The pressies are all bought and wrapped, the turkey has been collected and the ham is bubbling in the corner.
All that’s left for to me (and the elves who run the site) to do is wish you all a great Christmas and an even better new year.
Thank you for reading the blog and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in 2010 for more fun and frolics!
I’ll be back in January – don’t break anything while I’m gone!
As mentioned – there are only 4 sleeps until Christmas… and only 4 sleeps until the Gruffalo hits the small-screen! That very same monster makes the headlines in the Irish Independent, The Times (UK), Irish Daily Mail, The Times (UK) again and in The Guardian (with an interview with Susanna Rustin)
Any house with a small child will have a copy of The Gruffalo and if they don’t they should. It’s one of the most famous picture books in the past 10 years and the most popular in the past 20 or 30. “I’d challenge anybody to say another children’s picture book has sold more. – Dave O’Callaghan (on The Gruffalo)
Robert Dunbar and Geraldine McKenna join Pat Kenny on RTE to choose some of the best books for young readers this Christmas. Click to listen.
In sticking with things on-screen – Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials won’t be making it onto the silver screen. In good news – Lorenzo di Bonaventura has snapped up rights to produce Michael Scott’s six-part fantasy series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.
And Steven Spielberg has nabbed the rights to produce Michael Morpurgo’s The War Horse!
Anna Carey reviews some favourite classics for the straightened times we find ourselves in – and Jan Ruffino has a look at the new RTE series – On the Block – with four different kids talking into their webcams.
John Mullan searches for the ten best child story narrators – including Tracy Beaker | Meg Rosoff reviews Wolf Erlbruch’s Duck, Death and the Tulip.
Outstanding books for young people have often proved difficult to categorise and market, and there seems little likelihood of this one taking over where sales of Guess How Much I Love You leave off. Erlbruch’s simple eloquence in the face of life’s most monstrous inevitability, however, suggests that Duck, Death and the Tulip will continue to occupy an important place in the literature of childhood long after today’s bestsellers have been forgotten. – Meg Rosoff
Jean Hannah Edelstein wants to put people right on Enid Blyton while Jenny Uglow looks at the best of old and new picture books.
Jeanette Winterson talks about why she became a children’s writer in the Guardian Author, Author series.
Nicolette Jones covers the year in Children’s Lit over at Book Brunch, Publishers Weekly covers some new picture books and Sam Jordison celebrates Terry Pratchett’s Unseen Academicals.
Are these the best films of 2009?
Where the Wild Things Are – the video game… a little jerky but sounds like a playable adaptation of the film
Publishers across Asia search for local talent to create picture books. Beverley Naidoo visits Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre.
Only 4 sleeps until Christmas – and the bookstores are finally seeing a small light at the end of the tunnel… Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident reaches the top 10 best-selling books of 00’s (It’s a short list with just Dan Brown and JK Rowling up there)
Reactions to the Amazon e-book war have been mixed – one of my favourites so far has been Matt Stewart in the Huffington Post:
Imagine if airlines gave their biggest frequent flier customers the worst seats on the plane. If iPhone owners had to wait six months to download the latest tunes… …These are all idiotic ideas, certain to ruin relationships with each industry’s biggest advocates, devastate the bottom line, and get top-level executives axed. So why do these publishers think they’re exceptional?
(And speaking of Huggington Post – check out their top ten tweet tips for publishers. Common sense but all very clever)
Rene Russo has joined Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston in Thor.
So… there are two Richard and Judy book clubs in the UK now? Confused?
Meghan Daum talks about the loss of Kirkus – or the lack of a loss… apparently.
I still feel more “Yeah, so?” than “Oh no!” about the end of Kirkus. But for all my indifference, I will say this in defense of Kirkus (and professional review publications in general): At least the critics had some cred – Meghan Daum
Jeanne Mosure (Senior Vice President, Disney Publishing Worldwide) talk e-books in the lead up to Disney’s Digital Book releases.
