Scottish Children's Book Awards - and other World Book Day news

It's World Book Day today, an entirely appropriate time for the winners of the Scottish Children's Book Awards (SCBA) to be announced. And here they are, left to right:

Jonathan Meres - Winner for 8-11s for  The world of Norm: may contain nuts

John Fardell - Winner for 3-7s for The day Louis got eaten

Barry Hutchison - Winner for 12-16s for The 13th horseman

Congratulations to all - STV Edinburgh has been quick off the mark with an interview with Jonathan and John.

It's also the day for the Blue Peter Book Awards - an embarrassment of riches. They'll be announced later today on a special edition of the programme.

Other recent prizes that you might want to check out are the Red House Children's Book Awards and the Cybils. The former is the only national book award voted for entirely by children; the latter is the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Award. Jacqueline Wilson and John Burningham have both been nominated by IBBY UK (International Board on Books for Young People) for Hans Christian Andersen Awards 2014.

More snippets:

As well as news about SCBA, the most recent Scottish Book Trust newsletter has information about new resources on Coraline, a forthcoming Authors Live event with Polly Dunbar and a new range of CPD opportunities for librarians and teachers on reading for pleasure and creative literacy.

The National Library also has a new information literacy resource, Project Blaster, featuring six fun and informative videos narrated by popular children's author Allan Burnett. Project Blaster has been specifically designed to meet Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence aims and objectives.

The Harriet Branford Writing Competition is now open to children and young people under 19. Entrants should write a story of up to 1500 words following on from a starting paragraph by Annabel Pitcher. The closing date is 26th April.

Cool not Cute! is a new(ish) website dedicated to starting a debate on gender bias in picture books. Do you agree that "the output of the picture book industry reflects girls' tastes far more than it does boys' and that this bias is exacerbating the gender gap between boys' and girls' reading abilities"? Yes or no, head over to the site to join the discussion.

Red House Young Writers Competition

Here's a great opportunity for budding young writers - they could enter the 2012 Red House Young Writers’ Yearbook competition and win the chance to see their stories or poems published in a beautiful hardback book. Entrants should submit a story, poem or article and it’s up to the individual what subject they choose to write about. The competition entries will be divided into four age categories: 7+, 9+, 12+ and 14+ (up to age 17). As well as becoming a published author, winners will also have the opportunity to attend a Red House Young Writers’ Workshop, held at their headquarters in Surrey, which will provide participants with fun and stimulating challenges to help them hone their skills, and lots of feedback to encourage and inspire.

Entries must be under 1000 words and the closing date is 2nd May, so no time to lose!

09/04/12 - PS, just found another writing competition, from Explore Learning.  Win a trip to Disneyland, Paris!

A sense of self - books for kids to learn about "me"

We've been working very hard recently updating our page of children's booklists, adding a few extra book titles to those already there, and creating some completely new lists. Two of these are aimed at helping children to identify and develop their sense of self. Thanks to my colleague Iain Riley for creating these.

All about me Many children want to know “All about me” and there are picture books to encourage the youngest children to explore their sense of self - the "Charlie and Lola" book shown, for example, in which Lola likes to think she’s independent. Big brother Charlie knows that being all on your own isn’t always much fun, but Lola has to work that out for herself. There are also poetry books for older children and, moving from the philosophical to the anatomical, a section on looking at the human body in novel ways.

Dear diary Get students to write about their own lives, perhaps in a diary format. This list has some books we hope will inspire them. For younger children, there are picture books such as Jackie French's  Diary of a wombat. The wombat sleeps, eats and scratches. She trains humans to be better pets. It's the diary of a wombat with attitude! For older children, the Jacqueline Wilson title shown is included. It's an exciting account of her teenage years, full of revealing diary extracts – perfect for her many thousands of fans.

Library staff hope you find these suggestions helpful - we are always interested to hear about titles we could add to these, or any of our lists, or suggestions for new themes we could cover. Just let us know!

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.

Reading for pleasure, writing for pleasure

Three opportunities to get kids reading and writing for pleasure:

The Wicked Young Writers' Awards have launched - there are competitions for various age ranges from 5 to 25. Entries should be no more than 750 words and can be in any genre. The awards are supported by former Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, who has provided some writing tips on the site.

Scottish Book Trust's Book of the Month page currently has the chance to win the 12-16 category winner in the Scottish Children's Book Awards. You won't know what that is until 23rd February, but it's one of:

• The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin
• Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin
• Wasted by Nicola Morgan. 

We have them all in the Library so you could borrow them now.

Richard and Judy's Children's Reads for Spring 2012 have been launched by WH Smith. There are 10 titles, of which the Library has the 3 below. Click the link above to see the rest - they'll be arriving here soon.

