The author was repeatedly told that no one wanted to read fun books with disabled heroes. Now she has won the £5,000 Waterstones children’s book prize for her debut, A Kind of SparkWhen Scottish author Elle McNicoll was first trying to enter the publishing world, she was repeatedly told that people didn’t want to read about an autistic heroine. “In job interviews, I was saying that I wanted to see more books with disabled characters in them that were not traumatic, boring or educational, but fun and full of life. A lot of the reactions were, ‘Waterstones don’t like books like that’,” she says.Now McNicoll’s debut novel A Kind of Spark has won the Waterstones children’s book prize. Published by tiny independent Knights Of, it follows Addie, an 11-year-old autistic girl, as she campaigns for a memorial to the witch trials that took place in her Scottish village. The novel has been praised by Waterstones’ booksellers as “eye opening, heart-wrenching, sad [and] inspiring”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-01 05:01:05 UTC ]
Exciting adaptation news: A24 and Rhombus Media have optioned the rights to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, Nguyen’s Pulitzer-winning debut novel about a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who serves as a communist double agent after the fall of Saigon. The novel is being developed... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-07 14:34:36 UTC ]
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Last year, when New York City was the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in America, Bradley Tusk and Howard Wolfson decided to create a new annual award, the Gotham Book Prize, as part of an effort to “honor New York City and support the novelists who best captured the spirit of our city,” as... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-06 13:00:34 UTC ]
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William Morrow preempts a debut novel by Liz Stein, Michelle Tea sells a memoir about the reproductive industrial complex to Dey Street, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Bologna Children's Book Fair issues announcements to the news media about what organizers hope can be a physical event on June 14 to 17. The post Bologna Children’s Book Fair: Early Announcements of 2021 Features appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-29 15:58:30 UTC ]
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Her funny stories about Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, the sisters Ramona and Beezus Quimby, and a motorcycling mouse named Ralph never talked down to readers. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-27 22:33:26 UTC ]
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"Of Women and Salt," tracking generations of Latinas, comes out of Gabriela Garcia's family story, life experience and advocacy for migrants. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-03-23 19:20:30 UTC ]
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"I had a physical reaction. It literally made the hairs on my arm stand up.” Phil Earle is talking about the moment he heard the true story which inspired his new children’s book When the Sky Falls. The story was “gifted” to him by a family member, whose father was part of the Manchester home... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-19 20:44:59 UTC ]
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One evening in early March of last year, Alexis C. Madrigal and Robinson Meyer, colleagues at The Atlantic, set out to answer a simple question: how many people had been tested for the coronavirus in the US so far? The answer, it turned out, was actually quite complicated: in the absence of data... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-03-17 12:29:53 UTC ]
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Writer Jeannine Mjoseth was looking for adventure when she turned to professional wrestling. She got plenty of that. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador has landed a story collection and debut novel from Niamh Mulvey, writer of publishing newsletter “In the Read” and a former Quercus commissioning editor. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-04 22:15:18 UTC ]
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The debut novel of Vintage editor Lily Lindon has gone to Head of Zeus in a four-way auction, as part of a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-04 09:59:43 UTC ]
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Megan Nolan's "Acts of Desperation," about a woman in thrall to an older man, stands out from similar tales with an uncannily self-aware narrator. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-03-03 15:00:19 UTC ]
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Alexandra Andrews’s debut novel follows a Machiavellian aspiring writer who becomes entangled in her work for a best-selling fiction writer. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-03 11:00:00 UTC ]
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When we started sheltering in place at the beginning of the pandemic, in a burst of energy and optimism I haven’t experienced since, I started a social distance book club. I selected Lara Williams’s debut novel Supper Club, which I’d recently read, because I thought a book that centered on women... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-02 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Perhaps it’s not surprising that even the prose in illustrator Forsyth Harmon’s debut novel Justine is deeply imagistic. Reading this short, powerful story feels like wandering through a museum exhibit about teenage girlhood on Long Island in the summer of 1999. Narrator Ali and her friends feed... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-02 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“Burnt Sugar,” a debut novel by Avni Doshi, depicts a particularly intense mother-daughter relationship — from the tormented daughter’s point of view. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-02 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Hodder Studios has pre-empted two books from Sarah Bonner, including her debut novel Her Perfect Twin, described as an "original, compelling and propulsive" thriller. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-01 10:16:58 UTC ]
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Virago has acquired the debut novel by Sharma Taylor, What a Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You, at auction as part of a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-01 03:02:12 UTC ]
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Sceptre has landed a "stunning" short story collection and debut novel by Serpent's Tail assistant editor Leon Craig. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-28 15:58:25 UTC ]
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Lauren Oyler’s debut novel brings the reader down a rabbit hole of endless, mindless scrolling, online identities, and conspiracy theories. Fake Accounts follows the journey of a young woman after she discovers that her boyfriend is running an Instagram account spouting dangerous conspiracies... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-02-26 12:00:00 UTC ]
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