Carmen Reid: Cross my heart

Carmen Reid: Cross my heart

The usual follow up to "Cross my heart" is "and hope to die". Here, it is "and hope to live" - for someone who has very little chance of that. Nicole is 15 and a resident of Nazi-occupied Brussels. She joins the Belgian Resistance and is transformed into Coco of Group K. La Belle, one of her fellow agents, reveals that she thinks she'll be lucky to be alive in 6 months time, and Coco too is soon risking her life for her beliefs.

The gruelling subject matter is leavened both by the romance between Nicole / Coco and fellow agent Anton / The Poet and the author's fluid writing. I whizzed through it. When I first started reading, I was sceptical that 15 year olds would have been involved in the Resistance to this extent. Nor was I convinced that Coco could have escaped some of the situations she faced in quite the way described. However, Carmen Reid's afterword makes it clear that, although fictional, her story is based on considerable research which is detailed on her website. The afterword is also worth reading for Carmen's story of her own family - she is half British, half German, and her grandparents were on different sides of the Second World War. Cross my heart is, touchingly, dedicated to them.

I won this book in a competition on Scottish Book Trust's website. I'm grateful, as always, to them for everything they do. I'm now going to donate it to Glasgow Women's Library's collection for younger women. As Carmen says "Soon all the grandparents who fought in this momentous war will be dead. We need to preserve their stories and experiences. Teenagers need to remember there was a time when turning eighteen didn't mean being able to drink and go to uni; it meant you were old enough to fight, kill people and die for your country." Her book is testament to that.

Natasha Mac a'Bhaird: Missing Ellen

Natasha Mac a'Bhaird: Missing Ellen

Teenagers Maggie and Ellen have been best friends since they were five. Ellen is lively, outgoing and impetuous while Maggie is quieter and more sensible. The story starts with a new school year. Ellen is missing, though we don't yet know why, and Maggie is missing her dreadfully - this dual meaning of "missing" is reflected in the story's two voices. Both are Maggie's - one a narrative from the point where she thinks Ellen's problem started until the time she disappeared, and the other a set of letters to her friend in which she tells her what her life is like now.

It's not difficult to guess where Ellen's story is going as she gets involved with a different crowd and makes choices that Maggie doesn't agree with. She's an attractive character on the surface, but thoughtless and reckless, and I much prefer Maggie who is left bereft at Ellen's disappearance and tortured by "what ifs", wondering if she could have changed the outcome by behaving differently herself. Her family and other school friends don't know how to help her and she has to find her own way through the grief and guilt.

It's hard to say much more without giving away the plot, so I'll leave it at that. I thought the story was very well told and the breakdown, in different ways, of both girls sensitively handled. It's not all gloom though - there's a glimmer of hope for Maggie at the end when she finally realises that she has to let Ellen go, and there's also a hint of romance ahead.

Thanks to O'Brien Press for sending me this book, which I won in a draw. I will now be donating it to Glasgow Women's Library for their younger women's collection.

Julie Berry: All the truth that's in me

Julie Berry: All the truth that's in me

The place and time of this story are never specified, but I'm guessing colonial era America. After two years missing, Judith comes home with her tongue cut out. Her friend, Lottie, who disappeared around the same time as she did is dead. The villagers of Roswell Station, including her own mother, are ashamed of Judith and she is treated like a pariah. All she can do is silently pour out her heart to Lucas, the boy she has loved since childhood, but he is now engaged to another girl. When the village is attacked by "Homelanders" Judith and Lucas effectively save it, but their actions bring them both into disrepute. What is the mystery surrounding Judith's disappearance? Can she learn to talk again? Will she and Lucas survive their disgrace and end up together? These are the questions that Judith's narrative slowly resolves.

