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| Pam Dix from the IBBY committee UK with the President of IBBY Korea, Su-Jung Kim and writer Sang-Hee Lee. |
The most striking children’s book stand this year goes to Egmont. Not only did they have the best sweets in their jars and a balloon-floating Pooh bear... but alongside an earnest table discussion, I spotted a pram! So authors with babies do manage to get appointments!
Some of the larger publishing house stands with their 'gate-keepers', protect their editors and rights people as well as the books from anyone who might want to browse a book. A few get around this this with digital posters of new books on their hoarding. Daughters of Time, the History Girls anthology showed up well on one of these massive digital screens. But there are others, where one is hard pressed to know they actually publish a thing called a book.
The most thought-provoking stand was Book Aid International, where I met Judith Henderson, the project manager. It was a shack built of bits of wood with tin-plate, a hand-painted library sign, empty shelves and a single locked cupboard showing how books are so precious and few in Africa, that they are literally locked up. Figuratively locked away too as so few people have access to books in Africa. Book Aid works in partnership with libraries in Africa providing new books and resources and training. They were the LBF's Charity of the Year and to mark their 60th anniversary they plan 60 new child friendly library spaces. The ABBA blog isn’t about fund-raising but if you are interested in donating visit: www.bookaid.org/LBF.
Korea was the guest country of this year’s Fair and the Korea IBBY stand had a magnificent display of Award Winning Korean picture books. What struck me is they often dealt with children with difficulties and disabilities but because many were wordless, could easily be enjoyed not just by Korean children but children across all cultures. So here we are... an IBBY UK and KIBBY gathering on the last day of the Fair.
Here are four picture books with Korean artwork to enjoy:
The images in Last Night by Hyewon Yum which won the 2009 Bologna Raggazi Award, are full of playfulness and beautifully rendered in textured print with bold shapes and a striking way of showing light and shadow. It's a wordless picture book that tells of a grumpy child going out at night with her bedtime bear who has been transformed.
Readers follow the blind man as he goes fishing with his dog. He is mending his nets when a seagull snatches a line out of his hands and the dog, chasing the seagull, suddenly morphs into the seagull. The dog-seagull returns the line to the old man. In the meantime the old man is reeling in a big white fish. The white fish swims off with the newly returned line and the old man, turning into a black fish, pursues it. The dog-seagull follows him under the sea, and turns into a large boulder when a shark threatens to gobble up the black fish. Then the boulder turns into the old man, and the black fish turns into the dog. Coming back to the surface, the old man and the dog go home with the big fish in their basket. The story finishes with the line, “Tomorrow they will repeat their life of today.”
A runs across every page of the book suggesting that the old man, even though blind and isolated, is not abandoned by the world but is always connected to something – his dog, seagulls, fish, and by extension to nature itself. Powerful and imaginative.
Wave by Suzy Lee published in 2009 made the IBBY Silent books Lampedusa Project Honour List. A little girl visits the beach and overcomes her fear of the ocean. No words, just the sky and the sea, the seagulls and a girl – very fluid and immediate – done in only two colours. One can almost hear the waves and seagulls squawking and smell the sea. Simple and wonderful.
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www.diannehofmeyr.com
Zeraffa Giraffa illustrated by Jane Ray, published by Frances Lincoln, was chosen as Book of the Week by Nicolette Jones in the Sunday Times Culture on 20th April and given a 5 star review in Books for Keeps.
My 10 Best Giraffe Books has just gone online in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/may/01/top-10-giraffes-in-children-books-dianne-hofmeyr
0 Comments on LONDON BOOK FAIR 2014 and a tribute to Korean picture books – Dianne Hofmeyr as of 5/2/2014 1:09:00 AM
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Not everyone has the means to own children’s books; some have other priorities. And, with the increasing pace of the modern era, a growing number of parents are finding it difficult to find the time or energy to sit down with their children to read together..jpg?picon=1267)
by C. S. Lewis came in at number one! Others on the list are 
, and 
. Classic books known to a lot of American readers aren't on the list, but you have to realize that this is a UK survey! 
Primary School teachers' noses are pressed so closely to the grindstone, Lucy, they scarcely have time to breathe. Give them a break!
Brian, they should be able to name poets just because they are human beings. It's not as though (horror) they were asked to READ any.
Spellsong is a lovely poem, Lucy.
Anne, that's all they hear all day every day. They should do this, they should do that. So now writers are joining the Daily Mail in throwing brickbats. Great.