Gadget Republic features ‘Bully Stop‘ – a new app for all phones to filter texts, MMS and calls to phones. (And on the topic of phones – some new statistics on teenagers phone usage, notably sexting)
The Costa Book Awards have announced their judging panel for this year and the Independent UK has some other event highlights.
Did you know that Jimmy Carter wrote 27 children’s books? UK Soldiers in Afghanistan are reading bedtime stories to the kids – 4000 miles away.
And in my favourite story this week – Phil Earle (S&S children’s sales director) has sold his first YA title to Puffin. Expect to see Being Billy on the shelves in 2011.
For those that missed the chance to hear Eoin Purcell’s pearls of wisdom, Susan Carleton’s expertise or Ivan O’Brien’s quick retorts – now is your chance!
The Children’s Books Ireland Digital Developments Seminar is online! Complete with transcripts and podcasts (the podcasts are so posh they even have Eoin’s slides from his keynote) Impressed? Me too!
Check out childrensbooksireland.ie for more.
Anyone else at a loss for things to do this Christmas? I’m making a list, checking it twice… and so far here’s what we at Maybury Manor heartily endorse:
The Snowman Movie in the National Concert Hall – yup, it’s the movie complete with full orchestral backup. (Not too expensive with tickets at €20/€15) Have a look at nch.ie
If movies are your thing – there’s always Where The Wild Things Are, Avatar, New Moon and Planet 51 – or the spooky and not-so-much-for-kids Paranormal Activity.
But if the real thing is more your scene, there is always the option to visit Fossett’s Circus – who are back with their Christmas offering in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
There’s plenty happening everywhere this year – send on any/all suggestions! And of course the holidays are the perfect time to get some quiz training in ahead of the Children’s Books Ireland Annual Table Quiz Extravaganza on 21 January.
Canongate and Walker books are joining forces to create an imprint for Young Adult fiction – using adult titles from Canongate (both published and new books) and Walker’s experience, contacts and marketing in the Children’s market.
July 2010 will see Yann Martel, Niccolo Ammaniti, Kelly Link and Matt Haig’s adult titles on the shelves with new covers (and some being abridged) and will include teaching aids and other add-on material.
In a tough fiscal year – it is encouraging to see publishers try new ideas and experiment (even just a little) – and of course, who could argue with unleasing some great fiction on to the masses?
Now… I wonder if Faber could be talked into repackaging Philip Ardagh’s Grubtown Tales into adult editions (abridged for the market, of course!)
Now for something completely different to brighten your Wednesday -
A study published Monday in The Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry has concluded that an estimated 98 percent of children under the age of 10 are remorseless sociopaths with little regard for anything other than their own egocentric interests and pleasures.
via The Onion.
The UK Vetting and Barring Scheme has come under heavy criticism since it was announced earlier this year – not least of all from Philip Pullman (who threatened to never visit schools again). Ed Balls, UK Children’s Secretary, announced today that he was revising the scheme:
Adults will have to be vetted only if they come into contact with the same group of children once a week or more, rather than once a month as at present. (This means that two million parents and others – including authors – who help with school outings or other occasional voluntary activities will no longer have to be vetted.)
More from the BBC, Times UK and the Bookseller on the official announcement.
Interestingly – not everyone is as convinced about the ruling (I would have to agree). Barry Hutchison covered the topic as a working/school visiting/real life and breathing author:
Kids are naturally trusting, and when a teacher introduces them to a new person they have no reason not to trust them… …No scheme is foolproof, but one that works even 75% of the time is better than no scheme at all, surely?
If the original version of the Vetting and Barring scheme prevented even one child from being hurt or taken advantage of in some way, then in my mind it would have been worth it.
The mandatory round-up from last week – and starting at home with some festive lists from some prestigious voices:
Robert Dunbar has his Christmas wishlist in the Irish Times. Celia Keenan has the YA market sewn up with a long list of great books while Sarah Webb hits the headlines elsewhere in the Irish Independent – with books kids will love this Christmas.
