David Maybury | Blog

Has anyone else seen the longlist for this years Guardian Prize? I’ve read five of the eight listed – and they make up an interesting, difficult list. The recent winner of the Bisto Book of the Year, Siobhan Dowd is on there, as is Nation, Terry Pratchett’s island adventure.

As with last years prize – which included Jenny Downham’s Before I Die, Frank Cottrell Boyce’s Cosmic and Siobhan Dowd’s Bog Child – I don’t envy the judges their choice. And in the mean time…. I’ve got some reading to do.

And the nominees are:

Genesis – Bernard Beckett
The Silver Blade – Sally Gardner
Nation – Terry Pratchett
Then – Morris Gleitzman
Rowan the Strange – Julie Hearn
Exposure – Mal Peet
Solace of the Road – Siobhan Dowd
Revolver – Marcus Sedgwick

I’ve already given ye the ‘how it felt to be a judge‘ spiel so I’m gonna keep this short. The winners for the Bisto Book of the Year Award 2009 were announced yesterday – I’m missing all the fun at the minute… Anyway, without further babble on my part.

Bisto Book of the Year: Bog Child (Siobhan Dowd)
Eilís Dillon Award:  Anila’s Journey (Mary Finn)
Bisto Honour Award for Writing: Creature of the Night (Kate Thompson)
Bisto Honour Award for Illustration: The Great Paper Caper (Oliver Jeffers)
Judges Special Recognition Award: Highway Robbery (Kate Thompson)

The most deserving books made it onto the shortlist – and the best were fairly recognised. Congratulations to everyone nominated and of course, to the winners.

I thoroughly enjoyed David’s live blogging of last year’s Children’s Books Ireland Conference.

I knew we were going to miss it this time around. Though, I have a feeling that this year Dave, as a hip young thing, would have put aside the blog and stuck with Twitter throughout the weekend.

So let me present my attempt at Dave’s twitter summary of the weekend

International illustrations rock as do our own writers. Writing is joy and all kids need to see themselves in books. Eoin colfer is funny. #CBI Conference 09

Very Hungry Caterpillar

I’m not exactly at the desk these days but Mercier Press managed to find me long enough to let me know about something exciting. They’ve come up with a decent competition for illustrators looking for a break, namely the chance to clinch a €5,000 publishing deal.

They’re printing a new edition of Patricia Lynch’s Tales of Irish Enchantment and are seeking submissions from potential illustrators to work on the book. There’s €5,000 up for grabs as well as your name on the cover…

Deadline for entries is June 14 – and all ye need to submit are two full colour illustrations and send ‘em via their website. Be warned though, the winner will have to complete up to 70 more images within seven months of winning the competition.

Good Luck!

Poor Dave, forced to trek around the horrible old earth. He doesn’t have half the time for trawling through the Sunday spreads like i do.

He’ll miss this interesting little piece in The Guardian, The Giant of Modern Literature?

I’m guessing he already has the answer sussed. Wish I was on holidays…..

So I can’t read a word of Mandarin and my Cantonese is woeful but it hasn’t stopped me from heading into as many bookshops as I could find in Beijing and talking to booksellers, publishers and a writer or two. I’m not sure what I was expecting…but it wasn’t RL Stine.

Admittedly Stine is an old favourite so I was very glad to see his Goosebump stuff in every bookshop. Of course he wasn’t alone – Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series is here too, though shelved with the adult fiction and bestsellers.

Outside of those two though there doesn’t seem to be much available – at least not in Beijing. The bookshops have huge amounts of floor space dedicated to children’s books, all of it given over to prescribed school books. (Some of which was probably fiction and I just couldn’t tell)

Reading for kids is evolving in China – mostly around multi-media – as books are being released in bundles with DVDs or VCDs. It is limited to younger audiences, there has been little or no move yet by Chinese publishers to try them on other markets, though they are watching to see how successful the markets are.

One Chinese author Rao Xueman has been very open about the importance of authors adapting to new media – and says that young readers have become less satisfied with reading word by word. Pictures, music and video are all important parts of the sales package now.

That said, the production values of Rao’s videos are great and they don’t come cheap – Roa has the circulation figures to compensate her publisher (Sandglass is up around 1.8 million copies).

Maybe Shanghai will have more to say.

Just a few pics from Beijing – ye can follow the rest of the trip here, as well as sporadic twitter updates

I’m having some blog withdrawal so here’s one last, honest it’s my last, paper link post (from Beijing no less).

