Red House Award Winners

Saturday 23rd February 2013, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London - this was the setting for the 6th annual Red House Children's Book Award Ceremony.

From humble beginnings in a tent at the Hay Festival to the heady heights of London's Southbank Centre this award has grown in popularity and stature of the years.  It now begins with a lunch for authors, publishers and children from various Book Groups around the country and culminates in a noisy ceremony awarding prizes in three categories and to an overall winner also.

Taking our seats in a packed auditorium the air of expectant anticipation was full of excitement, the buzz of happy children and the noise of party blowers!  We were all watching and waiting for James Campbell, our host, to begin the ceremony.  As the lights when down a hush descended and James Campbell began a short sketch all about the joys of halloumi cheese and squeaky mice - it was very funny!

James went on to introduce the award and explain why it is so significant - a fact echoed by each of the shortlisted authors - that is is about books read by and voted for by children, the only national award of its kind.

To make this years ceremony different to the last the children of Dulwich Stagecoach had been given copies of the shortlisted books and asked to interpret them through short dramatic pieces.  The end result was a brilliant insight into the way in which the children saw the stories.  They introduced each of the three categories with their presentations before the authors and illustrators took to the stage.

In true Blind Date style the authors and illustrators sat on their chairs in a line and James posed to them questions, submitted by their readers, to answer.  Making everyone feel at ease and providing plenty of humour for the assembled audience James was a great host.

In the Younger Fiction category he asked each author to describe their book in just five words, not many could, then each illustrator to show a picture of their favourite moment in the story.  As well as this specific questions included, to Andrew Weale, author of Spooky Spooky House, have you ever seen a ghost to which he answered by telling us a story about a poodle under a lamppost!  Louise Yates showed us a picture of her latest character, a toad, Ed Vere explained how his favourite word was Cake(!) and Lee Wildish how he would turn Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into a pop-up book so he could have all the sweets!

The winner, announced by Korky Paul and children from the Plymouth Children's Book Group, was Spooky Spooky House by Andrew Weale and Lee Wildish.

Onto Younger Readers where the nominees were David Walliams for Gangsta Granny, Elen Caldecott for Operation Eiffel Tower, Jonathan Meres and Donough O'Malley for The World of Norm.  David read, with great pleasure, an extract from his shortlisted book and told us how he wants nothing more than to carry on writing for children oh and his favourite word which is 'elbow'(!).  When asked who she would take to Paris Elen Caldecott declared it would definitely be her other half and the five words about her book? Sad, funny, sad, funny again!  Her tip for aspiring writers - read books you love, then read some more and more, then try writing just like that for yourself.  Jonathan Meres explained that the World of Norm was about the normal world and the world in which a boy called Norm lived and that his three sons were definitely the inspiration!  Donough O'Malley told us how much he loved the drawing and as a child was forever doing random drawings and getting into trouble at school!

Presented by Elizabeth Laird and the children of Airdale Children's Book Group the award was given to David Walliams for Gangsta Granny.  David explained that he was thrilled his books had caught on and that he wanted to keep writing children's books as they are so special.

The last category was for Older Readers and the nominees here were Sophie McKenzie for The Hit List, Suzanne La Fleur for Eight Keys and Pittacus Lore for The Power of Four.  Unfortunately, for reasons of security Pittacus Lore could not be present but he did submit a recorded question and answer session to the joy of the audience!  Sophie Mckenzie was on the shortlist for the fourth occasion and on this occasion James asked both she and Suzanne what their superpower of choice would be.  For Sophie it was flying over and above mind-reading as it would be more useful whilst for Suzanne it was difficult to choose therefore she was asked her favourite word.  Unable to name on for fear of upsetting all the other words we soon discovered that both authors had a brilliant sense of humour!  But onto the award which was presented by Patrick Ness and children from the Harrogate Children's Book group to Sophie McKenzie for The Hit List.

Having celebrated all the authors and illustrators for each category of award it was time for Patrick Ness and some children from the Birmingham Children's Book Group to reveal the overall winner of the 2013 Red House Children's Book Award and for Patrick to hand over the trophy to the new incumbent... a drum roll, of feet, plenty of loud blowing - it took three practises to get it right - the winner was announced as Spooky Spooky House by Andrew Weale and Lee Wildish.

They both felt that to win was a real honour as the award, voted for by children, is such an honest reflection of their feelings and opinions.  Their message?  Love books.  Books are joyous, they are made to share and there are so many that it is important not to get stuck on one. If you don't like it move on and find another - we must all learn to love reading - that is the most important message of all.

