Happy Roald Dahl Day!

Today is Roald Dahl Day. There are celebrations at Scottish Book Trust and, although it might be too late to join in live, follow the links on their page to find out how to access the event afterwards. SBT also offers the chance to win a 15-book Roald Dahl box set from Puffin. Simply tweet your top three favourite Roald Dahl books to @ScottishBkTrust using the #Top3DahlBooks hashtag or email hello@scottishbooktrust.com with your three choices. There's still time for that - enter by 17:00 Friday 14 September 2012. The winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!

The BFG is 30!

The BFG is 30 this year! To celebrate, Puffin is inviting you to ‘Dream Big with The BFG’ in order to win some ‘dream come true’ prizes.  The celebrations take place in September, and there will be packs and more details to follow. In the meantime you can download the flyer as illustrated to the left from the School Library Association. It gives details on how to register your school or library, after which you’ll receive updates and goodies. (Alternatively, the packs will be available to download from June on the Roald Dahl website.) There will be lesson plans, competitions, quizzes and games, and also a Dress-up Day to raise funds for Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity. Sounds like a lot of fun! We have a full range of Dahl's books in the Children's section at J 808.3 DAH.

Happy Roald Dahl Day

Today is Roald Dahl Day, celebrated every year on his birthday, so I've brought together a few sites for you to look at. The Guardian recently ran a poll to find the favourite Roald Dahl character, who turns out to be Charlie Bucket. Read the article and leave your own comments if you wish. The Roald Dahl Funny Prize shortlist has recently been announced and Glasgow Libraries have events going on until the 16th. The BBC also published an article on Roald Dahl yesterday - Roald Dahl and the darkness within. This seems to have caused a bit of controversy so you might want to add your comments to that too! Finally, and as always, if you want to read the books for yourself, come to the Library - there are loads of Dahls in our catalogue.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize

The winners were announced today:

Funniest Book for Children Aged 6 and Under
Dog loves books by Louise Yates

Funniest Book for Children Aged 7 to 14
Withering tights by Louise Rennison

Read more about them via Booktrust. We have both books in stock.



PS - currently on BBC iPlayer, Blue Peter visits Roald Dahl's house.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize - shortlist announced

The shortlist has just been announced for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Click on the link for full details, including reviews. The prize was founded in 2008 by Michael Rosen as part of his Children’s Laureateship and is the first prize of its kind, i.e. for those books that simply make children laugh. There are two categories, for children aged 6 and under and for children aged 7-14. As usual, we aim to stock all titles nominated for prizes, and in this case we already have half of them and will be adding the rest as soon as possible. The slideshow below illustrates the ones in stock now. The prize, administered by Booktrust, will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 17 November 2010.

It's Roald Dahl Day - 13/9/10

Roald Dahl Day is celebrated every year on the author's birthday - he would have been 94 today! Click on the link to download information about events and activities. There's also a challenge (to read 3 Roald Dahl books before December) in which 5000 children will win a Revolting Reader badge. You might also be interested in the official Dahl website and the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. Plus, of course, we have loads of books by and about Roald Dahl - see the list here. Which is your favourite?

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.

Roald Dahl Museum

Situated in the village where Roald Dahl lived and wrote for 36 years (Great Missenden), the Roald Dahl Museum was created as a home for the author's unique archive and to inspire a love of stories and creative writing in its visitors. Obviously, this is a long way from Glasgow - but there are things on the website to enjoy without visiting, particularly the Discover Dahl section which has fantastic facts, quizzes and, best of all, a virtual tour of Dahl's writng hut. You can even view the contents of his wastepaper basket, his filing cabinet and his desk. These include his false teeth! Great fun.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize

The winners have now been announced:

Funniest book for children aged 6 and under:

The witch's children go to school by Ursula Jones

Funniest book for children aged 7-14:

Mr Gum and the dancing bear by Andy Stanton

Read more about it here.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, is the first award to honour books that make us giggle. The shortlist was announced on the 8 September and winners will be announced on November 13th. There's also a related article by Nicolette Jones on humorous writing for children in the Telegraph of 6th September - Why making children laugh is a serious business.