SF Sai reviews Shaun Tan’s excellent new book of short stories – Tales from Outer Suburbia in the Guardian:

This may be the most beautiful book you’ll see all year. Once you’ve read it, you may find yourself feeling as though an exchange student from another planet has dropped by and left a glowing matchbox garden in your kitchen cupboard.

Alison Flood checks out Logicomix – graphic novels based on the life of Bertrand Russell, the philosopher, logician, mathematician and Nobel prize for literature winner.

The book is a rare intellectual and artistic achievement which will, I am sure, lead its readers to explore realms of knowledge they thought were forbidden to them.

Michael Rosen talks laureatships in the Guardian -

I’ve come to the conclusion that the most important thing any of us who care about children’s books can do is to be enthusiastic about them. In the present climate, where books are the optional extra in schools too busy “doing literacy” to have time to read, being enthusiastic about books has become slightly subversive.

Michael Prest talks to Micheal Rosen in the Independent UK – laureates were in vogue last week. This time Rosen encourages anyone/everyone to study Children’s literature – he’s on a quest to get everyone reading – and he’s setting up a new MA in Children’s lit in Birbeck College, London.

The Guardian defends Comic Sans. Every font has its day.

Sarah Clarke, Waterstone’s Book Buyer, takes a stab at choosing her own modern classics in the Telegraph.

Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers: This is a beautifully illustrated and very touching tale of friendship. Last Christmas’s animation has ensured that it will, like The Snowman, be enjoyed by generations to come.

Back in the Guardian with Julie Eccleshare – reviewing Mo Willem’s Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, ohn Yeoman and Quentin Blake’s The Wild Washerwomen and Tasha Pym and Joel Stewart’s Have You Ever Seen a Sneep?

And one last interview – back in the Independent UK. Jonathan Sale talks to Lucy Hawking about the series she has co-written with her Dad, Stephen.

The three “George” books are based on my father’s 40-year career in science. It was my idea in the first place – the characters and the plot lines – and he is my scientific adviser. I always knew he was a scientist, not least because our house was always full of physicists, who seemed to be incredibly numerous, although in fact theoretical physics is a very small world.

‘Sup Kids!

By the time this goes out we’ll be halfway across Europe and on our way to China. But don’t worry – I’ve left you all in capable hands with some guest bloggers on hand to keep ye up to speed and reading some interesting bits and pieces.

And of course you can click on the big Where Are We? link to keep up with what we get up to over the next few months.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

It started with Stephen King.

The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.

And it went on from there…

“Steven [sic] King doesn’t know what a real book was if it hit him in the face. He’s just a bloody guy who is jealous of Edward’s good looks,” wrote poster Kiki Alice Cullen. “King is no Gabriel Garcia Marquez so I don’t understand why he gets to say who is a good writer and who is not,” agreed another, while a third, who wished she could “just hit this guy”, suggested that “we twilighters should send him tons of hate mail … just to show him how many twilight fans he just pissed off.” (Guardian UK)

Then I found Eve’s comprehensive post on Vulpes Libris:

So yes Twilight does appear to be addictive, it does have some totally cheesy writing, some wooden characters, some gawdawful plot points – but all of these are totally forgivable (hell I read Flowers in the Attic about a million times when I was twelve!).  But the thing I won’t forgive is the portrayal of women as weak-without-a-man creatures who need told what to do and who should follow exactly what their men tell them without question… that’s a dangerous message to give our children.

Vanessa on The Fidra Blog chimed in with this:

I know it’s not real, that vampires don’t exist, that’s it’s just Stephenie Meyer’s teenage daydreams, that people don’t really glitter, but I also know that girls of 10 and up are reading these books and absorbing the subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages about female inferiority and how Bella is to blame for the possibility of Edward losing control and killing her.

And yet… despite all of these people pointing out how bad it should be… I still like the series. I’m not going to fawn over Robert Pattinson, I’m just not that kinda guy, and I wasn’t a huge fan of the movie… but none of it has stopped me from looking forward to the next book.

And in the mean time I’ve even found some things to fill in the gaps. Kelley Armstrong’s The Summoning, Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series, The House of Night by P.C and Kristin Cast, and Daniel Waters’ Generation Dead and The Kiss of Life.

If you loved Twilight you will like ‘em. Maybe even love them.

It was bound to happen really. (via Rick)