Bonnie Prince Charlie

Books from Scotland have updated their feature on books about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Rebellion. For children, Robert Louis Stevenson, was inspired by the Jacobite rebellion to write one of his greatest works, Kidnapped, and Quest for a Kelpie by Frances Hendry has also become one of the classics in Scottish children's fiction - we have both books in the library (in several versions for Kidnapped, including in Scots and as a graphic novel). The article also lists several non-fiction books, most of which we also have. See examples below.

Articles on Neil Gaiman and Inga Moore

Just added a couple of articles to our index:


Berman, J. (2010, February 4.) Neil Gaiman: literary rock star and me. Huffington Post.

Carey, J. (2010, February 6). Inga Moore, illustrator of The Wind in the Willows. Guardian.

Meet Our Authors

Scottish Book Trust runs a national programme of events with children's writers, which includes author tours, festivals, writing competitions and exciting activities. The Meet Our Authors programme officially launches on 24th February 2010. The centrepiece is a series of live events that will be broadcast online with the best children’s authors, run in partnership with BBC Scotland Education. A pilot took place in Edinburgh in May 2009 in which Anthony Horowitz spoke to a virtual audience of 11,000 children in 250 Scottish schools and the next is on World Book Day 2010, 4th March, with two events with former children’s laureate Michael Rosen. See SBT's own website, and the National Literacy Trust for more information. You can also find Meet our Authors on Twitter and Facebook.

Waterstone's prizewinner Kate Davies

The Watersone's Children's Book Prize was announced this week - Kate Davies won for The great hamster massacre. See my earlier post for more information about the rest of the shortlist.

Most borrowed children's books in Scotland

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Tiddler is the most borrowed children's book in Scotland according to the latest Public Lending Right figures for library loans. The same authors' Stick Man came in at number 6 and the only other children's book on the list was Jacqueline Wilson's My sister Jodie. Full details on the SLAINTE and BBC websites, plus coverage in most newspapers, e.g. The Guardian.

Roald Dahl Museum

Situated in the village where Roald Dahl lived and wrote for 36 years (Great Missenden), the Roald Dahl Museum was created as a home for the author's unique archive and to inspire a love of stories and creative writing in its visitors. Obviously, this is a long way from Glasgow - but there are things on the website to enjoy without visiting, particularly the Discover Dahl section which has fantastic facts, quizzes and, best of all, a virtual tour of Dahl's writng hut. You can even view the contents of his wastepaper basket, his filing cabinet and his desk. These include his false teeth! Great fun.

Coming soon: more films of children's books

The Eagle of the Ninth (Rosemary Sutcliff's classic) is due in cinemas sometime this year. Read about it in Wikipedia and Skerricks' blog has pulled together a lot of stuff about it. Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief (Rick Riordan) is out next week - here's the trailer. Our catalogue gives a synopsis of the book, and if you like it, it's part of a series:

The gods of Olympus are alive in the 21st Century. They still fall in love with mortals and have children who might become great heroes, but most of these children meet horrible fates at the hands of monsters by the age of twelve. Only a few learn the truth of their identity and make it to Half Blood Hill, a Long Island summer camp dedicated to training young demigods. Such is the revelation that launches young Percy Jackson on a quest to help his real father, Poseidon, avert a war among the gods. With the help of Grover the satyr and Annabeth the daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction - Zeus' master bolt. Along the way, they face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop them. Most of all, Percy must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend.

Anthony Browne's Laureate blog

See a sample of his work in progress in Anthony Browne's Children's Laureate blog. You can also see the picture he did for Radio 4 last week to illustrate their piece about scientists from Bristol University who have discovered that fossil remains can be used to find out about more about the colouring of dinosaurs like the Sinosauropteryx – a small meat-eating dinosaur from 125 million years ago that we now know was a bright orange with distinctive white rings on its tail. However, somehow I don't think they looked like Anthony's rather grumpy looking creature!

Waterstone's Children's Book Prize

Via Achuka's blog, see video of some Waterstone's booksellers championing their personal favourites: now less than a week to go before the winner is announced. See the nine shortlisted titles below.

Horn Book Jan/Feb 2010

Acceptance speeches from Terry Pratchett, Margaret Mahy and Polly Dunbar for their Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature are the main feature in the new Horn Book. Pratchett won the Fiction and Poetry Prize for Nation and Mahy and Dunbar won the Picture Book Prize for Bubble Trouble. We have both books in stock, and find the Horn Book on the Serials Gallery at S824.