David Maybury | Blog

Oliver Jeffers.

He can tell you better in his own words:

The folks at CBI have another great competition – this time it is for the greek god in all of us.

Yup – they are offering ten pairs of tickets to see Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief before anyone else. But there is a snag – you have to answer a question first. Think ye can manage it?

Poseidon is the mythical god of which element?*

a) The Air
b) The Sea
c) Cheesecake

Click here to send your answer – along with contact details (name, email address, telephone number) by 5pm Thursday  4 February. Drop by Children’s Books Ireland for details of when the screening is on.

*HINT: It really isn’t cheesecake… who writes these questions?!

The Bookseller has news of a new children’s publisher in the UK – focussing on new, debut authors . Maverick Press (from the brains of Maverick Arts) will publish 6 new titles through spring – two per month in February, March and April.

We’re all about supporting fresh new talent. Many of our authors are in their 20s, and all of them are real artists and storytellers. – Steve Bicknell, Maverick Press

Good news for anyone looking to try and get themselves into the market! Check ‘em out.

Two interesting finds on book covers. First from Floor to Ceiling Books on the difference between US and UK covers:

UK | US

Or how about repetitive cover design? Thought a book looked familiar? Check out these (via @darraghdoyle):

JD Salinger – author of that ‘unusually brilliant first novel’ has died, aged 91.

Salinger, best known for Catcher in the Rye and its protagonist Holden Caufield, has avoided media attention and shied away from publicity. The mystery around its author and the dejected and morose Caufield have made Catcher a right of passage for generations of teenagers.

I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.

Guardian Obituary is here.

UPDATE: I’ll be on Sean Moncrieff’s Newstalk show later today (2.30) talking about Salinger and Catcher’s influence.

From the desk of picm.tv:

Click to have a look at more!

The Happy Hugglewug – aka Niamh Sharkey – was on RTÉ’s Kazoo yesterday with two of the regional finalists, Anna Hart and Roisín Seoige, of the Junior Painter of the Year. And I think the clip shows the first televised competitive doodle game.

And if that’s not enough – check out the Kazoo! Book Club and the reviews of Colin Bateman’s Titanic 2020. And those clever folk at RTÉ do like their books – ICE have started their own (rival?) book club. First up on the chopping (ice)block is Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl – never a better excuse to reread where Artemis began, or to join in if you haven’t read the boy-genius yet.

In honour of the new release from Disney (Princess and the Frog) Dublin City Libraries are hosting Jazz Workshops over the next few weekends. Think you know your alto-sax from your trombone? Or your Davis from your Mingus?

Head along and see how you do – plenty of goodies to be won and it sounds like a whole lot of fun!

Worried about what Johnathan Ross will be up to once he finishes with the BBC? How about a comic book writer?

Ross has written a comic – published by Image – about gang wars in between booze-smuggling mobsters and vampires and the odd alien thrown in to cover all bases. Set in Prohibition-era New York – the artwork will be from Tommy Lee Edwards so there will be plenty of visual fun.

Have a read of the full story in the Guardian.

A little late joining the fray – Little Island Books is coming. Launching on March 18 (their website goes live on February 1) But what are the new-comers looking for and what do they like? Well… Siobhán Parkinson spill the beans:

What are you working on right now? (Detailed notes on top secret projects are acceptable)

Hm, well … planning the Little Island launch – of SIX WHOLE NOVELS, two of which I have translated, two of which are TOTALLY NEW, and two of which are Old Favourites Back Again; getting ready for not one but TWO Terrible Twins coming on an investigative visit next week (hoping they are going to revamp my library, make Intelligent Comments and pots of coffee and possibly work out how to make bloody iTunes do what I want it to do instead of what it wants me to do); thinking about Bologna and staring a lot at my diary; thinking about the IBBY conference in Santiago di Compostela in September and wondering if I am allowed to go their by plane or do you HAVE to come in on foot over the Pyrenees (how do you spell that? and why?); getting very wobbly at the thought of all the work that is piling up and that all has to be done at the Same time by just one person with only one head, and that one full of much rubbish.