Nicholas Tucker in the Independent UK has his own list of Best Books this Christmas. Johnathon Hunt has his YA books of the year on NPR. And Julia Eccleshare has her own list of children’s and illustrated books in the guardian.
Kate Kellaway reviews some of the latest picture book releases – Daddy Lost His Head (Quentin Blake and André Bouchard), Who Wants to Be a Poodle? I Don’t (Lauren Child), Red Ted and the Lost Things (Michael Rosen and Joel Stewart), The Lion, the Unicorn and Me: the Donkey’s Christmas Story (Jeanette Winterson), Jack Frost (Kazuno Kohara) and Fairie-Ality Style: A Sourcebook of Inspirations from Nature (David Ellwand)
This year’s fiction for the 11-18 age group is striking for three things. The first is the degree to which modern stories and contemporary young adult concerns and anxieties are filtered through or reflected in older forms of story-telling such as folk and fairytales, sometimes to terrifying effect.
The second and one to be warmly welcomed is the increasing availability of really good visual material in terms of graphic novels, illustrated books or even picturebooks for this broad age group.
The third, also to be welcomed, is the increasingly frank embodiment of political ideas and concerns in much of this work. It is important that young people be offered something more than the narcissistic concerns with appearance and surface that much of popular culture seems to assume they want. There’s a lot out there besides handsome vampires! – Celia Keenan, Irish Independent.
Geraldine Bedell looks at the latest books lost in the shadow of Meyer – Fallen (Lauren Kate), Hush, Hush (Becca Fitzpatrick), Shiver (Maggie Stiefvater), A Trick of the Dark (BR Collins) and The True Deceiver (Tove Jansson)
Vampires? Werewolves? Pffft! They’re all past it – and far too soppy. Imogen Russell Williams knows that Dragons are where the fun really is.
What was the best theatre of the decade? Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse according to the Times UK. Best films of 2009? Coraline steals the ‘best charmer of the year’.
This adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s children’s book was the theatrical event of the decade, starring a life-size puppet of a horse. The story was sublimely simple: a farm horse, Joey, is drafted to the western front, and Albert, the boy who loved him, goes off to France to rescue him. The effect was beautiful and devastating.
Philip Pullman is going the way of the Beedle Bard – creating a limited edition charity book.
And is Harry Potter competing with the Twilight shirtless bonanza? It seems so – Daniel Radcliffe is taking his shirt off. (/swoon)
Lyn Gardner gives Room on the Broom the thumbs up while Laura Barnett just can’t hate Gossip Girl.
According to Australia’s HeraldSun – and research from Canada - Thomas the Tank Engine is too conservative and under-representative of women.
Viv Groskop looks for the young readers guide to feminism – as we all know… Girls are boring.
Adidas are tipping their toe in the world of comics… | Popeye and EC Segar get a nod from Google | Pied Piper of Hamelin is getting the Hollywood treatment | A classic comic collection goes under the hammer – and could raise some eyebrows.
John Whelan evaluates the most recent Nielsen’s BookScan figures – including the surprise best-seller by Mr Tayto who is in 10th place overall for non-fiction with a total of 10,793 sales!
Overall, however, the Irish retail book sector remains remarkably buoyant despite the recession, with the latest Nielsen data valuing the fiction market here at just over €37m for 2009 with sales of 3,882,427 to date for 46,929 titles. The non-fiction figures are running at 4,630,297 book sales worth just €65m for 199,377 titles.
This compares with the 2008 total market value of €111.3m (John Whelan, Irish Independent)
It was the week that Amazon hit the headines… repeatedly! First with the statement that the firm will not be opening any stores in the real world any time soon. And then came the real fun…
The Wall Street Journal reported that Simon and Schuster and Hachette would both be holding back digital editions of new books until after the initial release of Hardback editions. Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins joined the chorus…
Amazon have hit back by further forcing the cost of digital books down.
