The Man in the Moon by William Joyce looks to be one of the most exciting children's books I have seen in a while. It has yet to be released in Canada (and I presume America) so it might take a while to get over here but as soon as it does I will definitely be snapping it up! Publishers Simon & Schuster released a few sneaky excerpts on their Facebook feed today and I was completely mesmerised by the illustrations. Have a flick through here and see what you think. It looks pretty pricey but I'm sure it will, for many children, be a book that is treasured for many years.

Another book that has grabbed my attention is FArTHER by Grahame Baker-Smith, published by Templar. The artwork is just magical as Grahame marries photographic collages and illustration. I'm hoping to get his book later this week so I will let you all know what I think of the storyline as soon as I can! For now though have a look at some of these gorgeous pictures from the very talented
Mr Grahame Baker-Smith  .

Yesterday I ventured into a brilliant independent bookshop in Wimbledon called Copperfield's Second Hand Bookshop. I won't bore you with all the details as I was in there for ages and looked slightly suspicious as I cruised around the shelves gawping at the vast range of books stacked so neatly in such an efficient way. The important thing is that I found a very small and very modest looking book called Soldier Fritz and the Enemies He Fought. The cover is a gorgeous green with gold embossing and it was one of those times when a small book booms out at you and you just can't ignore it.


As some of you may already know I have a soft spot for old children's books and an even softer spot for books with inscriptions. This little book ticked both boxes as its pages were not only full of lively stories of victory and triumph but it also had this inscription...


'Presented to Arthur Stroud as a reward for constant attendance during the year 1880 - Holy Trinity Sunday School, Richmond'.

And that was me hooked.

Soldier Fritz and his enemies are now on my bookshelf, but not being content with knowing I had a piece of history on my shelves, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know who Arthur Stroud was and how old he was when he was awarded this prize? Of course I will never know if he was chuffed to receive it or if his mother dragged him to the church every Sunday but thanks to the National Archives I have been able to dig a little bit deeper and I now have a sketchy outline of who this young boy was.


Arthur Stroud lived with his Mum and Dad, George and Martina, and had two brothers, George (older) and Albert (younger). He was born around 1867, making him 13 when he was given Soldier Fritz. Now isn't that something? To think that his grandparents would have been born around the early 1800's makes history seem shorter, as though we are not as far from the late 1700's as I once thought. Quite a productive trip into town.

So I would like to say congratulations Arthur! Whether or not you were dragged to church, you looked after your books and I hope you enjoyed the story. 131 years later and I'm wondering what happened to that thirteen year old boy who grew up in Richmond?

Last Saturday I took a rather early train from London Paddington to the sunny if a tad windy city of Oxford for the Sunday Times Literary Festival. OK, so admittedly the Children's Laureate Launch was aimed at children and their dedicated parents but I figured I could subtly hand my ticket in and join the mass of Jacqueline Wilson, Anne Fine, Michael Rosen and Anthony Browne fans. To an extent I was right, once I was in, I climbed the stairs in the Sheldonian Theatre to sit above the guest panel in the upper circle. The awkwardness came at the start of the day when I had to queue with around 200 children clasping Tracey Beakers and Flower Babies ready to be let in. It wasn't even the sort of event where you could sidle up to a family and pretend to be part of their clan. As soon as I so much as took a step towards the next family in line, I either got a sympathetic smile or a protective arm around a younger child. I'm not sure why that happened, I don't think I look particularly threatening and at just over 5"1 I'm hardly likely to hoist a 9 year old over my shoulder and take a high jump over the 15 foot gates. Anyway after the rather embarrassing queue I was finally in and seated and starting to wish I had got a drink before I arrived. I figured that the organised talk by four of the most talented laureates would be a real insight into the workings of a children's writer and I think I was just curious to see what made them tick. Each of them were greeted with a huge round of applause and faced their eager audience with warm smiles. So folks, here is a quick round-up of what each of the four guest speakers said:


Writer of Madame Doubtfire, Flower Babies, The Jamie and Angus Stories and many, many others, Anne Fine spent her time as laureate campaigning against the age ranges set on books, claiming that the ability to read does not necessarily have a correlation to a child's age. She talked of how, like many of the other guest panellists, she was a child of Enid Blyton and learnt to read at an early age, exceeding the expectations of her primary school teachers. She raised the issue of difficult literature and suggested that if a book is hard to read, it is often the book that you will get the most out of. Apparently easy reading is not somewhere to be beached up. One thing I did find very promising from her talk was that she has found that her writing has not got better with time, she has just got better at spotting problems that are about to pounce on her - reckoning that people's best work is often the raw materials they produce early on in their career...now that does sound good!




