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As you know, I have been sitting at home since yesterday morning, nursing my cold and feeling a bit sorry for myself. How lovely then, to be cheered up with a lovely email last night, sent from a proud parent, whose little girl, Amelie, had chosen to go to school on World Book Day dressed at little Stinky, the baby warthog.
They made the costume all themselves. Isn't it just brilliant? Check out the little flies!
Thank you so much for choosing Stinky Amelie - he's one of my favourites too. You looked fantastic. I bet you were the star of the day!
Christian Grey, the main character in the salacious book 50 Shades of Grey, has been deemed an inappropriate favorite book character by school officials in the UK.
An 11 year-old boy was forced to change after wearing the costume to school yesterday for World Book Day, a day in which kids in the UK and Ireland are encouraged to dress up as their favorite book character. The Guardian has more:
His mother, Nicola Scholes, a primary school teacher, accused the school of double standards. Talking to the Manchester Evening News, she pointed out that a teacher was dressed as the blood-splattered forensics-expert-turned-serial-killer Dexter from the book and US TV show.
It all began with a jokey conversation on Twitter.
Polly (who has her début collection of stories, Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig, out this September, illustrated by Clara Vulliamy) shared a picture of an igloo built of books and from there, things pretty quickly spiralled out of control.
I just knew I had to build something out of books. It was one of those moments where you are vaguely aware that the idea is slightly bonkers but you know the thought won’t leave you alone until you succumb to it.
And so it was I set about planning to build a book den out of books, using the opportunity to raise some funds for a charity I’ve a long-standing relationship with, Book Aid International.
First I did my research and scoured the web for other buildings made from books.
Then I started stockpiling books from all over my home in one place.
It was rather disconcerting to see my shelves gradually empty.
I stocked up on coffee and cake and then World Book Day arrived.
It was time to start building.
The kitchen table was dismantled to create enough space for the den; I knew I wanted it to be large enough to comfortably sit inside and read.
Then building began in earnest. I used encyclopedias and other large non-fiction books to create foundations. The big Dorling Kindersley books were excellent for providing stability!
Although my hands got very dry handling all the books, and there were dust fairies flying everywhere, it was a sheer delight to go through my books, remembering when and where I’d read them, who had given them to me, who I’d given copies to. It was a little like watching my life on a screen before me, going through so many memories of people, places and times.
Much as I adore picture books, I soon learned that paperback picture books are not the best thing to build with; you need about a zillion to gain any height, and they tend to be rather slippy. Topsy and Tim books and Beatrix Potter books worked excellently for chinking, but the books I really loved building with were great tomes like SF Said’s Phoenix, or Marcus Alexander’s Charlie Keeper books; these are not only immensely satisfying to read, they give you a real sense of achievement and reliable strength when building!
My biggest worry in all the building was the roof. I really wanted to build using the fabulous technique seen in Maes Howe and other chambered cairns I’ve visited in Orkney, a technique known as corbelling (here’s a good example, and one I’m hoping to revisit this summer), but I felt that for safety’s sake I had to go for something more lightweight.
Thanks to inspiration from my engineer Dad I decided to give magazine and comic tiling a go instead. And I’m very pleased I did so! (Thanks, Dad!)
All in all, once the books were stockpiled, it took me about five hours to build. It’s only up for 24 hours, but we’ve made excellent use of it in this time.
We’ve eaten in it, read in it, simply relaxed in it, giggled in it and generally had a VERY good time!
Late last night I was going to treat myself to a glass of wine and a little bit of piece and quiet in it, but when I went into the kitchen I found my eldest has snuck out of bed to read in it!
I left her to it and took my wine elsewhere 
And now it is the morning after the night before and shortly I’ll begin dismantling my dear book den. But what did I learn in the process? What are my top tips for building with books?
1. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Stockpile your books by approximate size for easy, level building.
2. Remove book covers. Dust jackets make books slippery when building.
3. Keep small or thin books in a separate pile – they are excellent for filling in little gaps and levelling things up.
4. Keep some moisturiser near by – as any librarian will probably tell you, handling lots of books, especially dusty books, can leave your hands very dry.
5. Give yourself time to stroke all your books. You’ll find books you’ve not looked at in years and you’ll want to sit down and re-live them.
6. Allow yourself more books than you think you will need; I had to raid some extra shelves as I was beginning to run out of books towards the end. I reckon I used about 1500 books and 40 odd magazines/comics to build this den (which easily accommodates two, with blankets, cushions and a small table).
NOW. Before you click on to your next blog or read your next email, here comes the serious bit.
I did all of this to raise funds for Book Aid International, and it’s not too late to add a small donation (you can donate from anywhere in the world, in several local currencies):
https://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Toft-2015/
If you’ve ever enjoyed my blog or my banter on Twitter, please consider donating a small amount today. Book Aid International works in partnership with libraries in Africa, including in Zambia where I was born (hence my support of this charity), providing books, resources and training to support an environment in which reading for pleasure, study and lifelong learning can flourish.
I want to say an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who has already donated, including Daisy, Katherine, Anamaria, Elli, Zehra, Damyanti, Catherine, Polly, Jonathan, Ann, Helen, Anabel, Melanie, Abi, Book Island, my parents, my sister, Emma, Clare, Colin, Anne-Marie, Lizz, Natalie, Maxine, Sara, Kate, Bea, Tasha, Sam, Susie, Sandra, SF, Christine, James, Anne, Dan, @storyvilled, Alex, Nicky, @OlivaceousD and all the anonymous donors. YOU are the real stars in all of this.
