Hello Gruffalo

Julia Donaldson, famed author of The Gruffalo will be visiting New Zealand, March 5th - 7th.

Donaldson's collaboration with illustrator Axel Scheffler for The Gruffalo was awarded the Nestle Children's Book Prize (1999), and the blue Peter prize for Best Book. Still a much-loved and popular picture book, the million-seller with its imaginative mix of mouse, monster and matchless rhyme remains a standout read aloud.

Although best known for her picture books, Donaldson's junior fiction novel, The Giant and the Jones is shortly to be filmed by the same crew who made the Harry Potter movies.

During her visit here (unfortunately she will be only be in Auckland) Donaldson will be involved in various school tours, talks and workshops. More details when they come to hand.

Chairleader

Choice! Looking for the best in recently published New Zealand children’s literature? Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand has just released its list of Notable New Zealand Books published in 2006. With 40 books ranging across the four categories, (picture books, junior fiction, young adult fiction and non-fiction) there’s a wealth of fabulous reading here for anyone from preschool to y13 and beyond.

“No car, no work! No work no pay!

We're getting poorer day by day”

The Storylines Judging Panel also give a big shout out to the beloved and buoyantly brilliant read-aloud picture book, Down the Back of the Chair, by Margaret Mahy (ineligible for selection as the poem has previously been published.) It's chock full of Mahy mayhem as well as offering the following imaginative and practical advice;

“There's pleasure, treasure, toys and trash

Down the back of the chair”

just like books really.

The Art of Shelving

Ever desperate to latch on to the latest library craze, Creating Readers is impressed with the latest Youf library activity, Pimp my Book Trolley. Gotta love those (Move it I’m shelving) horns. So grab a spray can, spanner and a copy of Dummies Guide to Book Trolleys, more examples over here and here

Wonky but not Shonky

To accessorise causal Friday here’s some titbits from the world of reading and libraries. First Germaine Greer waxes lyrical about libraries, (library is her favourite word) and has a few things to say about the wonky but not shonky Peckham library.

Alan MacDiarmid, Boy Chemist

Here’s an inspiring story that perfectly illustrates how books can and do make a real difference to our lives, yep even children’s books...

One of New Zealand's greatest scientists, Alan MacDiarmid, died last week aged 79. Alan MacDiarmid was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000, along with Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa, for discovering a way to make plastics conduct.

When asked how he came to be interested in chemistry, Alan always mentioned a book he had read as a boy - "The boy chemist" by A. Frederick Collins. Boston : Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, c1924. He told how, as a boy, he had spotted the book on the New Books shelves at the Lower Hutt Library. He enjoyed it so much he kept renewing it for almost a year, so that he could complete most of the experiments.

The Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection housed in the National Library purchased and donated a copy of the book to the Dorothy Neal White Collection. They then reunited him with the book (for the first time since childhood) in early 2002 and he confessed, with a charming smile, that his favourite experiment had been making invisible ink from lemon juice. He was also very keen on making fireworks.

The book can also be read online on the Royal Society of New Zealand's web site.

Merchandisers Take Note

On the celeb front of children’s publishing it’s emerged that the last Harry Potter title (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) looks set to become the most pre-ordered book in history. Already topping Amazon’s Bestseller lists (complete with five stars) the faithful over at Wikipedia have an extensive (read speculative) article on the book including this lovely quote from JK Rowling excerpted from a BBC interview.

Jeremy Paxman: So you know what is going to become of all the major characters over the span of the series?
J.K. Rowling: Yeah..yeah.
Jeremy Paxman: Why stop when they grow up? Might be interesting to know what becomes of Harry as an adult.
J.K. Rowling: How do you know he'll still be alive?
Jeremy Paxman: Oh. At the end of book seven?
J.K. Rowling: It would be one way to kill off the merchandising.

Hard to believe it’s ten years since the Potter phenomenon began. Current sales stand (pre-orders excepted) at an astounding 325 million copies worldwide.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be available on 21st July.

2007 Notable Children’s Books

Over at the Association for Library Service to Children there’s a great listing of 2007 Notable books (of course that’s books published in 2006).

The list covers both fiction picture books and non fiction with, obviously, the emphasis is on books American. Even so while there’s no entry for our Elizabeth Knox (what were they thinking) some new and notable Brits poke their heads around the corner including; Mini Grey, Philip Reeve, Frank Cottrell Boyce, (The time will soon come when Frank Cottrell Boyce's children's titles have passed into the canon of the classics …) and the above wee gem, Wolves from the rising star, writer and illustrator, Emily Gravett.

New Zealand Post Book Awards 2007 Finalists

The finalists in the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2007 have just been announced and like last year the short list boasts a variety of themes and topics with New Zealand history a strong player in each category.

This year's judging panel of three children's book experts, convened by illustrator, writer and teacher, Keith Olsen, was impressed with the diversity of subject matter across all four categories. Olsen said that, in the non-fiction category, history and biography were strongly represented with an emphasis on war and war-heroes, while on the other hand, there is even a finalist book about how to make up your own jokes."It was pleasing to see our mountains, bush, marae and other aspects of the New Zealand environment and culture featuring strongly in the picture book category."
And he goes on to note that in the fiction category, "As well as contemporary novels with their drugs, death and divorce, we had science fiction, fantasy and a strong representation from historical fiction with subjects ranging from life on a whaling station, to teenage angst during the New Zealand land wars.”

While the shortlist features a number of established writers - Wellington writer Janice Marriott is a finalist in two categories, there’s also some great emerging talent with a number of first time authors like Ben Galbraith also represented.

Winners will be announced on the 16th of May, while details of up and coming associated festival events can be found here in early April. Good luck one and all, and let the celebrations commence.