Winners of the 2007 Nestlé Children’s Book Prize were announced on 12 December. Gold medals went to the fantasy tale _Shadow Forest_, a debut novel by Matt Haig who was once a bartender at one of Ibiza’s best-known clubs (9 to 11 years category); _When a Monster is Born_ by Sean Taylor and Nick Sharratt (under five category) and _Ottoline and the Yellow Cat_ by Chris Riddell (6 to 8 years category) – making this the fifth time Chris has won a Nestlé Children’s Book Prize award! The Scholastic title _Here Lies Arthur_ by the best-selling author Philip Reeve was awarded a bronze medal in the 9 to 11 years category. For a full list of winning titles visit "www.booktrusted.co.uk/nestle":http://www.booktrusted.co.uk/nestle
**Poetry is alive and kicking**
A nationwide poetry competition has prompted nearly 5,000 school children to get creative on the theme of Dreams. Judges of the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf Competition were astounded by the quality of the children’s poems and the winning entries were described as ‘a clutch of terrific poems’. All the winning children were awarded their prizes at a gala celebration in the Unicorn Theatre, London, hosted by the Poetry Book Society. Michael Rosen, who was the Chair of the judging panel said: 'We were delighted by the accomplishment of this year’s entries, beautiful and surprising pictures hit us between the eyes and we felt that over and over again the children had really made these poems matter to them and this was no exercise.’
The First Prize winners were Haydn Robinson, aged ten and Frank Amundsen, aged seven. You can read all the winning poems at "www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk":http://www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk/
A nationwide poetry competition has prompted nearly 5,000 school children to get creative on the theme of Dreams. Judges of the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf Competition were astounded by the quality of the children’s poems and the winning entries were described as ‘a clutch of terrific poems’. All the winning children were awarded their prizes at a gala celebration in the Unicorn Theatre, London, hosted by the Poetry Book Society. Michael Rosen, who was the Chair of the judging panel said: 'We were delighted by the accomplishment of this year’s entries, beautiful and surprising pictures hit us between the eyes and we felt that over and over again the children had really made these poems matter to them and this was no exercise.’
The First Prize winners were Haydn Robinson, aged ten and Frank Amundsen, aged seven. You can read all the winning poems at "www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk":http://www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk/
**The BFG is 25!**
Hard to believe, but the Big Friendly Giant, a classic from Roald Dahl, has been delighting (and slightly scaring!) children for 25 years. To mark the 25th anniversary, The Polka Theatre in London has adapted this ever-popular story, using music, masks puppetry and humans. It is showing until 9 February 2008. More information and booking available on "www.polkadottheatre.com":http://www.polkadottheatre.com
Hard to believe, but the Big Friendly Giant, a classic from Roald Dahl, has been delighting (and slightly scaring!) children for 25 years. To mark the 25th anniversary, The Polka Theatre in London has adapted this ever-popular story, using music, masks puppetry and humans. It is showing until 9 February 2008. More information and booking available on "www.polkadottheatre.com":http://www.polkadottheatre.com
**Take the ‘boring’ out of Shakespeare**
Take yourself on a course in Stratford upon Avon on Friday 1 February to discover the perfect antidote for children who find Shakespeare inaccessible. You will explore practical strategies for making Shakespeare's characters and stories live in the contemporary classroom including ways of modelling the characters and debating their circumstances; and ways to help children empathise with characters and find their own meanings in the action. You'll be able to motivate all children – even the most reluctant!
In London on Friday 8 February you can discover new activities to inspire children’s creativity and improve standards in creative writing by attending a course for KS2 teachers. During the day you will explore a sequence of writing and drama techniques inspired by Shakespeare's plays, learn to use script writing with confidence, excitement and imagination, build scenes and create exciting narratives and original dialogues.
Find out more on "www.rsc.org.uk/learning ":http://www.rsc.org.uk/learning or telephone Teachers' Programme administrator, Sheila O'Sullivan, on 01789 403462.
