London yesterday.

His acceptance speech on his blog is pretty astonished:

Well, holy crap!
- Patrick Ness, 2008

The Observer published the winners – and runners-up – for the Observer/Cape Graphic Short Story Prize. The Observer site has a whole heap of galleries so there’s plenty to ogle

Julian Hanshaw‘s winning short – Sand Dunes and Sonic Booms.

Emily Haworth-Booth’s short – What do married people talk about?

Isabel Greenberg’s short – Cheer up love, it’s only a credit crunch.

Some really great stuff – worth reading. Definitely.

Sci-Fi London has captured some rare video footage of an OisínMcGannitus in the wild. The McGannitus is surrounded by some creature comforts – including what looks like an original sketch from the cover of Strangled Silence.

Go watch the video.

The original post title for this was “Michael Rosen’s time is nearly up”, but that just seemed a tad morbid. Mr Rosen’s time is no where near up – only his tenure as Children’s Laureate. And the election race has begun for the next laureate-elect…

Kids, under 14, being asked to enter a competition by nominating (in 100 words or less) who they think should replace the man in charge. The winner will be the person under 14 who makes the best case for their choice – they do not need to choose the person who becomes the laureate.

The grown-ups aren’t being left out on this one. Adults are invited to nominate an author before the names are put before a selection panel to make the final decision. So if there’s someone that you’d like to see in the top spot then get voting! (You have until 31 January though so no rush…)

The worlds of animation and story are a very different places to those that prevailed when Walt Disney set up his animation studio, originally in his brother’s garage, and created Mortimer Mouse (renamed Mickey by Mrs Disney). He has adapted and survived so many cultural changes, just like Madonna – though not quite with the same amount of style.

Happy Birthday Mr Mouse.

The loverly folks over on movies.ie are giving away a mountain of tickets for The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D next Monday in Dundrum cinema. If you haven’t seen Tim Burton’s frightening and brilliant movie then now is the perfect chance – and if you have seen it – well… you already know why you should be booking your tickets. Go and put your name down.

And in other film news – the Inkheart movie is coming very very soon. Watch the trailer, you know you want to.

The Guardian and Times UK both feature slide-shows at the minute. The Times have the winner (left) and runners-up from The Wind in the Willows cover competition (here)

The Guardian has 11 illustrations by Quentin Blake, Emily Gravett, Posy Simmonds, Axel Scheffler, David Roberts and Alexis Deacon, from The Birthday Book - to commemorate the Prince of Wales’s 60th birthday – edited by former children’s laureates Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake.

And JK Rowling wrote in the Guardian about the scene she chose for The Birthday Book - where Harry Potter goes to face the dementors.

The destinies of wizards and princes might seem more certain than those carved out for the rest of us, yet we all have to choose the manner in which we meet life: whether to live up (or down) to the expectations placed upon us; whether to act selfishly, or for the common good; whether to steer the course of our lives ourselves, or to allow ourselves to be buffeted around by chance and circumstance

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s new book Dún an Airgid is given the third degree by Michael Cronin in the Irish Times – and comes up trumps. Michael reckons that Ní Dhuibhne’s new book is ‘briskly told in a style that is eminently accessible to young adult or adult learners of Irish.’

Robin Williams, my favourite cross-dressing comic, is in the middle of his first stand-up tour in the UK in over 25 years. Dominic Maxwell celebrates and analyses one of my heroes in the Times UK.

The other cross-dressing comic, David Walliams, is reviewed in the Guardian for Boy in the Dress. Philip Ardagh reckons it is charming. ‘The characters really do grow, and the complicated relationships between the members of Dennis’s family are very touching.’

Staying in the Guardian – Michael Rosen appears to talk about the Roald Dahl Funny Prize announced earlier this week. ‘I woke up on the morning we announced the winners of the first Roald Dahl Funny Prize, wondering what might have been the first ever funny book for children….’ (find out more! You know you want to)

And Sue Townsend and Adrian Mole pop-up in the Times UK with a review by Peter Parker (what a name! The review is dated tomorrow, so it could disappear) ‘At its sharpest the book is very funny indeed. It also passes the test of being read and enjoyed in isolation from other books in the series.’

There is plenty happening all over the interweb and I’m faced with the usual problem of not having enough time to blog everything – so for your perusal – another link ridden post.

A piece on authors and their cats in the Guardian. (Dogs, cats, sheds, desks – I don’t get it.)

Michael Achucka/Achoka Thorn reviews The Pretender. I like the sound of this one.

Patrick Ness is alive and busy (was there any doubt over both?) The new book has been christened – The Ask and the Answer.

YPulse features a Twilight review with an international twist.

Johnaton Jones looks at the loss of the Beano’s Lord Snooty.

After some really great television on BBC 4 – some more unmissable TV, this time from Bookphilia.com

And that Very Hungry Caterpillar and Sarah Webb have both posted about Walker Books and NCAD offering one lucky, talented, individual the chance to work with Walker. As it goes – it could be you – so long as you are a student in NCAD.

Sally Nicholls appears in this morning’s Irish Times talking to Fiona McCann and celebrating her huge Glen Dimplex win. My favourite part of the interview:

When you’re 10, you think: ‘I’m going to be an astronaut when I grow up.’ And when you get to 25, you realise that actually to be an astronaut isn’t open to you any more. I just feel so grateful that when I was 10 I wanted to be writer. That was my ‘being an astronaut’, and I get to do it, and I get to do it all day, and I get to write stories, and people like them, and I just find that really, really amazing.

