Recommended sci-fi and children's book authors

The Yahoo Group, Wordpool Writers have recently been recommending sci-fi and children's books they rate. The dozen authors below all featured on the list:

Julia Golding
Jasper Fforde
Garth Nix
Philip Reaves
Holly Black
Michele Paver
Katherine Roberts
Joseph Delaney
Kate Thompson
Philip Pulman
Angie Sage
Steve Augarde

I'm off to the library to borrow some of their books!

I'm a Munch Bunch Winner

Yesterday I received an e-mail telling me that I am one of the winners of The Munch Bunch Storytelling competition. My short story, Once Upon a Munchtime, will be recorded as a podcast by TV presenter Gail Porter and will be available to download later on the Munch Bunch website. Next week I'll be travelling to London to attend the recording. I've also won a day trip to Lapland to meet Santa and his elves and take a husky-led sleigh ride on a frozen lake, so I've got that to look forward to at the end of the year. Next weekend I'll blog about my podcast recording experience and let you know who the other winners are.

Patrick Ness wins Booktrust Teenage Prize

Patrick Ness rounded off a successful 2008 by winning the Booktrust Teenage Prize for his novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go.

The announcement was made at a prizegiving ceremony in London, where Patrick was presented with a trophy and a cheque for £2,500.

The Knife of Never Letting Go is Patrick's first novel for teenagers and has been widely acclaimed, winning him the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a longlisting for the Carnegie Medal and a placing as one of Amazon's top 100 books for 2008.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chair of Judges, Amanda Craig said, "In a strong year for Young Adult fiction, the judges of the Booktrust Teenage Prize selected six novels that we all felt were outstanding for the scope of their imagination, their originality, their writing and their appeal.

The Knife of Never Letting Go made the judges laugh, cry and debate its contents with passion; a striking mixture of thriller, science fiction and literary tour de force, it's influenced by writers as diverse as Laurence Sterne and Ursula le Guin and should appeal to a large readership."


The Booktrsust Teenage Prize judges included five children who won their places on the judging panel by submitting the best entries to a Booktrust competition. (Writers' News Feb 2009)

Jaqueline Wilson's Cookie is age-banded!

Jacqueline Wilson's latest hardback children's book has been age-banded by her publisher despite the author signing the "No to Age Banding" pledge. The hardback of Cookie, which is published this week (2nd October) by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, includes the age band 9+, as does the back of the special edition tin that contains the book.
The development first came to light when a bookseller left a comment on theBookseller.com. It read: "We received stock of Jacqueline Wilson's new book Cookie at work today.

She's signed the statement at www.notoagebanding.org and yet the back of the tin that the book is inside (and therefore I'm guessing the back of the book itself) has an age banding stamp on it of 9+. I've seen stamps on quite a few other books recently (including the new Puffin Classics edition of What Katie Did) but this is the first time I've seen one on a book by one of the signed up authors."
In a statement Random House said Wilson had agreed to the banding on the back of the hardback after "close discussion" with the author. The statement read: "Jacqueline can see the arguments both for and against printed age guidance on books but does retain some reservations about the subject. She has agreed for age guidance to be put on the cover of Cookie but RHCB will maintain the discussion with her and her agent over the matter and will review the situation on a book by book basis."

Wilson told The Guardian that her future titles would not be age-banded, but that as this one had been produced "ages ago" with special "cookie tin" packaging she had decided against making a fuss over the inclusion of the 9+ graphic.

(TheBookseller.com 3rd October 08)

My Top Ten Picture Books

By special request here are my top ten picture books for children. Some I discovered as a family learning teacher and some were in my son's collection when he was younger. I have to admit, some of them are so well loved my son and I have kept them. The list features most of my favourite children's picture book authors, but there are many more. Look out for further features on picture books later.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle



2. The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr



3. Where's my Teddy by Jez Alborough



4. Winnie the Witch by Korky Paul



5. Q Pootle 5 by Nick Butterworth



6. The Green Queen by Nick Sharratt



7. Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne



8. The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood



9. Mrs Honey's Hat by Pam Adams



10. Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae

Fairy Tales and Folklore

Fairy tales traditional stories and are a passion of mine, so I was delighted to discover a website which is dedicated to ...'fairy tales, folklore, and everything in between.' The link is http://www.les-bonnes-fees.com/ and the site is well worth a visit. The second issue of their free e-zine has just been published and contains poetry, stories, non-fiction and artwork of exceptional quality. The editors are looking for submissions of flash and longer length fiction up to 3000 words. Both new, modern tales as well as retellings of traditional tales are welcome. Also needed are poems, book and movie reviews and commentaries. Excellent guidelines are provided and payment is offered. See you in fairytale cyberspace!

2008 Gateshead Children's Book Award Winners

The 2008 Gateshead Children's Book Award goes to Jeremy Strong for, Beware Killer Tomatoes. Second prize goes to Tommy Dobavand writing as B Strange for Too Ghoul For School:Terror in Cubicle Four. Red House Award Winner, Derek Landy came third with Skullduggery Pleasant.

The award not only recognises excellent children's fiction, but enhances reading, writing and I.T. skills in young people across Gateshead. A number of publishers send multiple copies to participating schools. Children read the books, and, after discussing them, they write reviews. The books are then rated the children post their comments online. In my opinion this beats Graded Readers and Reading Logs any day.

I Wish Someone Had Told Me That.

Would you like to pick the brains of successful children's writers on mistakes they've made and lessons they've learned? How about what inspires them and keeps them going? Check out the fabulous e-book, I Wish Someone had Told Me That published by The Children's Book Insider. In this e-boook over 60 authors share their inspirations, their thoughts and experiences. My own contribution begins on page 32. Get your copy now from http://www.write4kids.com/

Skullduggery Pleasant wins Red House Children's Book Award

This Year's Children's Book Award winners are:

Older Readers Category: Derek Landy's Skullduggery Pleasant

Younger Children Category: Penguin by Polly Dunbar

Younger Readers: Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell.

Skullduggery Pleasant also won the overall award.

The Award was founded in 1980 and has been sponsored by Red House since 2001. What sets this award apart from other children's book awards is that the award winning books are chosen by children. Hundreds of books are read each year by children from all over the UK. A shortlist is compiled and the children then vote for their favourites. The Award Ceremony is held at the annual Guardian Hay Festival in June For more about the awards, including other shortlisted entries and previous winners, visit www.redhousechildrensbookaward.co.uk

The Children's Writer's Wordbook

I bought The Children's Writer's Wordbook by Alijandra Mogilner a few year's ago when I was on holiday in Florida. I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in writing for children.

I refer to it all the time when I need to find a suitable word or want to make sure a word I'm about to use is suitable to the age of my intended reader. The book is a comprehensive guide to vocabulary for children's writers and includes:

• an alphabetical word list of all the words used



• secondary lists which relate to school grades



• a thesaurus of the words listed, with reading levels for each synonym



• useful tips and advice on the best words to use



• samples of writing at different reading levels

Don't miss the extras in the back of the book. Under the Heading, 'Some Things You'll Need to Know' the author offers expert advice and insight on unusual words, being politically correct, tags and word count. Theme and Content, Age Groups and Reading Levels, and even Other Types of Writing are also dealt with in an expert but friendly manner. A Bibliography and list of other books for writers are included too.

If you write for children and haven't got The Children's Writer's Word Book already, it's well worth investing in and using.