I'd be more disturbed if English teachers were named as not having heard of poets. Maths teachers is a different matter. But I am surprised about the primary school teachers, don't they use poetry, and aren't they all-rounders? On the other hand, though the survey was done by reputable universities, and Reading, much to my pleasure, has a reading centre (I live near Reading)- that's not to say that the Mail has correctly represented the findings..
There is no must about poetry
no have to, no forced to,
no learn this or you’re for it,
no see me in my office,
no government inspector,
no guardians of culture,
no thundering headlines,
no disgusted of the suburbs,
Poetry has better things to do
Children here in Australia are much more likely to study an advertising jingle than a limerick. I am told that this is more important and that there is 'no time' for the teaching of poetry!
Brian, I'm sorry, but as a former primary school teacher myself I have to disagree with you.
Primary school teaching should require a certain breadth of general knowledge. No-one's saying every primary teacher should know the names of lots of poets, but if more than half don't know the names - just the names, mind you, not the titles of any of their poems, not first lines or quotes but just the names - of more than two, don't you think that indicates a problem with our culture?
You're right - teachers have for years been used as political whipping boys, and we should give them a break. And clearly we shouldn't respond to this by suggesting teachers go and learn lists of poets. But neither should we pretend there is no problem here.
I'm glad to see this has sparked a debate. Brian--I am not trying to use primary teachers as whipping boys (or girls). I know what a hard job they have and how many wretched Governmental directives they have to comply with, noses pressed to the grindstone. However, I am with John and Anne here. A teacher--any teacher--should have a certain amount of general knowledge of this kind before they even start in the classroom--it's not a question of something they must or should be learning after they are in the profession. If our education system has been broken for so long that 58% of this generation of teachers cannot even name, say Milton or Shakespeare (both poets), then there is clearly a very big hill to climb indeed before it is mended. The sampling was, from memory, a fairly large one for a study--over 2500 teachers. I do not know whether they were taken from one area or across the UK--and Leslie makes another valid point about whether the Mail has interpreted the findings in a balanced way (as I said, it's not my paper of choice). However, I felt it was important to draw attention to this study because, if true, I find it very worrying to contemplate such a large lacuna in what should be basic knowledge in the very people who have care of the education of our next generation. If we do not acknowledge it we cannot start mending it--ignoring it is not an option.
And thank you, Katherine. I am glad you liked it.
Primary school teachers and everyone else should have read some poetry/ learned who the poets are LONG LONG before they even get to be students. In their childhood. But THEIR teachers ( and PARENTS!! Let us not forget that people have PARENTS) should have taught them in their turn and so on down the line. EVERYONE has a right to know about poetry and be exposed to it and lack of knowledge leads on to MORE lack of knowledge....I'm sounding like a Grumpy Old Woman I know but there you go...
No, Adele--not a GOW at all. You are quite right and hit the nail squarely on the head. That's the bit which scares me--the lack of knowledge leading on to more lack of knowledge. The 'poetry car' is running very low on petrol and needs filling up soon or it will grind to a halt. But how do we do this--how do we start to redress the balance--and I mean all of us collectively, rather than just an initiative like Bookstart?
that last line was meant to read 'rather than just relying on an initiative like Bookstart?'
I understand that the actual question asked was to name "6 good poets writing for children". This surely makes a huge difference?
If that's the case, Colyngbourne, then it makes an enormous difference. That's certainly not how it's been reported - on Radio 4's Today as well as in the papers - but the media isn't always that good at reporting studies accurately (another problem to which attention needs to be drawn!).
Yes, the Daily Mail article 'damning' teachers is here (with a comment beneath explaining the misrepresentation) - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219130/More-half-primary-teachers-unable-poets.html
Then the actual report is here http://www.ukla.org/downloads/TARwebreport.doc
and the actual survey ("Name 6 'good' children's poets") is here http://www.ukla.org/site/research/research_projects_in_progress/teachers_as_readers_building_communities_of_readers/
Oops, sorry, it missed the last bit of the address off that:
http://www.ukla.org/site/research/research_projects_in_progress/teachers_as_readers_building_communities_of_readers/
There we are then... just the Daily Mail up to its usual foaming at the mouth.
Hanging out in bookstores (USA) I have noticed that almost all who buy poetry books are themselves poets. Makes me wonder if anyone reads it these days except poets (and some English teachers).
Sad, really. Nothing teaches a language better than poetry, and the lessons learned go far beyond just poems.