Thank you to Red House and the Federation of Children's Book Groups as well as all the book groups  and children from around the country for helping to make this wonderful and important award such a success.  I can't wait for next year!

Love - true?

So, it's Valentine's again.  The same day every year.  We are given a day on which to celebrate love.  Love for one another, family, friends, pets for all manner of people and things really.  The ones we love are treated in an extra special way every Valentine's day but what if those we love are not people or animals but things?

I am thinking of books of course.  I love books.  I know a few characters who love books too, most notable a little Dog created by Louise Yates.  There are books about love too - plenty of them!  However it is the facts and stories inside the books that I love, oh and perhaps just one or two covers and the feel of the book too.

So when I opened a parcel to find the wonderful Philip Ardagh's The Truth About Love (Macmillan) inside it I was intrigued   What would this book tell me?  Would I fall in love with it?  Would I learn anything I didn't know?  Would it make me laugh?  Would it inspire me?  So many questions for one little book to answer.  It did.  It does.

If you have every wondered why we use the heart as a symbol of love, why there are so many traditions and superstitions surrounding marriage and weddings what prunes could possibly have to do with love - see page 26 - its all to do with the stones predicting the profession of the man you will marry - then this is the book for you.  All the questions you never knew that you had about love and its varies traditions are covered and for a small, short book that is quite a lot of material!

This is a charming book, perfect for those in love at any age and brilliant for pub quiz answers too.  Wow your friends with some weird and wonderful facts about love and fall in love - with a book and with its quirky style.

Having thus fallen why not then turn to some stories about love?  As well as the afore mentioned Dog Love Books by Louise Yates (Random House) you could share with little ones the adorable The Shape of My Heart by Mark Sperring, illustrated by Alys Paterson (Bloomsbury).  This very special story is all about the very special shape of love and then for older readers C.J. Skuse's Dead Romantic (Chicken House) tells the story of Camille and Zoe, who, disparing of being able to find the perfect boy decide instead to make him...

Some great books to read, enjoy and above all else share with loved ones this Valentine's Day.

A Big Chicken House Breakfast

When an invitation to the annual Chicken House Big Breakfast landed on the mat I was at first disappointed that I wouldn't be able to make it, I soon realised however that there would be some Armadillo reviewers who would love to go along so many thanks to Anne and Morag for attending on my behalf.

For Anne and Morag, meeting for the first time, it was a treat to represent Armadillo at the Chicken House Big Breakfast last week. A lovely opportunity to hear about the books they have lined up, and to talk to lots of authors, publishers, librarians and others who are passionate about good writing for children and young people. 

Chicken House founder and managing director Barry Cunningham got things off to a great start by asserting that despite the messages of doom and gloom so often peddled about young people’s reading, he sees the present as a fabulous and exciting time for publishing. Story has never been so popular, he said. He highlighted some of the authors Chicken House is publishing this spring. Five of them then discussed their new books and read excerpts.

‘The ultimate teenage novel’ was Cunningham’s introduction to Melvin Burgess’s latest book The Hit, due out in April. Developed from an original idea by two philosophy teachers, it explores a mind-blowing central proposition: a hijacked euthanasia drug that gives you the best week of your life - before killing you. In a dystopian world, the drug proves irresistible to many young people. Burgess, pictured speaking here, contextualised this in terms of the loss of optimism within the culture of many teenagers today. Adam is tempted. What’s he got to lose? Everything. The story is about hope in the end, we were told. I think this is going to be a fabulous read. 

More dystopia in Poison Boy by Fletcher Moss, which won the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2012, and sounds very exciting. I enjoyed talking to Moss. He's a secondary school teacher who clearly knows teenagers and their reading interests well. Dan Smith’s novel My Friend the Enemy is a WW2 story about two young people who hide a German fighter who has parachuted from his burning bomber plane. I brought home a proof copy and am very much looking forward to reading it. Chasing the Dark by Sam Hepburn is a scary thriller with lots of humour thrown in. Quite something to make that combination work, but work it does, if the excerpt we heard is anything to go by. The Extincts by Veronica Cossanteli is for a slightly younger audience. A secret menagerie of creatures thought to be extinct is in danger from a deranged taxidermist. Good fun.

This write up is also available at: http://annehardingtraining.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/chicken-house-big-breakfast.html

Liz Kessler takes us North of Nowhere...

Louise Ellis-Barrett recently had the pleasure of interviewing Liz Kessler about her beautiful and recently published North of Nowhere, read on to hear more about this and Liz's other magical stories.

