The nation's favourite children's book?

Last month, I wrote about my choices for Booktrust's vote on 100 books to read before you're 14. The winners were announced today - and the most popular title is probably not a surprise: JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Read the full top 10 and more information about the books on Booktrust's site. How did I do? Well, only one of my choices made it onto the list, Philip Pullman's Northern Lights at number 9.

There's a short, but sweet, video of the choices on Youtube:

Harry Potter and the 247 competition

Last month, I wrote about the Guardian's 247 competition and back in June about the vote to find the favourite Harry Potter character. The results of both were announced this week. The 247 competition challenged young writers to produce a story called The Guardian in exactly 247 words. The judges included Neil Gaiman, and you can read the winning entry and runners-up here, as well as linking back to the original story with which Neil launched the competition. The favourite Harry Potter character, as announced by Bloomsbury Books here, turned out to be Severus Snape. Is that who you would have chosen? Bloomsbury lists the entire top 40 and Harry himself was only 4th. The results have also been picked up by ITN and the Guardian, which has an interesting discussion at the end of its article with young readers writing in to agree or disagree with the choice.

We have all the Harry Potter books and films in our catalogue and a good selection of work by Neil Gaiman. For similar stories, if you've exhausted those, see our booklist on Magical and Fantasy Series for new ideas.

Carnegie / Greenaway awards and Pottermore

Thursday, 23rd June was a big day in the children's book world. It had long been set as the award date for the Carnegie and Greenaway medals, but a few days beforehand it began to look as if these would be upstaged when cryptic messages began to emanante from JK Rowling. What could they mean?

First, the Carnegie / Greenaway awards. These are presented annually by CILIP, the professional body for library and information workers. The Carnegie Medal is for the writer of an outstanding book for children and the Kate Greenaway Medal is for distinguished illustration in a book for children. This year's winners were Patrick Ness, for Monsters of men, and Grahame Baker-Smith for FArTHER (sic). Read more about them in CILIP's press release.

I've blogged about Patrick Ness several times before, including reviewing the Chaos walking books which I loved. I'm also happy to report that his acceptance speech included a fierce defence of libraries - read about it here in the Guardian. There is also an interview with him in today's Independent. You can borrow his books from us but, unfortunately, that's not yet true of Baker-Smith's book, which seems to have flown under my radar. However, I've ordered it now and, in the meantime, here is a slide-show of his work, again from the Guardian.

So what was Pottermore all about? "Pottermore is a free website that builds an exciting online experience around the reading of the Harry Potter books" - but you still have to go back on 31st July to find out more. Here's JK Rowling announcing it on YouTube and here again is the dependable Guardian. Clever marketing or unnecessary hype? You decide.

Finally, there was another piece of news yesterday which probably got a bit swamped by everything else that was going on. Penguin announced the winners of their cover design awards - the children's entries were illustrating James and the giant peach - you can see the winning and short-listed designs here.

Who's your favourite Harry Potter character?

Head over to JK Rowling's Harry Potter website to vote for your favourite character. Forty names are provided, and if your choice isn't there you can add him or her through the "Other" box. The poll closes on Friday 26th August 2011 and the favourite character will be announced on Tuesday 30th August 2011. As always, don't forget that you can borrow the books and DVDs from us, as well as teaching materials and readers' guides - full list here.

Headteachers in books give lessons on authority

"Children’s literature that depicts headteachers as sadistic and evil helps youngsters learn about authority" a study has found, as reported in today's Glasgow Herald. The article continues "School-based novels encourage children to think about power and whether it is being used wisely, it is claimed. The research at Nottingham University considered the characteristics of headteachers in 19 children’s books written since 1970. Of these, nine are portrayed negatively, from the “evil and messianic” head in The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross to the “sadistic, child-hating” Miss Trunchbull in Roald Dahl’s Matilda. A further six are remote figures of power. Just one, Professor Dumbledore of the Harry Potter series, is seen positively, described as wise and moral." Read the full article through the link above, or borrow our copies of the books to check out the theory for yourself. Find their locations in our catalogue.