And tweaking my latest MS, which is a novel for 12ish people about … well, life, death, that sort of thing. And working on my Irish-language novel which is about life but not death, for a change. And teaching an elective course in creative writing. Elective – that means the people CHOOSE to do it, now, that’s the kind of course they didn’t’ have when I was young. Will that do?

(more…)

Speaking of poetry – namely the winner of the 2009 Costa Book of the Year – I didn’t know that the recent winner of the TS Eliot Prize, Philip Gross, was a children’s author.

In fact – Gross has 5 children’s titles – the most recent The Storm Garden (Oxford University Press) published in 2006. Of course there is plenty of time to catch up on your reading before Gross visits Dublin in March (25-28) for the Poetry Now Festival in Dublin.

Has anyone read Gross’ work? Would be great to hear some recommendations!

Disappointingly (and unfairly) Patrick Ness was listed as one of the least likely to nab the overall Costa Book of the Year Award – with Colm Tóbín at the forefront. The shortlist of prize winners was….

• Colm Tóibin, Novel Award for Brooklyn
• Raphael Selbourne, First Novel Award for Beauty
• Graham Farmelo, Biography Award for The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius
• Christopher Reid, Poetry Award for A Scattering
• Patrick Ness, Children’s Book Award for The Ask and the Answer

But there can only be one winner – and this year it goes to the poetry book award winner Christopher Reid with A Scattering

I’m sticking with the legends for this weeks Book with a View – this time with Shirley Hughes. Click to read this weeks Book with a View.

iBbY Ireland have been busy – they’ve managed to bring six international sections together to showcase the best of children’s illustration from each country. (They would be Estonia, Guatemala, Ireland, Japan, Turkey and Zimbabwe)

The end result of bring this much illustration together…? The iBbY Big Dates Calendar – a perpetual calendar(it goes on and on and on and on and… well you get the idea. You get to keep it for a very long time.) Not bad for €12!

If you fancy a sneak peak at the the calendar illustrations – have a look here – and if it takes your fancy drop iBbY a line.

Those in know (ahem) tell me that this years Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature (ISSCL) conference is huge! In fact, the conference is so big that there will be two sessions competing for most of the weekend.

Most exciting is the news that Victor Watson will deliver the keynote address – Pictures, Stories, Books: The Art of Illustration.

Juliette has an overview of the conference – and the full programme is available for download here. Happy choosing – look forward to seeing some of you there!

Where I come from, the Trinity Book Sale is considered a two national holiday. And it’s coming up soon!

And the call has been put out for those unwanted books,  journals, (treasure) maps, CDs, telescopes and rare once-in-a-lifetime important papers of ill-reputed scientists.  All of the above and more now being gratefully received at the Booksale Office in Trinity College.

Fancy knowing more? Have a peak here.

Painter, illustrator and lifelong penguin-ite John Berry passed away earlier this year. Famous for his ‘Put a tiger in your tank‘ slogan for Esso – Berry illustrated more than 50 books, predominantly for Ladybird.(Remember Peter and Jane, and Pat the dog? Yup – that was him)

For more read the obituaries carried in the Telegraph and Guardian.

Supermarket chain Tesco have thrown their weight behind Amber Entertainment and entered themselves in the film industry. Amber have signed a multi-million pound deal with Tesco – and works in line for production include adaptations from Jacqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman and Judy Blume.

Fear not – Tesco are leaving the movie-making to Ileen Maisel and Amber Entertainment (producers behind Northern Lights)

Apart from telling the film-makers what I don’t want to see in Tesco, then there is no interference in the subject matter. Of course, I don’t want anything too risqué. Nothing that would be 18-rated and that would not sit well on our shelves. Other than that, though, there is no editorial involvement from us. We have been sent a script of the first film, so we know the story. That’s it. – Rob Salter, Tesco’s entertainment director.

Some sad news to kick off the paper review – French comic master Jacques Martin – and the man behind Alix – has died. Martin worked for years with Tintin creator Hergé before Alix moved out on his own.

Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is enjoying some great press in the wake of Rebecca Stead’s Newbury Medal win for  When You Reach Me. (A sixth-grade New Yorker is reading L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time, and begins to receive notes that she believes are from the future and which could help prevent a tragic death.) New York Times and The Guardian.

