Jan
26

Naked by Kevin Brooks

As you read the first half of this book, I wager that you won’t have any inkling of the major surprise that awaits you in the final chapters. The unexpected shift in gear and direction turns this tale from what appears to be the story of punk band Naked and its struggle for recognition into an unexpectedly moving tale. This is no ordinary ‘emerging band’ story: it spins into something entirely different with the arrival of the band’s talented new member, William Bonney.

It’s a long hot summer in the late 1970s when Lili Garcia is invited to join Curtis Ray’s nascent punk band. Lili is insightful and convincing. Articulate enough to persuade as a narrator, she recounts her tale through the eyes of a mature adult reflecting on an intense period of her life. As always, Brooks focuses a magnifying glass on character, turning his story into a detailed study of personality, behaviour and understated nuance. At the heart of this novel is the interplay of teenagers dealing with their personal awkwardness, complicated circumstances and emerging maturity, while trying to make sense of the world and its complexities.

The tale builds slowly, perhaps too slowly at times, but readers interested in music and bands will readily soak up the atmosphere, and there is a worthwhile payback that explodes onto the pages after the long slow burn. There are numerous references to drugs and sex, and a degree of violence, so this book is unsuitable for younger readers, but it is a real and gritty read.

Tags: ,

Leave comment

Jan
22

School visit in Co Kildare

I visited the very enthusiastic and energetic young readers in Clongowes Wood School last Friday and enjoyed my visit there every bit as much as I did last year. The boys in first year are always so animated and welcoming, due in no small way to the wonderful school librarian, who organised my visit, and their great English teacher, who challenges the boys to analyse and critically consider their reading material.

There was great energy in the room and the boys were bubbling over with questions. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to respond to all of them. Even after an hour and a half, time was against us: rugby practice took precedence over my visit once the bell rang and as I left, the students were sprinting out to the pitches as dusk fell.

Tags:

Comments Off

Jan
12

Diverse Voices Book Award

An exciting competition to tell you about today!

Frances Lincoln Ltd, the award winning publisher, and Seven Stories, the UK’s national centre for children’s books, have announced their Diverse Voices Award 2013 to encourage and promote diversity in children’s fiction. The award is awarded to a manuscript that celebrates cultural diversity in the widest possible sense, either in terms of its story or the ethnic and cultural origins of its author.

The prize of £1,500, plus the option for Frances Lincoln Children’s Books to publish the novel, will be awarded to the best work of unpublished fiction for 8-to-12-year-olds by a writer, aged 18 years or over, who has not previously published a novel for children. The work must be written in English and it must be a minimum of 15,000 words and a maximum of 35,000 words.

The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award aims to:

  • Take positive steps to increase the representation of people writing from or about different cultural perspectives, whose work is published in Britain today
  • Promote new writing for children, especially by or about people whose culture and voice are currently under-represented
  • Recognise that as children’s books shape our earliest perceptions of the world and its cultures, promoting writing that represents diversity will contribute to social and cultural tolerance
  • Support the process of writing rather than, as with the majority of prizes, promoting the publication

You can find out more information at the Frances Lincoln website.

Tags: , ,

Comments Off

Jan
06

Nollag na mBan and annual tasks

Happy New Year to everyone, wherever you are! Today in Ireland, it is Nollaig na mBan, or Women’s Christmas, so Nollaig na mBan Shona Dhuit, or happy Women’s Christmas to you.  The tradition, still very strong in the south and west of the country, is so called because Irish men are supposed to take on all the household duties for the day after the women have worked long and hard taking care of all the shopping, cooking, cleaning and entertaining over the Christmas season. Many women go out to celebrate the day with their girl friends, sisters, mothers, and aunts.

This time of year, I try to see to things that need to be revised or reviewed infrequently. One of these includes updating my website. It’s also the time of year when I do my tax returns, financial planning and other not-so-exciting stuff. These are annual tasks that may as well be tackled in January when I’m reining in my spending after the excesses of Christmas and counting down the days to the start of February and the coming of spring. January is such a dark grey month when the lengthening evenings haven’t yet made any impact in Ireland and the days only just manage to brighten up for a few hours around midday, before closing in again. It seems that the lights are on indoors all the time, not to mention the heat to take the chill from the damp air.