And news content has taken a stand against Amazon all of its own. (More on the iTunes-ization of fiction in the Guardian).
Somewhere in the mix of it all – Kirkus fell.
The Independent UK has a list of what’s to come in the world of books.
Booksellers reveal who the winners were this year – and what wasn’t quite right…
Galleycat’s ‘Can Twitter Sell Books?‘ continues – this time with reader responses. And in the mean time – Hachette have created a digital marketing role for Andrew Nolan.
And the mandatory iTablet/iPad rumour of the week: it will be on the shelves in March…
Faber have nabbed Tricia Rayburn for a new YA fantasy series | Random House Children’s Books has nabbed Arsenal midfielder Theo Walcott for a book series | And Lauren Kate’s Fallen has been optioned by Disney |
Last night – in a room full of who-be-whats-its – Inís magazine announced that one of its co-editors was stepping down. Marian Keyes – Inís review editor – is heading onto greener pastures, to finish a PhD no less!
And Marian’s replacement was announced as… well… um… me. (Surprise!)
Yup – I’ll be working with Patricia Kennon (Features Editor) from next year, and hopefully keeping up the high standards set by Marian, Caitríona Magner, Paddy O’Doherty, Sarah Webb, Valerie Coughlan and other editors who have gone before.
Thank you to everyone I spoke to/didn’t speak to/will speak to soon for the kind words last night. I’m looking forward to the challenge – and to working with so many passionate reviewers!
Stephenie Meyer died yesterday – or at least she did on the internet… The rumours of Meyers death are, of course, greatly exaggerated but the gossip mills were only put to rest after a statement from her agent:
I just received a call from Stephenie and she wanted me to let everyone know that, contrary to some rumors that have recently started circulating, she is alive and well.
Apparently celebrities get killed off in gossip all the time… How about we start a rumour about one of our own? Derek Landy maybe??
A really nice surprise this mornin’ – if you would all close your text books and open the nearest copy of the Irish Independent, turning to the Tech Supplement.
Featured in their Blog Digest this week are A Word of One’s Own, The Penguin Blog, The Book Depository blog and me!
Children’s books are often neglected in the blogosphere, but Dublin-based David Maybury keeps up this witty blog while “trying to finish a book or two”.
With a mixture of interesting stories (see the entry on the Incredible train-riding boy), details of events, reviews and insights, this blog is a cornucopia of all that’s happening in children’s books in Ireland.
And if you can’t afford to buy presents this year, try winning them in one of Maybury’s three competitions.
Surprised and chuffed to be included – thanks to the Silicon Republic gang and to you (yes, you too) for reading!
I’m having a love affair with library websites and web-services at the minute. (I’m still trawling through sites – so if I’ve missed anything interesting let me know!!)
southdublininnovates.ie is an interesting idea – and their sister site in Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown has some great interviews, including chats with John Boyne, Carlo Gébler, Brian Keenan, Pauline McLynn and plenty more. They’ve got themselves a pretty impressive book review blog to boot.
And there’s more!
I’ve gotten hooked on the LS for YP (aka – Library Services for Young People) How great does Coolock’s Games Night sound?! And the ‘What Kids Want’ from Cork‘?
But if yer looking for something a little less tech… then what about making snowflakes with an artist? Dublin’s Central Library reckons that they can teach anyone how to ‘transform a humble newsprint into a beautiful snowflake’ – and of course the more glitter the better!
Arts and literature in Ireland has had a fraught year – with the looming budget darkening the skies since the advent of the McCarthy report in July. Rumours have spread of 50% cuts to arts funding and furrowed brows have darkened corridors; considering plans to dig nuclear trenches for the cold winters ahead.
The creation of the National Campaign for the Arts and the considered cases put forward by Colum McCann, Sebastian Barry, Brendan Gleeson and others to the Oireachtas Joint Committee in October seem to have made some difference.