Today is World Book Day in the UK and Ireland, a day in which kids were encouraged to dress up as their favorite book character.
The most popular costume this year? Elsa from Frozen, who is technically not a book character (though the Disney franchise has released a ton of Frozen books based on the movie). Twitter users are not amused. The Telegraph has the scoop:
On social media, annoyance over Disney’s all-conquering film Frozentaking over World Book Day is threatening to trump the irritation over children dressed as comic book characters.
To celebrate World Book Day 2015 and to support the work of Book Aid International, I’ll be spending most of Thursday 5 March 2015 creating utter chaos in my home, using hundreds of our books to build the largest book den I can.
As a reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’m utterly passionate about children’s books and doing crazy things inspired by them. It’s what gets me up in the morning. But building a large scale book den out of books is wackiest thing I’ve yet tried to do. I haven’t done a recent book count, but I reckon I’ve got about 3000 to play with, so that gives you some sense of the scale of the challenge.
It’s going to be pretty disruptive, probably physically knackering and quite possible a challenge to the laws of gravity so please donate to Book Aid International to make it all worthwhile! You can donate securely online here:
https://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Toft-2015/
Or if you prefer you can donate via text by texting BOOK62 £3 to 70070 (you can change the amount by swapping £5 or £10 for the £3).
I’ve been a supporter of Book Aid International for several years now. Book Aid International increases access to books to support literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa, including in Zambia where I was born. In 2011 the girls and I completed a fundraising Librarithon, and in 2012 we played “guess the number of books in my home“.
In sub-Saharan Africa 151 million people are illiterate. 72 million children still do not got to school, and most people simply cannot afford books of their own. But without literacy people are not able to access education or healthcare, their work opportunities are limited as are their opportunities for participation in the social, economic and political decisions which affect their lives.
Each year Book Aid International sends 500,000 brand new and carefully selected books to libraries in communities, schools, universities, prisons, cities and refugee camps and more. They also provide grants for purchasing books locally (especially those in local languages), and training and advice to ensure that books are targeted to the right groups of people and are well used.
When it comes to donations…
£2 will send one book to sub-Saharan Africa
£10 could send five dictionaries to a university library in Tanzania
£24 could send 12 health books to a community library in rural Eritrea
£60 could send 30 books to a refugee camp in Kenya
£100 could help purchase 70 HIV/AIDS awareness books for children
£380 will send a starter collection of 200 books to a community library
I’m aiming to raise £500.
I’ll be tweeting my progress throughout the day on March 5 (@playbythebook), and will then blog about it once the den is built and habitable. You can donate any time (before, during or after the build).
If you’ve ever enjoyed my blog, found it useful, or been helped out on twitter by me, please consider “paying it forward” by donating today to Book Aid International.
*Thank you* (and please wish me good luck and stable building skills!)
Earlier this month, I was Author in Residence at Waterstones in Truro as part of World Book Day. It was a fab, fab day where I think most of us came away smiling.
I’m a strong believer in telling people when they’ve done something well, so I thought I’d share what was so good about it. That way, if you are a bookshop person or a library person or even, in fact, an author, you can wave this blog in someone’s face and say, ‘Look! Earrings! Tea! Showcards!’
Eh?
Read on. All will become clear.
1. Showcards.
I didn’t actually know showcards had been organised until a friend of mine who happened to have been in the shop posted a photo on twitter. Which made me very happy.
2. Books.
You might also notice that as well as the showcard itself, the shop had also bought in a large selection of all my books – in plenty of time for the event. It was in fact the first time I’d seen all my books together like this, and made me feel very proud and ‘Gosh, look, I wrote all of those books’-ish.
3. Tea.
It is always advisable to greet your author with the words ‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’ When this is then followed up by said cup of tea arriving as if by magic in plenty of time for the author to have a few sips before the event, that's even better. (And very nice Earl Grey it was, too.)
4. Radio Interviews.
Local BBC Radio host Tiffany Truscott happened to be in the shop and noticed the showcard a week or so before my event. She invited me onto her programme at the end of my stint in the bookshop.
We talked about World Book Day and about my books and about movies and mermaids. Which made me very happy.
5. Book jackets being turned into earrings.
I had been told in advance that the shop folk would be dressed up for World Book Day. What I hadn’t been told was that the librarian from one of the schools was going to make an outfit that included earrings she had made in the design of my book covers!!!!! That was a first for me, and made me very happy indeed.
6. Amazing librarians.
The above librarian actually deserves two mentions on this list for what she did for her children that day. Her school is in an area of high deprivation, where many of the children don’t have any books at home. For some teachers, that would mean that they would want to warn me that we wouldn't get many book sales on the day. Which would have been fine. But not for this particular librarian. Instead, she went to her Parent Teacher Association and asked if they could buy one of my books for EVERY SINGLE CHILD in the class. They said yes. So all the children from that school went away with a signed book. Happy children; happy bookshop; happy author; wonderful librarian.
7. Two words: Chocolate. Tiffin.
No pic to go with this one unfortunately as I was too busy eating it to photograph it. (Look up ‘Chocolate Tiffin Triangle from Costa Coffee’ in Google images and you’ll see what I’m talking about.) But just so you know, when it comes to lunch, the words, ‘Go up to Costa, order a sandwich and a cake and put it on the Waterstones’ bill’ will do very nicely.