Although I’ve not been fortunate enough to have a book published in the last 18 months, there was still plenty of information on my website that was out of date and needed to be refreshed. For me, most of it related to activities and travel that I’ve undertaken in the last 12 months. In 2011, I was fortunate to complete the Dublin City marathon, so that’s up on the website now, as are my travels to Argentina in early 2011, and my plans for travelling to Burma later in 2012.

Writing a blog keeps my thinking fresh and lets readers know that I’m present and that I am updating regularly, but I don’t want those who read my website to find a place full of old cobwebs, stale news and out-of-date information, but that’s the job done and dusted for another year anyway. Or until I have exciting news about impending publications to report…

Tags: , ,

Comments Off

Dec
20

Great children’s books to buy as gifts…for yourself or others.

It’s that time of year when Santa Claus and mum and dads and aunts and grannies and friends are looking for the perfect book to tuck into Christmas stockings to keep alive the imaginations of children and young readers. For the uninitiated and uncertain, plenty of newspapers and journalists are busy compiling lists of the biggest and brightest stars from the vast selection of 2011 children’s books. Here are a few helpful lists that caught my eye:

And just for those amongst us who also like to read adult books, or who don’t like to share our books with young readers, here’s a list of the top books just for us:

This post has no tag

Comments Off

Dec
08

Views on Laureate na nÓg 2012-2014

With the latest edition of INIS, the magazine of Children’s Books Ireland, which arrived late last week, came a nomination form for the 2012-2014 Laureate na nÓg (The Children’s Laureate), and an invitation to complete the form. The term of office for the first Laureate na nÓg, Siobhán Parkinson, comes to an end in 2011. Nominations will be reviewed based on the following criteria:

  • The Laureate must be deemed to hold an internationally recognised, high-quality body of work in children’s writing and/or illustration.
  • The Laureate must be deemed to have made a particularly significant contribution to the field of children’s literature in Ireland and have had a considerably positive impact on readers as well as other writers and illustrators.
  • The Laureate must demonstrate both eagerness and skill in engaging with children, young people, adults and media and with the sector as a whole.
  • The Laureate should demonstrate an enthusiasm for promoting children’s literature in general.
  • The Laureate must be Irish.

As I read each of the conditions, the number of individuals in Ireland fulfilling all of the criteria dwindled, as you would expect. While there are quite a number of Irish authors or illustrators who are internationally recognised, with a ‘high-quality body of work,’ the number does diminish when one considers how many of them have made a ‘particularly significant contribution to the field of children’s literature in Ireland.’ Eagerness and skill in ‘engaging with children, young people, adults, and media and with the sector as a whole’ are indeed essential, as is demonstrating an enthusiasm for promoting children’s literature in general, but not everyone demonstrates these skills, nor the enthusiasm that such a role demands.

When I reviewed my list of possible nominations, I was disappointed to realise that I was left with an alarmingly small handful of people (most of whom are known personally to me) that might be eligible for the role. And it is highly possible that some of these individuals may not even want to accept the weighty responsibility that comes with being Laureate na nÓg, which will bring considerable demands on the incumbent’s time and energy.

While Laureate na nÓg is a laudable and important project, worthy of investment and due recognition, I do harbour concerns that Ireland is too small a country to sustain the project other than in the short-term.

Tags: , ,

Comments Off

Nov
27

Top Reads of 2011 in the Irish Times and the New York Times

On 21st November, the New York Times published what it considers to be the 25 most notable children’s books of 2011. It makes a wonderful and informative list of what small children, middle-sized children and teenagers in the States were reading during the year and it reflects the current trends in books for young people. It makes an interesting exercise to note firstly, how many of these books made it across the waters to this side of the pond and so, are familiar to us (not many), and secondly, how many of these books originated on this side of the pond and made it across to the States (again, not many).

In a similar vein, The Irish Times of Saturday 26th November published the first of two free supplements entitled The Book List – Must Reads for Teenagers. Unfortunately, the recommendated titles appear to be neither numbered in any particular order nor put into age categories, so it is not immediately clear how they are ordered. Nor can I locate the supplement online to put up a link. The second supplement Must Reads for Younger Children will be circulated free with the paper on Monday 28th November.

Tags: ,

Comments Off

Nov
20

Kill All Enemies by Melvin Burgess

I’ve always liked the power of Melvin Burgess’s writing – though not always his subject matter – and was accordingly satisfied by his latest book. Although at first, I disliked the three protagonists: they’re loud, aggressive and violent. In fact, they’re very similar to those who ran riot, wrecking the streets of London in August 2011. But Burgess persists and if you stick with it, you learn these young people’s stories and how nothing is as it initially seems.

