Featured authors – Page 18 – Bookmonitor

The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award

So good to have an award to celebrate diversity in children’s fiction. Frances Lincoln Ltd, the award winning publisher and Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books announced the second Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award.

Its aim is to encourage and promote diversity in children’s fiction and is in memory of Frances Lincoln ( 1945 – 2001).

In the UK we have an amazing richness of cultures and people from all over the world. Children’s perceptions of the world are largely based on the environment around them, the friends they meet and the books they read. Books need to be relevant to children of today.

The Diverse Voices Award is in its second year and is for new writers, whose books ensure that heroes, heroines and the range of characters reflect our modern cultures. The manuscript must celebrate cultural diversity in the widest sense, either through the story, or the origins of the author.

There is a prize worth £1500 and an option for Frances Lincoln to publish the novel.

Last year’s winner was Christy Burne and there’s lots more information on her web page.

The fiction must be unpublished, between 15,000 and 35,000 words and written for 8 – 12 year olds, by a writer aged 16 or over.

All the details are on the Frances Lincoln and Seven Stories, where you will also find the entry forms.

If you already have an idea or have even started writing, there’s nothing to lose and lots to gain.

Dolphin Booksellers are delighted to be able to include this information on Dolphin Book Blog and make it available to a wide audience of Children’s Centres and schools.

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Lucy Bakewell – School Librarian of the Year

lucy Lucy Bakewell of Hill West Primary School, Sutton Coldfield has just been announced as the School Librarian of the Year 2009 .

A first for primary school libraries.

Lucy said, “I am ecstatic and honoured to be given this award for something I love doing. I have the best job in the world and it’s a joy to spend time the library. I feel passionate about making the library a space that children feel is their own and am delighted to receive the honour for the children and for the school. It is exceptionally important that a primary school has won for the first time. It is vital to enthuse and engage children in books and reading from an early age.’
Anne Cassidy award winning author of Looking for JJ, presented Lucy with the award.

Ginnette Doyle, chair of the Judging Panel was especially full of praise for Lucy’s inspiration in creating a place where children can love reading.

‘Primary schools are vital in inspiring children to read and reading is so important in the development of children, expanding their imagination, their knowledge, their vocabulary. They also are the places where children begin to learn, where information skills are first taught, creating individuals competent in finding information. Few primary schools can afford to have a librarian and many rely on dedicated individuals, such as Lucy to run their libraries. Lucy inspires her pupils to love books and reading and she inspires the adults around her. Hill West School is an example of a marvellous school where reading and books are central to learning, much of which is down to Lucy. We feel that it is really important to raise the profile of good primary school library practice, to demonstrate that with the right person in place wonderful things can be achieved.’

The group work of three other exceptional school librarians on the Honours List was also celebrated.
” Barbara Band – The Emmbrook School, Wokingham
” Lynne Varley – Sponne Community Technology College, Towcester
” Joy Wassell-Timms – Parrs Wood High School, Didsbury

Its fantastic that the award celebrates so much the good work that exists in school libraries, not just as a place for rows of books. But more and more as a place where children can go to read, enjoy books and lose themselves in their imaginations.

Photographs by kind permission of Philip Paul

Dolphin Booksellers is pleased to be a member of SLA.

School Librarian of the Year 2009

lib Enthusiastic, creative and talented are just what is needed to become School Librarian of 2009. Some of the best ways to encourage children with reading and books– being interested and enthusiastic, finding ways to be creative with books and of course having the talent to know what is going to appeal.

The School Library Association will be holding the Award Winning Ceremony on Monday 5th October at London Zoo. Not certain why London Zoo, Anthony Browne’s books come to mind?

In the Autumn edition of School Librarian magazine there’s a really interesting article; Theresa Breslin, former librarian and author of Whispers in the Graveyard, amongst other books, talks with her niece, Frances, a Children’s Librarian for Fife Council with an office base inside the very first Carnegie library.

There are four librarians on the Honours List, from very different schools and colleges,with lots of skills and talent for making their libraries appealing places.