 At first, I found this book a little irritating. It's written in the first-person present tense, and Judith addresses herself to Lucas who is referred to throughout as "you". Some of its chapters, or sections, are only a few lines long. These factors combined to make me feel the book was bitty and difficult to get into. What changed my mind was taking it with me to Glasgow Women's Library's Reading Hour for Book Week Scotland - a whole hour of concentrated reading got me gripped, and I started to care what happened to the characters. The book is more than just a romance or a mystery - it raises important questions of what defines our identity and how we treat those who are different from the norm. I'm glad I persevered.

My thanks to Templar Publishing for supplying me with a copy of this book.

Sara Grant: Half Lives

Sara Grant's Half Lives (Indigo, 2013) tells the story of two young people living in the same place but separated by time. Icie (short for Isis) is a 21st-century teenager at high school in Washington DC. Her life is completely normal until the day her parents (a government employee and a nuclear physicist) tell her they must leave for Las Vegas immediately. They have the key to a secret mountain bunker there, and must hide out to avoid an imminent terrorist attack - not bombs, but a deadly virus. Not only that, they have breached national security by taking the key and running away. As a result of this, Icie's parents are arrested before they get to the plane and she has to go on alone. On her journey, she meets three other young people: cheerleader Marissa, poor little rich boy Tate who dreams of being a rock star, and the mysterious Chaske who saves her life by killing a venomous snake. Together, they find the bunker and seal themselves up to await - what?

Interleaved with this is the story of another group inhabiting the mountain at some time in the post-virus future and worshipping the Great I AM. Their young leader is Beckett, and most of this second story is told from his point of view as he faces challenges from some of those he thought were his friends and decides what to do when a mysterious girl, Greta, appears on the mountain. He falls for her, but is she a spy from a terrorist group?

How do these two stories connect, and do they work together? Initially, I found Icie's story much more compelling and would look ahead to see what was going to happen next before reading Beckett's sections. However, I was gripped as the connections became more apparent and it became obvious that something of Icie had survived - the language and rituals of the group owe a lot to 21st-century teen vocabulary with "Whatever" elevated to a sacred word. Even the characters' names begin to take on a significance related to our own time. Eventually, both Icie and Beckett discover the mountain's dangerous secret which has a profound effect on their lives.

If you enjoy this book, you might like others on Survivor,  a list from Strathclyde University:

"Mostly set in apocalyptic versions of the future, the books on this list share a common theme: the battle for survival. Their central characters, usually teenagers, have to overcome fire, floods, demons or some other horror as they struggle to build new lives or new societies. As well as being good stories, the books will also make their readers think about the way we treat our world today."

Half Lives certainly fits into that theme.

Disclaimer: I won this book from the Indigo & Orion Children's Books in a draw, but I was not required to write a review, favourable or otherwise. The book will now be donated to the wonderful Glasgow Women's Library which has recently started collecting books for younger women.

Posts of the week

This is a hostage to fortune, but I thought I would start a weekly feature of blog posts that have caught my eye over the past seven days. If I'm absent next Friday, then you know that was a very bad idea! In no particular order, here is this week's selection.

Elaine Aldred is a Doctoral student in Education at the University of Nottingham. Her blog, Strange Alliances, aims "to explore all different kinds of writing and storytelling, through examining the craft of writing." The post that interested me was Gez Walsh. A style all of his own. Gez, a former social worker, first started writing when he was trying to get his dyslexic son to read and felt the available books were too boring. They started writing a poem together and things took off from there - it resulted in his first book, The spot on my bum. Now, he says "I devote my whole life to working with children. I work with kids that nobody else wants to work with. I’ve also written some books for their parents too, because you got vicious cycle of having parents who can barely read who won’t buy a book for a child because they don’t put any value in it." Worth checking out.

Over at Book Riot, Kelly Jensen writes about Books for boys and books for girls: problems with gendered reading and concludes "The more we expose young readers to the wide variety of reading possibilities, the wide variety of how books look and feel and grow in our hands and minds, the more positive steps we take in combating gendered reading. Maybe while we’re at it, we also stop writing about “books for boys” and “books for girls.” Books are for readers." Do you agree?

