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Fantastic news – the UK has a new Young Adult Library website – YALibraryUK. There is also a twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/yalibraryuk
The good work is spreading!
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I apologise for the break in transmission but Teen Librarian is back! I seem to have overcome the posting problem with the site and posts will be starting up again this evening!
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Click on the cover to find out about the Graphic Novel Fool’s Gold created by Teenagers at the Dearne High School in Yorkshire.
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The winner of the Beautilicious competition sponsored by Walker Books and Baylis & Harding is:
Emma Sherriff
Congratulations, please get in touch with your address so we can send your prize to you! -
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“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make school libraries statutory.”
Details of Petition:
Read the Government’s response:
School libraries are a key resource for pupils and teachers. They support the National Curriculum by providing books and ICT equipment, and at their best they are a valuable asset to teachers and a source of enjoyment and learning for children and young people.
However, the provision of a school library is not a statutory requirement, and there are no current plans to alter this and change the legislation.
It is the Government’s policy to put as much money as possible directly into schools’ budgets, allowing schools to target resources appropriately and to make their own choices about their school library provision and book resourcing.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22227
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I would like to welcome eminent scientist and author Marcus Chown to the Teen Librarian site.
For the two or three people who are not too sure who he is, here is a brief biography (and photograph in case you meet him in your Library).
Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Fomerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is currently cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. His books include The Universe Next Door, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You and Felicity Frobisher and the Three-Headed Aldebaran Dust Devil, which the UK’s The Sunday Times called “One of the books most likely to fire children’s imaginations”.
Although Marcus’s wife is a nurse and does a very socially useful job, Marcus tends to write about things that are of absolutely no use to man or beast! Can time run backwards? Are there an infinity of universes playing out all possible histories? Was our Universe made as a DIY experiment by extraterrestrials in another universe?There will be more from Marcus going online at various times throughout the day so be sure to check back later!
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There is currently voting for the 2009 Edublog Awards (the Eddies)— this makes 6 years of Edublog Awards!
One of the finalists in the best Librarian/Library category is the brilliant Bright Ideas Blog run by the School Library Association of Victoria.
They have promoted Teen Librarian in the past and even ran a feature on Library Myth Busters.
If you have not had a look at the Bright Ideas site I urge you to follow the link above now and then go onto vote for them in the awards – it is something they richly deserve!
Voting is open to everyone and you can cast your vote here: Best Librarian/Library Edublog 2009.
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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is the winner of this years Teenage Book Prize.
Congratulations Mr Gaiman!
Neil Gaiman, commonly known as the ‘rock star’ of the literary world, is revealed as the winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2009.
His book The Graveyard Book saw off competition from five other authors including Patrick Ness who was nominated for a second year. Ness won the prize last year with The Knife of Never Letting Go.
The Graveyard Book tells the story of Nobody ‘Bod’ Owens, a child abandoned in a graveyard after the vicious murder of his parents and sister by The Man Jack. Raised and educated by the ghosts that live there, Bod encounters terrible and unexpected menaces in the horror of the pit of the Sleer and the city of Ghouls. It is in the land of the living that the real danger lies as The Man Jack is determined to find Bod and finish him off.
Neil Gaiman is listed as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. He is the creator of the iconic DC comic series The Sandman, the only comic to ever make the New York Times Bestseller list.
His books have been adapted for a number of successful films, most recently the animated adventure Coraline. His screenplay Beowulf starred Angelina Jolie and Ray Winstone, and his book Stardust was adapted for a film starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.
In his acceptance speech, Neil paid credit to the authors that had inspired him:
‘Sometimes when we look big, and seem to see further, it’s because we are standing on the shoulders of giants. The field of children’s literature has seen many giants, and those of us who toil in the field make our contributions using what we’ve learned from those who came first.
‘I’m proud of The Graveyard Book. But I know I got to stand on the shoulders of giants in order to write it. There were two writers of children’s fiction who influenced The Graveyard Book. Foremost, obviously, Rudyard Kipling, and his short story collection The Jungle Book; less obviously Pamela “P.L” Travers, and her Mary Poppins stories. And everyone else: the writers I learned from as a young reader, and the writers I’ve learned from as a writer: a host of other craftsmen and women I learned, or borrowed, or stole from, to build The Graveyard Book. ‘
Neil was awarded a cheque for £2,500 and a trophy at a ceremony in London at lunchtime today (Wednesday 18 November).
Judi James, Chair of Judges commented:
“The six shortlisted books for the Booktrust Teenage Prize Award 2009, were chosen by the judges, for their exceptional quality of writing and storytelling, ranging from Helen Grant’s superb first novel, to the highly acclaimed Neil Gaiman whose novel, The Graveyard Book was unanimously chosen the winner. ‘Nobody Owens’, won the hearts of all the judges, young and old as did the delightfully sinister, generous, eccentric and heart-warming characters that inhabit the old graveyard. Gaiman’s writing is gentle, fluid and humorous, and fundamentally uplifting.”
This year’s shortlist was:
Auslander by Paul Dowswell (Bloomsbury)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (Bloomsbury)
Ostrich Boy by Keith Gray (Definitions)
The Ant Colony by Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins)
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant (Puffin)
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Walker)
The Booktrust Teenage Prize was launched in 2003 to recognise and celebrate the best contemporary writing for teenagers. Booktrust administers the prize with the support of writers, publishers, teachers, parents and libraries. Publishers may enter works of fiction, including novels, collections of short stories and graphic novels, and non-fiction. The Reading Agency is promoting the Booktrust Teenage Prize in libraries across the UK primarily through coordination with public and school library services.
Previous winners include Mark Haddon for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) and Anthony McGowan for Henry Tumour (2006).
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Take it away Lucy Bakewell from Hill West Primary School in Sutton Coldfield.
Am amazing article by the School Librarian of the Year 2009.