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 ]
My sister always goes to the same bookshop in Oxfordshire, where she lives. There she seeks out a young bookseller with a shock of black hair from within the stacks. He once recommended her a list of books, and she loved every single one; she’s been returning to him ever since. During lockdown,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-08 09:49:32 UTC ]
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Antony Shugaar's tranlsation of 1962 Italian picture book 'Telephone Tales' by Gianni Rodari and Valerio Vidali wins ALA's 2021 Batchelder Award. The post Italy’s ‘Telephone Tales’ Wins the 2021 Batchelder Translation Award appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-01-27 20:49:31 UTC ]
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In “Nicky & Vera,” Peter Sís tells the story of Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 children from Czechoslovakia as World War II loomed. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-27 06:39:32 UTC ]
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Malorie Blackman, author of the bestselling Noughts & Crosses series, and Dapo Adeola, illustrator of the Waterstones Book Prize winning picture book Look Up!, are collaborating on a picture book: We’re Going to Find the Monster. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-25 23:42:24 UTC ]
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Children's indie Nosy Crow is mounting an open call for submissions from writers of colour to broaden its picture books list. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-21 11:03:39 UTC ]
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Flipped eye publishing is marking its 20th anniversary this year with a digital bookshop tour, a nationwide hunt for a young editor and a 2021 list including work from Warsan Shire and José Eduardo Agualusa. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-19 07:31:59 UTC ]
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Some pleasant news! In honor of “Peace Train”s 50th anniversary, Yusuf/Cat Stevens has announced that the illustrated children’s book Peace Train, using the lyrics of the famous song, will be published May 11th via HarperCollins. It will be followed by a picture book adaptation of Stevens’ song... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-13 17:36:37 UTC ]
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Bookshop and Libro.fm, which help independent booksellers sell online, reported huge gains in 2020. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-01-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland has grown for the fourth consecutive year, the Booksellers Association has confirmed. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-08 03:46:57 UTC ]
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"It's really special that, with a book about female friendship, we have genuinely become friends through doing it,” says Lauren Ace. She is talking about illustrator Jenny Løvlie, and the pair’s début picture book The Girls, which was published in 2018 and went on to win Illustrated Book of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-08 01:57:49 UTC ]
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Aged 15 I got a Christmas job at my local bookshop in Battersea so I could save to go interrailing. My parents’ bookshelves were brimming with mostly Black writers: Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Chester Himes, Terry McMillan, and I was surrounded by ‘consciousness’... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-30 21:25:59 UTC ]
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Hachette Children’s Group is partnering with Commonword, the largest writing development organisation based in Manchester, in a bid to find more northern Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers currently under-represented in publishing, particularly in picture book writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-28 15:57:06 UTC ]
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A new Julia Donaldson picture book, The Christmas Pine, will be published by Alison Green Books in autumn 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-18 03:31:45 UTC ]
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She published her first book in her 40s and became the biggest selling author of the past decade in any genre – The Gruffalo alone has sold 13m copies. How did this former busker make it so big?The room where the children’s author Julia Donaldson writes – the heart of her vast picture book... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-17 06:00:31 UTC ]
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A committee made up of booksellers and non-managerial staff at Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif., has sent a letter to store owner Casey Coonerty Protti asking her to voluntarily recognize their joining with the Communication Workers of America Local 9423. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster Children’s Books has snapped up two new picture books from author-illustrator Benji Davies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-08 21:12:01 UTC ]
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A three-book series with illustrator Ashley Evans opens with a picture book based on the Alphabet Rockers' song 'Not Alone.' The post Sourcebooks in a Picture Book Deal With Socially Conscious Alphabet Rockers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-12-03 21:01:10 UTC ]
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Nigel Jones, formerly of Ottakar's and the Totnes Bookshop, and his wife Claire Jones, a former W H Smith children's buyer, are to open their own independent bookshop in Totnes, two weeks before Christmas. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-30 12:29:44 UTC ]
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Hachette Children’s Group has acquired two non-fiction picture books and two picture books by debut author and illustrator Ellan Rankin, winner of the 2020 Carmelite Picture Book Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-23 20:16:52 UTC ]
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