Take yourself on a course in Stratford upon Avon on Friday 1 February to discover the perfect antidote for children who find Shakespeare inaccessible. You will explore practical strategies for making Shakespeare's characters and stories live in the contemporary classroom including ways of modelling the characters and debating their circumstances; and ways to help children empathise with characters and find their own meanings in the action. You'll be able to motivate all children – even the most reluctant!
In London on Friday 8 February you can discover new activities to inspire children’s creativity and improve standards in creative writing by attending a course for KS2 teachers. During the day you will explore a sequence of writing and drama techniques inspired by Shakespeare's plays, learn to use script writing with confidence, excitement and imagination, build scenes and create exciting narratives and original dialogues.
Find out more on "www.rsc.org.uk/learning ":http://www.rsc.org.uk/learning or telephone Teachers' Programme administrator, Sheila O'Sullivan, on 01789 403462.
**Scooping the library award**
Brookfield Community School in Derbyshire is celebrating after scooping a top libraries award. They are the first school in the country to undertake and successfully gain the Quality in Libraries Award from ROWA! (Read on Write Away!), a community-focused partnership working to make improvements in standards of literacy from cradle to grave.
To gain the Award library staff had to attend a series of Skills for Life training sessions, gather evidence to demonstrate how they offer an excellent service to both staff and children and pass assessment from an independent judge. Running regular Scholastic Book Fairs is a part of the high-quality service that the library offers and library staff were thrilled that a Book Fair was taking place when the Award was made!
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Brookfield Community School in Derbyshire is celebrating after scooping a top libraries award. They are the first school in the country to undertake and successfully gain the Quality in Libraries Award from ROWA! (Read on Write Away!), a community-focused partnership working to make improvements in standards of literacy from cradle to grave.
To gain the Award library staff had to attend a series of Skills for Life training sessions, gather evidence to demonstrate how they offer an excellent service to both staff and children and pass assessment from an independent judge. Running regular Scholastic Book Fairs is a part of the high-quality service that the library offers and library staff were thrilled that a Book Fair was taking place when the Award was made!
p(intro). Giving your Book Fair a theme is a perfect, simple way to bring it to life and transform it into a vibrant, lively event.]]>
No matter whether it pirates or rainforests, enchanted tales or under the sea, choosing a theme makes organising the Book Fair so much easier, as seasoned Book Fair organiser, Deanne Whitfield explains:
p(intro). Harry Potter may be over but fans of teenage boy heroes will be thrilled that Alex Rider, star of Anthony Horowitz’s most popular teenage spy series, is back! ]]>
After an absence of two years, Alex is embarking on more breath-taking adventures in _Snakehead_, the seventh book in the series, set in Australia, Thailand and England. We caught up with Anthony, who admits that one of the best bits of writing is thinking of ways to kill off his characters, to find out if he’s such a tough guy in real life…
**Fans of Alex Rider will be delighted that he’s back, what gave you the inspiration for Alex and what makes you want to keep writing about him?**
When I was younger I loved the early James Bond films. I thought Sean Connery was great but Roger Moore… well, to me he looked too old to be cool and I thought – what if James Bond was young? Every school I went into I asked children to give me names for the coolest hero and the name that came out top was Alex. Then I thought back to James Bond and wondered … if JB had a son who would be the mother? To my mind, it would have to be Honey Rider, so my hero became Alex Rider! Creating Alex was like meeting my very best friend for the first time and each book I write I have such fun meeting up with him again. I still have lots of ideas and the more I get to know him the more I want to write about him.
**You’ve admitted you like thinking of ways of killing people off – is that what children like reading about?**
Everyone enjoys a fanciful death. The enjoyment of the James Bond films is in proportion with the ingeniousness of the death – I haven’t stop smiling ever since Gold Finger got sucked through that aeroplane window!
