Wimpy Kid 2

The second Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie is out. Watch the trailer and read an interview with author Jeff Kinney - and borrow his books from us, here's what we have.

Bookbug's first anniversary

Bookbug, Scottish Book Trust's Early Years Programme in which free picture books are distributed to every child in Scotland at certain points of their development, celebrated its first anniversary today with thousands of children taking part in hundreds of free events across the country on the theme of The Great Outdoors. As part of the celebrations, it was announced that one of the books to be distributed was created by a Home-Start Family group in Renfrewshire in collaboration with Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years Writer in Residence, Apple Pie ABC author Alison Murray.The picture book, entitled Little Mouse, is the beautifully illustrated story of a little girl who loves sharing books with her mother. The picture below shows Alison (centre) with parents from the group.

PS update - some later coverage of this event.

Football, spies and Tom Palmer

Author Tom Palmer likes football and has a secret ambition to be a spy. He's combining these two ideas in his new thriller series, The Squad, about a youth football team in which half the members are spies. The first title won't be published until 2012, but while he's writing it he's also producing a weekly blog for teachers, hosted on the National Literacy Trust website, tracking its progress. The blog will be written in a way that the children (upper primary level) will be able to relate to their own school work and will include an optional writing exercise based on what Tom has been blogging about. He will answer questions such as: How do authors write their books? Where do the ideas come from? How do they develop characters? 


Tom Palmer has also contributed to NLT's Reading the Game pages Another thing I like on this page is the football shaped book review form which I think would be great to use in the classroom.


We have a couple of Tom's books in stock at Jordanhill and also have a football section on our Books for Boys page - although football books needn't, of course, only be read by boys and the team in The Squad includes both boys and girls.

GIRLS ♥ BOOKS

 A group of writers, including Cathy Cassidy, Fiona Dunbar and Joan Lennon, have got together to contribute to a joint blog called GIRLS ♥ BOOKS. There are sections to appeal to girls of 8+, 9-12 and teens. The authors say:

"It’s a place where we can tell you our latest news, whisper the secret stories behind our books, and share our favourite things. We’ll have a new blog post every day for you – plus giveaways, book reviews, event announcements and more. So if you’ve ever wondered what your favourite writer’s desk looks like, which book is lighting up her bedside table right this minute, or whether when she was 13 she had a really unfortunate haircut and was afraid of swans, GIRLS ♥ BOOKS is just for you."

At the same time as I discovered this site I also found Chicklish, subtitled "Reader, I snogged him", which is specifically aimed at teens and worth a look too.

One of our most popular pages on the Jordanhill website is Books for Boys .We're working on a similar page for girls. Watch this space!

Catch the Patrick Ness blog tour

Patrick's latest book A monster calls is published today and will be in the library very soon. This book is different, as the review from our supplier, Holt Jackson, shows:

"Conor is dealing with his Mum's cancer and finding it very difficult to come to terms with it. Each night he struggles with nightmares and one night a monster calls at his window much to his surprise and fear. What happens next is a gripping and sometimes challenging tale of having to deal with fear, loneliness and loss. This is a book like no other - originally imagined by Siobhan Dowd who sadly died of cancer before writing it, Patrick Ness took up the mantle and wrote the book in her honour. He should be proud of his achievement as this is one of the best teenage books I have read. Both gripping and moving in equal parts, this is a book to look out for and a great testament to both Patrick and Siobhan."

In the meantime, you can read a different extract every day on the Monster calls blog tour - see Patrick's website for details of this and other publicity, including a Radio Scotland interview. The Guardian has a podcast of him reading an extract and answering questions and A monster calls is also book of the week on the Ultimate Bookguide.

Click on the links here to see our catalogue holdings on Siobhan Dowd and Patrick Ness (whose Chaos walking trilogy now has its own discussion forum if you are interested). And finally, click on the Patrick Ness label at the end of this post to see my own reviews of these books.