You have written a number of books now, many with a nautical theme, is this inspired by your location or does it have a more longstanding connection than that for you? I grew up in a seaside town and have always had a sense of the hugeness and the power of the ocean somewhere nearby. I love the sea and I love boats and always have done, so I know that this inspires a lot of my writing. The fact that I now live by the sea once again does inspire my writing – but yes, this love for the sea is also pretty deep for me and is part of what makes me tick.

North of Nowhere is not your only standalone novel but I believe that it is unusual for you to write stand alone books.  Do you find series easier or did this story just lend itself to being a one off? I love doing both. I love Emily Windsnap, as she started everything off for me, and I love revisiting her story and writing books in that series. And Philippa Fisher was such fun to write, and moved me into new areas with the kind of subject matter I covered. But I also wanted to write some standalone books, and am very grateful that Orion have let me do that too! I absolutely love time slip stories, and my intention is that there will be three of these in total over the next few years, each dealing with time slip issues in a different way

When you set out to write a story how much do you plan in advance and how much is left to the whims and fancies or even personalities of the characters themselves? I am the biggest planner I know! I spend a long time planning and I don’t begin writing my story until I’m happy that I know what’s going on from start to finish. But that isn’t to say I don’t let my characters have any part in determining the plot. They are part of what guides me through the whole process – they just do more of it in the planning stage than the stage where I write the first draft. But even then, they do still surprise me along the way!

North of Nowhere is a very accomplished story of entwined lives and histories, read and understood on one level, I think, by adults, and on another by children.  Did you feel this as you wrote it? Thank you. I didn’t think about whether it would be read and understood on different levels by adults and children. I just wrote it in the way that felt right for me, and for the story. But I know that adult friends have enjoyed A Year Without Autumn, so I’d be absolutely delighted if they enjoy North of Nowhere in the same way.

There is one narrator in the story, Mia, and she speaks for herself, and I feel Dee.  how easy was it to create their voices, making them unique and yet similar? The important thing is to get to know the characters as well as possible. I do quite a lot of work on this before I start writing. Once I’m as familiar as possible with my characters, their voices tend to come quite naturally. If it’s worked in the way that I hope for it to do so then that’s great!

I love the way in which you have chosen to use narrative and diary entries to tell the story, it is real time and yet also not.  Which was the hardest part to write?

The hardest part of this story was getting the continuity right. With a quite complicated time travel situation, I made lots of mistakes and left lots of loose ends trailing, originally. Thankfully I have a wonderful editor (Amber Caravéo at Orion Children’s Books) and she hopefully spotted all of these before we went to publication.

Were you a diary keeper as a child, or did you ever, as Mia, feel that you just needed a friend who was coming from the same place as you - if that is not too personal a question? I think this is a key element of the book and one that young readers will very much warm too, it is a theme and a feeling that I think most will have at some point whilst growing up. I started writing a diary when I was about nine or ten, and continued to do so for about ten years. It was a massive part of this period for me and was the way that I tended to organise and understand my feelings about a lot of things. As to the second question, I probably did feel that I wanted to be understood and wanted someone coming from the same place as me. But then, I think most of us do!

Do you put much of yourself or your own experiences, friends and places you know into your writing or do you try to keep it as depersonalised as possible? I think somewhere between the two. I never intend to put people I know into my characters, but the odd trait does creep in. And I never intend that my characters are a reflection of myself, but I often get told that certain ones are! For me, writing a book isn’t an autobiographical experience, but it is one that involves putting something of yourself into it. Margaret Atwood once said ‘There’s always a drop of blood in the cookie’ and whilst I don’t think I’ve ever actually cut myself whilst baking cookies, I understand what she means and I think she’s right.

Was the story difficult to write and plan?  How long did it take you to get it all right?  I am trying I suppose to ask you about the plot twist at the end without giving the story away! It was very difficult to write and plan. Probably the hardest yet – and I remember feeling pretty drained and exhausted once it was done! It just took so much thinking to make it all work. The plot twist at the end was always part of it for me. One thing that I love about time travel is the circularity (if that’s a word!) of it. It’s not about time moving forward in a linear way, but about the past, present and future all being able to affect and impinge on each other, and that’s what I hope you really feel happening in this book.

Have you ever considered writing for adults or are you very happy with children's fiction?  Is there more scope for the imagination and storytelling with a children's book? I love what I do and I love the audience I write for. Right now, I don’t have any plans to change it. I can’t really compare how much scope there is compared to a book for adults, because I haven’t tried to write a book for adults! But what I do know is that writing for children allows me to write with the imagination, plot and characters that I really enjoy.

