Youth Libraries Group

Following Ferelith's thread, I would go even further and argue that a love of books is beyond just a love of reading. I am sure I am not alone in having a somewhat "sensual" relationship with books: I like their smell, their feel and I like them to be beautiful - of course the content has to be up to it, we are not talking Glitterwings Academy here - so I was shocked when I read that Amazon's sales of e-books had exceeded those of hardbacks this year. OK, maybe people like me who love beautiful books also like spending time in bookshops. Thinking about it, it is clear that there are two opposing trends, one towards e-books (and maybe audio books) and another in which the book itself becomes an integral part of the whole reading experience. Once reserved for picture books, novels are now interspersed with drawings, quotations, poems and cartoons, or have interesting designs such as the textured cover of Chris Wooding's Malice. One of my all time favourites, Marcus Sedgwick's "Blood Red, Snow White", is a beautiful object. More recently, I was attracted to Jandy Nelson's "The Sky is Everywhere" and not disappointed. So is this further proof that the physical book is in no danger of being replaced by the virtual. Is this a new style, or is this just a marketing ploy?

I was reading the children-literature-uk list digest yesterday, when I came across this comments from one of the list members:

I hope you don't mind if I share this link: author Nicky Singer guesting on
Candy Gourlay's blog about her experiences writing "Knight Crew".

Stopped me in my tracks.

I followed the link - http://notesfromtheslushpile.blogspot.com/ - and can attest to the power of the post. It took me about 10 minutes to read it, and to do it justice I then read it again!

I've now put an RSS feed on the blog, so that I can follow not just the guest bloggers, but also Candy Gourlay (who's book Tall Story was recently published by Random House).  It made me think that lots of other children's authors also have blogs.  I'm a follower of CILIP Carnegie Medal Winner Neil Gaiman on Twitter (@neilhimself), also follow the Bookwitch blog with lots of news from an ardent fan (http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/) and the achukablog (http://www.achuka.co.uk/) but not much else.  My mission is set - who else has a blog worth following?

I'll update you through comments when I find them!!  Let me know any you know of too!!

I am a self confessed cover freak (as many will know - see one of my first contributions to this blog). Looking at the cover to the latest Oxenbury/Burningham picture book, my fingers itch to pick it up - and maybe I'll get lucky! Picture books might seem to have an advantage, though they don't always grasp it, but novels, in my view, can be sunk.. or not, by their public face. Sitting proudly on my shelves the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness - what brilliant covers; even the spines intrigue and make me want to take the books out. The covers designed for the Otori sequence has the same effect as far as I am concerned; as do the the designs for the Stravaganza sequence (Mary Hoffman) - hardback editions especially. Readers will deduce that I like my covers to excite and titillate. I don't want them to be explicit  in their representations. I want them to suggest an atmosphere...emotions....to start my imagination working. Luckily, publishers today have access to brilliant designers so there are many great example to grab my attention. Of course, the designer is particularly fortunate if landed with the brief for a new author - a tabula rasa, so to speak. But what about the problem of the established author - or (oh dear) the classics. Here there is an almost universal failure to create something irresistable. I say this looking at the latest offering from Oxford in their Children's Classics (!!!!! yes indeed) series - Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein (and before you all shout at me, I have no objection to children discovering and reading these amazing novels - I object to the labelling and to their juxtaposition with Heidi!). In fact they are very nice productions - a handy size, hard covers, clear font and crisp paper - unabridged (hurrah) and a very attractive price. But.... we are back in the 50's with the cover illustration; if the Austen is anodyne, the Shelley is reduced to a cliche - and both clearly suggest a readership in the primary school, which may be appropriate for almost all the other titles in the series (if a bit limiting). I don't have an answer - after all, I am talking about what I like, but I do think that there is a case for giving Frankenstein the "Hoffman" treatment - and a Meg Rosoff cover for Jane? What do you think? 

It's E-news time again, and I've been enjoying looking at library and book news that isn't (entirely!) Summer Reading Challenge focussed!

We've continued the Under 5s theme this month, with both publisher offers featuring picture books.

First up, we've got our featured publisher WALKER BOOKS, and the chance to get your hands on a copy of the gorgeous new John Burningham and Helen Oxenbury, THERE'S GOING TO BE A BABY:

Then we've got our publisher offer from RED ROBIN BOOKS.  Many of you will know about Neil Griffiths and the Storysacks he's created, and Red Robin Books are featuring two of their titles. 

LITTLE MOON is the first, and as well as free prize copies there is also a copy of the Storysack that goes with it available to one lucky winner:

Crammed full of Space information, it's the perfect partner for any Space Hop astronaut's travels!

Red Robin also want to share with us Neil's new book - FATOU, FETCH THE WATER:

And we've also got information on another set of Story Bags, available from Lynne Rickards:

Find out what's in the bags in the newsletter!

The final image I want to share this month is the lovely logo for the Surrey Libraries' Children's Book Award, which we've got a case study so you can learn all about it:

Till next time!

I have just had the pleasure of reading all the applications for the sponsored places at YLG's  annual conference. The Wendy Drewett bequest has funded 10 places at this year's conference and will do so again in 2011. When YLG committee put forward this bid we anticipated that it would be the opportunity to capture young professionals at the point at which they are deciding which career path they might follow and to inspire them to choose to become children's and school librarians. This is an aim very close to the terms of the bequest. Wendy herself had a huge belief in nurturing the young librarians of the future. In these difficult times of cuts, re-organisations and the slash and burn approach of the new government to public services, it was immensely moving to read why these students wanted to work with children and young people and  how they can already demonstrate a passionate interest in creating young readers. Although we can all sympathise with each other over the difficult times we are going through, I do hope we will be able to remember why we came into this job in the first place. YLG conference is a wonderful opportunityy to re-energise each other and rekindle an enthusiasm  and energy for what we do. I think experienced practitioners will have just as much to learn from the new youth librarians as they might learn from us.

So I prescribe a strong dose of YLG to prepare you for the year ahead.Check out the programme and get your on line booking in

http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/youth/activities/pages/annual-conference.aspx