Class writes its own book!

Picture book author Lynne Rickards had an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival this year, and afterwards she signed a copy of her book I do not eat the colour green for the P2 class at Broughton Primary. When they got back to school, the class decided to write their own book called I only eat the colour green and then they sent it to Lynne who has scanned it and put it on her blog. It's an absolutely fabulous example of a class writing project which any student of primary teaching should certainly take a look at.

We have several of Lynne's books and storysacks in our catalogue - I do not eat the colour green is available as part of The green bag.

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.

More summer activities for young readers and writers

I blogged last month about various competitions going on for young writers over the summer, and here are some more book related activities that children might be interested in.

Head down to your local library for the Summer Reading Challenge - this year's theme is Circus Stars. It's free and children get a stage set and stickers to start them off. As they read their way through six books, they help the Circus Stars progress through Practice and Rehearsal to their ultimate goal – Showtime! There's lots of online fun as well as reading. The Challenge was launched in Scotland by Julia Donaldson, the new Children's Laureate.

2012 will be the 25th anniversary of the bestselling Winnie the Witch books, so The Guardian has teamed up with Winnie's publisher, Oxford University Press, and WH Smith, to offer four lucky winners the chance to have their artwork featured as the endpapers for the anniversary edition of Winnie the Witch. The closing date for the competiton (for children aged 5-10) is 22nd August 2011 and the book will be published in July next year.

Another Guardian competiton is their Children's Fiction Prize Book Club. Every week they are featuring one of the books in the running for the Guardian children's fiction prize. They kicked off on Friday with Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout by Andy Stanton. The Young Critics competition is for young readers to share their views on any of the longlisted books. Anyone under 16 can enter by writing a review of no more than 200 words of one of the books longlisted for the prize - the deadline for entries is Monday 26 September 2011.

Finally, Macmillan Children's books and ITV's Daybreak have launched a writing competition today. "What's The Story", invites children aged 7-12 to write a 500-word story, to be submitted by 25th July. Illustrator Lydia Monks (see our selection of her books here) has created a number of characters to be included in the story, with the winning book, complete with Monks' illustrations, to be published by Macmillan next year.

Competitions for budding young writers

Wow, lots more writing competitions to blog about. Lets start local with Scottish Book Trust's Young Writers Awards. They are looking for three enthusiastic writers between the ages of 14 and 17 who could have the chance to be mentored by an established teen writer over a period of six months as well as meeting industry professionals and visiting a top London publisher. In order to be eligible you must be living in Scotland - if interested, follow the link above and apply by 31st August.

Canongate Young Writers' Competition is aimed at 16-19 year olds who are invited to enter either a short story or extract of no more than 3,000 words. You'll need to be quicker with this one as the closing date is 1st July.

247tales is an online writing competition open to UK residents between the ages of 10 and 16. The challenge is to write a short story using 247 words or fewer, and the prize for the winning story is £75 worth of Bloomsbury Children’s books plus a framed copy of your winning story which will also appear on the website. There's a new competition on a different theme every month - the closing date for June (theme: The Game) is Monday 27th.

The smash hit West End musical WICKED has announced the second year of its hugely successful WICKED Young Writers’ Award.  The Award recognises excellence in writing, encourages creativity, and helps develop literacy and writing talent in young people between the ages of 5 and 25 years old. This one runs until 31st July.

So - if you know any budding young writers, tell them about these competitions. They could have a busy summer ahead of them!

Storywriting competition for 5-11s

Another World Book Day launch, this time from National Literacy Trust which has teamed up with Katherine Holabird, author of the Angelina Ballerina books, and Build-a-Bear Workshop to announce a storywriting competition. Katherine has written the beginning of a story and children aged between 5 and 11 are being challenged to write the rest of it.

Children's book awards

As the Guardian announced the shortlist for its 2010 Children's Fiction Prize at the weekend, this seems a good time to catch up with some other snippets of recent award news. These include Red House Children's Book Award Winners and the 2010 English 4-11 Book Awards for the best children's illustrated books of 2009. On a slightly different tack, Ireland has awarded its first Children's Laureateship to Siobhán Parkinson, as detailed in the Guardian and the Usborne's Young Writers' Award offers children up to 14 the opportunity to finish a story started by a famous authors (Sophie McKenzie, Diana Kimpton, Anne-Marie Conway, Keith Brumpton, Steve Skidmore & Steve Barlow). Prizes include the winning story published as an iphone App, a trip to Usborne in London to meet all the authors and find out how a book is made and £100 worth of Usborne books. The closing date for entries is Wednesday 20th October 2010.

