2012 Scottish Children's Book Awards

The shortlist for the Scottish Children's Book Awards was announced this morning. Here are 8 of the 9 happy authors: the gentlemen are (left to right) James Kilgore, John Fardell, Barry Hutchison and Jonathan Meres. The ladies are Elizabeth Laird, Julia Donaldson, Elizabeth Wien and Catherine Rayner. The awards are voted for by Scottish children, who now have seven months to read the books before the winners are announced on World Book Day (7/3/13). Information on how to get involved can be found by following the link above.

The full shortlist is:

Bookbug Readers (0-7 years)

- Jack and the Flum Flum Tree by Julia Donaldson, Illustrated by David Roberts (Macmillan)

-The Day Louis Got Eaten by John Fardell (Andersen Press)

-Solomon Crocodile by Catherine Rayner (Macmillan)

Younger Readers (8-11 years)

-Out of the Depths by Cathy MacPhail (Bloomsbury)

-Soldier’s Game by James Killgore (Floris Books)

-The World of Norm: May Contain Nuts by Jonathan Meres (Orchard)

Older Readers (12-16 years)

-The 13^th Horseman by Barry Hutchison (Harper Collins)

-Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Electric Monkey)

-The Prince Who Walked With Lions by Elizabeth Laird (Macmillan)

Borrow them from the University of Strathclyde's Andersonian Library, where children's books are housed on Level 5, or try your public library.

The Scottish Children’s Book Awards are managed by Scottish Book Trust in partnership with Creative Scotland, and supported by the Times Educational Supplement Scotland (TESS) and Waterstone’s.

Book Week Scotland

Yesterday, the Scottish Government announced Book Week Scotland, a national celebration of reading. It will be organised by our old friends, Scottish Book Trust and it takes place from 26th November to 2nd December 2012. SBT will work with authors, workplaces, libraries and schools across the nation to deliver a packed programme of free projects and events, bringing Scots of all ages and from all walks of life together to celebrate books and reading. What will you do to help? Follow the links above for more information and ideas.

Sue Ellis stars in Michael Rosen's blog (and other news)

Our very own Sue Ellis, Reader in Education, spoke at the recent CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) Conference on Reading for Pleasure. Michael Rosen was also there, and his blog about the event features Sue's talk heavily, for example "Sue Ellis is precisely the sort of person this government and the last want to keep at arms length because she presents her arguments backed entirely by research" and "At the heart of her talk was a humanistic defence of reading, which can't come about simply or only through reading schemes, can't come about by simply working through set texts." He obviously approves heartily, as do we - Jordanhill is proud of you Sue!*

In other news, Jordanhill Campus had its closing ceremony on Friday. You can read more about the event in my Storify. I was pleased that the Library was mentioned several times in favourable terms, once by David Bell, Vice Chancellor at Reading, who graduated from here in Primary Education in the early 80s. He talked about Gene Kemp's 1977 book The turbulent term of Tyke Tiler which we still have in stock (well, it's in its new home in the Andersonian Library now). This was famous for the twist at the end, which was a surprise at the time, but really shouldn't be now. That's all I'm going to say - read the book to find out more!

Finally, Judith Kerr, author of the Mog books, The tiger who came to tea and When Hitler stole pink rabbit received an OBE in the recent honours list. Borrow all her books from Strathclyde.

*PS 22/6/12 Michael Rosen even dedicated a second blogpost to Sue!  He used some of her ideas as a basis for one of his workshops for teachers on writing with young people. Go Sue!

Carnegie / Greenaway double for A Monster Calls

When I wrote here in March that the Carnegie / Greenaway shortlist had been announced, I pointed out two historic possibilities. First, the Carnegie, for the writer of an outstanding children's book, could be won by the same author two years in a row. Patrick Ness won last year for Monsters of men and was nominated again for A monster calls. Winning in consecutive years has only happened once before since the award started in 1936 - Peter Dickinson won for Tulku in 1979 and City of Gold in 1980.  Second, the same book could also win both awards because the illustrator, Jim Kay, was on the shortlist for the Greenaway which rewards distinguished illustration in a book for children. This has never happened before. Well, the winners have just been announced today, and they are......Patrick Ness and Jim Kay! Here's more information.

The book was written from an idea of Siobhan Dowd's - she died before she could write it herself. A trust has been set up in her name to bring books and reading to disadvantaged young people in the UK.


CILIP, which runs the awards, has press releases on its site.


Walker Books, the publisher, describes the book here. They are justly proud of the awards, and have a nice picture of the winners on this tweet.


Walker also has a trailer for the book on YouTube

The Guardian, as ever, has a lot of useful information:

The story of Patrick Ness's win. 
An article by Patrick and Jim on how they made the book.
A picture gallery.

Patrick said in his acceptance speech that "At its core, it's a book about love & the bravery it requires". I've read the book and agree wholeheartedly. I found it very emotional but I can't add anything to the review on the blog Did you ever stop to think & forget to start again? I think you should all read it for yourselves!

PS 18/6/12 - been lots more articles since I wrote the above: 

BBC Carnegie Medal: Patrick Ness book A Monster Calls scoops double honours.

Guardian (again) Patrick Ness slams library cuts (an edited version of his acceptance speech). It's absolutely brilliant. Read it! And Teenagers deserve better, a piece by Patrick Ness in defence of the teenager who is sometimes spoken of negatively.

Independent  A Monster Calls: Carnegie winner Patrick Ness deals with the subject of death.

Literacy, families and learning A Monster Calls wins  Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Medals: a review.


Telegraph A Monster Calls: Patrick Ness and Jim Kay talk about their Carnegie and Greenaway wins.

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

The long list for 2012 has been released, in time to organise your Summer reading. Judged by well known names in the world of children's literature; Julia Eccleshare, Tony Bradman, Cressida Cowell and Kevin Crossley-Holland. And now the books:



(Guest post by Alison Forde)

Farewell Jordanhill Library

Jordanhill Library closed on Friday, 1st June 2012 and staff are currently packing up ready for the move to what will now be the University of Strathclyde's only campus. We had a lovely time on Friday with cake, including the one above, for all our visitors. I made a Storify of the day which you can read here. I'm also keeping a Pinterest board of the Library's last days which has more photographs from Friday and which I will keep adding to until the last book has gone.

Although this blog has been informed by my work with the children's collection at Jordanhill, it has never been an official university production. I am moving on from my job, but I hope to keep the blog going, assisted by my colleague Alison Forde who has taken over responsibilty for the children's collection. However, there aren't likely to be too many posts at the moment while we work on transferring the library.

I have loved working with the staff and students of Jordanhill. I've been so impressed by the quality of new teachers we are producing and wish them all well in the future. The education of Scotland's children is safe in your hands!