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 ]
We've got books for the Read Harder task asking you to read a children’s book that centers a disabled character but not their disability. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-01-13 11:32:00 UTC ]
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Holliday Grainger has been confirmed as the narrator of Girl A (HarperCollins), the hotly tipped debut novel by Abigail Dean. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-13 06:22:44 UTC ]
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Scholastic UK has acquired Escape the Rooms, the "dazzling" children’s book debut from actor Stephen Mangan, illustrated by his sister Anita Mangan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-13 03:30:19 UTC ]
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Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has penned her debut novel, a fictional account of her great-great aunt's life, to be published by Mills & Boon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-12 22:12:59 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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It’s no secret that the tech world has a troubling track record with diversity in the workplace, especially with the dearth of Black and Latinx employees in key roles. Author Mateo Askaripour confronts the lack of diversity within the workplace with satire in his debut novel Black Buck. Some... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Titan Books has swooped for Suburban Dicks, the "knock-out" debut novel by Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-06 00:00:41 UTC ]
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LESLIE BRODY’S new biography, Sometimes You Have to Lie, describes the life of Louise Fitzhugh, author of the classic children’s book Harriet the Spy. Originally published in 1964 by Harper and Row, Harriet has never been out of print and has inspired multiple adaptations and spin-offs,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-02 13:30:00 UTC ]
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Translating novels, short stories, and poetry into English in a way that remains true to their original form can take years, even decades of dedication. And then there is the job of persuading the Anglophone publishing world to take chances. Translators’ labor is ultimately rewarding for readers... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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"The Prophets," by Robert Jones Jr., depicts an intense bond between Isaiah and Samuel on a plantation in unbearable and untenable circumstances. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-12-29 15:00:38 UTC ]
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The Thursday Murder Club sees off titles by Barack Obama and David Walliams in chaotic week for Britain’s book tradeRichard Osman’s cosy mystery about a group of elderly sleuths, The Thursday Murder Club, has become the first debut novel ever to become the Christmas No 1, selling a remarkable... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-22 15:00:18 UTC ]
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Feature image from Akiko Miyakoshi’s I Dream a Journey * I knew things were going to get hard when the library closed. I am, by profession, a writer and a professor of storytelling. I’ve read to my twin children—now four—since their infancy. But as avid readers as we already were, 2020 upped our... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-21 09:49:02 UTC ]
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Children’s author Zanib Mian, Waterstones children’s category specialist Georgina Mitchell, literary agent Hellie Ogden and Hachette Children’s Group’s senior commissioning editor Tig Wallace are to judge the Hachette Children’s Novel Award in 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-18 18:51:25 UTC ]
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Puffin has scooped The Ice Whisperers, a "haunting and magical" debut novel from Helenka Stachera, in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-17 14:35:34 UTC ]
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PW looks back at the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year—and what they portend for 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has won a 10-publisher auction for Fire Rush, the “phenomenal” debut novel by Jacqueline Crooks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-09 10:11:08 UTC ]
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Illustrator Axel Scheffler is among the first in a selection of judges to be announced for Oscar's Book Prize 2021, seeking to find the best illustrated UK pre-school book of the year, with more to be revealed in the new year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-08 10:44:32 UTC ]
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What do Brit Bennett, Megan Thee Stallion, and Sascha Baron Cohen all have in common? They’ve all joined The Weeknd in being named Entertainment Weekly’s 2020 Entertainers of the Year. Though I’ve loved Bennett since her 2017 debut novel The Mothers, this well-deserved recognition comes on the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-03 16:03:02 UTC ]
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It is a truth universally acknowledged . . . that Northanger Abbey is less quotable than Pride and Prejudice. Nevertheless, Northanger Abbey is the latest of Austen’s six novels to be adapted into an illustrated children’s book for the Awesomely Austen: Illustrated and Retold series. The text of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-01 17:54:13 UTC ]
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In Fariha Róisín’s debut novel Like a Bird, protagonist Taylia Chatterjee lives a privileged life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her sister Alyssa. Alyssa often receives preferential treatment from their liberal, overbearing parents—a white Jewish mom, a Hindu Bengali dad. Taylia is... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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