Engaging teenagers with book trailers: course report

Book trailers are an excellent means of engaging teenagers in reading and writing. Gordana Nesterovic recently attended a course about them and has shared her report:

I recently attended this CPD session which was organized by Scottish Book Trust as a follow up to the ReadIT course on digital storytelling. ReadIT was a pilot scheme aimed at developing teachers’ skills through the inclusion of ICT tools and digital storytelling techniques in classroom practice. Students and teachers from Denmark, Italy, Romania, Turkey and Scotland took part.

The first part of the CPD session was a video-link presentation by Shirley Brice Heath (linguistic anthropologist and Professor of both English and Dramatic Literature) who talked about young people’s reading habits, preferences and how they choose to interact with texts. I thought it exemplified an interesting approach in trying to encourage teenagers to read and write by "finding them where they are most comfortable" – in social media websites. In creating book trailers, students are applying knowledge gained outside the school back into academic achievement. Creating a book trailer is a form of translation, shifting something from a page in the book into a different medium and timescale. It shows multi-literacies at work: music, visual effects, movement, animation and character portrayal. This method makes the students think of what the book is about, rather than what the book says. Shirley Brice Heath also mentioned ideal outcomes of trailer production: pupils identify with the "good company" of other authors and artists, and take on roles other than that of “pupil” by becoming imaginative, creative and artistic, and by acting as critics and definers of their own work.

The second part of the session was a presentation by two Scottish teachers who took part in this course. They talked about their experiences in implementing these ideas and their feedback was very positive. The children enjoyed the project and the project brought out the best in them. It worked really well with reluctant readers and children who generally came across as being very shy. It developed their analytical, artistic and technical skills. I thought the example of a school that did it as cross-curricular project was very good, it got the Art, Computing and English departments working together which showed the possibility of using this tool in teaching other subjects, not just English. I do not work as a teacher or in a school library, but I can see how this example would be interesting for student teachers and would shed an inspirational light on teaching practices.

Here is an excellent example of a book trailer, as mentioned at the IBBY UK/NCRCL MA Conference Beyond the Book a few weeks ago. It's for A monster calls by Patrick Ness:

Do children's books need age certificates?

The author GP Taylor appeared on BBC Breakfast yesterday to argue that that children's literature has become too frightening and should be marked with an age certification system. There was a debate a few years ago about age-ranging (see previous posts), and some publishers do now put guidance on the back covers of their books, but it was largely considered a bad idea. At least, however, it was guidance they were talking about and they weren't saying that no child under a certain age can read a certain book. Guidance is fine, as long as it is not totally prescriptive (and doesn't appear on the book cover to embarras the nine-year old whose favourite book is labelled 7+). Children develop and mature at different ages, both emotionally and in their ablity to read, so the same book can be enjoyed by different people at different stages. Librarians want to encourage young people to read, and telling them they are either too young or too old for a book is likely to hinder that process in my opinion.

The counter-argument was put by Patrick Ness who appeared on the BBC alongside Taylor. The Guardian published a summary of both sides and today has Charlie Higson arguing "Let's not revive this dead debate about reading ages on books." The debate has also spilled onto Twitter, between these three (@GPTAYLORAUTHOR, @Patrick_Ness and @monstroso) and others. Which side are you on? I'm with Ness and Higson, as you can probably tell - this seems to me to be verging on censorship. If you want guidance on children's books, either for your own children or for those you teach, ask someone who knows about them - but remember, you are the one who knows the child, and the child is the only one who knows for sure what he or she likes. You won't get expert advice if you buy books in the supermarket, but independent booksellers can help, or, of course - ask a librarian! There's a very sensible post on Voices for the Library which makes exactly that point.

Branford Boase / UKLA Awards

A couple of children's literature awards were announced at the end of last week. First, the Branford Boase went to Annabel Pitcher and her editor, Fiona Kennedy for My sister lives on the mantelpiece. The story tells of ten-year-old Jamie Matthews. Five years ago his sister's twin, Rose, was blown up by a terrorist bomb and Jamie, his dad and teenage sister Jasmine have moved to the Lake District for a 'Fresh New Start'. In fact, things have got even worse for the family. The book has been shortlisted for several other awards but this is its first win.