Do you take inspiration from the people you meet in your author capacity or more from the world around you, where you live and stories or folk tales that you hear? I can take inspiration from anything and anyone! In terms of stories, it’s quite often a place that I visit that inspires an idea for a book. This has happened at least three or four times. But it can also be a memory, a tale that someone tells me, a person I pass in the street – anything. The important thing is to keep your author antennae fresh and in good working order so that you spot these moments of inspiration when they come along!

I found myself drawn to Mia and to an extent Dee but I felt that the adults were very much on the periphery of the story, there because children need them and they were an important part of the back story but not needed for the main action.  Do you like to have an adult voice in your stories to remind children they need adults? No not at all. I try to have all the characters in a book that feel right for the story. In a children’s book, I think it’s important that the children are at the centre of the action, but if there are adults who are relevant to the story then I don’t have a problem with them being there too.

Mia seemed to me to be older than her years in her reading f situations and yet very young  too.  Her age is not given but I imagined her to be 11 or 12.  Do you purposefully avoid being too prescriptive about ages? 

I didn’t realise Mia’s age is never mentioned. I thought it was! She is thirteen, and as she says early on, is in Year 8 at school. I don’t try to avoid anything about ages – I actually try to be quite clear about it!

Are you a big reader of children's fiction or do you prefer to keep it safely as your day job and then resort to adult literature? I read all sorts – children’s, YA, adult. As long as it’s got a good story and is well-written and holds my interest, I don’t mind what it is.

North of Nowhere is a clever and intriguing title.  What came first, the story or the title? The story, by a long way. It took a year of driving all my friends and fellow writers mad before one of them finally came up with the perfect title for me. (And she has a thank you in the book for doing so!)

Do you have a title in mind that you would one day love to use?  Do you have a favourite book title from a book written by someone else? Gosh. Short answer is no on both counts!

Who is your favourite author from childhood and what is your favourite childhood book?  Did you read the type of books you write? I didn’t really have a favourite author as such, although I did love a lot of Enid Blyton books. A couple of favourite books from my childhood would be The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, and The Wishing Chair, by Enid Blyton. I don’t know if they are the kind of books I write, although I think there is quite a bit in common. Ordinary children living in a contemporary world but with a bit of magic coming into their lives in one way or another.

Who is your favourite author now and what book is currently on the top of your reading pile?  I still don’t really have a favourite author! I just like reading whatever I want to read at the time. Right now, I’m reading a YA book, How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr, as a bookshop friend recommended it. Before that, I read Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert) and next in line will probably be one of the books given to me in a book swap with some fellow children’s authors!

Thank you for all your great questions, and thank you for having me here at Armadillo J

A Season of Sequels

A season of sequels… written by Bridget Carrington featuring - 

Gregg Olsen: Betrayal

David Fuller: Alfie Jones and a Test of Character

Over a year ago I raved about Gregg Olsen’s Envy, the first book in his Empty Coffin series. Betrayal, the second, is now out, and it’s every bit as good as that first one. Set again in Port Gamble (the character of the town reflected in its aboriginal name which actually means ‘empty coffin!), and featuring the Ryan twins, Hayley and Taylor, whose extra-sensory abilities frequently guide them to the truth of the matter, as well as keeping them from disaster by alerting one to the other’s danger, it is partly based on a real-life case. Hard on the heels of the previous cyberbullying-related teen death in the town comes a new case, in which British exchange student Olivia Grant is killed at a Hallowe’en party. The twins are at the party, hosted by a fellow student while her parents are away, and are themselves among the suspects. Suspicion mainly falls on the teen hostess and her boyfriend, and when they disappear, many consider their guilt is proven. As ever in Olsen’s books, all is not as it seems however, and we have to negotiate several red herrings before we discover the true culprit.

Further layers are also unpeeled from the twins’ own family history, and we can guess that this will continue in the third book, Guilt, due out next year. The coach crash which they survived (unlike many of their classmates) at the age of five remains an ever-present mystery to be solved, but we discover that there are even greater mysteries still to be solved about their background and special psychic talents.

Olsen writes a sizzling story, and bases each book on a real crime, this time the Amanda Knox case, and reflects the moral and ethical issues raised by it, although the narrative of each book takes its own direction. Once again he appends an account of the real crime, and his Empty Coffin website at

http://www.emptycoffinseries.com/  provides all sorts of extras which are both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Highly recommended!