From the office of Arts, Sports and Tourism:
Funding to the Arts Council, the state agency for the arts is €69.15m, a 6% reduction on the 2009 figure of €73.35m. Arts Council current funding is between 2006 and 2007 levels.
The Irish Film Board and Culture Ireland will continue to develop and support their sectors. Their budgets have been maintained at 2007 levels with the Irish Film Board allocated €19.31m and Culture Ireland, €4.083m. The important tax relief scheme, Section 481, for investment in film and TV production is maintained until at least 2012, underpinning the Government’s commitment to the importance of our indigenous Irish film and audiovisual sector.
The artist tax exemption has been maintained with some adjustment only in respect of very high earners to reflect a more equitable apportionment of the tax burden.
- Full statement from the Department of Art, Sports and Tourism is available here.
Overall (taking into consideration the Arts Council’s cut in the supplementary budget in March and other spending this year) the funding cut for 2010 equates to above 10%.
While some of the other budget figures are incogitable – I am drawing a sigh of relief that arts funding in Ireland has survived better than expected!
Saturday saw the coming and going of the Irish Children’s Literature and Culture Symposium in UCD. And what a day!? There were interesting panels, lectures and speakers up the ying-yang!
If you haven’t already read lady-schrapnell’s comprehensive notes from the day – then get to it! They are faaaar more composed than my ramblings.
I was completely blown away by some of the presentations – particularly Valerie Coughlan and Ciara Ní Bhroin’s sessions on the Liminality of the bog and Modern Retellings of Irish Myths. Both were well researched, informative – and entertaining. (And there are plenty of ‘bog’ jokes still left to be made!)
The best was kept till last though – with a round-up by Mary Shine Thompson and panel discussion featuring Celia Keenan, Patricia Kennon and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne. This was the most passionate – and engaging – part of the symposium as theories, questions, jokes, anecdotes, questions and hypotheses were thrown around the room at lightening speed. (Jacqueline Rose has me quaking and my head-hurting)
The panel touched on reviewing children’s books in Ireland – which was both terrifying and refreshing. There is a lot of work to do in reviews of Irish books!
All that is left to say are the thanks: To the entertaining gang from Froebel who kept me on my toes at tea break! (Apple and cheese snadwiches!!) To the interesting speakers for their presentations. And to Susan Cahill for organising the day – and making the great point (in relation to bringing Oisín McGann, a group of kids and L.T. Meade together): Why not?
Neil Gaiman and Siobhán Parkinson talk audio books – separately mind – I don’t know if the world is ready for a Gaiman/Parkinson collaboration…
Siobhán defines an audiobook as:
Right, let’s get one thing straight to start with. Audiobooks are books. They may tend to get grouped, in the adult mind, with other technological enemies of reading, such as DVDs and computer games, but audiobooks are on the side of the angels. An audiobook is a book, if in an alternative form, unlike, say, a film that is only based on a book.
While Gaiman reckons that it is apart from a regular book, something in its own right:
An audiobook is its own thing, a unique medium that goes in through the ear, sometimes leaving you sitting in the driveway to find out how the story is going to end.
Parkinson comments on the scarcity of audiobooks – while Gaiman celebrates the increasing number of writers’ who have caught the ‘tapeworm’ bug… (euw)
There are some drawbacks to having to rely on audiobooks for your literary intake, and the greatest of these is undoubtedly restricted choice. – Parkinson
In the past six years, I’ve recorded six audiobooks, and although it can be exhausting, I’ve loved the process and have been delighted with the result. Author David Sedaris is someone else who records his own audiobooks… - Gaiman
And what of the future of audiobooks? iTunes is seeing a huge jump in audiobook sales (blame the iPhone/iPod) while CD audio sales slump…
I absolutely think the audiobooks are getting better: the level of sophistication of the narrative formats; the ways they are interpreted; the variance in kinds of formats; the decisions within the format. It’s something that adds a whole layer of experience. – Don Katz, president of audible.com (via Gaiman)
And the last word? We’ll go out the same as we started… over to Siobhán Parkinson:
It is just as valid an aesthetic and imaginative engagement to listen to a book as it is to read it, and it makes the same kind of imaginative demands on the listener as reading does.