Bloomsbury are in hot water again over their US covers – the second ‘white washing’ of a cover in 6 months.

P. J. Lynch’s The Snow Queen (Hans Christian Andersen) Kazuno Kohara’s Jack Frost are reviewed by Amanda Craig.

Lynch’s pictures of the Queen beckoning Kay from out of a swarm of snowflakes, and sitting in frozen majesty on her throne on a lake of ice, are haunting but brave.

The Bookseller has the news that Alligator Books is to rejuvenate Hanna-Barbera’s characters with a host of new titles – expect to see The Jetsons, Dastardly and Muttley, Penelope Pitstop, Top Cat and Yogi Bear hitting shelves soon!

Publishers Weekly covers a heap of reviews – including Cat the Cat, Who Is That? from Mo Willems.

Bookbag reviews Emily Gravett’s Blue Chameleon: “Emily Gravett’s illustrations are as wonderful as ever” and Write Away reviews Joyce Dunbar and Jimmy Liao’s The Monster Who Ate Darkness: “Jimmy Liao does a fantastic job”

Kathryn Hughes reads Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why:

It is not a moral polemic but a clever sleight of hand. What it manages to do very effectively is ask its teen readers to think carefully about how being part of a herd can mean trampling weaker, peripheral members.

Those nice folks at School Library Journal have a list of the latest Comic and Manga releases this week.

New Research from the UK indicates that reading age develop a month earlier for every extra £100 a month in family income.

And further afield – The Writers Guild of America is slowly releasing their nominations – this time its for the 2010 WGA Videogame Writing Award.

According to the Guardian Martin Scorsese is planning an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s award winning (and stunning) The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

The Oscar-winning director is reportedly in talks to shoot an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s 2007 story, which went on to win the Randolph Caldecott medal for children’s fiction. The film will be independently produced by Britain’s Graham King, who oversaw Scorsese’s work on the Oscar-winning 2006 thriller The Departed, with a script by John Logan, who wrote The Aviator.

The book is part illustrated and part text with an incredible filmic flavour – and I can’t recommend it high enough to anyone.

Have a read of the full Guardian piece for more.

What is the name of the final book in Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy? (The book isn’t out till May! Click for a hint)

Pop your answer in the comments and
the winnerwill be pulled from a hat on
Friday 29 January (more…)

No one will ever need to interview Neil Gaiman again. (It’s a sad day – he is lovely – and genuinely great to talk with)

But with Dana Goodyear’s New Yorker interview there is nothing left to ask.There is no monolithic stone, medium rock or meagre breadcrumb that has been left unturned – seriously.

It has some great additions from Gaiman’s collaborators/friends/peers/who-be-whats-its:

Neil’s writing is kind of fey in the best sense of the word,” the comic-book writer Alan Moore told me. “His best effects come out of people or characters or situations in the real world being starkly juxtaposed with this misty fantasy world. – Alan Moore

Have a read – it may take a while. (And if it’s not enough for you – have a look at the readers questions!)

Think you spend more time on the web than a Volgon researching his next intergalactic highway route? Think again!

A study from the US has calculated that 8-18 year olds spend more than 7.5 hours a day on a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device.

And because so many of them are multitasking — say, surfing the Internet while listening to music — they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours.

Recalling Mike Walsh from last year – anyone turning 18 in two years time will have never lived in a world without the web. 2012 will see a new consumer come to the fore and communication (books and publishing included) is going to have to adapt.

Have a read of the full NYT piece. Or go straight to the Kaiser Family Foundation research.

Kate Brown (of Spider Moon – from the DFC – and manga Shakespeare fame) has been announced as the Arts Foundation graphic novel prize winner. The prize comes with a whopping £10,000 and will certainly make this the beginning of a great year for Brown!

The Arts Foundation folk had some nice things to say:

A challenging yet key period came through the children’s comic weekly the DFC where Brown produced The Spider Moon. Her belief that children’s books can work on various levels and variety of ages was put into practice. Through her longstanding interest in Japanese comics particularly artists such as Jiro Taniguchi and Miou Takaya one can see this in her drawing. However from mystifying girls to bonnet wearing monsters her characters have a resonance and depth which is based more in a more popular cultural style.

