Summer Fun begins

After the winter when travelling to and attending events is more difficult, I am now in summer mode when I try and go to as many launches possible.

June started with a great session at Puffin to celebrate the launch of “Danger is Everywhere”, a collaboration between comedian David O’Doherty and illustrator Chris Judge. The evening was hilarious as we were taught to avoid the dangers that are around us and we were all thrilled to go home with certificates to show we had reached level one as a dangerologist.

I have to say that the journey home was quite fraught with new found dangers, but I survived to go to other fantastic events.

an example of Chris’s work.

: A special invitation

The artist at work

Some Bath friends

This is becoming a fantastic summer for all my Bath based author friends. At the beginning of June we had the new book by Marie Louise Jensen. It is called “Runaway and is a historical story of lost heirs, murder and secrets surrounding a grand house and its occupants. There was a great launch at the Oldfield Bookshop, one of several independent bookshops in the city, which says something very positive about the people of Bath and it was good to catch up with friends and meet some new and fascinating people.

Then in July we have books by Anna Wilson (Summer’s Shadow), Wendy Meddour (Wendy Quill series) and Jo Nadin (Eden), which I am really looking forward to reading, and hopefully congratulating the authors in person.

Oxford University Press
9780192794673

Oxford University Press
9780192735355

There will be more news after the events.

April 8, 2014 by margaretpemberton

Saying farewell to formal work?

This last week has been somewhat eventful for me. With the closure of School Library Service in Bristol I have taken redundancy and am looking forward to the opportunities and time that this will give me. I think it will take a while for me to get used to it, even though I have had periods out of work before, courtesy of a service life.

I was determined to go out with a bang not a whimper, so I organized a “Meet the Author” session for teachers and librarians and my wonderful writing colleagues did not let me down. There were more than 20 authors and illustrators, ranging from old friends such as Chris Fisher, Anna Wilson, Hannah Shaw, Tracy Alexander and John Dougherty, to new friends Sam Gayton, Cecilia Busby, and Paula Bowles. The wonderful Jim Carrington traveled all the way from London whilst other Bath Spa graduates came by the car load, including Julia Green, Sarah Benwell, Wendy Meddour, Alison Rattle, Che Golden and Di Toft. Poetry was represented by Liz Brownlee and new authors were represented by Kathryn Alton, Rachel Carter, Bernie Howley, Sandra Greaves and Huw Powell.

This was a fantastic opportunity for teachers and librarians to meet and talk to the authors and perhaps arrange for visits to schools. John Dougherty also spoke about the “Patrons of Reading” scheme and hopefully this will help extend the work they do. Perhaps the word most associated with the day was ‘cake’ and hopefully we sent all our guest home full of good food. It made a fantastic end to the ‘official’ working schedule, but hopefully I will still be working with these wonderful people in the future.

March 30, 2014 by margaretpemberton

Having a buzz in Bath

We are very lucky in this part of the country to have so many fabulous authors and illustrators living and working nearby. Last Saturday I was in Bath Central Library with my Youth Libraries Group hat on helping with an Unconference based around children and reading. It was a great opportunity to catch up with friends, meet new ones and hopefully learn about how the children’s book world is moving on at the moment. We had several great bloggers (all of whom I am eager to learn from!) as well as the fabulous Gill McLay who co-founded the Bath Kids Lit Festival. There were so many lovely authors who each did a five minute introduction to their work, in the morning and then in the afternoon we had workshops around subjects such as reading groups, blogging and getting published. I know it was a great opportunity for people to build their knowledge of the people we depend on to make our jobs so worthwhile.

Pictured above is new author Huw Powell

From left to right the authors are: Shoo Raynor, Elen Caldecott and Julia Green

February 16, 2014 by margaretpemberton

A Golden Ticket

I have been so excited for the last few weeks, ever since a golden ticket landed on my doorstep. It was the next best thing to visiting Mr Wonka’s factory – an invitation to the celebration at Puffin books. Despite the awful weather and a tube strike quite a few people made their way to the Strand in order to raise a glass (and some chocolates) to wish Charlie and co. a very happy 50th birthday.

The wonderful Adele Minchin from Puffin books hosted the event and we were then treated to a discussion between Luke Kelly, the grandson of Roald Dahl and Lucy Mangan, critic and author of a new book about the history of Charlie (coming out in the autumn). The talk ranged from the number of times Dahl was turned down by publishers to the way that the illustrations have changed since the original publication. I must admit that I had not realized that it came out in the USA before it was accepted in the UK!

