CONTENTS September 2010
2 Editorial ___________________________________
3 David Almond: A retrospective Clive Barnes assesses Almond’s contribution to children’s ___________________________________literature.
6 Ten of the Best Gothic Novels Geraldine Brennan chooses her ___________________________________top ten titles.
8 BfK Basics: Helping your child enjoy books and reading Liz Attenborough advises how to share books with babies.
A ___________________________________
10 Windows into Illustration Eric Hill on his now classic Where’s Spot?
12 Pullman’s Progress Nicholas Tucker discusses Philip
Pullman’s views on religion. ___________________________________
___________________________________
14 Authorgraph No.184 Nick Sharratt is interviewed by Joanna Carey.
16 Briefing News • Exhibitions • Awards _ • Obituary
__________________________________
17 Hal’s Reading Diary Roger Mills on Hal’s increasing motivation to read.
___________________________________
18 I Wish I’d Written… Chris Priestley chooses Philippa
Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden. ___________________________________
18 Good Reads Reviews from pupils of St Stithians Girls’ Preparatory
School, Randburg, South Africa. ___________________________________
19 REVIEWS Index of Titles and Star Ratings 19 Reviewers 19 Books about Children’s Books 20 Under 5s (Pre-School/Nursery/ Infant) 20 + New Talent 21
___________________________________
5–8 (Infant/Junior) 22 8–10 (Junior/Middle) 24 10–14 (Middle/Secondary) 26 + Editor’s Choice 27 14+ (Secondary/Adult) 30
32 Classics in Short No.83 Brian Alderson on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry _ Finn.__________________________________
COVER STORY This issue’s cover illustration is from Nick Sharratt’s One Fluffy Baa-Lamb, Ten Hairy Caterpillars. Nick Sharratt is interviewed by Joanna Carey on page 14. Thanks to Alison Green Books for their help with this September cover.
Books for Keeps
September 2010 No.184 ISSN 0143-909X © School Bookshop Association Ltd 2010
Editor: Rosemary Stones Managing Director: Richard Hill Publicity: Andrea Reece
Design: Alec Davis, Lydney, Gloucestershire
Editorial correspondence should be sent to Books for Keeps, 1 Effingham Road, London SE12 8NZ
2 Books for Keeps No.184 September 2010 ___________________________________
editorial
t the beginning of July this year Random House hosted the first Random House/ Books for Keeps Live Event, ‘Talking Pictures’, at which illustrators Chris Wormell, Sue Hendra, Nadia Shireen and Mini Grey
talked about their work.
Chatting before the event to Nadia Shireen whose debut picture book Good Little Wolf will be published by Jonathan Cape next year, I asked how she came to be published. Nadia explained that before Cape showed interest in her work she had been approached by another publisher who wanted her to illustrate a particular story. After agonizing about whether it was wise to turn down an opportunity to be published (would she ever get another!), she had refused the offer because she didn’t like the text. ‘But of course,’ murmured Chris Wormell, understanding completely. ‘You didn’t like the text…’
A good text is, after all, the heart of the matter for a picture book because it is its narrative structure – even if it is a book without words. Blessed with a good text (whether their own or one by another’s hand), the illustrator’s job is to serve it as well as possible by determining the nature of the illustrative demands needed and responding to their particular character. If the text is flawed, the illustrations are doomed for even
the finest artistic response cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, as Nadia Shireen was well aware when she turned down the text she didn’t like.
BfK has seen interesting changes in picture book illustration over the years. When I worked in publishing in the early ’90s I was keen to publish Sara Fanelli’s Wolf. At that time, however, this particular publishing house was not ready for illustration they saw as ‘too sophisticated’, not an essentially representational visual interpretation of a text. Fortunately Wolf found a more receptive home. However, like Fanelli, an increasing number of new and innovative artists were recognising the potential of the picture book as a vehicle for their illustration. Some of those early innovations misfired as their creators were not essentially interested in creating texts that communicated with children. But the boundaries of what had been considered suitable for children began to be pushed out and eventually resulted in the explosion of new picture book talent we have today.
Discriminatory attitudes to mental health
Last year the mental health campaign, Time to Change, published a report pointing out that many eminent historical figures who suffered from depression, amongst them Winston Churchill and Marie Curie, might never have succeeded in their respective fields if they had worked in 21st-century Britain with its discriminatory attitudes to mental health.
The taboos associated with this discrimination can make life particularly painful and difficult for children whose parents have mental health problems. Until Jacqueline Wilson’s pioneering The Illustrated Mum about a girl whose mother has bipolar disorder, such issues rarely featured in novels for children. Kate De Goldi’s The 10pm Question in which the hero’s mother has agoraphobia is another pioneering title. See this issue’s ‘Editor’s Choice’ in which it is featured.
Rosemary Stones, Editor
Books for Keeps is available online at
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enquiries@booksforkeeps.co.uk*
Tel: 020 8852 4953 Fax: 020 8318 7580 E-mail:
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