And there you have it. How to make an author happy in seven easy steps.
Please note, if you can't do all of these, just skip to the chocolate and we'll be fine.
With huge thanks to Isobel and everyone at Waterstones Truro, and to Karen and all the librarians and teachers who came along. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!
I always feel awkward mentioning the book signing.
It’s not the actual signing that’s the awkward bit; it’s the selling. When I’m booked for a school visit, I send the school details of what I do and add, “At the end of the day I do a book signing.” I often feel embarrassed bringing it up; I know it means more work for one of the teachers, and I worry that they’ll think it’s just about me making money.
Yet it’s an important part of the visit.
What I talk about varies from school to school and from session to session, but something I always make sure to emphasise is the fun of reading. Reading for pleasure is, I believe, absolutely key, and if I leave a school having turned just one child on to the idea that sitting down with a good book might actually be fun, then I’ve achieved something.
But in order to sit down with a good book, that child, er, needs a good book. They may already have some at home, of course, but they may not; and if a child has been enthused about reading by an author, they may want to read one of that author’s books. In that moment there’s something special about it, and if the book is signed by the author that makes it even more special. So I think that any good author visit should include a signing session.
Not every school sees it that way, of course. Once, when I was arranging a school visit through a third party, I mentioned the book signing and the message came back, “The head says he’s not willing to have poor children pressured into buying a book.” To be honest, I wish now that I’d replied, “Well, I’m not willing to visit a school that doesn’t value reading a bit more highly than that, or where the head is so rude to someone he’s never met,” because the visit, as it turned out, was one of my all-time worst; it really felt I’d been invited as some kind of window-dressing.
But sometimes a school simply hasn’t thought about it.
One of the schools I visited a few weeks back hadn’t. When I mentioned the signing, the teacher with whom I was liaising replied, “I don’t think we’ll do the signing, because we’re using the hall after school for clubs and so on and it might just be one thing too many.”
Well, I felt awkward, but I wrote back explaining why I felt the book signing was important and that we could use a classroom, and, thankfully, she saw my point and agreed, and on the day helped me with the practicalities of the signing.
Afterwards, she said, “We’ve never done a book signing before, but that went really well, didn’t it?” and we got to talking a bit more about why it matters. And I told her about one of my most memorable signings ever.
It had been in a school that really hadn’t got behind the idea of the signing at all. “Our parents don’t really respond well to that sort of thing,” they’d said, and I could tell that this was code for, “Well, you can try to sell some books if you like, but we’re not going to put any effort into making sure the parents know about it.”
So after school I set up my little bookstall, and… nobody came. I waited for fifteen minutes or so, and then began to pack up.
Just as I was about to start carrying the books out to the car, the doors of the hall banged open and a boy burst in. He was sweating and panting, but when he saw me there his face split into a huge grin. He’d run all the way home to get the price of a book, and he’d run all the way back again, desperate to buy one and worried he’d missed me. Something about the visit had really connected with him, enough that getting a signed book really, really mattered. And making that sort of connection with potential readers, I told the teacher, is something you can’t put a price on.
She agreed, and we chatted some more, and then I thanked her, and started to carry my books out to the car.
I was loading the last box in and about to shut the boot, when she appeared in the car park. But she wasn’t alone. With her was a dishevelled, red-faced boy, panting and sweating. And she looked at him, and gave me a knowing smile, and I realised.
He’d run all the way home, and back again.
_____________________________________________________________
John's latest book is Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers (OUP)
Happy World Book Day everyone!
Alright, alright, so it might not be the official World Book Day today - it might not even be World Book Day for you but it is for many people. This week, and probably for the next few weeks too, authors, illustrators, poets and storytellers will be hitting the road to share their love of the written word with children in schools and libraries all over the place. It's a wonderful thing.
Now don't get me wrong, I think that the WBD initiative is brilliant. The idea of setting aside one day a year when everyone can share their love of books. Children in many schools get to dress up as their favourite book character - superheroes and little princesses abound thanks to the supermarket's ready made costumes but more imaginative creations come to light too. Throughout the day pupils and teachers share their favourite books and the aforementioned visit from an author, illustrator, poet or storyteller can add a much needed boost to the general book excitement.
Perhaps it's just me but the idea of a single book day does make me cringe slightly. One day isn't enough to generate that love of books amongst children that have little or no interest in books in their home environment. Sadly, I meet many children in school that really don't like reading - not surprising though as the whole learning to read business can be a very difficult and taxing one.
Recently I've been writing a series of little stories based on the lives of real people - Columbus, Elizabeth I, Neil Armstrong and others. The most recent book in the series is about William Caxton - not the inventor of the printing press but the man to first print books in the English language. Researching William Caxton really brought home the importance of the written word in particular. What he, and other printers did, changed people's lives forever. News, information and ideas could be shared quickly with many people. Caxton wasn't just a printer though - he was a businessman, a publisher, the first person to open a bookshop in England. He and others at the time brought about a real revolution of the word. Books suddenly became available to a much wider audience and now it's hard to imagine a world without books in it.
Books are everywhere and anyone can get their hands on them so why not share a book today and everyday. And to help spread that love of books why not get involved with the excellent Patron of Reading scheme. A book isn't just for world book day - it's for everyday.