**Who do you like best – the goodies or the baddies?**
The baddies are much more fun to create, but Alex is my favourite character, and he’s good! I really enjoyed creating the new baddie in _Snakehead_ – Winston Yu. He is a frail old man and I based the look of him on Andy Warhol, and gave him the best death ever! I’m thinking about writing a book entirely about Yassen, the baddie in the first four Alex Rider books. It will be about how he became an assassin when he was 14 and how it turned him into the man he was, with no redeeming qualities.
**We know you take your research seriously, from going underground at Wimbledon for _Skeleton Key_ to driving a crane for _Point Blanc_. What did you have to do for _Snakehead_?**
It was great fun driving that crane – but it had all the workmen diving for cover! For _Snakehead_ I explored an oil rig outside Aberdeen, ventured into Outback Australia, spent hours wandering around Bangkok – including some very dodgy areas along the river – and went kick boxing in Thailand.
**Part of the appeal of the Alex Rider series is the gadgets – what’s your favourite? What’s your favourite boys’ toy in real life?**
My favourite gadget is the exploding bubble gum in _Skeleton Key_, I loved its name: Bubble 07! I also rather like the insect lotion in _Archangel_ which attracts insects rather than repelling them. I have to say I’m not very fond of all these modern technological gadgets, my favourite things are usually antiquated and made of wood. For inspiration for Alex Rider’s gadgets I have to sneak into my sons’ bedrooms and see what they’ve got lying around.
**You’ve said that you hated your boarding school and you’ve had your revenge on some of your teachers by turning them into fictional characters. How did your school days shape you? If you had to go back to school today what would you want it to be like?**
My school days were traumatic and unpleasant. At school, books were my lifeline and writing stories was my escape. I’ve been writing ever since, so perhaps I should be grateful to my boarding school, Orley Farm – but I’m not. If I was to go back to school today I’d like it to be like my son’s school: with girls and no beatings or abuse by teachers and where I wouldn’t have to live in fear.
**Now that Alex is star of the screen do you think we need to read the books?**
Well, so far there’s only one film and there are seven books! Films can never excite you or move you in the way that books can. When you’re reading the book it’s like you’re the one making the film, and that’s much more fun.
**The Power of Five series contains horror. Why do you think we like reading things that scare us? Does anything scare you?**
Fear can be a fun emotion if you know that you’re safe, so reading horror in a book is just a tingling, it’s not real fear. The thought of dying when I’m in the middle of writing a book is what scares me!
**The Diamond Brothers series features the useless dim Tim and bright spark younger brother Nick. There is lots of humour in these books – is this where you have the most fun?**
I do love creating lots of crazy new jokes for these books, and often embarrass myself by laughing out loud in public when I’m thinking them up. They are great fun to revisit. A new title in the series has just come out, _The Greek who Stole Christmas_, and I had a fun time writing it.
**Eoin Colfer**
If I could be any one of my characters I think it would have to be Chix Verbil, the sprite from the Artemis Fowl series. First of all Chix can fly and I have dreamed about being able to fly since I was a boy, so much so that I took a flying lesson and even did a solo parachute jump. But the thing I like most about Chix is his self-delusion. He thinks that all the ladies love him and he is happy in that little world, even if he does not have his facts straight. So, he is happy and he can fly, who could ask for more than that?
p(intro). The most anticipated movie of the year will soon be bursting on to cinema screens...]]>
Opening across the country on December 5th 2007, The Golden Compass is the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's stunning book _Northern Lights_. In the book, Lyra is given the strange and secret alethiometer, which begins an extraordinary journey that will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight. The destiny that awaits her will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...