The UKLA Awards have also been awarded as follows:

3-6 Catherine Rayner for Iris and Isaac
7-11 Gill Lewis for Sky Hawk
12-16 Patrick Ness and Jim Kay (recent winners of the Carnegie Medal) for A monster calls

If you are a member, you can borrow all the above titles from the University of Strathclyde's children's literature collection, or try your local library.

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.

Red House Children's Book Awards

The Red House Children's Book Awards were announced on Saturday. These awards are unique in that it is the children themselves who vote for them (from a shortlist drawn up by children's book groups across the country.) The winners were:

Younger children: Chris Wormell for Scruffy bear and the six white mice (Jonathan Cape)

Younger readers: Liz Pichon for The brilliant world of Tom Gates (Scholastic)

Older readers and overall winner: Patrick Ness for A monster calls (Walker)

All 3 books are in stock here. There's a nice write-up in the Guardian with a bit more information.

Another award, the Branford Boase, which won't be announced till the summer, currently has a children's writing competition attached to it. Find more information here.

Spread the joy of reading (and win prizes?)

Spread the joy of reading in your school - and maybe win prizes! Michael Rosen has teamed up with the Siobhan Dowd Trust in a campaign to build a database of good ideas for buliding a book loving school. The 10 schools who make the best suggestions will win £1000 worth of books.

Michael Rosen needs no introduction; he is a former Children's Laureate and we have large numbers of his books in the Library. Siobhan Dowd is also an author, but she had much less time to write - she died of cancer in 2007 aged just 47. One of her last acts was to set up this trust with the simple aim of bringing the joy of reading to those who need it most: children and young people who are disadvantaged and deprived of access to books. For this reason, one of the things you are asked when entering the competition is the percentage of children in your school who are eligible for free school meals. (Fee-paying schools are not eligible for a prize, though good ideas for encouraging reading are still welcome. Schools in more prosperous areas are eligible for entry if their initiative is very strong, but the Trust exists to favour readers from a disadvantaged background.)

We have three of Siobhan's books and are about to add to stock A monster calls by Patrick Ness, written from an idea she left behind and did not have time to do anything with. This is a great initiative and even if you don't win you could get some good ideas from the other entries to use in your school.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize (and Catalyst and Galaxy awards!)

The winners of the Roald Dahl Funny Prizes are announced today. I don't know what they are yet, but while I'm waiting I can tell you about two more recent awards:

The Catalyst Award is chosen by teenagers in North Lanarkshire and this year's winner is Alex Scarrow for his book, TimeRiders:

"Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, 'take my hand'. Liam, Maddy and Sal have been recruited by the TimeRiders, to stop time travel from destroying the world." 9+

The Galaxy National Book Awards were announced on November 4th and the Children's Book of the Year is A monster calls by Patrick Ness. It could also win the overall title of Book of the Year if you vote for it here. The book is a special one, because it was completed by Patrick from the final idea of much-loved Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself.

"The monster showed up just after midnight. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild." 12+

And while I was writing this, the Roald Dahl announcement has been made:

"A rhyming picture book about pirate cats has seized the bounty for the funniest book for children aged six and under in this year’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Cats ahoy! is written by Peter Bently (who was also shortlisted in 2009 for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize), and illustrated by Jim Field. It is joined on the podium by The brilliant world of Tom Gates, the winner of the seven to fourteen category, and the first in a series of books about Tom, an expert doodler and master of excuses, written and illustrated by Liz Pichon."

All the books sound great - and on Thursday we have the Guardian prize to look forward to as well!

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.

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.

Carnegie / Greenaway shortlists announced

The shortlists for the CILIP* Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals, widely acknowledged to be the UK’s most prestigious children’s book awards, have just come out. The Carnegie is for outstanding writing and the Greenaway is for outstanding illustration. To my shame, we only have two of the Greenaway books in the Library (Anthony Browne's Me and you and Bob Graham's April Underhill, tooth fairy) so I'll have to do something about that. We either have, or have ordered, all the Carnegie books. I've already blogged about one - see my post on Monsters of men by Patrick Ness, the culmination of a trilogy which I loved. Books for Keeps also has a piece on the shortlists if you want to read more.