I've added The Cambridge Children's Literature Students' Blog to my "Favourite blogs" page. It's written by graduate students at the Cambridge-Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children's Literature - in their latest posts, they tell of their exploits at a Picture-book Conference in Stockholm. Lucky them!

We love this book's newsletter pops into my inbox every Friday. One of the articles they are highlighting today is Hating the happily-ever-after, an examination by Holly Bourne of romantic clichés in teenage novels. Have fun thinking of books to match each category!

Last, but not least, Scottish Book Trust has an interview with Lynne Rickards in its Spotlight On feature today. In it, Lynne talks about her influences, her writing and her work as a Writer-in-Residence in Methil in Fife where she has been collaborating with a group of women to produce a picture-book on healthy eating. We also find out that Lynne likes dark chocolate, fresh fruit and crunchy organic carrots - two out of three for healthy eating Lynne, two out of three!

PS I would go for the dark chocolate myself, preferably washed down with a nice glass of red. Speaking of which, wine-o'clock is not far away so time to finish this post and start thinking about dinner.

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.

New YA blog

I've added another YA blog to my "Favourite book blogs" tag (see the top of the column to your right). It's called UKYA, and it celebrates the work of UK authors of young adult fiction. Each entry has a brief review of a book and a link to the author's website. A really useful feature is that you can search the reviews by genre (e.g. humour or horror) or by country (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales). I clicked on Scotland, and was pleased that all the books which came up were already in stock here. There are also sections for books which have won prizes and forthcoming titles and, for overseas readers, a glossary of Britishisms! Some of these made me smile - I don't want to quote the more risque (!?) ones in a respectable university blog, but this one I can get away with:

Ant and Dec: smirking presenters of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

The blog also has a clean, uncluttered template which makes it very easy to use. Recommended.

These are the featured Scottish titles. Borrow them from us!

Hunger Games

If you're interested in teenage fiction, in particular the dystopian kind, you can hardly fail to have noticed yesterday's premiere of the Hunger Games movie. See Yahoo! Movies for more information about the film and s1play.com for details of when you can see it in Glasgow. There's a great review in Empire which gives it 4 out of 5 stars and says: "As thrilling and smart as it is terrifying. There have been a number of big-gun literary series brought to screen over the past decade. This slays them all." More locally, the Herald also gives it 4 stars and Literature for Lads gives it 9 out of 10.

I've written about the books, by Suzanne Collins, before here. If you want to read them, we have them to borrow - though you might have to wait for the first one. In the meantime, our booklist Survivor has a collection of other titles you might like. The film has produced a flurry of articles on why dystopian fiction seems to be so popular among teenagers at the moment, including Booktrust the Telegraph, the Literary Platform, Slate and We love this book . The Observer has also run a profile of Suzanne Collins, and some teachers are posting study guides here and here. The Guardian has a Hunger Games quiz, on which I only scored 3 out of 10 - oh the shame, I really need to read those books again!

If you see the film, let us know what you think in the comments.

NB this post has been updated with later material since first being published.

Bali Rai

Bali Rai is an author of teenage novels, largely inspired by his working class Punjabi / Sikh background (in Leicester) but accessible to everyone. He recently finished a stint as Writer in Residence at MyVoice, a  creative reading and writing programme for young people run by The Reading Agency, and is now Online Writer in Residence at Booktrust*. Read his last post for MyVoice and his first for Booktrust and you will find a passionate advocate for young people and the roles of reading and literacy (and libraries) in helping them develop their full potential. We have some of his books in stock here.

In The Crew, meet tough and street-smart Ellie, Jas, Della, Will and Billy. They're the Crew, and they live in what they call the Ghetto - the city centre estates where everyone is skint and it's important to stick together. One day they find a fortune in notes and life suddenly becomes very dangerous.

In Dream on Baljit is mad about football and dreams of playing for Liverpool, much to the disapproval of his parents, so when he is invited to trials at Leicester City, he has to lie about his whereabouts.

