Teachers, parents and poets alike know how children thirst for poetry. Now it's up to booksellers and publishers to save it from extinctionChildren dive into poetry with the same natural ease as swimmers into water, climbers into trees and sleepers into dreams. I've seen this alchemy at work on countless visits to schools, visits which have convinced me that poetry's narrative, rhythm and vibrant imagery is the real language of childhood. But poetry written for children is in danger of dying out, of sliding into fossilised irrelevance, cut off from modern verse. A classic such as Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses may be lovely, but it can't sustain the vital connection between children and poetry. Children also need poets who are still breathing.The delicate machine which brings poetry books into the hands of children is in desperate need of repair. I used to help choose the poems for the Children's Poetry Bookshelf, the Poetry Book Society's book club for ages seven to 11, and I watched with horror as the submissions from publishers gradually dried up. Starved of funding and support, the club had to stop taking on new members in 2011. As PBS director Chris Holifield said, it seemed that "children's poetry in book form was close to extinction, with just a small number of new titles being published and not much backlist being kept in print." Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 14/07/2011 - 09:00 Oxford Professor of Poetry Geoffrey Hill will compete against former winners David Harsent and Sean OBrien to win The Forward poetry prize for Best Collection on its 20th anniversary. Hill took the coveted Oxford poetry role... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 30/06/2011 - 09:30 CNN reports that Amazon and Barnes & Noble are remaining tight-lipped on the eve of new app rules being introduced by Apple. Today, 30th June, is the deadline for app makers to get in compliance with Apple's strict new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Neill Denny Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 08:18 We Love This Book, The Bookseller's sister consumer magazine and website, launches next week with a circulation of 100,000. The free quarterly magazine is designed to alert readers to exciting new books and to provide a platform... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 08:27 Pop singer turned TV star Peter Andre is joining the ranks of the champions of children's literacy by fronting the launch of a new London scheme. Andre joins London's mayor Boris Johnson at the Botwell Green library and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 08:50 Intellectual property agency 1454 has developed a new interactive children's adventure series that will be published exclusively on the Kindle worldwide. It is thought to be the first time a children's series has been produced... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 09:00 Intellectual property agency 1454 has developed a new interactive children's adventure series that will be published exclusively on the Kindle worldwide. It is thought to be the first time a children's series has been produced... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 08:14 An up-and-coming children's illustrator has warned that new British talent is being forced to go abroad in search of work as the UK picture book market becomes increasingly conservative. Frann Preston-Gannon, who was recently... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 15:44 Thanks in part to a "better than half price" deal at Waterstone's, John Grisham tops the Official UK Top 50 for the first time in five and a half years. The Confession (Arrow), the Arkansas-born legal thriller writer's 23rd... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 11:52 Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson has been named as the new Waterstone's children's laureate. The announcement was made at a ceremony today (7th June) at King's Place in central London. Donaldson was presented with the childrens laureate medal and a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 01/06/2011 - 09:06 The Southbank Centre has opened nominations for "the largest poetry festival ever staged in the UK", the Poetry Parnassus, which will form part of next year's Cultural Olympiad. The festival will see 205 poets, one from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 08:00 Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has organised a benefit for the Poetry Book Society, which faces an uncertain future following the withdrawal of all its Arts Council funding. The event, to be held at London's Institute of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More closures of Borders and Angus & Robertson book stores loom after the administrator told staff negotiations with creditors had ended. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-05-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams, Lisa Campbell and Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 27/05/2011 - 08:47 Waterstone's booksellers are relieved over the chain's acquisition by Alexander Mamut, with one saying: "The staff will be behind [new managing director James Daunt] 100%." Fears remained,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 27/05/2011 - 12:26 Children's publishers have welcomed the acquisition of Waterstone's by Russian businessman Alexander Mamut. Francesca Dow, m.d. of Penguin Children's Books, said: "The Waterstone's takeover is good news for children's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 08:45 Edmund de Waal, Maggie OFarrell and Tony Parsons are among the authors lined up to take part in Independent Booksellers Week. The week of events, in association with the Booksellers Association, will take place between... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 12:19 Readers are being called to cast their vote for the Independent Booksellers Book Prize winner, after the shortlist was announced today. The annual award, which recognises works of fiction for adults and children, asks members... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Tue, 17/05/2011 - 08:18 French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand yesterday (16th May) called for publishers to increase booksellers' pay for their qualitiative work and for new measures to help shore up the sector, the French trade weekly... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 17/05/2011 - 09:00 Quercus has been crowned 2011's best publisher at The Bookseller Industry Awards, as Sainsbury's scooped the Bookseller of the Year award. Quercus was presented with the Bonnier Publisher of the Year Award at the black-tie... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 16/05/2011 - 15:30 Booksellers need to be treated as a crucial partner in the process of promoting books through the media or risk looking "irrelevant", the Book Industry Conference (BIC) has been told. Waterstone's bookseller Cathy Rentzenbrink... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 16/05/2011 - 22:30 Quercus has been crowned 2011's best publisher at The Bookseller Industry Awards, as Sainsbury's scooped the Bookseller of the Year award. Quercus was presented with the Bonnier Publisher of the Year Award at the black-tie... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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