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 ]
At once subversive and searching, the debut novel focuses on two sisters on the run whose roots lie in an unnamed country “from beyond the ocean.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-06 20:54:23 UTC ]
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Chelsea Bieker's 'Godshot,' a surreal debut novel set in the parched Central Valley, depicts a fundamentalist rain cult and sex worker resisters. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-04-06 14:30:59 UTC ]
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There are no shortage of celebrities who’ve been using social media to read to children and fundraise for some of the kids most affected by the impact of COVID-19. Another luminous star (and her daughter) are next in line: Mary Poppins herself, Dame Julie Andrews, plans to launch a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-02 21:15:26 UTC ]
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The American Booksellers Association announced that it will postpone Children’s Institute, its annual conference of children’s book publishers, authors, and retailers, until 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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For what seems like since time immemorial, Penguin Random House Children's has been by far the biggest beast in British kids' publishing. That might have changed this morning with HarperCollins' announcement that it will acquire Egmont UK, plus Egmont’s Polish and German children’s book... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-02 02:11:04 UTC ]
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Kawai Strong Washburn’s debut novel envisions an archipelago of Indigenous peoples who refuse to be erased. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-03-31 12:43:39 UTC ]
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The debut novel intersperses the story of a tech reporter in Silicon Valley with Facebook posts, tweets, Google results and other fragments. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Body positivity campaigner and influencer Megan Crabbe and the inaugural Children’s Laureate Wales, Eloise Williams, are among the judges for the 2020 YA Book Prize, which reveals its shortlist later today (Thursday 26th March). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-25 18:44:12 UTC ]
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In Megan Giddings’s debut novel Lakewood, desperation leads to a loss of self in a capitalist medical system bent on taking advantage of Black people and their bodies. After the death of her grandmother, Lena, a college student struggling with overwhelming medical debt and taking care of her... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-03-24 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Head of Zeus is to publish the debut novel of Nicole Kennedy, a former city lawyer. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-23 14:35:00 UTC ]
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As schools close, parents are turning to children’s book writers and illustrators on social media to help with teaching kids stuck inside. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2020-03-23 13:30:37 UTC ]
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Parents keen to encourage children into good hygiene practices during the coronavirus outbreak turn to Tony Ross’s anarchic creation for helpParents desperate to persuade their children to keep washing their hands have been turning to Tony Ross’s anarchic creation the Little Princess for help,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-03-23 12:31:25 UTC ]
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Waterstones Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell has launched a digital hub with reading charity BookTrust to keep youngsters busy while schools are closed. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-22 17:38:05 UTC ]
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“My Dark Vanessa” will strike a chord with women. But it ought to be read by men Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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MARA FAYE LETHEM is one of the translators of Albert Sánchez Piñol, a Catalan writer whose debut novel Cold Skin, a sparse psychological thriller, caused a sensation in Spain. Lethem also translated Piñol’s second novel, Pandora in the Congo, a fabulist tale that is by turns laugh-out-loud funny... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-03-19 19:00:32 UTC ]
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“My Dark Vanessa” will strike a chord with women. But it ought to be read by men Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-03-19 15:48:46 UTC ]
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TFW you didn't love the debut novel and are completely taken by surprise when you fall head over heels for that same author's second book. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-03-19 10:35:57 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury Publishing has won Imogen Crimp’s debut novel, The High Notes, in a four-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-17 18:04:44 UTC ]
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Hilary Leichter’s destabilizing debut novel imagines a productivity-centric dystopia, not far off. Continue reading at Guernica
[ Guernica | 2020-03-13 14:00:59 UTC ]
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The Polari Prize will celebrate a decade of championing fresh literary talent this year with a UK tour for its literary salon as submissions open for its flagship First Book Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-12 11:36:23 UTC ]
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