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By:
tracy alexander,
on 3/6/2014
Blog:
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My first post on this site,
Sliding Doors, told the tale of how I started writing, thanks to a poster in a bookshop. So for my World Book Week post, I’m going to describe the journey from winning a short story competition to my name on the spine of a paperback. It’s in shorthand, because it took some years! Along the way I got into the habit of collecting ‘ticks’ , because the odds against me seemed so huge it was the only way I could stay motivated. ‘Crosses’, I tried to bury.
I started writing a ‘book’ almost as soon as I heard that I was a PWA. (Prize-Wining Author – my family’s idea of a joke.) The idea was easy to come by because like all experienced marketers I ran a brainstorming session, inviting my kids, then 10, 8 and 6. (Interestingly I didn’t make a conscious decision to write for children, that was taken for granted somehow.) Two sides of scribbled-on sheet of A4 later I began my summer 2005 project. And loved it. I wrote every morning from about 6 to maybe 11, and the kids watched non-stop telly. Brill. Then we ate our bodyweight in three-course breakfasts. As the word count grew so did my determination for it not to languish on slush piles. (I’d bought the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook by then so knew the jargon.) Keen to speed up the learning curve, I applied for a place on the University of Bristol Creative Writing Diploma.
Tick!
I shared my enthusiasm with a stranger at a party. The wrong person as it turned out. She said, ‘I’m a librarian and my husband works at Waterstones, but I can’t get a children’s novel published so you’ve got no chance.’
Cross.
I shared my enthusiasm with a published children’s author. She said, ‘everyone thinks they can write.’
Cross.
I submitted my first assignment at Uni.
‘Unvarying in prose style. No sense of time or place and some format problems.’
Cross.
Sometime around then the marvellous Show of Strength – a Bristol theatre company, announced a competition to write a monologue for a show of rolling performances. Wonderful idea. My monologue, It’s My Party’ was brought to life by Lynda Rooke (most recognised from Casualty). I stood in the audience and as the piece drew to a close I noticed the grey-haired man next to me was crying.
Tick!
Excellent, because more crosses were on the way.
I sent the first three chapters of my finished children’s book to an agent.
‘I love it, rush me the rest,’ she said.
I could see my future – hardback, paperback, film, Oscar ceremony . . .
Tick!
‘It’s got everything – drama, pathos . . . Can you come and see me in London?’
Tick!
She wanted a few changes. I obliged.
Time passed.
I let it – not wanting to be annoying.
Eventually I chased her.
She appeared to have forgotten about me, sending an email the essence of which was - ‘I didn’t like it that much after all.’
CROSS!
(In retrospect, approaching several agents at once might have been sensible, but I was terribly optimistic, so only contacted one at a time.)
The next response was something like, ‘it’s a ludicrous idea . . .’
Cross!
The next.
‘Too like Percy Jackson.’ (It really wasn’t.)
Cross!
Surely time for some good news? Yes!
Bruce Hunter at David Higham invited me for a cup of tea and agreed to represent me.
Tick!
Now, it would all fall into place.
Not.
The book was rejected by everyone.
Umpteen crosses over ten months (he too sent things sequentially).
In summer 2007 I wrote another book, which my agent loved. Was this the one?
No.
The book was rejected by everyone.
Umpteen crosses over eight months.
Cue Piccadilly Press, inviting me for a meeting.
I didn’t know what to wear. What do authors look like? Stupid thought.
They loved my book.
Tick!
But didn’t want to publish it – too quiet.
Cross!
Did I have any other ideas?
That morning (just in case) I’d had another brainstorm with the getting-older kids (12, 10 and 8). I regurgitated the rough idea of a gang of children called Tribe – who they were, what they did.
I was dispatched to write a short synopsis.
‘A paragraph will do,’ the publisher said.
Three paragraphs later (I didn’t want to under deliver), I had a contract.
TICK!
This October my fifth book will hit the fresh air. It’s about how one small act changes everything that follows. We’re back to Sliding Doors.
Reading is one of the easiest ways you have of empathising with another person, a way of being alone with them when they are alone; it is a way of taking time off from your own preoccupations, and entering another mind, another world. Once you have experienced this, it is almost like making a friend, […]
Need a quick fix for a dose of bookish delights? For World Book Day or just for fun? I’ve prepared a picture book Book Bingo game you can download, print and play – please feel free to use with your kids, your class, your library book group!
There are 16 different sheets (on 8 pieces of paper/pdf files), all featuring fabulous picture books, many of which are by World Book Day authors David Melling, Emily Gravett and Jill Murphy.
Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
Set 4
Set 5
Set 6
Set 7
Set 8
And here’s the set of caller’s cards – matching images of the front covers used, so that the whole game can be played by non-readers too.
Caller’s cards set 1
Caller’s cards set 2
Caller’s cards set 3
Caller’s cards set 4
I’ll be cutting up the caller’s cards and putting each mini book cover in a box. For non-readers I’ll just show them the book cover pulled from the box, whilst for a more challenging game for older kids I won’t show them the cover, but rather simply tell them the title of the book and who wrote/illustrated it.
Unfortunately I haven’t got prizes you can download but they needn’t be expensive – a trip to a charity shop could result in some nice books, or you could download lots of book related activity sheets and put them in a smart envelope with some colouring pencils.
I’d love to hear how you get on playing book bingo – good luck, and have fun!
With train tickets in my pocket, a sketchbook in my handbag and a case full of picture books, I have started out on the trail again, visiting schools all over the place, to help children celebrate World Book Day with storytelling and workshops, talking to them about my work and sharing the wonder and fun of books.