So – do you listen to books?
There’s plenty happening in the papers – starting at home… You know you’ve made it when… the Irish Times features a decade of you. Sarah Webb – this is your life! (And the good news is there will be lots more of Sarah on the YA and Children’s bookshelves)
Everyone’s favourite fantasy writer – well mine – Holly Black has signed a new 3 book deal. The first, The White Cat, will be on the shelves in June next year.
Sick of the ‘best of’ lists yet? Large Hearted Boy has a best-of-the-best-ofs… If you’re looking for that perfect present, then this could be the best-of list that meets your needs. (The Guardian’s Critical Eye has another round-up of the round-ups…)
And if you’re still not overdosed on lists -Alison Walsh has a list of some of the best children’s books of 2009. (Or you could review the last decade!) Maeve McLoughlin in the Sunday Business Post creates her own nativity wishlist.
Neel Mukherjee in the Times UK has a comprehensive list of graphic novels. and Nicolette Jones’ list the Children’s Books. And Claire Armiststead talks Logicomix on the Guardian Podcast (the same comic listed on the Times’ list)
Once ye get past the lists…
Olivia Laing reads Meg Rosoff’s The Bride’s Farewell – Rosoff specialises in feisty heroines, and her main character here, Pell Ridley, is no exception.
John Mullan reads Terry Pratchett’s Unseen Academicals and Justine Jordan reads Sue Townsend’s latest Adrian Mole. Jane Austen gets a lift – in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:
But the other obvious problem with monster mash-ups is that the joke very quickly grows old. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is often very funny, but by the third or fourth chapter you’ve well and truly got the idea; by the time you come to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the novelty has thoroughly faded. – Stephanie Merritt
Mobile Art Lab has an interesting take on picture books on the iPhone screen. And Julia Eccleshare has a picture book round-up (miss this last week!)
Talking of picture books, Reading University has released research into using pictures to co-erce children into eating vegetables: “The children showed more interest in tasting unfamiliar foods if they had previously seen pictures of them…”
The Telegraph features a slideshow from Peter Hunt and Lisa Sainsbury’s Illustrated Children’s Books – with some great choices.
Shane Hegarty reads Mr Tayto’s biography:
the “autobiography” itself is gently humorous, rampantly nostalgic and makes sure to turn Mr Tayto into a Forrest Gump-like figure, popping up alongside major figures of the past few decades. It is also more readable than a book about a pretend crisp should ever be.
And some more interesting links -
Enid Blyton joins the DS Flips ranks – alongside Eoin Colfer, Cathy Cassidy and the Too Ghoul for School gang! | Neil Gaiman talks audiobooks on npr – have you heard any good books lately? | Philly.com reviews Stephanie Meyer’s Female Force – a biographical comic about the original twerd. | CBR has a sneak peek at the Mighty (11) – and it looks like fun! (And the Independent UK have my Christmas list prepared!) | Keith Stuart has the top 10 PS3 games for Christmas – Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2 take the top post.
And the oscar goes toooo… Granny O’Grimm! Yup, everyone’s favourite curmudgeon is up for an oscar – and the full animated film is up for viewing. G’Wan – have a look to see what the fuss is all about.
Secret Of Kells is up for an Annie Award – with some stiff competition against UP, Coraline, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Fantastic Mr. Foxand The Princess and the Frog.
In the Irish Times – Joe Griffin prepares a list of movies worth a remake (The Truman Show? The Incredibles?) while Donald Clarke talks noughie – with a retrospective on the last ten years of cinema.
Danny Leigh reveals his love of all things heartthrob, namely Pattinson and Efron.
Ahead of the next weeks release of Where the Wild Things Are, Steve Rose talks to Spike Jonze. Declan Cashin in the Irish Independent has a word or two with the man in question too. As does Vanessa Thorpe in the Guardian.