The Honours List for 2009 is:
Lucy Bakewell Hill West Primary School, Birmingham
Barbara Band Emmbrook School, Wokingham
Barbara Band Sponne Community Technology College in Towcester
Joy Wassell – Timms Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury

slA Keep looking here at School Library Association and at Dolphin Booksellers to find out who has become School Librarian 2009.

Heroes and Heroines

old p Heroes and Heroines is the theme of the Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition for for 2009. Time to get your imaginations fired up again after the summer break and get writing.

The Children’s Bookshelf is organising the competition, they’re part of the Poetry Book Society. Even if you don’t want to get involved in the competition, its worth having a look at their website, it has all the details and much more beside.

The competition, now in its fourth year, is open to individuals and schools, and divided into 2 age groups,7- 8 yr olds and 9 – 11 yr olds. There are cash prizes as well as books and CPB memberships. A teacher’s guide will be available from early September.

Entries will be accepted from 10 September until 19th October, so its just right for that first few days back in the classroom! On Thursday 8th October we have National Poetry day, the work cover 2 activities in 1!

Carol Ann Duffy, the new poet laureate will chair the panel, to include, John Agard, Antonia Byatt, Gillian Clarke, Janetta Otter Barry and Roger Stevens. They all have a fantastic achievements within their work and connections to children’s poetry.

Support for the project also comes from Old Possum’s Practical Trust. TS Elliot would undoubtedly enjoy the title of the competition, Heroes and Heroines. I’m just wondering which heroine I would choose?

Visit Dolphin Booksellers home page for information and books.

The Book Store

beach hut August and at last a space in the diary for clearing the store of books. Well that is in the plan.

There are approximately 8,000+ books. What is it about books from the past, those children’s novels that just have to be re-read? From The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner and The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo to 100+ways to make paper aeroplanes.

books Way back in the winter we completely changed a school library into a community library. It’s a fantastic space, with comfy chairs, computers, smart shelving units and books, of course.

Some of the sorted books will be going back into school, but the majority will be taken to places, mainly overseas, where books are in short supply. We are lucky that people we work with have many contacts with groups and can get the books direct to the children who need them.

So, I’ll just read one or two more, then get back to packing into boxes.

Dolphin BookBox will give you information about our Community Library service, plus other things that we can supply too!

Visit the home page of Dolphin Booksellers for latest information.

Poetry Award 2009 CLPE- winner

John Agard, with The Young Inferno, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura is the winner of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education poetry award for 2009.

CLPE has a brilliant poster information sheet,which you can find on CLPE and Dolphin Booksellers.

The Young Inferno is an amazing retelling of this classic by Dante. Full of action and loads of mental images, pacy and more than just engaging. The Furies are there and you will come face to face with them!

Satoshi Kitamura has captured all the action and more besides in his compelling and powerful illustrations. The teenage hoodie, as narrator of the tales into the nine circles of hell must be a hit with its audience of young people. Where else would you find Frankenstein as a bouncer…….

Frances Lincoln, the publishers, have shown yet again their skill at commissioning two of the best, in writing and illustrating, and bringing them together in a daring retelling of this story.

Visit the home page of Dolphin Booksellers. Bringing information about children’s books direct to you. Working with authors and illustrators in communities delivering book events with a difference.

Amazon link to The Young Inferno

Amazon link to the books of John Agard

Amazon link to the books of Satoshi Kitamura

Children’s Laureate 2009- 2011

Anthony Browne, illustrator is the new Children’s Laureate for 2009- 2011.

Famous for many of his books, he is a brilliant choice and at Dolphin Books we send our congratulations.

It was fantastic to be present at the announcement and to feel part of the real uniqueness that the Children’s Laureateship brings to the future of children’s books for all our children.

Great to hear Anthony so enthusiastic about Picture Books, ” They’re special, perfect for sharing,. There’s a gap between pictures and words and they encourage a way of looking. They are for everyone, not just for younger children.”

His own picture books are certainly that, try Willy the Wimp or Gorilla. (…links to books below).

More details on the event and the speeches that were made will be added to the Dolphin site soon.

You can visit the home page of Dolphin Booksellers. Bringing information about the best in children’s books direct to you. Working with authors and illustrators in school book events and supporting literacy projects in a community nearby.