There's actually only one World Book Day, this Thursday, and of course only one of me too, but since there are lots and lots of schools, my World Book Day visits tend to spread throughout March.
The week started with a visit to Kippax Primary yesterday, in Leeds (I've been before and it's always a pleasure). If all is going to plan, I should right this moment be stepping off a train in Liverpool, ready to begin a 2-day visit, working with Whitefield Primary.
I'll be staying in a hotel tonight, which can be a bit lonesome, so I'll try and get out in the evening to do some drawing. That's if I'm not too done-in anyway. Last time I was there, I did loads of sketching, all through dinner.
In the meantime, since I've not had time to scan my travel sketches from yesterday, I though I would decorate this post with some more of the sketches I did on my trip to London. As well as museums, we visited the National Gallery.
Obviously the paintings were inspiring, but the building itself is lovely, so I sat on the floor (resting my sore feet) and whipped out my paints.
I was not at all sure that painting was allowed (and have since found out it isn't!), so was waiting to be told off the whole time, especially as there were attendants about. Maybe it's because by then it was nearly closing time, but they left me alone just long enough to get these two quickies done.
A little earlier that day, we also visited the National Portrait Gallery. I got to sit on a proper chair that time and drew the folks passing by in front of me:
I have been playing in a Strathmore sketchbook I was given as a pressie at the last Urban Sketchers Symposium. I am really enjoying working on the grey paper - it changes the way you work, which is good fun.
By:
David Thorpe,
on 3/3/2014
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As writers spruce themselves up in preparation for entering schools on World Book Day in order to bear witness that there are - honest! - real people behind books, I've been thinking about what books I read when I was at primary-school age that really turned me on - and why.
There was a great public library down the road, and, like some kind of ravenous termite, I burrowed through titles as fast as I could: first, E. Nesbitt, Biggles, the Jennings books, Just William, the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, Swallows and Amazons, Robert Louis Stevenson and Peter Pan.
 |
| Adults hated this. |
But reading these cost me nothing of my prized pocket money. If I cared about reading something enough to part with my precious cash, then I must have really wanted to read it, right? So what were these items?
Firstly, I'm almost ashamed to admit it now, but I bought the whole set of Enid Blyton's
Mystery Of... paperbacks, featuring the Five Find-Outers. These were 2/6d each (12.5p nowadays - nothing. But given that I had 6d a week pocket money that was quite a big deal!).
These books epitomise everything that is completely wrong, from an adult's point of view, about Enid Blyton, being badly written, with sterotyped characters, and containing a character called Fatty. None of that mattered to me of course.
Apart from being page-turning whodunnits, there were three important other elements that made them attractive to this 8 or 9-year old: the children knew best, they solved mysteries without adult help, and the authority figure - usually a policeman - was completely stupid. I suspect the latter reason is particularly why adults frowned upon Blyton. But you can't knock the fact that she published a staggering 752 books in her life. That must be some kind of record. Even if they did have names like
Noddy Loses His Clothes.
 |
| Matilda - probably the best model reader in the world. |
There's something in the British psyche: Britons are well known for their sense of fair play combined with a healthy disrespect for authority. And I think I know why. Most children's books liked by children perpetrate the idea that children know best - and what is fair - and adults don't. Roald Dahl is the obvious example, just look at
Matilda.
Then, I'd buy the
Beano. Like thousands of other kids. You won't be surprised if I tell you that Leo Baxendale, whom I've had the pleasure to meet a few times, and who came up with the
Bash Street Kids and
Minnie the Minx, is an out and out anarchist and has been all his life. That's anarchist in the traditional British sense, going all the way back to the Levellers and Robin Hood.
 |
| Leo Baxendale's Bash Street Kids: anarcho-punks in the making. |
He believed that property is theft to the extent that he eventually sued his publishers, DC Thompson, for not paying him any royalties despite the millions they were making from his work - and then settled out of court for an undisclosed sum to pay his mother's medical costs.
And I bought Marvel comics, whether imported or reprinted in the pages of comics
Wham!, Smash!, Pow!, Fantastic! or
Terrific! - hundreds of them, because they blew my mind with their sheer imagination. But in retrospect, I reflect that there was something else, something very special that made superheroes attractive to me - and to all kids who love them:
They have secret identities.
 |
| Pure magic. My name is Thorpe. I WAS Thor! |
When bullied, persecuted Peter Parker became Spiderman, he left behind all of his troubles. When puny Bruce Banner transformed into the incredible Hulk, he could smash anybody. When the selfless and lame Don Blake hit his walking stick on the ground, it became Mjolnir, and he was the mighty God of Thunder, a noble Asgardian.
But all of these were secrets known only to themselves - and to me, the reader.
Stan Lee wrote all of these. He is a genius. Like Dahl, Blyton and Baxendale he knew how to create the equivalent of crystal meth on paper. Addictive or what?
These writers are not equal by the way. Today, I can't recall a single Blyton plotline. (And was she the first kids' writer to trademark her name as an instantly-recognisable signature? Is that part of her success - and should we all do this?) By contrast, very many of Stan the Man's stories and characters are burned into my brain. I'd say he was the most prolific of all these writers, and his inventions are the most successful (whether in terms of readership, sales or influence.)
Back to the subject of secret identities. It's not just that every kid longs to have special powers that could help them defeat their enemies (flying, super-strength, invisibility), it's that children have secret lives as well. For many grown-ups these secret lives are forgotten as they get older.
