Bookwitch

My heart felt as if it was a lot further up than its normal position, as I raced through Blade, two new books by Tim Bowler.

The quality of his writing is as good as ever, but Tim is going in a new direction with these books. They are short, and for a confident reader they’ll be over in no time. It doesn’t say anywhere, but I’m guessing Tim wants to reach less able readers, and slightly older ones, too.

I’ll call him Blade, because we don’t know his name, and he is only fourteen, but very good (or should that be bad?) with a knife. Tim confesses to a terror of knives, which I probably share with him, but to be honest, I had no time to think about knife crimes per se, because of the pace of the story.

Blade, Playing Dead is first, with an almost introduction of the main character and his life on the sidelines of society. He’s already in trouble, and just ends up deeper in trouble still. But there’s something decent and likeable about him, nevertheless. Blade, surprisingly, has a love of reading, which sometimes gets him into trouble. More trouble.

In Blade, Closing In the story continues and worsens. Whatever he does and no matter how much he tries, Blade just gets deeper and deeper in his black hole. I’m a bit concerned that I felt so strongly for him, that I almost egged him on to kill a man.

I’m wondering a bit, how Tim, who is a very nice man, can even write like this. And I’ll confess here and now, to not understanding all of the slang.

The story is told in the first person, present tense, with no chapters. This adds to the reader’s agitation, and makes you go on an on. Like Blade himself, who can’t stop.

There’s to be more of these, but a cliffhanger ending, and a year to wait, Tim?

Just as I expect Francesca Simon’s guests on Thursday evening could manage to be both happy for her success and envious that their own sales aren’t quite as good, it’s interesting to observe authors and see and hear what they say, or don’t say.

Some only talk about their own work, and don’t even seem to be too modest to say how good they believe they are. Thankfully not many are like this. And there’s Henning Mankell, who as I pointed out the other day, doesn’t even recognise his own work when he sees it.

Many authors go out of their way to suggest other writers and books that they think I’d like. Sometimes they are wrong, but often they are quite right and I’m grateful for ideas. Linda Newbery has been known to send emails with suggestions.

Tim Bowler spent ages during a school talk some years ago “selling” Melvin Burgess’ book Doing It. I think Tim almost forgot his own books while explaining quite how hilariously funny and worthwhile this controversial book of Melvin’s is.

Adele Geras is also very helpful and recommends books she likes in her website newsletter. Meg Rosoff is forever pointing me in the direction of her friends’ books. Do you people think I have unlimited time for reading?

Then we have Son’s “party trick” of asking every author he meets what they think of Philip Pullman. He even has me do it for him if he’s not there. Whether the authors he asks are always honest I don’t know, but they tend to have good manners, so will usually say something positive. And I’d say that most of the time it sounds as if they mean it.

When Lionel Shriver got the Pullman question, her answer was of the more unusual variety. She said “Who?”

I mentioned the anthology Like Mother, Like Daughter the other day. I have a couple of other story collections too, that were both published in aid of charity. Unlike Amnesty International’s Click, which was one story written by different authors in a literary relay, these are simply short stories by well known authors.

Higher Ground is all about the 2004 tsunami, and was published only months after the disaster. Sixteen children’s authors each wrote a story based on what happened to a real child, somewhere in the world during that period. It’s very sad and very uplifting. Definitely worth having a few hankies standing by for when you read it. The authors are Melvin Burgess, Gillian Cross, Tim Bowler, Bernard Ashley, Eoin Colfer and many more, with foreword by Michael Morpurgo. Highly recommended.

Last year ten authors, hand-picked by readers of Cosmo Girl, wrote a short story each for Shining On, sold in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust. We’ve got Melvin Burgess again, as the lone boy, with girl writers Jacqueline Wilson, Anne Fine, Malorie Blackman, Rosie Rushton, Sue Limb, Meg Cabot, Cathy Hopkins, Meg Rosoff and Celia Rees. The stories are as good as you’d expect from the star-studded line-up.

