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.

Book competitions for children

The summer is almost over for Scottish children, who go back to school this week, but there's still time for some book related competitions. You'll need to hurry with the one in the Guardian - win a Kindle pre-loaded with Neil Gaiman's books by reading his short story of 247 words and taking up the challenge to write one of excatly the same length. The closing date is 22nd August.


 You have longer for The Children’s Story Competition and Young Illustrator’s Competition. 7 -18 year olds should write a short story or illustrate one of the titles below:

• The Enchanted Rainforest
• The Accident
• Finders Keepers
• The Family Next Door
• Mission to the Moon

There are cash prizes to be won, the entry fee is £5 per submission and the deadline is at midnight on Monday 31 October 2011.  More details from Chapter One Promotions.

Carnegie / Greenaway winners

And the winners are:

Carnegie:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Greenaway:
Harry & Hopper Illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Read more about them and see video from today's ceremony on the award's website - and read the Guardian article and BBC page.

Carnegie & Greenaway Awards

Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have been shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie and Greenaway medals respectively - for the same book! Neil wrote and Chris illustrated The Graveyard Book - a double nomination that hasn't happened since 1980 when Peter Dickinson and Michael Foreman were both nominated for City of gold (Peter Dickinson went on to win the Carnegie).

The Carnegie shortlist (for writing) also boast two previous winners, Philip Reeve and Terry Pratchett, and all eight titles feature survival in the face of challenging issues such as natural disaster, racism or terrorism - and not a vampire in sight.

The Greenaway shortlist (for illustration) features seven first timers, as well as Chris Riddell who has won twice before, and has a varied cast of dogs, cats, forest fauna, rabbits in top hats, graveyard ghosts, imaginary headgear, a bizarre crowning glory and a band of kids determined to get their own back on a horrible teacher.

Scottish Book Trust has recently toured with David Roberts and Chris Riddell and the links lead to video highlights of the tours (and they have many other useful videos too). Their audio page also features material on Chris Riddell and Neil Gaiman. For more recent stuff on Neil, see this trailer for Instructions, a new picture book, via CMIS Primary Focus, and follow his positive views on libraries (great guy!) via the Book Case blog and a podcast from Minnesota Public Radio

The Carnegie shortlist on Amazon:



The Greenaway shortlist on Amazon:



And of course we either have, or will have very soon, all these titles to borrow from the library. The winners will be announced on 24th June.

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.

Neil Gaiman ALA National Library Week Chair

Neil Gaiman is a fan of libraries and librarians and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Campaign for America’s Libraries has announced the 2009 Newbery Medal winning author of “The Graveyard Book” as the Honorary Chair of their National Library Week in April 2010.

Click here for Gaiman titles in Jordanhill Library.

Neil Gaiman wins Booktrust Teenage prize

Neil Gaiman has today won the Booktrust Teenage Prize with The Graveyard Book. The Graveyard Book tells the story of Nobody ‘Bod’ Owens, a child abandoned in a graveyard after the vicious murder of his parents and sister by The Man Jack. Raised and educated by the ghosts that live there, Bod encounters terrible and unexpected menaces in the horror of the pit of the Sleer and the city of Ghouls. It is in the land of the living that the real danger lies as The Man Jack is determined to find Bod and finish him off. The book, and several other Gaiman titles, are listed in our library catalogue. See also the BBC, Guardian and Telegraph write-ups about the prize and Gaiman's own blog.

Neil Gaiman and the Newbery Medal

See the July/August Horn Book for Neil Gaiman's Newbery Medal acceptance speech (he won for The graveyard book), plus an article about him by his editor, Elise Howard. The book, about a boy raised by ghosts, has won other awards since the Newbery, picking up the Hugo best novel prize at the fantasy convention Worldcon in Montreal recently, as reported in the Guardian last week.

Neil Gaiman

Go to the School Library Journal for an article about Neil Gaiman. It takes the form of an interview with Roger Sutton, editor of Horn Book. Gaiman, who started out as an author of comics, is on a roll just now, having recently won the Newbery Medal (American equivalent of our Carnegie) for The graveyard book and seen his earlier book, Coraline, filmed. Both titles, along with other books by Gaiman, are in stock at Jordanhill Library.