Every character in the book has a daemon that represents a human's soul. Lyra's daemon transforms into different animals depending on how she is feeling in certain situations. Adults'daemons stay as one animal. This term, on page 7 of our Book Fair invitations we are running a competition for children to draw the animal they think best reflects their personality - great to run as a class activity. To expand on this theme, go to the official "The Golden Compass":http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/ website and play the 'Meet your daemon' game.
p(intro). Scholastic Book Fairs bring this fantastic book to your Book Fair for the exclusive price of £4.99.
p(intro). Alison Green, of Alison Green Books at Scholastic, gives us the inside story on how the next fabulous picture book from the creators of _The Gruffalo_, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, came into being
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The next job for Alison and her designers was to put together a scrapbook of visual images for Axel and send him this along with the text. 'Axel liked the story as soon as he read it but he was a bit nervous about illustrating this one. It certainly provided challenges, for example, how do you make it look as though fish are in a schoolroom, how does a skate take the register, what should they have for lunch - do we keep it as real as possible or give them lunchboxes?' Alison quizzes. 'It is really tricky to animate animals without arms and legs, but Axel is a genius - so he's done it! He likes to keep things realistic as far as possible, so was concerned that although all the fish are real, they wouldn't necessarily all live in the same part of the ocean. We had to come to the conclusion that Miss Skate was such a good teacher that the parent fish had moved to the catchment area for her school!' Alison admits: 'Sometimes we find ourselves having very strange conversations!'
h2. Between the lines
Then comes the important decision on how to place the text on the pages. 'We need to choose where the page turns will be. When I first looked at the text I had 20 page turns - which is too many for a 32-page book, we need just 15 double-page spreads. Once we know which text will be on each page, then we make choices about what to illustrate' explains Alison.
'Axel has a huge input at this stage and he adds fantastic incidental details that add another layer of depth to the book.
h2. Keeping the pace
'Once Axel has completed his roughs, they are scanned and put together with the text to show to Julia. We look at the pagination and Julia helps us achieve the right pace of the book. She has strong feelings about where the rhyme is broken by a page turn, if it happens at the wrong place then the flow and rhythm of the story can be lost.
'We also have to be careful to include a mixture of whole page pictures, vignettes and double page spread images to help to keep the pace of the book. It's a bit like making a film, making sure you have a balance of long shots and close ups. This was quite tricky for _Tiddler_ as there are a lot of small pictures to include with all the different types of fish. Also, the scene of the schoolroom is featured quite a lot, so it was a challenge to keep ringing the visual changes.'
h2. Finishing touches
'When we are all happy with the way the words and illustrations are fitting together, the pages are handed to the designer to scan and put into publishing programs. It is checked and double checked before going to print. Meanwhile the marketing and publicity teams have been busy making sure that the launch of _Tiddler_ makes a huge splash!'
Traditional tales of far away lands, populated by princesses, knights and dragons, captivate the imaginations of children of all ages. From the nursery stories of Sleeping Beauty to the epic Lord of the Rings, we all love to be lured into fantasy worlds. Use our enchanted theme for your Book Fair and help everyone to discover a world of spellbinding tales!
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h2. Fun competition ideas!
p(intro). Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler talk to read me editor, Kate Element, about their brand new picture book, _Tiddler_.
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p(q). There's a perfect harmony between your words and Axel's pictures - what is it that you like about Axel's work?
p(a). One of the many things I love is the way Axel always manages to inject so much extra humour. In _Tiddler_, the school of fishes are acting just like children - on the page where the words read 'Nearly hometime', he has the fish starting to play around, flicking sand on each other or just daydreaming. These extra touches are brilliant; they always make me laugh when I see the his first drafts.
p(q). What is the main theme of _Tiddler_?
p(a). Tiddler is about how people love stories - how enjoyable stories are, whether they're real or not. Even the fishes who don't believe _Tiddler_ still enjoy hearing his tales. I think it's wonderful that stories can travel around the world, from culture to culture, and _Tiddler_ shows how far stories can go. The book is a celebration of storytelling and the imagination.
p(q). Why did you choose the underwater setting?
p(a). I'd wanted to do an underwater story for Axel to illustrate ever since we did The Snail and the Whale. In that book there was just one underwater scene which I know Axel really enjoyed doing. Also, I'd been snorkelling in the Red Sea and found the underwater world amazing. But for ages I couldn't think of a plot.