And elsewhere in the world yesterday – Michael Rosen announced the winners of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize – judged by Sophie Dahl, funnyman Dara O’Briain, Kaye Umansky and somewhat genius with a crayon Chris Riddell.

The winners for the inaugural funny prize were Ursula Jones and Russell Ayto for The Witch’s Children Go to School and Andy Stanton and David Tazzyman for Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear.

Larry O’Loughlin’s one man play 100 More Like These is running today and tomorrow in the Civic Theatre in Tallaght. Acted out by the talented Stephen Jones, fresh from his recent successes in the Galway Arts Festival and the Project Theatre’s production of Sizwe Bansi Is Dead.

The new website is live for all to see – here – and there is talk of plenty more bells and whistles to come… video, music and many many photographs. If you can’t wait that long – here’s a video of Larry O’Loughin impersonating Charlie Daniels to keep you out of trouble…

The second part of BBC Four’s series exploring childhood reading – Now We are Six – is on tonight at 9. Looking at classic books, from Alice in Wonderland to The Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh, the works of Roald Dahl, Raymond Briggs and Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Horowitz and Quentin Blake all make appearances too.

Those who got to see last weeks episode tell me it was interesting, useful and was preceded by a great documentary about the life and times of Kenneth Grahame. Tonight’s preceding writer is E Nesbit, the lady behind The Railway Children.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be peaking in through the window next door. They have digital… More about the three part series here.

It’s Wednesday and the world is busy with book launches, radio programmes and emails. Sorry for yet another link post:

> Dominic Wells in the UK Independent is watching the watchers as they watch the watchmen.
> The first of Neil Gaiman’s Irish interviews has appeared online. Hot Press are next and then Inis, I think.
> The Sunday Tribune has a look at fairy-tales too.
> John Carey looks at the history of illustration – with some worrying results – in Jenny Uglow’s new book.
> Malorie Blackman talks to Alison Flood from the Guardian about writing Noughts and Crosses.

Anyone else wishing they were Sally Nicholls this morning? The loverly gal from Stockton, I‘m sure she is loverly though I have no basis to put that up, was awarded New Writer of the Year and Children’s Book Award at the Glen Dimplex Awards last night.

If my maths is right, not my strongest point however, Ms Nicholls got €5,000 for the children’s award and a whopping €20,000 for the Writer of the Year! In the words of someone else, “do you think she needs new friends??”

I hope it’s a tribute to this book, and to Sally Nicholls, to say that for me it stopped being a work of fiction after only a few chapters –Sam, and Felix, and their parents took on flesh – you just know that in real life they are out there, close by. This is not a book solely about dying and death. In fact it’s more about life, and its one that stops you in your tracks to make you think, with gratitude, about life. It’s a book that reveals a new author of great promise. And I dare to predict that in time this will become a children’s classic.

- Gerry Smyth (of Irish Times fame, and a judge at this years Glen Dimplex Award)

The winner of the Observer Graphic Short Story Prize has been announced – Julian Hanshaw - for his “haunting, evocative and beautifully drawn story“.

The story will appear in next weeks Observer and Mr Hanshaw should be seeing a specially uniformed postman outside his door with a cheque for £1000 some time this week.

Looking forward to seeing it! More over on the Observer.

Have you seen Remarkable Animals yet? No? Then click here. This is one book that should be on everyone’s Christmas wish-list… I got to fiddle with a copy (stolen, borrowed, from the Very Hungry Caterpillar) and managed to create Jonathon Ross’ long lost ancestor – a Wosstypus.

Other links for this morning – Independent UK has a look at the The Birthday Book, edited by Michael Morpurgo & Quentin Blake.

And the Guardian has invented a new word for the teenage girl, young adult and their mum audience for Stephanie Meyer. Other runners included Vampults, Fantaseenagers, Mothersuckers. Twums is so far the best. Any ideas?

Here’s the Twilight trailer – for inspiration of course:

Children’s Books Ireland (CBI) and the Irish Book Publishers’ Association (CLÉ) – more acronyms than you can shake a stick at - have organised a panel discussion to look at Irish children’s book publishing on November 27.

Publishing guru Seamus Cashman will chair the panel, joined by who-be-whatsits: Seosamh Ó Murchú (An Gúm), Michael O’Brien (The O’Brien Press), Eoin Purcell (Mercier Press), Conor Kostick (author and former chairperson of the Irish Writer’s Union) and Mary Esther Judy (Dubray Books, Galway).

It will be a unique chance to hear the views and opinions from some very interesting people on and off the panel- I’m sure there will be plenty of others from the publishing world in the audience with comments, questions and plenty of debate.

So if you haven’t already – book your place!

The baby-faced ‘master of horror‘ Darren Shan, fresh from his US tour, has an interview with Brendan Cole over at rté.ie. Darren is back blogging too – with a flurry of posts about the tour and the trials and tribulations involved.

One interesting tid-bit from the RTÉ interview:

Very few people would recognise me walking down the street. I live in a very small village in Limerick and everyone knows me there. I’m the local writer but if I wasn’t that, I’d be the local something else.

I’m trying to figure what the something else might be… local demon killer maybe?