(Un)arranged marriage, set partly in the UK and partly in the Punjab region of India, is a perceptive and up-to-date glimpse into a young man's fight to free himself from family expectations and an arranged marriage that he rejects.

 

*PS talking of Booktrust, it has a recently revamped website which is worth looking at, especially the children's books and books for teens sites.

The Hunger Games Companion and film

I've blogged before about Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, the first of which will be out on film soon. If you want to watch the trailer, there's a link here. I've also just added to stock The Hunger Games companion by Lois H Gresh, which I was lucky enough to win in a draw from the publishers, Macmillan Children's Books. Thanks very much to them. It contains an author profile and insights into the series' main themes, such as the nature of evil and the justification, or otherwise, of rebellion and war.

The novels are at J 808.3 COL and the Companion at J 808.309 GRE (although it'll be going out on the new books' display this weekend).

Guest review: White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick

This is a guest post by my colleague, Carol Cisman:

SEDGWICK, Marcus. (2010). White Crow. London: Orion Children's Books.

This is an eerie and chilling tale exploring themes of good against evil and trust within relationships whilst also asking the question : is there life after death? The story begins with the main character, Rebecca, arriving in the sleepy village of Winterfold following a scandal in her father's career which has forced them to seek temporary refuge there. She soon befriends a strange girl, Ferelith, who is both mysterious and intriguing with much to hide and, although they form a friendship of sorts, Rebecca doesn't fully trust her domineering nature and intentions. It isn't long before Rebecca finds herself in a terrifying situation with everything to lose. There are flashbacks in the story to the 18th Century with dialogue from the Rector of Winterfold describing terrible, dark deeds which took place there - the conclusion of which is made apparent at the twisting climax of the present day tale involving Rebecca and Ferelith. Although this is a horror story full of foreboding - I found it utterly thrilling and couldn't put it down! The author succeeds in creating atmosphere and drama which I believe older teenagers will find totally captivating.

If you would like to read this, or other books by Marcus Sedgwick, you will find a selection of his work in our catalogue.

"The sky is everywhere" by Jandy Nelson: guest post by Melissa (13)

Melissa, of Clydebank High School, enjoyed this book and shared the following review:

The sky is everywhere. The title doesn’t give much away but when you start to read this book I promise you, you will not be able to put it down. Lennie Walker, now sisterless, is our heroine. After the tragedy of her older sister Bailey’s death, Lennie is dreading going back to school but Gram (Lennie’s grandmother) tells her it will be good for her and to Lennie’s surprise it is, in one way. She gets to meet Joe, new boy and seriously gorgeous - is he the boy that can make all better? Or, to Lennie’s horror, Bailey’s boyfriend, Toby?

I really love this book. When I first read it I was off school and I really couldn’t put it down. At the start of each chapter there is a picture of something that Lennie has written on, she ether writes a conversation she has had with Bailey or a poem and it just makes the book even more special. The way the book is written is so compelling and made me (nearly) cry and laugh out loud all the time! I’ve read this book many times now and it only gets better every time I read it. If you want a good holiday book this is it and I would recommend it anyone at any age.

If this inspires you to read the book, here's its catalogue record so you can borrow it from this library.This is the only title we have by Jandy Nelson, but the slideshow below shows others that are available. I'll need to look at buying some more!

Jeff Bridges, The Giver and dystopian fiction

Jeff Bridges hopes to bring to the big screen a classic young adult novel, Lois Lowry's The Giver. In a world without conflict, poverty and inequality, conformity and happiness are a way of life. But for Jonas, things are different. While his friends are selected to be doctors or teachers, Jonas is sent to the Giver where he discovers the secrets beneath the surface of his world. The Oscar-winning Bridges would take on the role of The Giver if the film comes to fruition.

We have the book in the library, and it's on our Survivor booklist. Mostly set in apocalyptic versions of the future, the books on this list share a common theme: the battle for survival. Their central characters, usually teenagers, have to overcome fire, floods, demons or some other horror as they struggle to build new lives or new societies. As well as being good stories, the books will also make their readers think about the way we treat our world today.

