Fallen Star Stories

It was with great sadness, and a good bit of shock that, yesterday, we in the childrens' book community learned of the passing of Robert Dunbar. You see, Robert was one of those people that you would assume would always be there, challenging us, entertaining us, making us think. He was our colleague, our mentor and our friend. Robert Dunbar was a giant among the childrens book people in Ireland. He reviewed childrens' books for the Irish Times for over 27 years. He was a founder of the Childrens Literature Association of Ireland, which blended with the Irish Childrens Book Trust to emerge as Childrens Books Ireland. Editor of two anthologies on childrens' literature in Ireland, lecturer, editor of Inis Magazine, radio commentator, CBI Book of the Year Awards (formerly the Bisto) judge; Roberts' energy and enthusiasm was enough to make you exhausted. For many of us here, he simply WAS childrens' books in Ireland. As such, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award f...

My most heartfelt congratulations goes out to Judith Kerr, who was today awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the reading charity BookTrust in a ceremony, fittingly at the London Zoo. Born in 1923, as a child, Judith Kerr escaped from Nazi Germany, finally arriving in the UK as a refugee. Kerr has remained there ever since. She went on to write over 30 books for children, including her most famous, the highly successful The Tiger Who Came To Tea; not to mention the wonderful Mog series of picture books which now stands at 18 books, When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit, One Night in the Zoo, and just last year, Mr. Cleghorns' Seal.  Kerr was awarded an OBE in 2012 for her "services to childrens' literature and Holocaust education. Her books have sold over 9 million worldwide and have been translated into 25 different languages. At 93 years of age, Kerr is still going strong! Her imagination and child-like enthusiasm, as well as her gifts for writing an...

Before any more time runs away with me, I just wanted share a few photos with you from the launch of Gold by Geraldine Mills. Last Thursday, 30th June was the evening and we had a full house for, what turned out to be the best party I'd been to in a long time. We heard from Síobhan Parkinson, editor, owner, minder of Little Island (the ONLY publishing house in Ireland dedicated solely to childrens' books), Alan McMonagle (poet, writer) who introduced Gold with insights as to why Gold is incredible for both children and adults and, of course, Geraldine, who read a passage from the story the took us all out of the dark, cold, ash-covered life of twins Starn and Esper and into the clouds on their flight for freedom. There awe, laughter and....cupcakes! (Thank you, cupcake maker....whoever you are!) And finally, something happened that I had never seen happen before at a book launch...we sold out. How could this happen? We had loads! Well, I think it is testament to what is a trul...