I was getting ready to tick ‘like’ on facebook on Friday, and to leave a comment, but within a minute it became clear that most of my facebook friends appeared to be on the Carnegie longlist, and the liking and commenting that would have been required to cover them all was more than I could manage. So you can go and have a look yourselves, because just listing them will be a who’s who for children’s authors. Suffice it to say that most of my own longlist for best of 2010 were there. Well done everyone, and good luck!
Linda Strachan is already lucky, having just won the Catalyst prize. She beat Tim Bowler and Paul Dowswell, which is good. That didn’t come out right, did it? Lovely for Linda that she won, but I’m not saying Tim and Paul deserved to be beaten. I’ve not read Spider, but if it’s anything like Dead Boy Talking, then I’m not surprised.
Another Scottish piece with a link to a short story by Keith Gray for the Edinburgh International Book Festival. There is a list of specially written short stories by some of the authors who were at the book festival, and I’m linking to his since it was Keith who drew my attention to this. The other stories might be quite good, too. ; )
Meg Rosoff has been blogging about how she writes and getting very poetic about it. Although the next day she posted more on writing, so perhaps she’s just too preoccupied with the subject. Or procrastinating.
In a recent review of the latest Artemis Fowl I read that The Atlantis Complex is the penultimate Fowl. I had no idea Eoin Colfer has decided to ‘end it’, but some people are better informed than others. I just wish she hadn’t given away so much of the plot, though. And I liked Orion. Sometimes you need a complete change in plot pattern.
Also new is the Harry Potter website which was unveiled this week. It has games and stuff, and a facebook page. Naturally. I can’t say I’m into games, but I do like the next generation covers. If it wasn’t so ridiculous to fill one’s house with multiple copies of the boy wizard books I’d say I want the new books, too.
It was just a coincidence Witch. I wrote the longer piece months ago for the journal write4children, which is full of great stuff….
http://www.winchester.ac.uk/academicdepartments/EnglishCreativeWritingandAmericanStudies/publications/write4children/Documents/w4cissuevol2iss1.pdf
I don’t like the new Harry Potter covers. They look kind of old-fashioned and weird.
But Meg, it looks like you’ve had a ‘let’s agonise about writing’ week, all about nature and things. It is very interesting.
Ah Me!!!!, it will be age. Again. I’m so old I was never a big fan of the original covers. Though I did like the adult versions better. And then you have to bear in mind that most countries have different covers. The Swedish ones are ‘all wrong’ to me. We also have a Philosopher’s Stone in Russian, which is different in yet again. What are the Irish ones like?
The Irish ones are nice. My ones are so battered, you can barely see the covers anymore, but they each show a scene from that particular book.
Me!!!!, could you post a link here to a cover image, please? It’s almost impossible to search and find the right one.
Thanks, Witch, I was absolutely over the moon to have won the Catalyst, especially as Spider was my first book for teenagers and it was up against such tough competition. Tim and Paul and the Catalyst people were all lovely, and the kids who ran the event on the day were amazing.
And here was I thinking you had been traumatised by Dead Boy Talking….
Well, Linda, I’m feeling much stronger and I’m able to eat solids most days… But you are one scary woman.
Here’s the link
http://blog.westervillelibrary.org/teens/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/harry%20potter%20uk%20covers.jpg
Theae are the 2 types widely available in Ireland. I think they’re in the UK too but i’m not sure.
yes, those are the same covers are here in the Uk.
I don’t much like the original (children’s) covers – I prefer the ‘adult’ versions.
I do like the new ones better, but I have no desire to own further copies of the books. lthough I admit that I do own some books, (by other authors), in more than one edition..
sigh. And I thought I’d formatted that comment better.
How did you want it to look, Marjorie?