The witch is slowly - very slowly - collecting her signatures in these two anthologies. It’ll take me years.

And let me start by saying this has got nothing to do with the nice people at the Plaza.

This is where I would have told you all about last night’s glittering ceremony for the Stockport Schools’ Book Awards. Quite logical to cover something so close to home, for a change, with no tiring travel. I thought so. The organiser with the library service thought not. I hadn’t been invited. (So, invite me.)

After months and months of helpful behaviour from publishers and friendliness from authors (thank you), I should have known better than to expect anything at all from those whose pay comes from our rates. They are from the very same organisation which informed me that my (then) eleven-year-old shouldn’t read Terry Pratchett. They are working for the same local council that refused practical assistance for child on crutches to get to school.

Anyway, after I found out about the event (Daughter was invited through school), I spent ten days trying to work out who to contact about getting a ticket/invitation/whatever. You’d think they would have a website/page that can be found. (But I now know that Stockport has a Curry Chef award.)

So, knowing that Tim Bowler had been shortlisted, I asked him. He was coming, he said, but any information would be with his publisher. So, on to OUP, where I now have contacts, and they put me in touch with the right person. She in turn gave me the name of the one who then took such delight in saying no.

A book award in Stockport doesn’t sound like much, but I understand it’s good. Many excellent and well known authors are shortlisted. For Key Stage 4 (where Daughter voted) we had Tim, Michael Morpurgo and John Boyne. In another group Lee Weatherly. This is why I persevered, when I’d normally give up. But my “sparring partner” was made of stronger stuff. What I read in her replies was that I was a suspicious character trying to sneak into a children’s event. (According to Daughter one of my friends was there…)

A very last minute plea to Daughter’s headteacher got a sympathetic reply, but I was too late. At least he was nice.

I don’t know if the Stockport Express was there. They have a larger readership than I do. However, my readers are interested in books, and cover the globe, and my blog reaches parts the SE doesn’t. But who cares about spreading the word about their book awards scheme?

You’ll be pleased to hear that Tim Bowler won the KS 4 award. And from another source of information I believe that Alan Durant won in a younger category.

And you’ll be even more relieved that after this little outburst the witch will attempt to be her normal sunny self for a long time to come. Attempt to, I said.

Here’s the longlist for the 2008 Carnegie prize. It’s a comforting list of what’s best in children’s books. And it’s lovely to see that Siobhan Dowd is on it. I hope she can see this where she is.

At this stage I won’t even begin to predict. I like too many of them. And usually both the shortlist and the eventual winner are good choices.

AHLBERG, Allan The Boyhood of Burglar Bill
BERTAGNA, Julie, Zenith
BIRCH, Beverley, Rift
BOWLER, Tim Frozen Fire
BROOKS, Kevin Being
COLFER, Eoin The Legend of the Worst Boy in the World
CROSSLEY-HOLLAND, Kevin Gatty’s Tale
DOGAR, Sharon Waves
DOWD, Siobhan The London Eye Mystery
DOWNHAM, Jenny Before I Die
DUFFY, Carol Ann The Hat
FISHER, Catherine Incarceron
FLETCHER, Charlie Stoneheart
GILMAN, David The Devil’s Breath
GLASS, Linzi Ruby Red
HAIG, Matt Shadow Forest
HARDINGE, Frances Verdigris Deep
HOOPER, Mary The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose
JONES, Diana Wynne The Pinhoe Egg
KENNEN, Ally Berserk
KUIPERS, Alice Life on the Refrigerator Door
LAIRD, Elizabeth Crusade
LANDMAN, Tanya Apache
LANDY, Derek Skulduggery Pleasant
LOTT, Tim Fearless
McCAUGHREAN, Geraldine Peter Pan in Scarlet
McKENZIE, Sophie Girl, Missing
MORPURGO, Michael Alone on a Wide Wide Sea
PAVER, Michelle Soul Eater
PEET, Mal The Penalty
PRATCHETT, Terry Wintersmith
REEVE, Philip Here Lies Arthur
RIDDELL, Chris Ottoline and the Yellow Cat
ROBERTS, Katherine I Am The Great Horse
ROBSON, Mark Imperial Assassin
ROSOFF, Meg What I Was
ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
ST. JOHN, Lauren Dolphin Song
SEDGWICK, Marcus Blood Red Snow White
SINGLETON, Sarah Sacrifice
SUZUMA, Tabitha From Where I Stand
THOMPSON, Kate The Last of the High Kings
VALENTINE, Jenny Finding Violet Park
WILLIS, Jeanne Shamanka
WRAY, Sarah The Forbidden Room