With several of Dahl’s books now adapted for the stage and the number of film adaptations we have seen growing by the year, I think that his work will be available for all to enjoy for many years to come. However it is in the books that we see the real magic of Dahl and none of these other versions can take the place of reading the actual works, so go on, a Dahl a day keeps the blues away.

February 8, 2014 by margaretpemberton

Let’s Celebrate

Yet again we have a bumper crop of anniversaries this year and there is a little bit of something for almost everyone.

Picture book characters that are celebrating include:

Product Details

Elmer, the beloved patchwork elephant from David McKee, who will be 25 years old. He is such a favourite not only in the UK but right across the world and particularly in Japan. I have to say I am very proud of my ipad case with a picture of Elmer on it.

Katie, by James Mayhew, who has introduced so many children to the world’s greatest artists, is also 25 years old. The books can be read as beautifully illustrated stories, but they have a real place in schools helping pupils understand and appreciate art and artists.

Kipper, by Mick Inkpen will be 18 years old. Mick Inkpen has produced some of the most loved children’ s characters over the years and Kipper is possibly his most well known creation. My particular favourite is Kipper’s Christmas Eve but that is so much younger than the original.

Clarice Bean is 15 years old. This character has developed as the years have gone on and we now have the Ruby Redfort books by Lauren Child, based on a character found in the Clarice books.

Geoffrey in “Giraffes don’t dance” by Giles Andreae is also 15 years. This has always brought out the extrovert in me, quite difficult really, but you just want to dance and share the enjoyment of finding your own particular way of doing it.

“We’re going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury is also 25 years old this year. This is a true classic, with so many children able to tell you the story, even if they only remember the images and rhthms.

I find all of this quite traumatic as I remember them all and it only seems like yesterday since they first appeared at book selection or as a flyer from the publisher.

Books for older children start with

“Charlie and the Chocolate factory”. Can you believe that he is 50 years old this year, whilst Dahl’s “Dirty Beasts” will be 30 years old. See my article about the celebration for this wonderful book.

Also celebrating 50 years is “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” by Ian Fleming. It has also been so much of our lives for so many years that we think it has always been around.. However for many people their memory is of the Lionel Jeffries and Dick van Dyke film, rather than the book itself. I can remember seeing the actual car parked outside the cinema in Weston-super-mare, publicising the film showing; happy days!

Other books published in 1964 which were very popular but are no longer so easy to find are “The book of three” by Lloyd Alexander and “Harriet the Spy” by Louise Fitzhugh. I have to admit that I found these books when I started work in a library because as a teenager in the 1960s I had been transferred to the adult library and was discovering Georgette Heyer and Agatha Christie, as well as more intellectual writers.

November 1, 2013 by margaretpemberton

October and still conference season!

For the last 15 years or so I have been used to Youth Libraries Conference being in September, apart from the two joint conferences in 2000 and 2012. However this year it has been in October and I have just returned from an exciting but very tiring two days in Birmingham. What a collection of authors, illustrators and other speakers and of course the exhibition gave us the chance to look at new titles and talk to our publishing colleagues about their hot tips.

The first day started with a session given by Michael Foreman who was talking about his new book “The Amazing tale of Ali Pasha”, which is based on a true story.

It is a fascinating, poignant and ultimately uplifting story of a young man who serves in the Gallipoli campaign, in the Royal Navy. The illustrations are skillful and very atmospheric. A beautiful addition to the growing list of books about the First World War.

Foreman, Michael.

The Amazing Tale of Ali Pasha

Templar, 9781848779990, £12.99

Review Copy of book.

The afternoon began with Holly Smale talking about her book “Geek Girl” and Ian Johnstone speaking about the first in his series The Mirror Chronicles, called “The Bell Between the Worlds. One of the benefits of wi fi is that you can actually buy the ebook whilst listening to the author. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Holly’s first book recently and am looking forward to Ian’s; he really made us all enthusiastic about this work.

The highlight of any YLG Conference is the Carnegie Dinner, where the medal winners are re-presented with their awards and delegates are able to meet with them. Luckily Sally Gardner and Levi Penfold were both able to attend and spoke eloquently about winning their medals. However I have to say that the pinnacle of the evening was the after dinner speaker, Sir Tony Robinson. As a fan of his for so many years it was brilliant to hear him speak about reading, literacy and libraries. He had obviously researched well and was passionate about the need for people to be able to access libraries, and for those to be well run and fit for purpose. He is also known for the many books he has written for children, a favourite of mine being “worst children’s jobs in history” and he was also promoting his new book “weird world of wonders”.

