Paul Tubb competition

Poet, Paul H Tubb, is offering one school the opportunity to win a signed copy of his new collection of poetry, ‘Please Do Not Encourage This Nonsense by Purchasing This Book’, and a free visit from Paul to their school to perform his poems & songs and to discuss life as a poet with the Children.

The Competition is open to all schools in Dublin that meet the criteria set out in the rules below. To Enter the Competition simply answer the following question, and also in no more that 30 words, explain why your school will benefit from a visit from Paul.

The Question is: Who wrote ‘Revolting Rhymes’?

Was it: a) Roger McGough b) Hilaire Belloc c) Roald Dahl e) Dr Seuss f) Michael Rosen

E-mail your answer and explanation to PDNETNBPTB@Hotmail.com,; no later than midnight, Friday, 29th May 2009. The result will be announced on Wednesday 3rd June 2009. Your Prize: Paul will Visit your school during the week of the 8th of June 2009. Rules: Competition is only open to schools in County Dublin Competition only open to schools which contain Children aged 7 to 10. Answers to be submitted to Paul ONLY by Teachers, Administration staff, Librarians or Parents. Students please ask your Parent, Librarian, Teacher or other school Staff to help. All entries to be received no later than midnight, Friday 29th May 2009.

Bog Child wins Bisto Book of the Year Award

The story of Fergus’ journey of self-discovery as he struggles to make sense of his personal, familial, and societal situation, as well as the voice of a bog child that comes to him in his dreams. To journey through this layered narrative is to be confronted with not only the frailty of life but also the redemptive qualities of love: unsettling yet optimistic, this is radiant prose that sings of the pain and beauty of the human condition.

Four other awards were also presented

•    Eilís Dillon Award  Mary Finn – Anila’s Journey

•    Bisto Honour Award for Writing  Kate Thompson – Creature of the Night

•    Bisto Honour Award for Illustration  Oliver Jeffers – The Great Paper Caper

•    Judges Special Recognition Award Kate Thompson for Highway Robbery

Also shortlisted for this year’s awards were Eoin Colfer for Airman, Ré O’Laighléis for An Phleist Mhór, Áine Ní Ghlinn for Brionglóidí, Roddy Doyle for Her Mother’s Face and PJ Lynch for The Gift of the Magi.

RTE Radio One – arts show tonight

Quick news flash – David Almond and Shaun Tan will be on the Arts Show on RTE Radio 1 tonight after 8pm

Linkage

Scamp .ie on Shaun Tan

The Guardian on The Children’s Laureate

Mercier Press’s search for an illustrator

Illustrators Pj Lynch, Oliver Jeffers and Dave McKean in Dublin in November

Google Book settlement deadline extended

Spike Jonze blogs about Where the Wild Things Are

Teenagers tackle the Orange Prize

The reason for all this lazy linkage and the lack of a proper post

The Andersen Award nominations are out

I’m alway intrigued by the Andersen Awards, partly as they are made for a body of work, not just one title and partly because they offer such an international snapshot of authors and illustrators. It is fun to scan the list of nominees for familiar names and also to let unfamiliar names lead you off in new directions. Ireland’s very deserving nominees are Pj Lynch and Eoin Colfer. I’m also really please to see David Almond and Eric Carle there as well. More about the awards and Irish nominees on www.ibbyireland.ie

The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are presented every two years by IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important and lasting contribution to children’s literature.

IBBY National Sections from 33 countries have made their selections, submitting the following 29 authors and 27 illustrators as candidates for the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards:

Argentina: Author: Liliana Bodoc; Illustrator: Luis Scafati

Austria: Author: Heinz Janisch; Illustrator: Linda Wolfsgruber

Belgium: Author: Pierre Coran; Illustrator: Carll Cneut

Brazil: Author: Bartolomeu Campos de Queirós; Illustrator: Roger Mello

Canada: Author: Brian Doyle; Illustrator: Marie-Louise Gay

China: Author: Liu Xianping Croatia: Illustrator: Svjetlan Junakóvic

Cyprus: Author: Maria Pyliotou

Czech Republic: Author: Pavel Srut; Illustrator: Jirí Salamoun

Denmark: Author: Louis Jensen; Illustrator: Lilian Brøgger

Finland: Author: Hannu Mäkelä; Illustrator: Salla Savolainen

France: Author: Jean-Claude Mourlevat; Illustrator: Grégoire Solotareff

Germany: Author: Peter Härtling; Illustrator: Jutta Bauer

Greece: Author: Loty Petrovits-Andrutsopulou; Illustrator: Diatsenta Parissi

Iran: Author: Ahmad Reza Ahmadi

Ireland: Author: Eoin Colfer; Illustrator: P.J. Lynch

Japan: Author: Shuntaro Tanikawa; Illustrator: Akiko Hayashi

Lithuania: Illustrator: Kestutis Kasparavicius

Mexico: Author: Alberto Blanco; Illustrator: Fabricio Vanden Broeck

Mongolia: Author: Dashdondog Jamba

Netherlands: Author: Peter van Gestel; Illustrator: Harrie Geelen

Norway: Author: Bjørn Sortland; Illustrator: Thore Hansen

Russia: Illustrator: Nickolay Popov Serbia: Author: Zoran Bozovic

Slovak Republic: Author: Ján Uliciansky Illustrator: Peter Uchnár

Slovenia: Author: Tone Pavcek; Illustrator: Ancka Gosnik Godec

Spain: Author: Jordi Sierra i Fabra; Illustrator: Xan López Domínguez

Sweden: Lennart Hellsing; Illustrator: Anna-Clara Tidholm

Switzerland: Illustrator: Etienne Delessert

Turkey: Author: Muzaffer Izgü; Illustrator: Can Göknil

Uganda: Author: Evangeline Ledi Barongo

United Kingdom: Author: David Almond; Illustrator: Michael Foreman

USA: Author: Walter Dean Myers; Illustrator: Eric Carle

The elected Chair of the International Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury, Zohreh Ghaeni (Iran) and Jury members from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States of America, will meet in March 2010 to select from among these 56 nominations the winners of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards

Results will be made public at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Monday, 22 March 2010 and the Awards will be presented to the winners at the 32nd IBBY Congress in Santiago de Compostela, Spain on 11 September 2010.

David Almond Competition

Apologies that things have been so quiet around here. I’ve been distracted by long weekends, London and the general May mayhem.

Anyway, by way of an apology here’s a link to current CBI competition to win David Almond books.

Shame on me that I had read no David Almond books before last year . Since I finally got started though, I just can’t stop. If you’re new to his books, start with Skellig, it really is terrific.