Book news from the blogosphere
Posted on | August 29, 2010 | 6 Comments
The shortlists for the awards as part of the upcoming Book Blogger Appreciation Week have been announced and I’m utterly thrilled to say I’ve made it onto the Kidlit shortlist, along with Teach Mentor Texts and There’s a Book. If you’re looking for some links to explore this (bank holiday) weekend, do have a look at the complete list of finalists. I’m sure you’ll find something to enjoy!

In other news, the call for Cybil judges has gone out. The Cybils are the Children and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards and if you’d like to take part please consider offering your time and enthusiasm as a judge!
In case you’d like some more reading, the August Carnival of Children’s Literature is now live, over at Stories Are Light. There are so many great posts there this month! For once I’m glad of the rain here – the perfect excuse for another cup of tea and a browse round some of the wonderful book shelves in the blogosphere.
Fantastic Fiction for Kids – Adventure!
Posted on | August 26, 2010 | 7 Comments

This week’s contributor is Megan Blandford, a fellow book blogger who likes to spend her time writing, reading, travelling and photographing. Megan lives in Melbourne with her husband and their beautiful, energetic toddler. Megan blogs at Writing Out Loud about all manner of things that pop into her head, and indulges her love of children’s literature at Kids Book Review. Megan’s chosen topic for this week’s Fantastic Fiction for Kids is adventure! If you’re ready to explore and have some fun with an occasional Australian twist then I’ll hand you straight over to Megan:
Some stories are told to communicate a lesson, others are just for fun and silliness… but there’s nothing like a good old tale of adventure to capture a child’s imagination. Here are some of my daughter’s (okay, MY!) favourite adventure stories:
Wendy by Gus GordonAn adventurous chicken leaves the farm to pursue a career with the circus, performing as Wendy the Flying Chicken. She becomes famous for her stunt jumps, being written about in the newspaper and interviewed on television. Wendy has everything she ever dreamed of, but she still wants more, so she carefully devises the biggest stunt of her career. But when she crashes, she thinks of life back home on the farm, with her family. It’s back to the quiet life for Wendy… although her schemes aren’t finished just yet. A funny, beautifully written and superbly illustrated story.
Leaf by Stephen Michael KingA little boy escapes his mother and her looming promise to cut his hair, heading outside for an adventure. When a bird drops a seed in his unkempt hair and a leaf sprouts, the boy is thrilled and searches for a way to water it and make it grow and grow. His boisterous canine companion bears the brunt of all the misadventure. This is a unique story without text, allowing King’s wonderful illustrations to shine and tell their own version of events. It will make you laugh hysterically.
Where on Earth is the Moon? by Ruth Martin, illustrated by Olivier LatykLuna is obsessed with the moon and loves to watch it shine down on her. But she’s curious about where it goes during the day. She decides to stay up and watch where it disappears to but, falling asleep each time, she is instead taken on adventures in her dreams. Luna heads higher than the mountains, further than the clouds, beyond the ocean and eventually finds the answer. This is a stunning, beautifully descriptive adventure of the imagination.
Rufus the Numbat by David MillerRufus doesn’t even know he’s on an adventure when he heads from the city back to his home in the bush. But the people he’s encountered sure do. He causes all sorts of chaos and mishap, from sending a cyclist flying to getting under the feet of a dragon at the grand parade. The greatest appeal of this story is the amazing paper sculpture illustrations and the unusual contrast between the slow, methodical text and frantic visual scenes.
Vivi Finds Bean by Vanessa HolleVivi is so keen to meet her godmother, Bean, that she heads on a quest from Germany all the way over to Sydney to find her. Travelling on whales, turtles and kangaroos, she makes her way across the seas and the great big land of Australia to stay with her beloved Bean. This story is told in funny rhyme and the words flow right across the pages in their own mini adventure.
Songs about adventuring!
Activities which might go well with these books:
Megan’s selection has certainly provided me with a few more books to add to my wish list – Thank you Megan!
If any of you have more suggestions for great picture books on the theme of adventure, please let us know about them via the comments, and do please visit Megan over at Writing Out Loud and say hello!
Nonfiction Monday Roundup
Posted on | August 23, 2010 | 22 Comments
Today I’m very happy to be hosting Nonfiction Monday! If you’ve recently reviewed a great nonfiction book for kids please leave a comment below and I’ll add you to this post as the day develops.
I’ve recently reviewed several books that have blurred the boundary between fiction and non fiction – Satoshi Kitamura’s Stone Age Boy, Donna Jo Napoli’s Mama Miti and Margarita Engle’s Summer Birds. Kitamura’s book is nominally fiction, but we learned as much about the stone age from it as from any of the books we found in the nonfiction section of the library. Mama Miti and Summer Birds, on the other hand, do have Dewey classification labels on their spines, but the storytelling (each a biography of an inspirational woman) and illustration is of a calibre that you more often find in great (fictional) picture books. We loved all of them and they inspired a good deal of crazy play!
I also want to shout out about the UK’s first National Non-Fiction Day, to be held on November 4th . This is intended to be “an annual celebration, initiated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups in partnership with Scholastic Children’s Books. It aims to celebrate all that is brilliant about non fiction and show that it’s not just fiction that can be read and enjoyed for pleasure.”
Finally, a brief mention of the interview swap you can sign up for as part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. If you’d like to interview (and be interviewed) by another book blogger during BBAW (September 13-17 2010) you still have time to sign up – click here to find out more!