As a child I remember wondering why it was that adults seemed no longer to remember what it was like to be a child themselves, and vowed that I would do my best not to let the memory fade. I don't know whether I do - very well - but I certainly recall that feeling with great intensity.
The powerful idea that you have a secret self, with a special life known only to you, in which you accomplish remarkable deeds, heroic feats - and nobody else (adult) understands,
nobody must even know about this - is surely experienced by all children!
They are all, almost perpetually, engaged in one quest or another, one struggle, one battle, or one tumultuous adventure, whether it is emotional, adventurous, imaginative or intellectual. This is what's going on inside children's minds. All the time.
And this is what the best games, books, TV, films and so on both feed on, and feed into, in the fertile forming minds of children.
Always have. Always will.
Where in the world will you be for World Book Day?
Maybe lucky enough to be celebrating books in some exotic corner while the rest of us languish in rain-soaked England? But wherever, World Book Day is an opportunity to celebrate not just books but special people who do so much to promote the love of books.
Did you read the recent post by Maeve Friel –
The Magic of the Hay Cartagena Festival –
where she tells of a man who wheels his library cart through the streets of Cartagena lending books to all in need of a story?
As Barry Lopez says in his book ‘
Crow and Weasel’:
‘The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to keep them alive.’
Mercy Jonathan works in a tiny shop called Make Africa owned by Janet Holding, in a village next to the sea on the southern tip of Africa in a place called Plettenberg Bay. The shop sells baskets and beads and fabrics from every part of Africa. It smells of the hot countries the objects come from… smoky wood and dried grass. But its also sells books.
Mercy is my special book person for World Book Day.
Her memories of story come from her childhood growing up on a farm in Malawi where her grandmother told her the story of Hare and Baboon and a jar of peanut butter. Of course old trickster Hare was faster than Baboon and finished the peanut butter in a matter of moments and was off and away, leaving nothing for Baboon. Sharing was the theme. And it’s no co-incidence that this is what Mercy does at Make Africa… she shares the creativity of all the artisans whose work she displays and shares the stories of the books she sells.
Loved by all her customers… the steady stream of foreign tourists who browse through the shop, as well as the locals popping in for a scrap of African cloth, she speaks four languages and is known for her flamboyant style of dress, her plaited hairstyles and her elaborate headscarves. I’m sorry to admit I visited her the first time without a camera and then returned again without warning on one of her less flamboyant days… but her smiling face says it all.
Piles of my picture book The Name of the Tree is Bojabi (The Magic Bojabi Tree in South Africa) have literally vanished because of her charm. She’s the best bookseller I know who just happens to live on the southern tip of Africa.
But with World Book Day coming up, there must be masses of other great booksellers in the UK, as well as in other corners of the earth, who authors need to recognise. What about doing a series of blogs on the best of them… and I don’t mean shops… I mean the person who holds the book and touches the pages and places it in the hands of the reader with a secret smile? Let's salute them! Thank you Mercy!
www.diannehofmeyr.comTHE NAME OF THE TREE IS BOJABI - Dianne Hofmeyr, illustrated by Piet Grobler, published by Frances Lincoln
Next week will be busy!
On Tuesday I am meeting some pupils from Presentation School here in Kilkenny at Dubray Books – looking forward to that, I have met some of the students from the school before and they were lovely.
On Wednesday I set off for Galway where I am being hosted by Sadie Cramer (Illustrator, Artist and general whirlwind!) You can find her website here.
Chop-Chop Mad Cap illustrated by Sadie Cramer, written by Juliette Saumande
On Thursday morning I’ll head into Kilcoona National School with Sadie where the theme of World Book Day is Africa. Throughout this week parents and others have been reading my book The Butterfly Heart to the pupils. Seems as though it’s going down well. Looking forward to meeting everyone there.
Then I will head into Dubray Books at the kind invitation of Mary Esther Judy, bookseller extraordinaire and writer of the wonderful blog Fallen Star Stories. Mary has been an enormous support to me as an author and I know to many other children’s authors round the country and the world! So looking forward to these couple of days.
Dubray Books Galway, World Book Day window
By: Nicola,
on 3/1/2012
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By Michael Suarez and Henry Woudhuysen
And Yet The Books
And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
“We are,” they said, even as their pages
Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame
Licked away their letters. So much more durable
Than we are, whose frail warmth
Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.
I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it’s still a strange pageant,
Women’s dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.
‘And yet the books’ by Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz (1986) brilliantly captures the relationship between the book as a universal, world-wide object, a thing that exists by the millions and yet is so individual, and the single, solitary writer or reader. How can such a ubiquitous, material phenomenon be at the same time so personal and so transcendent?
Histories of the book have often concentrated on one aspect. Most have been accounts, for example, of medieval manuscripts or of printing in the West or have taken the form of national histories of the book in, say, France, the US, India, or China. More detailed studies look at one or two means of production and publication, at a particular period, or a local phenomenon. However valuable these studies are (and astonishing work has been done on books during the last century), they deny the universality of books, the very feature that makes them such important and internationally significant objects. How could a history of books be taken seriously without thinking about the recent enormous growth in South American publishing, or the way in which book production in India has developed? To say nothing about the book in China and Japan; that would be to miss some of the most striking and visually attractive illustrated books and bindings of the last few centuries that have been enormously influential throughout the world.
Drilled books, Mar. 27, 1913. Source: NYPL.