What a trooper! Poor Jacqueline Wilson had the most horrendous cold and had to stop numerous times to sip water in a vain attempt to stop her sudden bouts of coughing. Jacqueliune really held the children's attention as most of them had come to see their heroine in the flesh. She talked of her love for family stories and how as she grew up in a reasonably small family she enjoyed reading about characters with many siblings. Little Women, What Katy Did Next and Ballet Shoes were among her faves and they all came with high recommendations for the  parents in the audience who were clearly scribbling down reading lists for their children. As laureate, Jacqueline backed a campaign to bring families together to read out loud to each other, something that I really benefited from as a child - I can't really imagine a house where this doesn't happen. I think it's so important to encourage children's imaginations and who can do the voice of the BFG better than your dad??




Michael Rosen was introduced as a performer and he really gave a stonking  
performance.Writer of We're Going on a Bear Hunt and You're Thinking About Doughnuts, he had everyone in stitches as he told us of his brother teaching him to read parrot fashion and how he would rather not meet the Queen thank you very much. He also explained in detail how he felt about the government and how he is baffled by their love of worksheets. One thing that stuck in my head from Michael's speech was this little nugget of information that seems so obvious that I'd never really thought about it. Having a house full of books is like having two university graduates live in the house. The amount of information available to the child sky rockets and their imagination and willingness to learn is mind boggling increased. But apparently this piece of gold from the University of Nevada wasn't 'worksheet friendly' enough for the government so Michael's laureate campaign was put on the back-burner.




Illustrator and author Anthony Browne brought Willy the Wimp to life in fantastic drawings. Growing up reading comic books such as The Dandy and Beano, Anthony was fascinated by the power of pictures and the space between words and pictures. His campaign promotes the importance of picture books and the importance of allowing children to explore impossible worlds through picture books. Being pushed forward onto more grown-up books where their imaginations are left stranded as they fail to conjure up ice-cream streets and lollipop trees never sounds like a good idea to me.


So that's pretty much a summary of what was said, after the speeches there was a chance for questions, most of which were along the lines of 'Jacqueline Wilson what inspired you to write [enter title here] ?' And after the questions were answered and parents proudly smiled at their child's question it was time for the floor to move and the crowd surged forwards upon the four great Laureates for book signing. It was at this point that I sidled to the door and out into the lovely sunshine, hopping onto an open-top bus tour around Oxford.

Anyway, here is a Friday list of my favourite children's authors and illustrators, they are in no particular order and they usually change between January and April. For this occurence, I can give no reason, only that the lighter mornings make me extremely happy and seem to cause me to want to read books about splashing through puddles wearing green wellies. Obviously not all of these books were published when I was a wee-nipper but seeing as I'm not all that much taller than I was then, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't still read them.

Cassia Thomas

Korky Paul

Barbara Firth

Jason Cockcroft

If you haven't already read these wonderful books to your children,cousins, brothers, sisters or neighbours, then you really should. And what better way than to head down to your nearest library and borrow them? Afterall, every bit helps and we do need our libraries to stay open!

On Tuesday night I went to Random House to attend an evening hosted by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and to listen to a talk by the wonderful Candy Gourlay. Already she has been shortlisted for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize, the Blue Peter Favourite Story Prize, the Leeds Children's Book Prize, and nominated for the Carnegie Medal among others! It was a great evening and when I asked her whether she ever got writer's block she replied ' I don't think writer's block is possible, if I ever get stuck for ideas it usually means I don't have enough information, so I just do more research until the writing starts to flow again.' Wow, what a nugget of gold! it makes so much sense, and it's definitely how I'm going to tackle the odd absence of creativity!


Her first novel is about a little girl who moves to Britain and leaves her brother in the Philippines. After not seeing him for 10 years she has an image of this big brother that is really cool and groovy. But when he comes to visit her in England, she finds that he isn't just tall- he's a GIANT! And he's not that cool, in fact he's a bit lanky and geeky. The book focuses on the dangers of making assumptions from first impressions and tracks the relationship of the little girl and her big, big brother.


Oh and before I forget, she also explained the difference between adult fiction and children's fiction. Are you ready to be in awed by a slice of genius?
'Adult's books always look back, they always reflect on a feeling from the past, a memory or a spark of nostalgia. Children's books always look forward, because they have no emotional point of reference, they are a completely blank canvas'. It makes a lot of sense, and although she called it a 'crazy' theory I reckon it's the most logical one I've heard so far.


I topped off the evening with a glass of wine and a quick chat to Candy as she signed my book.