You might remember in a recent post I mentioned Michael Gove's idea that all children should read 50 books a year. He's been talking again about school children (in England) not being encouraged to read because they don't read 19th century classics. Annie Mauger, CEO of CILIP, has decided to present him with some modern classics-in-the-making and is pictured here, with Patrick Ness, on her way to present the shortlisted books to Mr Gove's department. I hope he finds them a good read.

*Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals

Why Patrick Ness is better than Tom Cruise and other miscellany

Well, the snow and the end of term have got in the way of blogging for quite some time, so here are some of the items I'd been meaning to write about all thrown together in an end of year pot pourri. No particular order, but I've put Patrick Ness first because I liked the headline!

Why Patrick Ness is better than Tom Cruise comes from those nice people at Scottish Book Trust who recently took Ness on tour around Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire. Alison, the librarian from Clydebank High School, posted on their blog to talk about the effect of Patrick Ness on her pupils. There's also a video from the tour.

Still with Scottish Book Trust, did you know about their Teachers' Online Bookgroups? There's one each for books for primary and secondary age children, and one for professional development. Each has downloadable material to go with the texts, e.g. for Choke Chain by Jason Donald (a book for secondary children) there are teachers' notes, an interview with the author and a podcast of him reading an extract from the book.

Picture books do still work for kids - an article in October in the New York Times suggested that picture books were no longer a staple as parents tried to push their children towards "chapter books". This has promted responses from both CBS News and Publisher's Weekly - don't write the obit for picture books yet, they say. Certainly not in this Library, where they remain very popular.

Enid Blyton falls out of children's favour is an article in the Telegraph which relates that Blyton has fallen out of the top ten list of children's authors for the first time in decades because youngsters cannot relate to her language. Hmm, we don't stock her anyway because we don't consider her good enough quality (though I read them all when I was growing up and I turned into a librarian, so they can't be that bad!)

If you want quality, Julia Donaldson is a safe bet. An article in the Guardian's Books Blog praises Stick Man as a potential Christmas classic.

Looking for fiction for 10-14s? Look no further than the Literacy Adviser (Bill Boyd, latterly of Learning and Teaching Scotland) - and happily, most of the recommended titles on his long list are in stock here. The rest of the site is worth a look too. I now subscribe to his blog, and after the New Year I hope to create a Blogroll of this and others that I consult regularly.

Another good blog to follow for children's and teenage fiction is Tall Tales & Short Stories. For example, here's an interview with Keith Charters and Graham Watson of Strident Publishing - a Scottish publisher based in East Kilbride, many of whose books we have in our catalogue.

David Almond is a popular, and award-winning, author whose My Dad's a Birdman is now a play - Observer review here. Skellig, of course, was made into a film and we have both book and DVD in stock.

If you like Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Darkness series you might want to listen to her reading from the 6th and final title, Ghost hunter, in a Guardian podcast.

Books for Keeps has started a film-review section. Guess what the first review is? Harry Potter of course!

And finally - the "Books of the year" lists have started coming out. Here are 32 gathered together (not all children's) by SCC English blog and an international collection (all children's) from Chicken Spaghetti.

Season's greetings to everyone. See you in 2011!

Monsters of men: Patrick Ness

I reviewed the first two parts of Patrick Ness's Chaos walking trilogy in the summer when The Ask and the Answer (part 2) was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. I've just finished the final part, Monsters of men (as one of the character's says, "War makes monsters of men"). Rereading that earlier post, I was struck by how tense I had found the writing, particularly in the first book, The knife of never letting go. While I was certainly intrigued to find out how Ness would resolve the dangerous situation Todd and Viola found themselves in, I didn't find the conclusion quite as gripping. The war on New World becomes very complicated and a bit confusing, especially when a third force, the Spackle, the planet's indigenous species, also takes up arms. Each battle felt as if it was going to be decisive and then more followed. However, there is a satisfying ending with themes of revenge, forgiveness and redemption and Todd, Viola and the relationship between them are finely drawn - I was reminded of Philip Pullman's Lyra and Will. Overall, I would heartily recommend this trilogy for avid readers of 12+.