Amazon link for Anthony Browne

Amazon link for Willy the Wimp

Amazon link for Gorilla

If……. Little Word, Big Meaning

If you can keep your head when all about you

are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

but make allowances for their doubting too…..

The start of one of my favourite poems, by Rudyard Kipling. And I can even forgive him for referring to men only! Well, just about…

Have found a brilliant poetry website for children, called Man in the Moon. It has loads of good stuff, games, exciting websites, interviews and silly jokes. Look out for the cat, pacing up and down like Einstein waiting for an idea or inspiration.

And if you click through, you will find an excellent description of, and ways to use, similes and metaphors.

The rhyming pattern and way poems are written, help to make them easily remembered. From the start of language development, children recite the pattern, later they remember nursery rhymes and games.

In Shakespeare, we find the use of the iambic pentameter, the most common metrical form in English poetry, as in the first line of Richard the Third,’ Now is the winter of our discontent’. All to do with the number of syllables, stressed and unstressed. Rhythm being measured in small groups of syllables, called feet. ‘Iambic’ describes the type of foot and ‘pentameter’ means a line has five feet.

Maybe there is a poem that you keep in your head, like a story you keep in a book.

You can visit the home page of Dolphin Booksellers. Bringing information about the best in children’s books direct to you. Working with authors and illustrators in schools and book events,

3 Illustrators and a woolly armadillo….

3 Illustrators in conversation and a woolly armadillo, that took central stage!

Jackie Morris, Petr Horacek and Jan Fearnley were talking about their illustrations at the Federation of Children’s Book Groups conference.

Then out of Jan’s bag appeared not a canvas with the latest drawing but a woolly armadillo called Milo. Brightly coloured in a stripy outfit he was the answer to Jan’s problems . Find out more about Jan’s books, a very successful author and illustrator.

Petr’s, Suzy Goose, just wants to be different to all the other ducks. On her adventures she finds herself in front of a very scary lion.

There’s a fantastic video on Petr’s website that’s well worth a look. Plus his other books, like Elephant,who went inside. Petr started out in Prague,working in communist Czechoslovakia and also studying at the Academy of Fine Art, that was until the revolution and student strike!

Jackie Morris, with her amazingly beautiful illustrations and huge range of books, both illustrated and written. The Snow Leopard, published by Frances Lincoln and The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems, published by Barefoot Books are two of our favourites. Her web site is full of interest,things to buy and blogs to read!

I love the shots of her studio and the walks by the sea. It makes me feel better about having lots of stuff around me, helps with the creativity, or at least that’s my excuse.

Milo Armadillo – Amazon Link

Silly Suzy Goose – Amazon link

Elephant – Amazon link

The Snow Leopard – Amazon link

Barefoot Book of Classic Poems – Amazon link

You can visit our home page of Dolphin Booksellers. Bringing information about the best in children’s books direct to you. Working with authors and illustrators in schools and book events.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

knife Patrick Ness, author of ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’ was talking with Nikki Gamble at the Annual Conference of Federation of Children’s Book Groups, 3 – 5 April 2009.

The Knife of Never Letting Go Amazon link.

Fantastically good to listen to, and a real empathy with teenagers. He made us all think! The issue of moral dilemmas vs. a real need to do something maybe you shouldn’t. The main character in the book, Todd, who struggles with himself over whether or not he can use his knife,” a big ratchety one with the bone handle and the serrated edge that cuts into practically everything in the world“.

Some of the questions that came up on the day got everybody thinking.

Is evil something you are or something you do?

Should you always, ultimately be on the right side and can the actions be justified?

They speak the same language but why don’t they talk the same?

How loud is the world ?

The Knife of Never Letting Go, published by Walker Books is the first book in a trilogy, called Chaos Walking.

ask The second book, The Ask and the Answer is due to be published in May 2009.

This was Patrick’s first novel for teenagers and it won the Guardian Children’s fiction prize in 2008. An exciting read, based around the whole idea that the world is full of noise and gets even noisier when thoughts are heard and nowhere remains silent.

The Ask and the Answer Amazon link.

You can visit our home page at Dolphin Booksellers. Bringing information about the best in children’s books direct to you.