Pages

Tuesday 26 April 2011

A book blog for kids: Lynne Rickards

Lynne Rickards' new blog differs from most of the others I've mentioned before in that it's aimed at children rather than at the adults who buy books for them. I think they would really enjoy it. Each post has a theme plus a photo or other illustration and (usually but not always) a forgiveable plug for one of Lynne's books. For example, today's post is about snails and relates back to Jacob O’Reilly Wants a Pet - but it also has some practical information about building a snail hotel. Not my cup of tea but it might well appeal to small children who are less easily revolted!

Lynne has also created book bags around some of her stories and we have them in the library in the storysack collection. The Pink Bag celebrates diversity with the story of Patrick, the pink penguin. As well as a copy of Pink! it includes, amongst other things, a Circle Time lesson guide, a pink toy, a quiz and a letter from Patrick. The Pets Bag is based on the aforementioned Jacob O’Reilly Wants a Pet and includes the book and a cuddly snail in its contents. Finally, the Green Bag explores good nutrition in an appealing way along with recipes and classroom activities. The book in this one is I do not eat the colour green. See Lynne's website for more details.

Storysacks have grown immensely in popularity since we started stocking them a few years ago. For our full range, see this list from SUPrimo.

Thursday 21 April 2011

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to those of you going on holiday. The Library is open throughout the weekend (see our opening hours information) so it's not too late to borrow books about Easter from us. Here's also a great post on Easter books from Nosy Crow, some Easter resources and activities from Scholastic and TES and a random selection from Amazon below to make it all look pretty!

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Film news

Last week, Booktrust published a list of ten favourite children's books made into films. You can see what they were from the slide show below - and all are available to borrow from Jordanhill Library. Do you agree with the choices? Are there other books which were made into better films - or do you just prefer to read the book and imagine the characters yourself?



More films are in the pipeline - Working Title Films and PeaPie Films have acquired the rights to Andy Mulligan's Trash and casting is well under way for the film version of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. This has not been without controversy, as the comments to the article show but, as suggested above, many people have their own images of the characters and won't be happy with an actor who doesn't fit that. I have to admit, the chosen actors look a bit too perfect and shiny for me

Monday 11 April 2011

Children's book competitions

1. A short story competition for children 6-12 via the Guardian's great new children's book site. Can you finish a story begun by Horrid Henry author, Francesca Simon? The prize is a £50 book token and publication on the site - closing date April 26th, so hurry!

2. Also from the Guardian, and also for April 26th, win a library of 50 Puffin books as listed on the site. This is a random draw, if you are between 5 and 17 you just need to email your details as directed and the winner will be chosen at random.

3. A cover design competiton for 7-12 year olds. Vintage Classics, the Times and Random House are looking for a new design for The Wizard of Oz. The winner's cover will be published on a new edition of the book in November and he or she will also win £100 worth of books. The closing date for this competition is 29th July.

Saturday 9 April 2011

Dancing Sausages and other poetry ideas

April is National Poetry Month - it might be a USA event, but that doesn't mean there aren't loads of good ideas on their website for writng and promoting poetry.

Since 2003 NaPoWriMo has also been challenging people to write a poem a day - another great idea to use. Each day has a prompt: for example yesterday's was to write a nursery rhyme.

Another idea is "30 poets, 30 days" - here's a blog, GottaBook, as an example where the blogger is featuring a poem by a different poet everyday.

The Literacy Advisor (Bill Boyd) has blogged about a project to write a Global Poem for Change.

The Five Books site (every day an expert chooses 5 books on a specific subject) has been featuring poetry this week too - from a children's literature point of view, the most interesting was Roger McGough: The poet, broadcaster and "patron saint of poetry" says all children are poets and reveals why daydreaming is good for you. Here he chooses anthologies for all ages, which have "a fresh look and a fresh listen."

Don't forget about our own poetry page with booklists and links to other sites, and finally......

......the Sausage Whistler, a lovely animation of an Allan Ahlberg poem from Walker Books' Picture Book Picnic blog. Love those dancing sausages!

Monday 4 April 2011

Friday 1 April 2011

Carnegie / Greenaway shortlists announced

The shortlists for the CILIP* Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals, widely acknowledged to be the UK’s most prestigious children’s book awards, have just come out. The Carnegie is for outstanding writing and the Greenaway is for outstanding illustration. To my shame, we only have two of the Greenaway books in the Library (Anthony Browne's Me and you and Bob Graham's April Underhill, tooth fairy) so I'll have to do something about that. We either have, or have ordered, all the Carnegie books. I've already blogged about one - see my post on Monsters of men by Patrick Ness, the culmination of a trilogy which I loved. Books for Keeps also has a piece on the shortlists if you want to read more.

You might remember in a recent post I mentioned Michael Gove's idea that all children should read 50 books a year. He's been talking again about school children (in England) not being encouraged to read because they don't read 19th century classics. Annie Mauger, CEO of CILIP, has decided to present him with some modern classics-in-the-making and is pictured here, with Patrick Ness, on her way to present the shortlisted books to Mr Gove's department. I hope he finds them a good read.

*Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals