Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2016...Meg Rosoff

-
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial award is presented each year. This is the largest international award for children and young adult literature in the world, indicating the importance of reading by children and young people in their lives. The total (SEK 5 million) is set to inspire and encourage anyone involved in childrens writing to strive for purpose and quality. The award is given to authors, illustrators, storytellers and reading promoters. It may be presented to a single laureate, or to several and is given regardless of language or nationality. It is administered by the Swedish Arts Council and is named in honour of the amazing author, Astrid Lindgren, who gave the world such important childrens works as Ronia, the Robbers Daughter, Mio, My Son and, of course, Pippi Longstocking.

The Astrid Lindgren laureate for 2016 has been announced as Meg Rosoff.
Meg Rosoff made her debut in 2004 with the powerful dystopian novel, How I Live Now, the story of a young woman, Daisy from New York and her English cousin, Edmond, whose lives are torn apart as war rages in a not too distant future London. Each book since then has shown rare understanding, passion and compassion in expressing the lives of young people caught between childhood and adulthood, how they view their lives and the world situation and their thoughts on who they will be and how the world will form them into adulthood. With incredible dexterity and the utmost loyalty, Rosoff expresses issues of identity and being and becoming.
Congratulations to Meg, who will be presented with her award on May 30 in a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall. No better representative!
http://www.alma.se/en/award-winners/2016/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rights of the Reader

-
Image
The Rights of the Reader; Daniel Pennac, illustrated by Quentin Blake Summer is here and we do encourage summer reading with numerous incentives and programmes. It is important for children (of all ages) to 'keep their reading up' outside of school time. This is the time when kids develop their own taste in books and can be free to read books of their own choosing. And this is the single most important factor in young people developing a lifelong reading habit. But how do we, as the 'gatekeepers' of kids reading, encourage them properly without running the risk of thrusting pressure and our own ideas on them? Do that and you'll run the risk of pushing them away from reading, and there are already so many distractions for the young reader to contend with that can tempt them elsewhere. Published by Walker Books; 9781406300918 In 1992, French writer Daniel Pennac originally published this little gem of a book; The Rights of the Reader. I highly recommend
Read more

The Summer of Lily and Esme by John Quinn....25 years

-
Image
This year marks the anniversary of the publication of an extraordinary book. In 1991, Poolbeg published The Summer of Lily & Esme by John Quinn and in the 25 years since, it has never been out of print. The Summer of Lily & Esme tells a quiet story, filled with compassion, friendship, memory and heart. It is the story of Alan, an 11-year-old boy who has moved from the city into a house in the countryside; in the middle of nowhere.The house is old and extremely large and immaculate; and there is a locked, boarded over attic room that is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young boy who died tragically. Alan is not too pleased with this move and becomes even less thrilled when he discovers his closest neighbours, in fact his only neighbours, are a pair of elderly sisters, Esme and Lily, who seem to be suffering from dementia.  When Alan falls down a hill of brambles and weeds, the sisters, who believe they themselves to be children, mistake Alan for their
Read more

Launch of Genesis by Eilis Barrett

-
Image
A week ago, I played a small part of the launch of Genesis , the much-anticipated sequel to Oasis by Eilis Barrett; this time at Charlie Byrnes Bookshop in Galway. Vinny Brown introduces Eilis Eilis is a remarkable young woman, as you might imagine since she is 18 years old and this is her second book. ( Oasis was published when she was 16.) Articulate and accomplished, it is a real privilege to know her, to hear her speak and to read her writing. Genesis author: Eilis Barrett publisher: Gill Books (8 September 2017 ISBN: 9780717174355 Genesis picks up the story of Quincy Emerson. She now finds herself a captive once again, in the maximum-security prison, the Colosseum as a security risk. Held in deplorable and brutal conditions in the prison, where anarchy rules and rival gangs wage a 'street war' of sorts, Quincy takes care to not make an enemy of either gang boss, while holding allegiance to no one but herself and her comrades on the outside. Food is scarce an
Read more