The Spark

The Spark is a new online community for young people aged 13-16 who are interested in creativity and reading. Set up by Faber and Faber, the publishers, and hosted on Facebook, it will feature exciting projects around acting, film-making, writing and music. Each project will be inspired by a Faber young adult title. The current competition is linked to the publication of The things we did for love by Natasha Farrant and the prize is an iPad! In the story, Arianne and Luc fall in love in Occupied France during the Second World War. Luc gets involved with the Resistance and, although Arianne will do anything to keep him safe, there is a rival for her love who doesn't feel so kindly towards him. To tie in with the book's themes, entrants should submit a story, poem or article about love or war. The closing date is 10th June.

The next competition will be looking for a budding film maker to direct a book trailer. Sounds like an excellent way to get teenagers to engage with books and reading.

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!

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!

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.

Carnegie / Greenaway shortlists

The shortlists for these two awards have just been announced, and I'm pleased to say we have nearly all the books already, and will soon have the rest in stock. The Carnegie is for the writer of an outstanding children's book and this year's shortlist raises the prospect that the same author could win two years in a row. Patrick Ness won last year for Monsters of men and is nominated again for A monster calls. This has only happened once before since the award started in 1936 - Peter Dickinson won for Tulku in 1979 and City of Gold in 1980. Even more intriguing, A monster calls could win both medals because the illustrator, Jim Kay, is on the shortlist for the Greenaway which rewards distinguished illustration in a book for children. I've been right through the lists of previous winners and this has never happened before, so the book could make history if it wins twice.


There's also a shadowing site where you can read and post reviews, watch videos of the nominated authors etc, and one of this year's judges has blogged about the experience for Booktrust. Susan Elkin has blogged in the Independent, which is fine if you can fogive the spelling mistake in the heading, and Books for Keeps also has a piece online. No doubt there will be many more articles in the run-up to the awards being announced on 14th June.

PS 2 hours after posting this - already more from the Guardian. Greenaway in pictures and an article on Carnegie.


The slideshows below are of the shortlists - the Carnegie is the top one.

Learning to look after the environment.

We've certainly been working hard on our children's booklists page in the last couple of weeks. The latest list is on the environment. As environmental concerns become more prominent in the curriculum, the issue is featuring more and more in children’s fiction. We’ve collected together some of the best titles with environmental appeal. With themes of community spirit, mysteries and young heroes, such novels convey the environmental message in an enjoyable and engaging way. As with our other lists, there is something for all ages from picture books for younger children to teenage novels.Many thanks to my colleague Alison Kennedy for creating this list.

Learning about diversity and difference

Around 10% of the children living in Britain come from minority ethnic backgrounds, but it can be difficult to find children’s books that represent the diversity of our society. Stories which feature characters from a variety of ethnic backgrounds are valuable, both in racially diverse classrooms and in schools where the majority of children are white, as all children should be able to find books they can personally identify with, while a diverse offering helps to foster cultural empathy. Diversity and difference: multicultural books for a multicultural society is the latest addition to our booklists for children. It's the last in a series which also comprises:

Diversity and difference: learning about disability 

Stories which include characters with disabilities in a matter of fact way can help your class accept difference and understand diversity.

Diversity and difference: learning about  sexuality and gender difference

Stories which include LGBT characters can promote understanding and reduce lesbian, gay and transgender related bullying.

All three lists cover a range from picture books to teen fiction. I'm grateful to my colleagues Alison Forde, for creating the multicultural and LGBT lists, and Sarah Scott for the disability list. Paper copies are availalble in the display area upstairs in the library.