Posts of the week 2

Phew, made it to the second week of Friday roundups! Except that it's Saturday - oh well, near enough. A lot caught my eye in the past seven days, so here they are in the order I spotted them.

Black History Month is coming up in October. You might find useful titles scattered through Strathclyde University's Children's Booklists page - see the lists on Diversity, Global Citizenship, Refugees and Slavery.

Lizzy Ratner asks in The Nation "What are children's books for?" She's inspired by an exhibition at New York Public Library on the history of children's books. It runs till March 2014, but I don't think I can contrive to be in New York before then, wonderful though that would be.

Malorie Blackman's piece in the Guardian on the value of libraries has been widely circulated on social media so you might have seen it. Libraries' huge contribution to children's literacy is threatened by swingeing cuts across the country. "Where is the outrage?" she asks.

Vivienne Smith at Reading Fictions pays tribute to Margaret Mahy (1936-2011) with particular reference to a title I heartily approve of, The Librarian and the Robbers, concluding "If you aspire to a life full of unexpected exploits and all things delightful, become a reader! Treasure awaits us all on the shelves of the library." Hear, hear!

I've discovered that Seven Stories now has an online Enid Blyton exhibition, with one on Judith Kerr coming soon. For those of us who can't get to Newcastle to see their exhibitions live, this is a great new idea.

I've added Rhino Reads to my RSS feed of useful blogs to follow. It was the post I've linked to on gender non-specific characters that I first noticed, but it all looks worth a read if you are interested in picture books.

UKLA (UK Literacy Association) has announced its 2014 children's book awards longlists - for ages 3-6, 7-11 and 12-16+. The winners will be announced in July.

A bit of fluff to finish with. Regular readers will know of my love for Anne of Green Gables. Green Wedding Shoes offers an Anne of Green Gables Wedding Inspiration (posed) with "Anne" and "Gilbert" looking divine. So if you're a red-haired woman thinking of getting married it could be just the thing for you.

That's the end of this week's Children's Literature Roundup. No extra charge for the wedding advice.

Children's books and social justice: refugees and other stories

With Refugee Week Scotland coming up soon, it's great to report that the inaugural Little Rebels Children's Book Award, run by the Alliance of Radical Booksellers, has been won by a powerful refugee story. Azzi in between, by Sarah Garland, tells, in graphic format, of the frightening journey undertaken by Azzi and her parents, who have to leave their home because it is too dangerous to stay in their own country. Azzi is sad because she had to leave her beloved grandmother behind and because she can't speak the language of her new country. However, Garland shows how kindness and friendship can overcome feelings of difference, and there is a happy ending involving both the arrival of Grandma and a bag of beans! It's not hard to find books with empathetic portrayals of refugees for older children and teens, so it's good to see one for the younger market. For more information about the book and the prize, see the Federation of Children's Book Groups site.

Zoe Toft, of the excellent Playing by the Book blog, has been compiling a list of other books exploring the refugee experience. It's too long to reproduce here (and as yet, there is no online link) but she does point to some other online resources, notably Refugee Week's list of resources for children and the following bibliography:

Collecting Children's Refugee Literature: A Bibliography by Elisa Mason
March 2009; links checked September 2010

Closer to home, don't forget the children's booklist, Refugees, from the University of Strathclyde

Finally, another prize dedicated to social justice and equality issues is the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award, which has just announced its winner for 2013, and there is a new(ish) blog Ink & Pen with the tagline "Thoughts on diversity in YA and children's literature".

Learning about diversity and difference

Around 10% of the children living in Britain come from minority ethnic backgrounds, but it can be difficult to find children’s books that represent the diversity of our society. Stories which feature characters from a variety of ethnic backgrounds are valuable, both in racially diverse classrooms and in schools where the majority of children are white, as all children should be able to find books they can personally identify with, while a diverse offering helps to foster cultural empathy. Diversity and difference: multicultural books for a multicultural society is the latest addition to our booklists for children. It's the last in a series which also comprises:

Diversity and difference: learning about disability 

Stories which include characters with disabilities in a matter of fact way can help your class accept difference and understand diversity.

Diversity and difference: learning about  sexuality and gender difference

Stories which include LGBT characters can promote understanding and reduce lesbian, gay and transgender related bullying.

All three lists cover a range from picture books to teen fiction. I'm grateful to my colleagues Alison Forde, for creating the multicultural and LGBT lists, and Sarah Scott for the disability list. Paper copies are availalble in the display area upstairs in the library.

Diverse Voices award

The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award is for a manuscript that celebrates cultural diversity in the widest possible sense, either in terms of its story or in terms of the ethnic and cultural origins of its author. The prize of £1,500, plus the option for Frances Lincoln Children's Books to publish the novel, will be awarded to the best work of unpublished fiction for 8-to-12-year-olds by a writer, aged 16 years or over, who has not previously published a novel for children. The work must be written in English and it must be a minimum of 15,000 words and a maximum of 35,000 words. The closing date for all entries is 26th February 2010. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony at Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books, at the beginning of June 2010. For full details of how to enter visit the award website.

Cuttings update.

A couple of newspaper articles from the last 10 days or so:

In the Guardian, Maev Kennedy writes about the sequel to AA Milne's Pooh books, Return to Hundred Acre Wood, which has just been written by David Benedictus. Not in the Library yet, but will be soon.

In the Times, Tim Rushby-Smith argues that more children's books should feature disabled kids. He hopes that this will help change attitudes and tackle bullying.

You can read these articles by following the links, or we have copies in our cuttings file.

Horn Book

The May/June issue of The Horn Book Magazine has just arrived. It has a running theme of "Food for thought" with various food-related snippets, and a longer article by Linda Sue Park: Still hot: great food moments in children's literature. Food is deeply ingrained in our different cultures - apparently, it is only the fourth thing that immigrants lose through the generations after dress, language and religion. Park approaches the subject both as a writer (using food can identify characters and settings, and putting people together to develop relationships is easily done over a meal) and as a reader (she goes through each meal of the day picking out favourite passages from books). I was delighted that for dinner she picked a section from one of my favourite books - Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. Not read it? Then you're missing a wonderful heroine, Dicey Tillerman, who leads her younger siblings on a walk hundreds of miles long to reach their estranged grandmother when their mother disappears. It's the start of a series, so lots more in store after that.

Other articles include an interview with Sarah Dessen. I hadn't heard of her, but we do have one of her books, Truth about forever (Puffin, 2008), a teenage novel in which the death of the heroine's father takes place before the book actually begins, but sets in motion all the things that happen to her. Lizza Aiken writes about her mother, the respected children's author Joan Aiken, and Debby Dahl Edwardson writes about the implications of worldview in children's books, those that reflect the child's own worldview and those that allow them insight into another culture. She uses the experience of her own children growing up in Alaska to illustrate this. Finally, Janet Hamilton asks What makes a good science book?

Check out the Horn Book in the library, or see its website.

Diversity Award from Frances Lincoln.

The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award is a new award for a story by an unpublished author. Either the story or the cultural origins of the author need to reflect cultural diversity. The prize is £1,500 plus the option for Frances Lincoln to publish the novel. The work must be aimed at children aged eight to 12 years, and the writer must be previously unpublished. The closing date is 30th January 2009, with the winner to be announced in April 2009. The Bookseller has more details.