Found this link on Tim Bowler’s website and thought it’d be worth sharing. For those of you who don’t get to meet Tim on a school visit, here’s the next best thing. This is what he’s like.

It was great. You can never be sure how a really good book will translate to the stage, or how much will have to be left out. Starseeker is my favourite Tim Bowler book and I wouldn’t have taken kindly to too much messing with it. Miraculously Phil Porter appears to have left nothing of note out. So, it was a play as good as the book.

Considering the importance of the piano playing throughout the story, it was wonderful to hear good music actually played on stage by the actor playing Luke.

The five actors taking on all the parts did a very good job. And the set was excellent, with imaginative use of space for so many different settings.

Tim was there, with most of his extended family and plenty of friends. It was good to see him again and nice to meet all the others. And as an added bonus I found Costa winner Linda Newbery had also come. So that’s two extremely good authors for the price of one play.

The theatre was wonderful, with the old traditional auditorium and the newly built extension allowing plenty of space for bars and socialising. Northampton turned out to be a pleasant town, but maybe it could be London next for Starseeker? Or at least Manchester.

Having a personal interest in Asperger’s Syndrome, I enjoy what I call my Aspie books. There’s The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd, just out. Another Siobhan (Parkinson) has written Blue Like Friday. There’s no mention of Asperger’s in her book, but I felt the whole story about Olivia and her friend Hal was very Aspie in its flavour. Lovely book, and it just proved what a lot of good Irish authors there are. It’s funny, and Siobhan’s way with language was great.

The obvious Aspie book is Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which I, being careless as usual, bought thinking it was fact, rather than fiction. Lucky mistake. It’s an incredible book, sad and funny and very worthwhile.

A very little known book is Kathy Hoopmann’s Blue Bottle Mystery, An Asperger Adventure. This is a short and easy read, and very good for younger children. It works well as an ordinary story, but also provides information about AS.

Truth or Dare by Celia Rees is an excellent book, as one expects from a writer like Celia. This, too, can be “just a book” or can inform the reader about Asperger’s. With my normal flair I bought this by accident, too.

Tim Bowler’s Dragon’s Rock may or may not be an Aspie book. I haven’t asked him, but it had a distinct flavour of something like it when I read the book. It’s not really mentioned anywhere, but it would explain the boy’s behaviour. Maybe Tim doesn’t know?

These books have in common the fact that they are all mysteries. I don’t know whether Asperger’s lends itself particularly well to detecting, or if it’s pure coincidence. Or it could be that to reach a good audience this is an attractive genre to go for. Whatever it is, I’m grateful there’s a selection of books like these. I want more, though, both to enlighten the Neurotypical reader (how’s that for jargon?) and to show the Aspies that there are books for and about them.

For anyone within travelling distance of Northampton I would suggest a visit to the Royal and Derngate Theatre. Tim Bowler’s very best book (well, I think so) Starseeker has been adapted for the stage, and it’s on from 22nd June until 7th July. Details on Tim’s website.

Tim says he’s very happy with how it’s being done and believes it’s going to be good. Tim will be there on the first night, and also on the 30th June and 2nd July. So if you want to meet the man himself, you know what to do.

June is a busy month for Tim, with several books out. Frozen Fire comes in paperback (though I don’t know how anyone could have waited that long), and Midget and Dragon’s Rock are re-issued as a double paperback, and so is Shadows. As noted here earlier, Midget is recommended for anyone looking for an upsetting read.