Bookwitch

It seems we are to get age guidance on children’s books. The question is whether this is helpful or not.

Some quotes from yesterday’s Guardian Review; “which seven-year-old?” and “it’s not the age that’s important, but who the child is”. True. But if the book says age 7+ and you are buying for an exceedingly clever seven-year-old, you might decide to go for a 10+ instead. And some people are so out of touch with children’s reading, as well as with the child they are buying for, that any guide will be a help. Kind of the book equivalent of remembering that a two-month-old will neither resent the fact that her older brother gets chocolate for Christmas, nor that she won’t be able to make much use of the chocolate buttons offered as being more baby-ish.

Last week’s meeting with Derek Landy I was accompanied by a borrowed nine-year-old. Giggly, spontaneous and friendly, and so very mature. I wish they were all like that…

Some years ago I picked up a very tatty copy of Nina Bawden’s The Witch’s Daughter (how apt!) in the school fair. It was the original Puffin from the sixties, and the reading age was given as 8+. I thought it sounded a bit young, for me, but decided to push on with reading it anyway. Not only is it a good book, but it’s not that easy a read either. I came to the conclusion that an eight-year-old forty years ago was supposed to be more advanced in their reading.

Dumbing down. So, consider who gives the advice, and how many decades ago. Then adjust to what your needs are.

There’s been a pleasing regularity with things recently.

Author travels from North America to Britain. Gets to go on Woman’s Hour. Meets with the witch. Presumably goes home to Canada and Chicago again, mission accomplished.

So, after Budge Wilson last week, it’s Sara Paretsky this week. As I might have mentioned once or twice. (Don’t want to bore anyone. Much.)

Heard Sara speak at the big bookshop last night. If it hadn’t been for Sara, I may well have exited again, so uncomfortable was the venue. This morning it is the turn of the much smaller bookshop.

Will report back later, as usual. If there is a delay, it’s purely down to complete brain exhaustion.

Well, the witch has waited a long time for this. She’s also done a bit of nagging. More than a bit, to be truthful. But along with the great and the good (venues, I mean), Sara is also coming to the watering hole near me. Here is her programme for the week:
Bleeding Kansas European Tour Schedule

Women’s Hour from Broadcasting House
March 25, 9:00 - 10:00 am
Gloucestershire Fiction Festival
March 26, 7:00 pm
Hulbert Crescent, Caernavon Road, Up Hatherley, Cheltenham GL51 3BW
On Air, Simon Mayo Book Panel, BBC Radio 5
March 27, 3:o0 pm; 7:30 pm
Sandwell Central Library, High Street
West Bromwich, B70 8DZ
Talk at Waterstones
March 28, 7:00 pm
92 Deansgate
Manchester M3 2BW
Interview and Signing at Simply Books
March 29, 11:30 am interview;
12:00 - 1:00pm signing
Simply Books
228 Moss Lane
Bramhall, Cheshire, SK7 1BD
Contact: 0161 439 1436
Talk at Barnsley Central Library Lecture Theatre
March 29, 5:30 pm
Shambles Street, Barnsley S70 2JF
Cambridgewordfest at ADC Theatre
March 30, 12:30 pm, Joan Smith to interview
Lunchtime talk at Peterborough Central Library Lecture Theatre
March 31, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
American Library
April 2, 7:30 pm
10 le rue du General-Camou, Paris 75007

The radio broadcasts you can listen to again. I will.

The BBC had the good sense to turn to Simply Books for a piece on the You and Yours programme on Good Friday. They spent fifteen minutes discussing children’s books featuring disability, which is about time. It seems that publishers think stupid thoughts like “there’s already a book out there which deals with disability, so we don’t need another one”.

They visited the shop and met up with some of the young reviewers there, who had each been given a book to read. It’s good to hear how well they spoke about their thoughts on the books. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was one (obviously) and it was given to someone who’d never have considered the book otherwise, as it looked too young.

Among other books recommended I was pleased to find Siobhan Dowd’s The London Eye Mystery. So that we don’t equate disability with Asperger Syndrome; has anyone got suggestions for really good disability books?

The programme can be heard again for the next week on the BBC website.

here  is a link to Budge Wilson on Woman’s Hour from Wednesday morning.

is now over. It’s been the first one spent in Sweden for four years.

The fact that it happens so rarely is the reason we allow ourselves to pig out on the Shrove Tuesday buns mentioned earlier. (Like hot cross buns which appear in UK shops soon after Christmas, these “one day wonders” are available at least throughout February and March.) I reckon a bun a day is permissible for a week, seeing as the week happens less frequently than once a year.

It being winter and cold and dark, we’ve not only had plenty of time to read, but the witch played the Shakespeare game for the first time. It’s described as The Bard Game, which is a dreadful pun, when you think of it. I understood virtually nothing, but the others did fine. It helps if you know your Shakespeare, and it helps if you understand the rules. So there’s always next time…

A favourite holiday read is the pizza takeaway menu. Swedish pizzas are THE BEST. Along with the aforementioned buns, the pizzas have to be eaten often, during a short visit. Son even pondered the viability of packing some to take home, which really would make it a takeaway.

The Resident IT Consultant happened upon a radio reading of Goodnight Mister Tom on his way to the baker’s, although not in the right language for him. But he felt it was appropriate anyway, seeing as we have been peeking at Michelle Magorian’s latest book.