Dystopian fiction is a popular, current theme. Julie Bertagna also features on the list with Exodus and Zenith - she's recently published Aurora, the final part of the trilogy. Read her article in the Scotsman earlier this month on why teenagers are such avid readers of books on dystopias. Books for Keeps also recently published its list of 10 of the best dystopian novels.

Is teenage fiction "rife with depravity"?

A lot of controversy has been stirred up by an article in the Wall Street Journal by Meghan Cox Gurdon, entitled Darkness too visible, in which she asks "contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?" I'm not sure I would describe the teen books coming into this library in those terms, although as the books she cites are American I couldn't judge any of them apart from Suzanne Collins' Hunger games trilogy which I''ve blogged about (approvingly) here. I've now noticed quite a few rebuttals coming through, one of which is from another writer on her own paper, Christopher John Farley, whose blog post asking Should young adult books explore difficult issues? comes up with a "Yes", as does another blog post from Not just for kids. Today, the Guardian has joined in with an article on its Teen Books page and a plea Don't censor teen fiction on its Books Blog. The controversy has also spawned its own Twitter tag, #YAsaves.

If you want to explore teenage books and the issues involved through our pages, see the one on Teenage Literature and our Banned Books reading list which deals with titles for all ages which have caused controversy over the years.

"Angel" by L. A. Weatherly: guest post by Ellen (12)

Before Christmas, Usborne sent us some sample chapters of Angel which inspired Ellen, of Knightswood Secondary School, to read the whole book and send me this review:

"The only good angel is a dead angel"

Angel is a wonderful, enchanting story about a girl called Willow and a boy called Alex. Willow’s life is turned upside down when she is accused of being against the angels. Then she meets Alex, an angel killer, and they run away around the USA to stop the angels.
I didn’t want to go to school it was so exciting. I just wanted to curl up and carry on reading. Luckily though, near the end of term, I got some spare time to read.
It is officially one of my favourite books and I’d suggest it to anyone who loves adventure.
So what are you waiting for? Find and grab your own copy and join Willow and Alex on an adventure to destroy the angels...

Because I heard Ellen was enjoying it so much, I also read it myself and, I have to say, I agree with her assessment, I couldn't put it down either. There is apparently going to be a trilogy - according to Amazon, Angel fire is out in October, so I think Ellen and I will both be looking forward to that. Here's the catalogue record for Angel if you want to borrow it from us.




Many thanks to Ellen for her review.

Open Book on young adult fiction

Mariella Frostrup presented a special edition of Open Book on Radio 4 yesterday exploring the recent boom in fiction for young adults. She spoke to young adult authors Marcus Sedgwick, Malorie Blackman and Gemma Malley, to help find out what distinguishes teen novels today and what challenges and possibilities they present for the writer. The programme is currently available on Listen Again and will be repeated on Thursday at 16.00.

I'm a character in a teenage novel ... get me out of here!

I toyed with this title back in 2002/3 when I first compiled our Survivor booklist. I'm a celebrity was newly on-screen, but I decided it might be a flash in the pan and no-one would get the title after a few weeks or months. How wrong could I be? The programme is still going, but so is my list with its much more prosaic title. Mostly set in apocalyptic versions of the future, the books on it share a common theme: the battle for survival. Their central characters, usually teenagers, have to overcome fire, floods, demons or some other horror as they struggle to build new lives or new societies. As well as being good stories, the books will also make their readers think about the way we treat our world today.