Young Writers Awards

Scottish Book Trust is currently on the lookout for three enthusiastic writers (between the ages of 14 and 17) to participate in their Young Writers Awards. Winners could have the chance to work with award winning novelist Catherine Forde. For details of how to enter see SBT's webpage. (Closes 31st May).

Children's writing competitions

One set of winners, one competition announced:

Children's Poetry Bookshelf Competition: The judges of the Old Possum's Children's Poetry Competition, led by Chair Carol Ann Duffy, have selected twelve children as winners, with a further six receiving high commendations. The CPB held a gala celebration and prize-giving on Monday 14 December at the Unicorn Theatre in London, hosted by poets John Agard and Roger Stevens, both of whom were also judges of the competition. See more here, including a picture of the winners, and here, including the winning poems.

Young Muslim's Writers Awards: Muslim Writers Awards are now inviting submissions from Muslim writers from the ages of 8 through to 16. Winners of both Best Short Story and Best Poetry will be annonced at a televised awards ceremony scheduled for April 2010. Deadline for entries is Friday 5 February 2010. To download entry forms and view submission criteria here.

Comic belief

When a Yorkshire secondary produced its own graphic novel, it provided a riposte to those who dismiss the genre as ‘dumbing down’ for low-achievers. Dearne High in Rotherham has ignored the critics to produce its own 132-page, high-end graphic novel. Fool’s Gold, written and produced by about 100 pupils with the input of 10 multi-award-winning writers, two famous photographers and a professional illustrator, went on sale last week. Read the full story by Meabh Ritchie in last week's TES.

National Literacy Trust News

NLT's December newsletter features:

A vision for Scotland - examines the report and final recommendations of the Scottish Literacy Commission which assesses levels of literacy in  Scotland and proposes pre-school literacy support.

New research on writing - NLT research finds social network sites and blogs may have educational benefits such as greater confidence and a more positive attitude towards writing. Chrisitina Clark, Head of Research, adds commentary in To blog or not to blog, that isn't the question.

Scottish Premier League Reading Stars - this programme to raise motivation for reading has been funded for a second year.

Reading programmes for boys - research shows they have led to more boys at primary level reading for pleasure. See also DCSF news  and MLA news on this.

Online writing and literacy

From: Blogging, literacy and an "innovative" school librarian:

An article in yesterday’s Independent, coinciding with the launch of the National Literacy Trust’s new report Young people’s writing: attitudes, behaviour, and the role of technology highlights the work done by Bev Humphrey, librarian at Woolwich Polytechnic School in London, is harnessing cutting-edge technology to get boys writing. For the past two years she has run The Write Path, an online writing project that links pupils around the world and enables them to write stories together. Read more about her work, and the new report, in "Don't knock blogging – it's the answer to our literacy problems" in the Independent's Education and Careers supplement, p3, 3 December 2009, or on the Independent's website.

The National Literacy Trust’s recent research has found that pupils who are active online tend to have a more positive attitude to writing, and also write more in traditional forms, such as short stories, letters, diaries or song lyrics. Download the report from the National Literacy Trust’s website.

GiggleIT with Gigglecritter

The GiggleIT Project is a global collaborative publishing project hosted by the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), working in partnership with the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL).
Designed to help children around the world improve their English language literacy skills, the GiggleIT Project encourages students ages 10-14 to contribute their writings to an online book (eBook) celebrating stories and humour from their culture. Written by children for children, the eBook will contain children's stories, jokes and poetry. The project will inspire children to be creative and make cross-cultural connections with other children from around the world as they learn about humour from other countries, while improving their literacy skills.

Story writing competition

247tales.com - Bloomsbury's brand new online competition for young writers - is now live. This is a (very) short story writing competition that challenges 8 to 16-year-olds to write a piece of fiction in only 247 words or less. Each month a Bloomsbury author will write a 247tale on a particular theme and then it's over to the young people to create their own miniature masterpiece. This month it's Elen Caldecott. For full details visit Bloomsbury's 247 website.

Children's writing

In January, the National Literacy Trust held a policy breakfast, "Enjoyment, confidence and reading: the keys for the success of writing in the 21st century." At the event, a range of expert leaders discussed issues facing writing in schools, as well as the best ways to teach and support writing in the future. Bestselling children’s author and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz led the discussion, throughout which, the group repeatedly stressed the absolute centrality of reading to writing. In fact, it is possible to tell what a child has been reading from the style and tone of
their writing. Children are sometimes identified as having a lack of imagination when in reality the problem is a poverty of reading. Children obtain imaginative building blocks from reading stories and reading is, therefore, essential to imagination and writing. You can read the whole report here.