CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

The right book for the right reader at the right time - that is a given in the world of children’s literature. But what if the book cover says you are too young / too old to read it? This is a controversy just starting to hit its straps in the UK with publishers there intending to put age guidelines on the covers of children’s / YA books.

More than eighty authors, including Philip Pullman, are fighting back with a letter to be published in Bookseller magazine later this week. Not all authors are against the idea, however. Meg Rosoff says that it could be ‘extremely helpful for parents.’

Read the Guardian report here.

A Bentley-driving living skeleton named Skulduggery Pleasant is the unlikely protagonist of the latest book award winner from the UK.

The Red House Children’s Book Awards were announced at the Hay Festival this weekend, and Irish writer Derek Landy’s witty, gothic-horror title was declared overall winner. These children’s choice awards have been running an astonishing 28 years.

Skulduggery seems just as popular in Australia as in the rest of the English-reading world. The sequel, Playing with Fire, has recently become available.

Michael Rosen has announced a new award for children’s books in honour of one of the funniest writers of them all. The Children’s Laureate, who sees himself as the ‘ambassador for fun’ believes that funny books should be rewarded. Authors who use humour in their stories, poetry or fiction will be eligible for The Roald Dahl Prize.

Rosen says that humour is often overlooked in children’s book awards and it is time to be acknowledged. Young adult titles are in the running, with two categories: titles for littlies under six, and those for readers aged between seven and fourteen.

A shortlist will be announced on the third annual Roald Dahl Day on 13 September, with the winners receiving their prizes in November. The judging panel, chaired by Rosen, consists of Dahl’s grand-daughter Sophie, comedian Dara O’Briain and illustrator Chris Riddell.

You’ve got to like what they are doing with promoting children’s literature in the UK. Not only do they have a Children’s Laureate, a national centre for children’s books and have declared 2008 the National Year of Reading, there is now talk of a prestigious national award for children’s literature.

Already dubbed ‘the children’s Booker’, the award is intended to compensate for the demise of the Nestle Awards. It was announced earlier this year that these awards, some of Britain’s longest-running, would be discontinued and the focus placed on the book giving schemes Bookstart and Booked Up. Wendy Cooling gave us an overview of the success of the Bookstart programme at the recent CBCA conference.

In Australia we have the national CBCA Book of the Year Awards, and various Premier’s Awards in some of the states, but just imagine the prestige of a Miles Franklin Award for children’s literature. Oh, and a Children’s Laureate would be rather nice, too.

Some copycat ideas are worth pursuing.

Yes, we thought we’d done this because, when the list was announced last week, all the titles were so familiar. And that’s because they have (nearly) all been reviewed in Fiction Focus. Been there, done that we thought … but no. So here is the 2008 shortlist for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, won last year by Meg Rosoff for Just in Case.

2008 Carnegie Medal shortlisted books

• Kevin Crossley-Holland - Gatty’s Tale
• Linzi Glass - Ruby Red (not yet reviewed, but we loved The Year the Gypsies Came, her 2006 title)
• Elizabeth Laird - Crusade
• Tanya Landman - Apache
• Philip Reeve - Here Lies Arthur
• Meg Rosoff - What I Was
• Jenny Valentine - Finding Violet Park

Also announced were the Kate Greenaway Medal shortlisted titles, which are also reviewed in our Resource Bank. Go to the Primary Focus blog to read more about these.

Anne Frank is still speaking to British teens, more than fifty years after her diary was first published. A survey published today by Britain’s Guardian newspaper puts Anne sixth on a list of most loved reads (just after Harry Potter). And there are only five books-as-we-know-them on the list. Top of the pops are two magazines, Heat and Bliss, with online cheat-sheets for games, film scripts and blogs all coming in ahead of conventional novels. Anthony Horowitz, C.S. Lewis and Louise Rennison all make the cut.

And what do they loathe? Well, Shakespeare is up there, as are books over 100 pages, assigned reading and … Harry Potter. Yes, although Harry came in fifth on the loved reads, he also came in eighth on the loathed, so as they say, you either love him or hate him. Surprisingly, Facebook is also on the loathed list.

I wonder what an Australian survey would reveal? Any guesses?

News from the UK is that the Nestle Book Prize, which has been honouring children’s books for 23 years, will be discontinued. A report in the Guardian indicates that the administrator of the prize, the UK charity Booktrust, will be concentrating its energies into its Bookstart and Booked Up programs.

The 2007 winners of the Nestle Book Prize can be found here.