And not just the book itself as a material object – Mislosz’s “shining chestnuts” – but as an immaterial object. We should seek to cover the development of writing, the oral teachings of the world’s great religious and philosophical leaders, the metaphysical or platonic identity of texts, and the electronic book. We should explore the history
Spring is a bit of a crazy time here. It's all to do with World Book Day. You might think that's only one day, but the events associated with it spread out over a whole month.
Any good primary school should be aware of World Book Day. Most celebrate it by having a day of dressing up as book characters, or doing special projects. Many schools and libraries also invite an author or illustrator to visit for a day, which is where I come in...
Like the other authors and illustrators who do visits, I can only be in one place at a time (though I do my best to be in at least three places at once, most days!), so World Book Day itself gets booked up months in advance. Which is why schools and libraries have to be flexible about the dates and the events spread out on both sides of March 1st.
This year I thought bookings might be thinner, because of all the cut-backs, but in the end it seems I'm busier than ever, so I'm really grateful to have John here in the studio this time round, holding the fort and dealing with emails while I'm out and about strutting my stuff.
Book Aid International
World Book Day
1st March, 2012
Book Aid International increases access to books and supports literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa. They send over 500,000 brand new books annually to 2,000 libraries, benefiting 2.4 million people every single year.
Overall, they’ve sent more than 20 million books to partner libraries since 1954.
Whether you’re a parent, teacher, librarian or book lover and you want to host a “bake for books” sale, encourage your child to dress up or dress down for World Book Day, or host a bookish quiz evening, they have a huge amount of resources and fundraising ideas for you.
Just follow the link above to find them and most importantly have fun!
WIN £100 of National Book Tokens for your school
This year they have two fantastic competitions for you to enter.
The closing date for applications is 2 April 2012
and the winners will be announced on their website.
Dress up competition for pre-school and primary schools:
Simply email a photograph of your handmade crafty book character costumes, along with a brief explanation of how it was made and the materials you used.
Poetry competition for secondary schools:
Write a poem on the theme of ‘change’ and email your entries to them.
Remember quality is more important than quantity!
Where they work
World Book Day is set for a 2012 revamp, with new management, branding and digital promotional ideas hoping to achieve more than one million book token redemptions.
WBD will return on 1st March 2012—led by children’s marketing specialist Kirsten Grant as its new director and Penguin’s Joanna Prior as chair—with a new push after what Prior described as a “loss of energy for redemptions” which were not getting children “excited enough”.
read more
Jacqueline Wilson and Roald Dahl are among the high-profile authors selected for the 2012 £1 World Book Day books, which will revert to the single-book format for the first time in four years. The teen WBD titles will also go online for the first time following a pilot this year.
The changes were announced at the Book Industry Conference this morning (17th May).
read more
It's 5.22 am and I am up and on my way to an author event so please excuse my incoherence. Following a blip in the universe I have already posted but wanted to say 'Happy World Book Day!' Would love to hear what everyone is doing? How do you feel about it this year?
Book Aid International have asked me to help spread the word about all the good work they do and how we can all get involved in helping this great cause.
At
Book Aid International, they know that books change lives, yet in some countries it could take a whole month’s wages to buy a single book.
They are asking that you make a small donation to
Book Aid International at your special
World Book Day reading meeting in March 2011.
For every £2 that your group collects, Book Aid International can send another specially selected new book to a library in a school, public library, refugee camp, prison or rural community in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
By supporting Book Aid International you are helping to send around half a million books a year to some of the world’s poorest and disadvantaged communities. They ensure that the books they send match the local need and that they are distributed to the libraries and communities that need them the most.
How to
1. Enlist your reading group or find a few friends interested in participating in a special Meet, Talk, Give meeting.
2. Set a date and venue – the sofa, the kitchen table, a quiet pub – anywhere! Or ask your local library or bookshop to help you organise the event.
3. Choose a book you think everyone might enjoy – use the recommended reading list supplied if you like. Tell everyone about the choice, and allow enough time to buy or borrow and read it.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 4/1/2010
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National Poetry Month~ Canada and USA
Growing Up Asian in America Art and Essay Contest Winners Announced~ San Francisco, CA, USA
The Mathieu Da Costa Challenge Winners Announced~ Canada
38th National Book Fair & 8th Bangkok International Book Fair~ ongoing until Apr 6, Bangkok, Thailand
Exhibit of Sally Rippin’s Illustrations for Peeking Ducks~ ongoing until Apr 11, Melbourne, Australia
Heart and Soul: Art from Coretta Scott King Award Books, 2006–2009~ ongoing until Apr 18, Chicago, IL, USA
New York Public Library Exhibit: 2010 Caldecott Winner Jerry Pinkney’s African-American Journey to Freedom~ ongoing until Apr 18, New York City, NY, USA
Once Upon a Time . . . Children’s Book Illustrators, Then and Now~ ongoing until May 27, Oakland, CA, USA
International Children’s Book Day~ Apr 2
SCBWI Presents Details, Details: The Snap, Crackle, and Pop of Good Writing with author Jane Kurtz~ Apr 2, Tokyo, Japan
SCBWI Presents Bologna and Beyond~ Apr 3, The Hague, Netherlands
43rd Annual Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival~ Apr 7 – 9, Hattiesburg, MS, USA
The Foundation for Children’s Literature Presents What’s New in Children’s Books~ Apr 8, Boston, MA, USA
26th Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth~ Apr 8 – 9, Kent, OH, USA
Salisbury University’s Children’s and Young Adult Literature Festival: Read Green~ Apr 8 – 12, Salisbury, MD, USA
Border Book Festival~ Apr 8 – 11, Mesilla, NM, USA
Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books~ Apr 8 – Aug 1, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The Green Earth Book Award Presentation Ceremony~ Apr 9, McLean, VA, USA
Cambridge WordFest~ Apr 9 – 11, Cambridge, United Kingdom
The Federation of Children’s Book Groups 2010 Conference~ Apr 9 – 11, Berkshire, Uni
Over 13 million £1 book tokens have been distributed to school children across the UK, because today is World Book Day, and the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK. Hurray!