Quentin Tarantino’s editor, Sally Menke, talks work, scripts and the man himself:
Watching Scorsese and Schoonmaker’s work, I learned how to collapse time in action but still push characters through a scene. It’s a trick to give the illusion it’s all real; that’s become crucial to us because the Tarantino thing is to make the mundane feel very spicy. It’s the illusion that time is ticking away. It’s all about tension,
And Mark Kermode reviews the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – and prefers it to Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
Dublin has a new independent bookshop – The Gutter Bookshop (run by Bob Johnston) – with a rake of events, launches and more planned! (And talking bookselling – Pearson reckons that the worst is over)
And here’s one way to encourage sales… have your book featured in a celebrity car crash. A pic featuring John Grinnin’s Get A Grip On Physics on the floor of Tiger Woods’s wrecked SUV has boosted sales of the book up Amazon’s bestseller chart.
Age Guidance on book covers hasn’t gone away – Booksellers in the UK are frustrated, on both sides of the arguement:
Convincing evidence that the initiative has helped increase sales would encourage Walker Books to have further discussion on the issue, said publishing director Jane Winterbotham. However, she added: “I think we have yet to see that, so are not planning to implement the new age guidance at the moment.”
Amazon are offering trade-ins for text books – including pre-paid postage labels available to print!
Rachel Cooke ponders the future of UK Libraries -
What can we take away from this mess? Only that it continues to be up to us – the people who love libraries – to keep our beady eyes open, and our boxing gloves always at hand.
John Grisham hit the screens of the Today show mid last week and talks web pricing with Amazon, WalMart, Barnes and Noble, and Target. The man himself reckons that printed books are endangered species – and eBooks aren’t helping. (Bad news then that the Kindle hit a new high on book sales)
Tim Adams explores the shifts in book buying this Christmas – chestnuts, fireplace and a kindle? Authors Sarah Rees Brennan and Ally Carter talk piracy.
Eoin Purcell talks children’s books and tech – and keeping with that theme: Galleycat asks – can twitter actually sell books? And Usborne gets itself a new website.
Gay Byrne talked books and the new FÍS Book Club with Derek Landy and Don Conroy – schools only!
Staying technological for a bit longer – the The National Literacy Trust (UK) has released figures showing that online social media encourage literacy.
And finally… Stephanie Meyer holds 5 of the top 10 bestsellers in the UK. Just sayin’.
For no apparent reason – here’s Super Gran becoming… er… Super? (Look at those feet playing football – phwoa!)
You can blame @darraghdoyle for this one.
It’s that time of the year again… Time to announce the winner of the Book Fest Cover Competition! (Well, technically the winner has already been announced, notified and had their prize shipped to them. But ye get the idea)
Who could forget last years winner? No wait… what was her name again?? And this year the folks at O’Brien Press needed a new cover for Sam McBratney’s The Lough Neagh Monster and the students of Ireland responded with some brilliant entries:
But there can be only one winner. (No really there can, I’ve asked…) And the new cover of The Lough Neagh Monster was drawn by Sophie Courtney (aged 10):
Congratulations Sophie!!
After a failed attempt (by PJ) to record his talk yesterday – I’m offering up my tweeted notes as the official record for the night. There are some highlights below – and the full list is available here.
Illustration is the Cinderella artform – despite PJ’s bias – often overlooked in favour of the author.
Illustration is work that you get paid for BEFORE you do it – Art is work that you do and MIGHT get paid for (Oliver Jeffers)
Talking through some Norman Rockwell – only now (20 yrs after his death) he is being re-analysed as an artist. Even now – critics (at a recent New York retrospective) resist Norman Rockwell as an artist, popular art and illustrators
Celebrity authors want the JK Rowling status of being a children’s author. Bono is the ONLY celebrity children’s illustrator…
Audience sniggers at this stage were from me… sorry! And perhaps one of the most exciting things I learned was:
PJ has written lots of stories but never illustrated/published them – his next move is to join the ranks of author.