The Saturday events began early with a session by Kate Wilson from Nosy Crow starting at 8.15 am, this must rank as the earliest start ever. This was then followed by the shortest AGM in history and a wonderful and thought provoking session about visual literacy by the brilliant Ian Dodds.

We were then spoilt with a positive galaxy of authors including Melvin Burgess, Lucy Christopher, Emily Diamond, Rebecca Stead (congratulations on winning the Guardian Children’s Prize for “Liar and Spy”), Jonathan Stroud (see my review of the Screaming Staircase), and the legendary Susan Cooper.

I have come away with several bags of books, some of which I hope to be shouting about in the near future, but here is a taste of what might be to come. As you can see there are some familiar names, including Holly Black, Ruth Warburton, Eleanor Hawken, Anne Cassidy and Roddy Doyle. It looks as if we are in for a good year.

Finally I just have to share a picture of the most amazing hat, worn by Zoe Toft from the blog “playing by the book”, it is really amazing and also very elegant.

September 22, 2013 by margaretpemberton

“Season of Mists…”

September is almost over and the school year has really got going. It has also seen the publication of a truly amazing number of books by so many of our best loved authors. I have also had the great pleasure to attend several book events, including one by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre; the photos only tell half the story. There was also news from Andersen books about their upcoming books for the new year and the events to celebrate Elmer’s 25th birthday – totally incredible. We had a great afternoon last Monday in Bath, with Charlie Higson talking to over 400 students from 6 schools. Luckily the event was over when the fire alarm went off, due to an electrical fault and four fire engines descended on the school.

This coming Friday sees the start of the Bath Kids Lit festival and I have the pleasure of taking Cressida Cowell to a local school, before the opening talk with her and David Almond. It is going to be an action packed week with events by Alan Gibbons and Andy Seed in Bristol, followed a few days later by events for William Hussey. Somewhere in here I will get on with reading books and will be posting some reviews, the next will be Chris Riddell’s “Goth Girl”.

2013-09-04 18.39.06

August 31, 2013 by margaretpemberton

Summer roundup

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.

presenting R J Palacio with her award

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

January 15, 2013 by margaretpemberton

Picture book birthdays

2012 saw a plethora of birthdays/anniversaries being celebrated by a variety of children’s books and characters and covering a wide range of ages.

Perhaps the most famous among those for younger readers were the 25^th birthday celebrations for “Winnie the Witch” and “Where’s Wally”.

Winnie first made an appearance in 1977 (the Queen’s Silver Jubilee), with the humour of Valerie Thomas being beautifully interpreted by Korky Paul. Over the years Winnie, and Wilbur her cat, have gone from strength to strength; not only going into space, but using a computer and exploring the sea. This autumn she had a new adventure with dinosaurs, and a special anniversary edition of the first book has also been published to commemorate the great event.

“Where’s Wally” is equally popular with young and not so young library users. In fact Wally is a hero across the world, being known by a variety of names in a large number of Countries. He is celebrating his 25^th birthday this year, and Walker books marked the event with a big cake at the IBBY World Congress in London during the August Bank Holiday.

“Dear Zoo” is 30 years old

For older children we have a group of books and series that have reached a venerable age. They are:

“Captain Underpants” is now 15 years old

“Coraline” is 10 years old

“The BFG” is 30 years old – celebrate on Roald Dahl Day, 13^th September

“A Wrinkle in Time” is 50 years old

“Charlotte’s Web” is 60 years old

And the “Famous Five” celebrated 70 years since they began their adventures.

What a fantastic year . We can only hope that 2013 will provide us with the same quantity of celebrations, as we all love to party!

October 11, 2012 by margaretpemberton

what’s on the top of the book pile?

With half term fast approaching, I am starting to look at sorting my reading pile for the break. At the moment there is “Dodger” by Terry Pratchett, “Oblivion” by Anthony Horowitz, “Four children and It” by Jacqueline Wilson and those are just the big names. So look out for what I think about them after the break. I will also be looking at the shortlisted titles for the Centurion book award, which means I will have to spend some time sitting in a comfy chair – it’s hard, but someone has to do it!

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