In an effort to compensate the neighbours for looking after the witch’s abode, we invited them to dinner one evening. And they came bearing gifts! Without knowing of the witch’s love for tulips and the colour purple, they brought purple tulips. And a copy of the first Stieg Larsson. I think I’m destined to read that book. The giver mumbled something about doing what the grandchildren said, so the assumption has to be that “everyone” talks about Stieg’s books.

At the request of Daughter we revisited the little cottage in the woods where you can buy 300 varieties of sweets. Son filled his bag so full it nearly burst. It was more exciting making our way there this time, as it was getting dark, and there’s always the question whether you’ll make it out of the woods again.

In Saturday’s paper there was a supplement with this year’s book sale catalogue. I always forget this Swedish February madness, and will report back later.

I’ve mentioned the paperback section in the local supermarket before. These books are displayed with the bread, which I find an interesting idea. But why not? As you agonise over what to make your sandwiches with, you might as well pick a book to read.

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And that’s not all that’s displayed with bread in this shop. We were intrigued to find that Blitzen had dropped in as well.

Bag, that is. It’s different - I’ll give Puffin that. I thought it might be a very thin book, when in actual fact the nice ladies at Puffin wanted to include the witch in their media book presentation for 2008. So, it being too wet to broom, I got my favourite morning train to London, which isn’t too full, and where the price of the ticket doesn’t force you to re-mortgage your house.

On arrival I shared a lift up with an author. Only I didn’t know it then, as picture book authors are not my strength. It was Jeanne Willis, and even I have had a book of hers read to me (though I do know how to read) before.

It was like Christmas come early, or maybe late, considering it’s mid January. Tables groaning under the weight of books, where you help yourself until you feel ashamed, or thereabouts. Puffin also did party bags, but seemed not to have cottoned on to the fact that you use them to get rid of people at the end. Never mind.

Very important people presented the new books for the year ahead. So I won’t tell you about those now.

Lots of people there. I didn’t quite have the nerve to introduce myself to Nicholas Tucker. Maybe I should have? I consider his voice an old friend. Talked to nice people from radio’s Go4It, and to equally nice people from book magazine Carousel.

Threw myself at Nicolette Jones to talk about her Pancakes for Findus review, and introduced myself to Julia Eccleshare, to apologise for all my “anonymous” emails. She took it well. Jellyellie from Spinebreakers was there, and not only is she one of these clever teen editors, but she’s writing a book. I sat next to someone from the Guardian, who had actually heard of me! (Fame must be round the corner.)

Ed Vere does picture books and he can talk and draw at the same time. Nearly. Something about piano playing gorillas.

Charlie Higson had been forcibly dragged to the presentation. He has a book to finish, but now we know who to blame that delay on. I’d started reading his Hurricane Gold on the train, which didn’t make me much of an expert. But he favours avoiding too much kissing for the young James Bond by having immediate and nearby explosions. And something to do with the Royal family that he couldn’t possibly talk about.

Meg Rosoff also has a book that wants finishing, but she did a good job going round kissing and hugging people, and tucking into the tasty food, and making dates for interviews and radio programmes and anything else.

To prevent myself from being the last person there, I took my leave and departed at an almost decent time. Could have done with help in the lift, though, as the buttons were totally un-intelligible. I’ve since worked out that E stands for Embankment and ST for Strand. And I only went wrong once. Bit of a challenge for a “country” witch.

Should I blame myself or the mobile library? For a while when Son was at an impressionable age (11-12), we had a stop for the mobile library just outside our house, so it received a lot of visits from me. Offspring could only go in the school holidays, as the bus called mid morning. Son was at the stage where he required endless audio books to go to sleep with.

As a child I had quite enjoyed the Paul Temple cartoons in our daily newspaper, so when I saw the dramatised radio series on cassette, I carted lots of them home. Son liked them so much, that when the library supply came to an end, he spent his book tokens from birthdays on buying cassettes for himself. I suspect that by now he owns every one there is.

The series is quite old, and you can tell from the style of dramatisation. Genuinely retro and very non pc. Son was excited a couple of years ago when it was announced that they were going to record more episodes, and in a similar retro style. It was made all the more interesting, because the part of Paul Temple was going to be played by an actor friend of the Grandmother.

A while ago we were having dinner in Grandmother’s kitchen (she lives 200 miles away) when the phone rang. Son got up to answer it, and then handed the phone to his Grandmother; “It’s Paul Temple”.

Meg Rosoff has just alerted me to the dramatisation of HILN on Radio 4, starting Monday 12th November. It’s part of Woman’s Hour, and Meg says it’s on at about 10.45 am, with a repeat in the evening. It’s on all week, so five episodes to look forward to.

Listen to Malorie Blackman on Radio 4 today at 16.00 or the repeat on Thursday 25th, same time. It’s the Open Book programme, and Malorie will be talking about her new book, The Stuff of Nightmares. The cliffhanger, if you recall.

Recommending Richard & Judy comes a long way down my list of priorities, but why don’t you watch the special this Thursday at 20.00 on Channel 4? It’s Richard & Judy’s Best Kids’ Books, and it should be interesting.

And I’m not sure when this will be broadcast, but the recording is tomorrow, and I’m almost in tears because I can’t be there. Sara Paretsky talks about her first novel, Indemnity Only, for the BBC World Service at 18.00. Admission is free, but you need to book. (020 7557 1619)