Click to read the rest of the notes – and thanks again to PJ for the interesting insights and the National Print Museum for hosting the event (a really great venue!)
PJ Lynch is back tonight, talking at The National Print Museum in Dublin. The man himself will be exploring the definitions of art and illustration in his lecture Illustration: The Cinderella Artform.
The talk will focus on the overlooking of illustrators when compare to authors…
This is one ye really shouldn’t miss – so if ye’re free later tonight (7.30 to be precise) consider dragging yerself from the warm of the fireplace and head along. Admission is free and there will plenty of talk, fun and who knows… maybe mince pies and some learning.
Not that I’m looking for validation… but the National Literacy Trust (UK) have released interesting figures from research into the use of new technologies in the classroom.
The research, focusing on how tech can help reduce the gap between young people’s reading and writing skills, has reported that of those taking part 56% said that they use social media and 24% of those had blogs. The report found that those with a blog were…
were more prolific writers than their counterparts, held more positive attitudes towards writing and computer use and viewed writers more favourably.
In short, blogging is good for you! The Bookseller has more -
People tend to view young people’s online activities as a waste of time but the research suggests that we need to validate different ways of writing, just as we needed to validate different forms of reading. Writing skills and experience should not be confined to report or essay writing. – Dr Christina Clark, NLT Head of Research
Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler can eat her heart out! The story of two kids running away and hiding in a New York museum has come to life – almost.
Francisco Hernandez Jr. – a 13 year old New Yorker disappeared in the New York subway for a frightening 11 days. He got shouted at in school, decided he didn’t like it, took his phone battery out and headed underground – going back and forth undetected. And after 11 days of not being noticed, sitting on the train as the masses passed him by Francisco says -
Nobody really cares about the world and about people.
*** AND THE WINNERS OF THE 2009 CHRISTMAS BOOK GIVEAWAY ARE***
Boys Set: Annie | Girls Set: Jonathan | Mixed Bag: Gill and the exclusive boards.ie set goes to…. Macros42
Thanks so much to everyone who entered, and to boards.ie – the feedback has been great!! Will be running new and exciting comps in 2010. Enjoy the prizes folks!!
Some of you may know the name Marcus Chown.
You might remember his book Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You: A Guide to the Universe or perhaps you spotted Felicity Frobisher Three headed Aldebaran Devil (pictured) last year.
Marcus is a science writer and an astrophysicist. And he’s written a new book – We Need to Talk About Kelvin. (In between deciphering alternate universe and what-not) The man himself was kind enough to stop over and answer some questions:
So you’re a scientist… How many coco-pops would it take to cover the moon? (Copious notes and mathematical equations are expected)
Assuming that a coco-pop is about 3mm across and they are round (to an approximation), each has area of about 7 square millimetres… The Moon has a diameter of 2160 miles (I’m so sad I can remember that off the top of my head. I think I should get out more!), which is 3476 kilometres, or 3,476,000,000 millimetres, which means its surface area is about 38,200,000,000,000,000,000 square millimetres…
Therefore number of coco-pops it would take to cover the Moon is about 3,800,000,000,000,000,000 divided by 7, which equals: 5,400,000,000,000,000,000
or 5.4 billion billion
or enough to fill a breakfast bowl the size of Dublin!
Right, that’s the important question done – on with the interview!
Nick, one of those cleverly Eclectic Micks, has a great sketch of Conor Broekhart – the main character in Eoin Colfer’s Airman.
For this afternoon we’re taking to the skies… And why not have a look at some of the other brilliant stuff that the Micks’ have up there?
Publishers and children alike are celebrating the start of advent. (Already Headline, Scholastic and Random House are at it) Yes it is snowing on the site today, I make no apologies.
And not one to be out done by publishing folk… I present the Lego Advent Calendar! First out is a Tony Hawk wanna-be with snowballs:
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