We met Alfie Jones in March 2012, in Alfie Jones and a Change of Fortune, and a very good book that was. Now Alfie’s involved in another football-filled story, in which his team meet their arch rivals in a tournament. There’s lots to learn about loyalty and friendship, and not judging people by the way they seem to be behaving. Alfie encounters another very shy boy, but like many shy people this young man has been bullied into behaving in an unfriendly way. However Alfie learns what his magical guardian witch Madam Zola means by not judging a book by its cover, and everything turns out well in the end.

Another excellent Alfie Jones book for boys (and girls) who are newly confident readers, and who are passionate about the beautiful game. They can even puzzle out the statistics at the back of the book which record the scores in each of the games played by the Kingsway Colts team at the tournament, and discover how the result is worked out.

More please…Up the Colts!

Welcome to 2013...

It's been a few weeks since I visited the Blog and gave you any news, but well, it has been Christmas and the New Year and we are all allowed a little break.  Now that I am back I have lots of exciting news to share with you because I have spent most of this last week opening parcels of books - my desk at one point could not be seen for all the parcels and their lovely, exciting contents.

Everywhere you turn in recent days there have been reviews of the year and commentary on the best things from 2012 including books of course as well as insights into what 2013 could bring.

To begin then - the best books of 2012?  I think my favourite book was quite possibly The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in Ship of her own Making by Catheryne M Valente, and I am now reading the sequel so will report on that soon.  But really I don't thin it is fair to choose just one favourite and looking at the Bookseller Chart of bestselling titles many of these could rate among my favourites too along with all those which didn't reach the chart!

Looking into 2013 it is impossible to decide which books are going to prove a runaway success and which are going to tick along nicely pleasing a wide range of people.  However we have to start somewhere and where better than with the talented Charlie Fletcher whose Far Rockaway is now out as a paperback and an ebook featuring a cover image based on the work of an Edinburgh School of Art student - inspiring and beautiful and just one title among the lovely parcels I have opened so far this new year!  Read it for yourself to see what inspired the images and whether real girls can rescue themselves.

After this where can we go - well to the predicted trends for 2013 including more collaboration between readers and the publishing industry and in particular the new genre of 'new adult'.  There is plenty to look forward to, plenty to get your reading teeth into already and lots of reasons to follow this Blog, our Twitter feed @Armadillomag, 'Like' our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Armadillomag and regularly vsiit the website www.armadillomagazine.co.uk

I look forward to seeing you all in all these places!

All About Love & Romantic Comedies

Liz Bankes, Armadillo reviewer and now author provides this week's guest Blog spot on Romance and romantic comedies...

What is it about the romantic comedy formula that makes people fall in love? Well, I will speak for myself – a rom com nut. For me there is nothing better than a story that combines love and laughter. Rom coms give you hope that among all the moments of humour and awkwardness that make up everyday life, you find love.

I think as well there is an excitement in embarking on a story and knowing that love awaits. You know it will be there, but you don’t know how, why or in what way it will happen. You can sit down at the beginning of a Shakespeare comedy, for example, knowing that come the end everyone will be coupled up and sharing a dance. But that doesn’t prepare you for the character pouring her heart out because the person she loves doesn’t notice her, the sparks flying between a bickering couple who haven’t realized yet that they are made for one another, or the moment when two people realize that they’ve fallen in love.

 So here are three of my favourite tales of love and laughing:

1. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The ultimate romantic comedy, in my opinion, and containing my absolute favourite literary couple. I find it hard to decide who I love more out of grumpy Darcy and witty Lizzie. Sparks fly and moments build between them, all contained within the rigid social structures of Austenland, which I think serves to make them all the more powerful and moving. I read this book probably about once a year – mainly for the line ‘dearest, loveliest Elizabeth’.

  

2. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Viola is washed up alone after a shipwreck and separated from her twin brother. She dresses as a boy and goes to the court of Count Orsino, who she falls in love with. They become inseparable, but Viola has to listen to Orsino talking of his love for local noblewoman Olivia, while she can’t tell him who she really is or how she feels. This is my favourite Shakespeare play, all because of Viola and her speech ‘She sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief’, which goes right to the heart of unrequited love.

3. P.S. I Love You

Not quite the same formula as the others – the book sees Holly struggling to cope after Gerry, the love of her life, dies. He left her a series of letters, which she reads one by one, and Gerry guides her towards building a life without him in it.   This book combines laughter, strong emotion and the message that love never dies.