PS - click here for an online short story prequel to the trilogy, telling how Viola arrived on New World (via Booktrust).

Carnegie review: The Ask and the Answer

Patrick Ness has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2010 for his teenage novel, The Ask and the Answer. This is his fourth book: the first two were for adults, and this one is the middle volume of his Chaos Walking trilogy which began with The Knife of Never Letting Go. That title was also nominated for the Carnegie Medal and won the 2008 Guardian Children's Fiction prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize and the James Tiptree Jr Award, so Ness comes with a good track record.

It's quite hard to review The Ask and the Answer without giving away too much of the plot of the first novel for those who haven't read it yet. A quick summary - Todd lives in Prentisstown, which he believes to be the only remaining settlement on the New World. It seems that on arrival on this planet, sickness killed all the women and all the men found their thoughts, their Noise, could be heard by everyone - making a man "chaos walking", as in the trilogy title. However, Todd is shocked to discover a pool of silence which, he is even more shocked to find, surrounds a girl! He and Viola are soon fleeing for their lives and, as they travel, Todd begins to discover that everything he thought was true was a lie. I read many parts of this book with my hand to my mouth in fear, so tense was the writing.

The Ask and the Answer is equally exciting. I find it amazing that although several people had read the first book, I am the first to have borrowed this one - I just couldn't wait to find out what happened next! Todd and Viola have walked into a trap set by their worst enemy, and for much of the book they are kept apart with alternate sections of the narrative told in each of their voices. Todd is forced to serve the Mayor, an example of power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely, while Viola finds herself amongst the Answer, a terrorist organisation run by women. But are they any better than the Mayor and his cruel army? Although they have seemingly ended up on opposing sides, Todd and Viola never lose faith in one another and eventually they are able to come together to fight for what they believe is right. Whether they win or not is a matter for the final part of the trilogy.

This is gripping writing which can be taken at face value as an adventure story or used to ask deeper, moral questions on the nature of power, whether war or terrorism can ever be justified, the meaning of privacy and the role of women in society. Todd and Viola are both strong characters with a strong sense of justice but even they find it hard to stick to their principles in the face of violence and corruption. Minor characters are equally well drawn, such as the Mayor's weak son, Davy, who grows under Todd's influence from being a swaggering bully to at least a kind of redemption at the end. Even the animals have character - they too have Noise on New World, and Ness uses this to express exactly the nature of an excitable little dog (Manchee in book one) and an affectionate, nervous horse (Angharrad in book two). The way Todd interacts with these creatures also tells us a lot about his personality.

What happens next? You will need to read book three, Monsters of Men. You can find more information about it in previous posts about Patrick Ness, on CMIS Fiction Focus and the Ultimate Book Guide, which also has an interview with him.

New(ish) author links

Eoin Colfer BBC video on writing fantasy for children

Anthony McGowan interviewed by Bookbag

Lois Lowry interviewed by indyweek.com

Patrick Ness Chaos Walking trailer on YouTube

Author news: Patrick Ness, Katherine Paterson, Catherine Forde

Patrick Ness has won the Costa Children's Book Award for his teenage novel The Ask and the Answer, the second in his Chaos Walking trilogy. He now goes forward with the other four category winners to be considered for Costa's Book of the Year, to be announced on 26th January. For more information, see:
Interviews with Ness on the BBC's coverage of the award and yaReads.com.
A review of the book from the Ultimate Book Guide.
Details of his books on our catalogue.

In the US, Katherine Paterson is to become their second National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature - similar to our Children's Laureate. Read more in the New York Times, from the Library of Congress,  in Notes from the Hornbook and find her on Facebook. Her most famous book is possibly Bridge to Terabithia, which was recently filmed - we have that and several others in stock here.

Closer to home, Catherine Forde, Scottish Booktrust's current Virtual Writer in Residence, will have her first play Empty performed by the National Theatre of Scotland at the Tron, Glasgow, in March. She's also available on Glow in February - see the Glow blog for details. And, as usual, we have a selection of her books here at Jordanhill.