Roald Dahl is the last thing we should worry about on World Book Day | Frank Cottrell-Boyce

More important than culture-war noise are the multiple threats to British children learning to love books of any kindBack in the days when everything took place on Zooms and Teams, I was part of a World Book Day event that was livestreamed from the set of the hit musical Matlida. The set is magical: a child’s swing with an explosion of books fire-working up behind it. Now, of course, Matilda has become a battlefield in the Roald Dahl chapter of our culture wars.It is worth noting that World Book Day has always been a battlefield. Every year teachers, carers and librarians defend the joy of reading from the forces of darkness. Almost as soon as someone suggested dressing up might be fun, predator supermarkets caught the scent of anxiety on the hurrying bodies of young parents and pounced, selling them bundles of single-use Where’s Wally costumes. But schools pushed back and now instead of parades of children dressed in expensive landfill, you’ll find schools where the pupils come dressed in their pyjamas and cosy up to listen to stories, making the day into one long dreamy sleepover. I’ve been to schools where, instead of parents or carers dressing up children, children are invited to dress wooden spoons, or their classroom door. Another where the teachers sat in their classrooms reading their favourite stories and the kids could chose which one to go and listen to. There are whole school book swaps. And “home and away” reading, where children from one class go and read to... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-02 11:42:37 UTC ]
News tagged with: #roald dahl #love books #culture wars #worth noting #world book

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London Book Fair 2011: An Evolutionary Phase

This year's London Book Fair is taking place at a time of unique change. The shift from the printed word to the downloaded text is accelerating; chains and standalone bookstores are closing down around the world; and the very future of the book "entity" is being challenged by commentators and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Book Fair 2011: Social Networking for Bookworms

Until recently, reading a book had resisted technological advances, but like everything else, this has started to evolve and now we are embracing technology. Books are now more easily available in electronic format and sharing your opinion about a title – print or ebook – is more popular. So... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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LBF Day 1: rights round-up

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 16:10 A flurry of rights deals have been announced at this year's London Book Fair, with a Condoleeza Rice memoir and four Paullina Simons novels in the works. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Bookseller Group to launch We Love This Book

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 09:06 The publisher behind The Bookseller is launching an ambitious new quarterly consumer book magazine and website this June, We Love This Book. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Book Fair 2011: On Representing Yeltsin

It doesn't seem so long ago that we used to gawp at the occasional postage stamps that would appear on a letter from the USSR: oversized, bright images extolling the successes of Communist endeavour. Soviet books in contrast were distinctly drab affairs whose covers would have appealed to few in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Book Fair 2011: Keeping An Open Mind

In 2001, 81% of publishers were already preparing for the coming ebook (BML research March 2001). Indeed they thought it would come quickly, with half predicting ebooks would deliver more than 10% of total book income by 2006. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New awards on Sports Book shortlists

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 11:35 New awards for Best Racing Book and Best Sports Book Retailer will be up for grabs at this year's British Sports Book Awards 2011. W H Smith, Amazon, Waterstone's and Foyles are all in the mix to win the best sports retailer... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weak start to 2011 for UK and US book trade

Written By: Benedicte Page and Philip Stone Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 09:40 Book sales have slumped on both sides of the Atlantic as the British and American markets experienced year-on-year declines in the first quarter of 2011. Book sales in the UK were down 3.1% to £324m, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Book Fair 2011: Going Global

In 2009, the number of self-published books released in the US exceeded the number of new titles from conventional publishers for the first time in history. Now, a similar pattern is emerging overseas. Until recently, costly transatlantic shipping, different trim sizes and business models, and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Trade looks to "packed" London Book Fair

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Daily Will Release Subscriber Numbers Some Day That's Not Today [MediaMemo]

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[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London Book Fair: ones to watch, part II

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 07/04/2011 - 16:04 read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Cache: Playing Catch-Up in E-Books

Outside the United States, the digital book business is still in its infancy and has problems to resolve before taking off. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Room top pick in spring TV Book Club

Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Mon, 04/04/2011 - 08:51 Emma Donoghue's Room (Picador) has added another accolade to its Man Booker shortlisting and Orange-longlisting after receiving the vote of "TV Book Club" viewers as their favourite spring read of the 10 titles. The second most... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cooking the Books with Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Arts Council defends Poetry Book Society cuts

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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