I've just updated the list to include two recently completed trilogies. I've already written about Patrick Ness's Chaos walking books here and here. (For a sneak preview of the cover of his next book, see his blog.) The other trilogy is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins which I've just finished reading. (Catalogue details here.) In the first book, we are introduced to a dystopian society based on what is left of the USA after a global disaster. The wealthy Capitol is surrounded by 12 poorer Districts which, 75 years ago, had tried to break away. As punishment for the failed rebellion, every year each District must supply one girl and one boy between the ages of 12 and 18 to take part in the Hunger Games. These sound like I''m a celebrity with the added excitement of being a fight to the death - the last participant alive wins. The very first time Prim Everdeen, from District 12, is eligible her name comes out of the hat but her older sister Katniss volunteers to take her place and it is her adventures we follow through the three books. It's not pretty - by their very nature, the games have to involve violence and Collins doesn't shirk from describing it. The politics are presented in a thought provoking way too, without being heavy handed. There are also gentler themes though - love, for instance, as Katniss explores her feelings for both Gale, her childhood friend, and Peeta who accompanies her into the Arena.

I was first recommended these books by my 14-year old neice who really enjoyed them and I have to say I agree with her taste. It took me a while to get into the first few chapters, but after that I was hooked and tore through all three. As with Chaos walking I found the quality tailed off a little towards the end - I didn't find the final battles terribly convincing - but on the whole they were a great read.

Suzanne Collins has her own website and there's also a special Hunger Games one. You can find information in various other places - for example on Wikipedia, on the publisher's website (Scholastic) on My Hunger Games or on Youtube (trailers). Play the game Find your Hunger Games name, keep track of the movie, expected to come out in 2013, and Google it for much more!

Booktrust Teenage Prize

"A bit like Rain Man but much better, and without Tom Cruise." So said Chair of Judges, Tony Bradman, of Unhooking the moon which today won Gregory Hughes the Booktrust Teenage Prize. It's the story of two siblings, 10 year old Rat and her big brother Bob, who set off from Winnipeg after their father dies to search for their only known relative in New York. I can't tell you much more than that since the book hasn't arrived in the Library yet, but I can't wait to get my hands on it after reading about it today. Here's the Booktrust announcement, the Books for Keeps review, the Bookbag and two articles from the Guardian, one mainly on the book and the other on the author. The subject matter, a road trip with unforgettable charcters, also reminds me of the Dicey Tillerman books by Cynthia Voigt, starting with The homecoming, which we do have and which I heartily recommend.



PS Booktrust interview with Gregory Hughes added 4/11/10

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).

New journal articles

The latest editions of Books for Keeps and Youth Library Review have arrived. They're both jam-packed with interesting articles - find them on the gallery upstairs. Here's an index:

DISABLED CHILDREN
PUTTING disabled children in the picture. (2010). Youth Library Review, 40, pp. 10-11.
Giving disabled children role models in literature.

ELECTRONIC BOOKS
Whitney, N. (2010). Winds of change and the emergence to the m-generation: moving from books, via the web, to apps. Youth Library Review, 40, pp. 6-9.

HOOPER, Mary
Eccleshare, J. (2010). Authorgrapgh no 182: Mary Hooper. Books for Keeps, 182, pp. 12-13.

ILLUSTRATION
Wyatt, B. (2010). Illustrators and public lending right. Youth Library Review, 40, pp. 18-19.

INTERNET RESOURCES
Mynott, D. (2010). Stories from the web. Youth Library Review, 40, pp.16-17.
A reader development site for children and young people: http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/

MEYER, Stephanie
Tucker, N. (2010). Once bitten: the fang bang fiction of Stephanie Meyer. Books for Keeps, 182, pp. 4-5.

POETRY
Styles, M. (2010). Ten of the best poetry books for children. Books for Keeps, 182, pp. 6-7.

PICTURE BOOKS
Browne, A. (2010). Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne on appreciating picture books. Books for Keeps, 182, p. 8.
Evans, J. (2010). Picturebooks are for everyone: children’s thoughts about reading picturebooks. Youth Library Review, 40, pp. 1-5.

TEENAGE NOVELS
Barnes, C. (2010). The catcher in the rye. Books for Keeps, 182, p. 11.
How did J D Salinger’s pioneering creation influence later teen fiction?

WHITE, T H
Alderson, B. (2010). Classics in short no 81: The sword in the stone. Books for Keeps, 182, p. 32.