Malorie Blackman laments the lack of BAME children’s characters. I know – it’s a real battle to get writers of colour publishedMy daughter, like me, is of mixed heritage. She has wildly curly hair, as have I. When she was born four years ago I was given five copies of the same kids’ picture book by well-meaning friends and relatives. It was called Guess How Much I Love You. This book, whose lead characters are rabbits, was a bestseller in the 1990s. Back then it flew off the shelves. What I did not expect when I was pregnant with my daughter was that it would be far easier to find her a rabbit picture book than one featuring a child like her with brown skin and curls.This week Malorie Blackman, author of Noughts and Crosses, told Channel 4 News that of the many books she read as a child “not one of them featured a black child like me”, adding that “it made me feel invisible in the world of literature”. And when, in her mid-20s, she noticed in a children’s bookshop that little had changed, “that’s when I decided that I wanted to write for children ... for the child in me, really, for all the books I wish I could have read as a child”.If we feel disconnected from each other, perhaps it starts in this skewed, unrepresentative vision of the world that begins in our books when we are at knee height Related: Whatever happened to author Dorothy West? Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-17 07:00:41 UTC ]
Stacey Abrams will publish Stacey’s Extraordinary Words, a children’s picture book illustrated by Kitt Thomas, on December 28th with HarperCollins Children’s Books imprint Balzer + Bray. Though Abrams has published three bestselling books for adults under her own name, as well as eight romance... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-21 15:41:46 UTC ]
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Colin Kaepernick—the activist quarterback blackballed by the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem at the start of games in protest of police brutality and racial inequality—is releasing a children’s book inspired by a pivotal moment in his childhood. I Color Myself Different, the first... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-16 15:56:17 UTC ]
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Athlete-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick will publish 'I Color Myself Different,' a picture book inspired by his own experiences, in April. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-07-15 15:14:30 UTC ]
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Líra Könyv made to pay £600 for failing to clearly indicate the story featured ‘a family that is different than a normal family’A bookshop chain in Hungary has been fined for selling a children’s story depicting a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, with officials condemning the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-08 12:09:32 UTC ]
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Former Review Bookshop manager Katia Wengraf has raised more than £10,000 online to help fund her new independent store, Mount Florida Books, in a former tattoo parlour in Glasgow. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-20 21:34:09 UTC ]
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"She is literally my favourite person in the whole of children’s publishing.” Dapo Adeola is talking about Malorie Blackman, his co-creator on new picture book We’re Going to Find the Monster (published by Puffin in September). His editor Joe Marriott approached Adeola about the project in 2018,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-18 23:17:19 UTC ]
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Jason Reynolds has won the 2021 Carnegie Medal for 'Look Both Ways,' and Sydney Smith has won the 2021 Kate Greenaway Medal for his picture book 'Small in the City.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Jane Buckley, who won the inaugural Designer of the Year prize at the recent British Book Awards, discusses her recent promotion and the art of pairing writers and illustrators together. I speak to Jane Buckley just after what must have been a pretty good couple of days for her. On 13th May, at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-28 15:18:52 UTC ]
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Her debut picture book is a best seller, but the road to get there wasn’t always easy. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-05-27 09:00:04 UTC ]
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Air Miles has been illustrated by his wife Helen Oxenbury and finished by Bill Salaman, friend of the author who died in 2019The final picture book from the late, much-loved children’s author John Burningham – in which “difficult dog” Miles goes on one final journey – has been completed by his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-05-15 06:00:18 UTC ]
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For her debut picture book Flora Delargy, an author and illustrator from Northern Ireland, decided to tell the lesser-known part of the “Titanic” story, about the brave captain who turned around his ship, “Carpathia”, to rescue survivors from the freezing Atlantic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-14 12:27:27 UTC ]
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New figures from the Publishers Association show fiction and audiobooks did particularly well, with value of consumer sales up 7% on 2019 despite bookshop closuresFiction sales in 2020 soared by more than £100m for UK publishers, as readers locked down at home made their escape into books, with... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-26 23:01:49 UTC ]
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Puffin has picked up Welcome to the World, a “tender and lyrical picture book” from Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-20 03:03:23 UTC ]
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Foreign travel is still a distant dream when I speak to Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet on the anniversary of the first national lockdown, making the setting of their new picture book I Spy Island (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books) impossibly idyllic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-17 20:38:45 UTC ]
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An indie bookshop in Brigg, north Lincolnshire, was forced to close on Tuesday (13th April) after only a day's post-lockdown trading, following a break-in that left the shop unsafe for customers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-13 17:09:48 UTC ]
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Readers respond to a Guardian editorial on the power of picture books to fire adult imaginations as much as children’sWith reference to your editorial on the picture book (The Guardian view on the picture book: not just for children, 19 March), how have we managed, given the evolving economics... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-26 16:31:22 UTC ]
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Walker Books is to publish Sticky McStickstick, a new personal memoir picture book from Michael Rosen, illustrated by Tony Ross, exploring Rosen's personal experience of illness and recovery from Covid-19. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-12 15:54:55 UTC ]
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The UK arm of Bookshop.org, the online retailer that partners with indie bookstores, has a new initiative on the way: it’s launching a series of online events for its customers as well as customers of unaffiliated indies. For the first event on March 23rd, Bookshop is partnering with Faber to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-11 19:42:27 UTC ]
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The familiar Amazonian preview called 'Look Inside' gets a storefront cousin in Jellybooks' new 'Discovery,' using QR codes to offer samples. The post UK: Jellybooks Pilots Bookshop ‘Peek Inside’ Capacity at Blackwell’s appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-11 16:45:04 UTC ]
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"They are bright, simple, uncomplicated yarns featuring winsome animal outsiders who crave love and acceptance,” says author-illustrator Nadia Shireen, when describing her books to date. And her new picture book, Barbara Throws a Wobbler, certainly falls into those categories. The book breaks... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-09 13:27:57 UTC ]
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