It’s not easy to write about hostile teenagers struggling on the margins of society, but Burgess skilfully shows the complex range of greys between the obvious black and white. For the most part, it works, certainly for two of the three protagonists.

The book is gritty and edgy: in his typical style, little is held back. There are some disturbing scenes – particularly those involving 14-year-old Billie, the female character – that definitely make this a book for young adults rather than the precocious preteen reader. Billie’s story is incredibly sad, Rob’s is not a great deal better; both of them are well-rounded characters in whom I believed. I was less convinced by Chris, and found the resolution of his story not wholly credible.

For the main part, authority figures (parents, police, teachers) are portrayed as weak or bullying, failing the teenagers in one way or another. The one exception is Hannah, a saccharine-sweet left-wing social worker who is too good to be true. By the end of the novel, I found her harder to stomach than any of the inept adults and challenging teens. But overall, a great read to be enjoyed by teenagers.

Tags: ,

Comments Off

Nov
16

Offset 2012

OFFSET, Dublin’s creative festival, returns to the spectacular Grand Canal Theatre for its third year, from 9th to 11th March 2012. Attracting speakers and visitors from all over the world, the previous 2 OFFSETs produced over 100 hours of presentations, workshops, debates, interviews and Q&A’s with some of the leading creatives in the world, several large scale gallery shows and some proper full-on party nights.

With 25 leading creative lights on the main stage in 2012, a second room for debates and discussion, interviews and lots more surprises planned, the organisers clearly intend this edition to be their biggest and brightest yet.

For regular updates on schedule, speakers and events as they comes available, check out the website or join the mailing list to keep up to date.

Tags:

Comments Off

Nov
07

‘…draw the editor in…’

‘Include a hook in the first 3 chapters to draw the editor in.’ These were the sage words of Elaina O’Neill, the personable editor of Little Island Press when she addressed the SCBWI Writers’ Retreat in north County Dublin yesterday. Elaina was the final speaker of three who presented during the packed weekend of reflection, writing time, critiques and presentations, attended by 12 writers of children’s books and stories. The retreat was a joint venture co-organised by SCBWI-Ireland and SCBWI-British Isles and was deemed a huge success by all those who attended.

The writer-in-residence for the weekend was the brilliant Steve Hartley, children’s book author and dead nice guy. He threw himself wholeheartedly into the entire weekend. On Friday night, Steve regaled us with tales of his rocky journey to publication. After an early breakfast followed by writing time on Saturday morning, Steve worked through a brilliant characterisation exercise that had us all buzzing and analysing each other endlessly. It was entertaining and fun, as well as being useful and interesting. Definitely one for improving character development in manuscripts.

After a fabulous four-course lunch, the Irish author Oisín McGann spoke about ‘Plot and Structure: what happens next?’ He entertained us with examples of the multiple variations of the People – Place – Problem triangle that can yield all sorts of exciting plots lines and story ideas, and he outlined an 11-point formula for writing a book. Oisín finished his presentation with a brilliant freehand drawing, which he presented to SCBWI.

Supported by cups of coffee and seemingly endless supplies of chocolate biscuits, we had more free writing time in the afternoon. The first day finished with a well-deserved pint of the black stuff in a local pub and a good analysis of the day by all participants.

Elaina arrived bright and fresh on Sunday morning (certainly brighter and fresher than some of us). She was armed with heaps of great advice, from the importance of the synopsis to the presentation of the final manuscript to the benefit of an online presence through blogs and tweeting. Her words were eagerly noted by the participants and she was inundated with questions afterwards that spilled into coffee time.

Once Elaina had left, it was time to pack up. Some participants who had travelled some distance to the retreat needed to get on the road while those of us who had more time shared another great meal before exchanging email addresses and saying our goodbyes.

It was a terrific energising weekend which seems to have been enjoyed immensely by all participants.

Many thanks to my SCBWI colleagues—Jacqui McVeigh and Benjamin Scott—for their help in organising the weekend, to the presenters—Steve Hartley, Oisín McGann and Elaina O’Neill—for their wonderful input and good humour, and finally to the participants, all of whom added immeasurably to the enjoyment and richness of the weekend.

Tags: , , ,

Comments Off

Older posts «