You can expect to see Spider Moon as a collected graphic novel from David Fickling Books later this year.

Every year the American Library Association whittle down a list of 00’s of  nominations (203 this year) – and reduce it to a mere 90 books considered to be ‘both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens’.

And of those 90 the association choose a top ten. (And in that top ten is our own Sarah Rees Brennan!):

• Sarah Rees Brennan Demon’s Lexicon
• Paul Griffin The Orange Houses.
• MH Herlong The Great Wide Sea
• Catherine Jinks The Reformed Vampire Support Group
• Jo Donna Napoli Alligator Bayou
• David Small Stitches: A Memoir.
• Rebecca Stead When You Reach Me
• Francisco X Stork Marcelo in the Real World
• Laini Taylor Lips Touch: Three Times
• Sally M Walker Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland

But wait! There’s more – they also have a list of Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults.

Like vampires in books? Like vampires in movies? How about vampires in pictures?

Yup – Edward, Jacob, Bella and the supporting cast of vampires, jealous friends and beyond have been adapted for a graphic novel – with Meyer consulting on the panels and extracts of the original Twilight text included. The novel is in black and white – with colour added in intermittently.

The first issue will hit the shelves in March. Click for more details.

I managed to nab myself a Nintendo DSi over the holidays – and I’ve been tinkering with the new FLIPS books ever since. Forget Sony eReaders. Forget Amazon’s Kindle. Even the iPhone comes in a close second.

Though the range is limited – Percy Jackson has just joined the ranks alongside Cathy Cassidy, Enid Blyton, Too Ghoul for School and Artemis Fowl – there is a lot to be said for carrying an entire series of books in one game card.

The text on the Nintendo is identical to the original books – but comes with the promise of interactive features, bonus reads, touch links and the ability to share favourite chapters wirelessly. (Everything that a 10 year bibliophile could ever ask for!)

For anyone new coming to a series the character information at-the-touch-of-a-button can be very helpful. But for a re-reader there is little new content – and little to entice you to the new platform. Other than the very handy trick of having all the books in one place that is…

In Artemis, the hidden gnomish codes are appealing – and makes each book a goal driven exercise where the reader has to find all the codes to unlock a hidden feature (perfect for my not-so-secret competitive nature).

Plans to release Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series are a nice touch (ahead of the movie release) and it comes complete with a link to The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology for more detailed monster research.

If you get tired of brain training – give yourself a real challenge and read a book!

Imogen Russell Williams hates cliffhangers – but has come round to the idea of trilogies. (Not that they stay as trilogies for long – Pullman is working on a fourth novel for His Dark Materials. And Ursula LeGuin and Douglas Adams’ trilogies both continue to grow – not to mention Lucas’ Star Wars monster)

I’m losing my knee-jerk antipathy to trilogies. Providing all the books in a trilogy stand alone – with proper endings – and complement one another, the best things really do come in threes. Inkheart, His Dark Materials, Peter Dickinson’s Changes, and Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus are all superb, and all the better for coming in three volumes.

Have a read of the full piece on the Guardian.

The good news is that Northern Ireland’s 2D comics festival is coming back – from June 3 – 5. Tables for artists, publishers and authors are free – and admission… well that’s free too.

Get your name in now if you’re thinking about booking a space though – places will go fast!

The programme is being updated at the minute – and the website has some pic from last years festival.
(Thanks to FP Blog for this one)

So – word on the web is that Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (subtitled On Stranger Tides) with Johnny Depp reprising his roll as Jack Sparrow. Plans to start filming later this year are already advancing and Disney are hoping to have the flick on screeens for Summer 2011.

Are you wondering what Tim Burton has planned next (after his remake of Alice in Wonderland)?

Rumour has it that he plans to nab Johnny Depp to star in his Dark Shadows remake later this year (Depp is busy with Pirates though – could get messy!)

And there have been whispers that Burton might be planning a revisit to Sleeping Beauty – focussing on Maleficent according to ‘aint it cool.

/I feel dirty with all this gossip.