The last few months have been full of great events, fantastic books and loads of really wonderful writers and illustrators.  In June we had the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway award ceremony at the Natural History Museum; with the amazing Sally Gardner winning for her book Maggot Moon and  Levi Pinfold getting the Greenaway for his Black Dog.  Both of them had stiff competition and I don’t envy the judging panel.  During the past few months I have had the great pleasure to arrange some visits in to various schools and all the authors have been absolutely fantastic.  We had Darren Shan talking about his new Zom-B book, Melvin Burgess discussing The Hit, Sophia Bennett and You Don’t Know Me and Sam Hepburn (aka Sam Osman) with Chasing the Dark.  The next few months look just as exciting, so I can’t wait to tell you all about.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion with R J Palacio, Sally Gardner and Laura Jarratt, where they discussed why they had used facial disfigurement as a theme in each of their books and what if anything they were hoping to achieve.  A full description of this evening can be found on the Anne Harding Blog.  I was also able to present R J Palacio with the Centurion Book Award which she won for 2012, and which was voted on by secondary schools in the Bath area.

 

             This Thursday saw the launch of the new book by Julia Donaldson and Charlotte Voake.  Entitled “Further adventures of the Owl and the Pussy cat” this is a ‘homage’ to the work of Edward Lear and includes several wonderful characters from some of his other works.  It is a lovely book for reading out loud to both individuals and also to groups of children. Iam looking forward to reading the book to my new grandchild, when they arrive.

 

 

 

 

 

Bennett, Sophia               You don’t know me                      Chicken House            9781908435460    

Burgess, Melvin                The Hit                                            Chicken House            9781908435330

Donaldson, Julia &            The further adventures of the Owl

Voake, Charlotte                  and the Pussy Cat                  Puffin Books                  9780141332888

Hepburn, Sam                       Chasing the Dark                    Chicken    House             9781908435682

Gardner, Sally                        Maggot Moon                        Hot Key Books               9781471400445

Jarratt, Laura                        Skin Deep                                 Electric Monkey           9781405256728

Palacio, R J                               Wonder                                  Corgi Childrens              9780552565974

Pinfold, Levi                            Black Dog                              Templar                             9781848777484

Shan, Darren                            Zom-B Angels                     Simon & Schuster            9780857077646