Which is why I've been invited into so many schools this week...
Monday: I kicked off with a day at Roundthorne Primary in Oldham. I took the train across the Pennines and did these sketches on the way. It started off really misty but burned off into a lovely, sunny day, which makes it a fantastically beautiful run, though I spent most of it with my nose in my sketchbook, as you can see.
Tuesday: closer to home, at a dinky little village school: Barlow Primary. A lovely, varied day and lots of fun. The finale was a drawing demo for all the juniors, giving away the drawings as prizes for children to take home. Thank you so much to Mrs Wolstenholme and Mrs Broad for giving me a lift to school and bringing me home.Wednesday: in the studio, catching up and catching my breath - phew!
Today / Friday / Saturday: off again, at 6.30am, back across the Pennines to Tameside, to visit Yew Tree Primary. By the time you read this, I will be giving it my all, with a PowerPoint lecture to all the older children. 
But instead of coming home at the end, I'm taking a train directly to Bedford, where I am staying a couple of nights with friend and author Julia Jarman, and doing 2 further days of events down that way.
All being well, I should finally return home about 6.30 on Saturday night. I'll fill you in on the gossip about all that later (if I have any energy left!). Don't think I'll be out on the town that evening, do you?
This is World Book Day, but it’s also still Fairtrade Fortnight, and books and Fairtrade go together – not because authors are underpaid, though most of us are – but because there are thousands of kids in the world who never get a chance to learn. This is sometimes because they are girls, but mostly because they’re poor, and the children work and help keep the family going. I wrote in an earlier blog about the wonderful work that’s being done in Cairo, educating the children of the waste recyclers. But every time you buy a Fairtrade product, you're not only giving producers a fair price for their product, but also subscribing to a raft of benefits for the community.
Part of the price of Fairtrade goods is what's called the Fairtrade premium, and the producers choose what they will spend this on – examples are farm inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides, but also, importantly, medical expenses and school fees. To give one example, the Kavokiva cooperative in southeastern Côte d’Ivoire, which produces cocoa beans. In this region, the illiteracy rate among agricultural communities is as high as 95%. Many schools are badly equipped and too far away for children to attend every day. Kavokiva was Fairtrade certified for cocoa in 2004. Although the global recession has hindered sales, the Fairtrade premium has helped the cooperative to build schools in some villages where the government school was too far away. It has helped furnish classrooms and blackboards, and other supplies. It also distributes scholarships to that the members’ children can pay school fees.
Clearly, one still has to scout around to find Fairtrade products in many areas – though the Waitrose coffee and tea shelves are a joy to behold – but things are looking up. You can buy Fairtrade avocados, fruit, chocolate, coffee, tea, honey, nuts, apricots, beauty products and goods made from Fairtrade cotton, to name but a few. Tate and Lyle, Cadburys, and Kit-Kats are some mainstream companies who have recently made Fairtrade commitments. I bought several T-shirts made with Fairtrade cotton from Marks and Spencers last year. I plan to email people like Marks and Sparks and say you’d like to be able to get more Fairtrade products even than they sell at the moment. I also mean to write to other chocolate producers and egg them on to go Fairtrade – but the Co-op does a nice chocolate bar, and Traidcraft Swiss chocolate is brill! Green and Blacks’s Maya Gold chocolate is Fairtrade, of course.
On the topic of books, I’m shamelessly using the column to make a plug for another charity, which is Bookaid International. They make books available to kids in Sub-Saharan Africa, Palestine and Sri Lanka. You can find out more on their site, url below. In Kenya, they help provide a camel mobile library service!! This is an idea that appeals to me greatly.
For as long as I can remember, books have lit up my life, but I had the benefits of being brought up in a highly literate family, having a good, state-funded education, and having, from the time I was very small, access to free libraries. I know many of you will have had similar advantages. But the relative wealth and privilege of our own country – the recession notwithstanding – has too often been bought at the expense of other people in poorer countries. The Fairtrade Foundation - and Bookaid - are working to change all that.
Look for the Fairtrade marque on Fairtrade products - I meant to put it in here, but couldn't manage the technicalities of downloading it! I'm sorry, daffy authors... But you can see it on the products I've mentioned above, or at their website.
I've found out one can help fund Bookaid (and other charities) by shopping at a range of online retailers, Amazon, Tesco, Asda, Next, M and S, John Lewis, Ebay, Comet – and more – via a site called The Giving Machine. There’s also a thing called the Reverse Book Club. For three pounds a month you can buy 36 books every year for people who need them.
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Oh Phil – do you know Castle of Books – a picture book about a boy who builds castles out of his dad’s books? Someone on twitter alerted me to it yesterday so I’ve just ordered it.
Thanks Claire, yes, fairy lights seem to make everything that bit more sparkly, don’t they?
It was enormous fun Rebecca. My arms/shoulders are aching a little from all the lifting, but it’s been worth it all.