Glasgow

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Jump! by J G Nolan and Carina Roberts

I am going to start this post by saying that I was not sure about reading this book.  I will admit that I am not a follower of football, so any book on the subject really takes me out of my comfort zone.  Football has always been at the periphery of my life, starting with having to keep track of the football results on a Saturday afternoon for  one of my aunts.  Going to library school in Manchester also had an impact as everyone seemed to support United or City.  When I lived in Scotland I was aware of the teams but did not really know them and so my slight links to the sport carried on.  Over the years we have had a large number of books about football, but they tend to be about fictional clubs and players; this is different as it is based around one of the most iconic clubs in the UK.

The central character, Robbie Blair has a lifelong ambition to be a professional football player and with his talent that seems to be a possibility.  Then he suffers several broken bones over a short period and it looks as if his ambitions might be in tatters.  But something strange happens when he has his latest disaster; as he is being carried off the pitch he sees an unknown face who tells him that “it is never over”.  The story follows Robbie as he starts the long road to recovery, with the help of his friend Jamie (a girl) and a mysterious figure who shows him ways to train and improve his strength and stamina.  The setting is Glasgow and Robbie is a tremendous fan of Celtic football club, so it is not difficult to believe that it is the spirit of Patsy Gallacher, on of the team’s greatest ever players, who is helping Robbie achieve his dream.

This is a book that really took me by surprise.  It is full of emotion on so many levels.  The relationships that Robbie has with his mother is very strong, because his father has left home and they depend on each other.  However she is scared by the injuries that her son has suffered and is determined to keep him safe in the future, even if it means banning him from playing football.  There is a feeling in this story that really reminds me of the film “Field of Dreams”; whilst the stories are very different we have that same sense of determination and an understanding that we can learn from the heroes of the past, who often had to contend with greater challenges that we can imagine in the modern world.

I absolutely recommend this story, it will be enjoyed by boys and girls whether they  are  football fans or not, because it is all about friendship, family and holding on to your dream.  This definitely gets five stars from me.

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Glasgow and YLG

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A very nice room

For the first time in quite a few years YLG has returned to Scotland for its conference.  It was held in Glasgow and the venue was the rather incredible Beardmore Hotel; fantastic rooms for all of us and our own major hospital next door.  Even the bills were made out to the Scottish NHS!  There is a long and fascinating story behind all of this, but I had no worries about what to do if I was taken ill. I was only able to go to the event for the Friday and the first half of Saturday and treated myself to a plane flight from Bristol, much better than 6 hours of trains.  It was great to arrive on the Thursday evening and to meet up with lots of friends, especially Bev Humphries, and to just sit and talk about books.2015-10-23 15.42.28

As usual there was a fantastic exhibition and a big thanks goes to all the publishers who travelled to put on such a good show.  So many good friends and some lovely new friends in the making.

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Amazing Grace, 25 years old

The Friday started out with a fascinating plenary session  by Karen McCluskey, the Director of the Scottish Violence reduction Unit, which reminded all of us of the major issue that we face in areas of deprivation.  This was followed by the first of the workshop sessions.  I attended the one run by Paul Register, who founded and runs the Stan Lee Excelsior Award, which is for comics (of the American variety such as X-Men, Superman, not the Dandy and Beano).  It was a great insight into a very popular and yet poorly understood area of young people’s reading and I am sure that many more schools will want to become involved with this award.  After the coffee break and celebration for the 25th anniversary of “Amazing Grace” I attended a workshop lead by Siobhan Parkinson, a past Irish Children’s Laureate and the publisher at Little Island Books, as she spoke about translating children’s books.

The afternoon provided the publishers with a 3 minute slot to promote their future books.  Some were very slick and others more homespun, but they all whetted our appetites for some really amazing books to come.  The third workshop period of the  day was after lunch and I spent an hour learning many things about my iPad that were new to me, despite having had the machine for several years.  I really must try and use it more effectively than I have done.

Author highlights of the weekend included Sarah Crossan talking about “One”  A lovely panel session with illustrators Catherine Rayner, Emily McKenzie, Holly Sterling and Ross Colin, celebrating the launch of a new book 2015-10-23 15.42.19by Andersen Press, “The Prince and the Porker” by David Robert and based on the story “The Prince and the Pauper”  by Mark Twain.

The Saturday morning was taken up by a Graphics novel panel consisting of the stars that are Mel Gibson and Paul Register, together with Liz Payton from the Phoenix magazine, as well as a talk by the very popular Sita Brahmachari.  This was closely followed by discussions with Barbara Band about boys reading and the gender gap and then Barry Cunningham talking to some of his  Chicken House authors, Sam Hepburn and Emma Shevah.  It was a shame that I had to leave at lunchtime and I missed several sessions that I know will have been great as they involved Gill Lewis, Jenny valentine Janetta Otter-Barry and Anna McQuinn.

One of the real joys of going to any conference is the opportunity to meet and talk to like minded people.  Over the years these become friends and you are constantly reminded what a truly friendly and dedicated bunch of people are involved in children’s literature.  I really want to say thank you to all the people involved in organizing the conference, I have that t-shirt and know how much hard work they put in, even though it is so worth while. A big thank you to the publishers for the exhibition, the authors and of course THE CAKE!

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