Fallen Star Stories

The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards longlist have been announced. As always, the lists are extremely comprehensive, reflecting the outstanding quality of childrens' books published over the last year. It's really just astonishing! CILIP Carnegie Medal 2019: Both Middle Grade (mg) and YA literature are represented on the Carnegie Longlist for 2019 and is 137 books strong... and all are simply exceptional. (I have read about 120 of them or so.) To comment on them all would be a bit much for this blog. I would like to mention a few of note that weren't included on the poster...such for your information. Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed is well worth a read; dealing with both teenage romance, decision making and the effects of a terrorist attract on a broader community in terms of preconceptions, racism and social attitudes. (YA) The Storm Keepers Island by Catherine Doyle is one of 'must-read' books of the year. This c...

Tomi Ungerer 28 November 1931-8 February 2019 Earlier this week, it was announced with great sadness that Tomi Ungerer, French author,artist,  illustrator, cartoonist, political satirist... passed away peacefully at his west Cork home. Tomi published over 140 books, many of them childrens picture books. He was a champion of simple human dignity; always outspoken and never shying away from controversy. His first picture book, The Mellops Go Flying was first published in 1957. This was the first in a series about a family of pigs who go on adventures and find themselves in all kinds of quandries and predicaments. Irreverent and bold, it set the tone for a lifetime of thought-provoking and insightful books for children that never fail to delight. His books were honest and bold at a time when childrens books were, in his opinion "ghastly - tame and unimaginative." When Tomi went to see the biggest published of childrens' picture books in the US, Golden Books, they w...

Recently, the American Library Association announced the two winners (and honour awards) for the 2019 Caldecott and Newbery Awards. These prestigious awards in childrens' literature have a long-standing history of honouring and promoting the best in childrens' books in the United States and are always anticipated with much enthusiasm. THE CALDECOTT MEDAL AWARD The Caldecott Medal is named after Randolph Caldecott, a 19th century English illustrator. It is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished childrens' picture book in America. The award is made by the Association for Library Service to Children. Some previous winners include; Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, and more recent winners; This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik and last years' Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell. Joinning this fantastic line...

Today marks my second blog tour post of the year. Welcome to Mask of the Gods by Karen Furk; the first book in The Mask Chronicles is a unique and multi-layered fantasy. Are you ready for this? MASK OF THE GODS (The Mask Chronicles 1) author: Karen Furk Storm Rider Publishing (7 January 2019) ISBN: 9781912569014 Soul Demons live by taking the souls of the living. And one has just appeared in the Storm Lands in search of a mysterious artifact; the Mask of the Gods surrounded by legend and hidden in a location unbeknownst to all. The demon is held captive for a time by Haydans' father, Diego. While the demon and Diego toy with each other mercilessly, Hayden is quickly evicted to the human world and to the protection and safe-keeping of his chosen one and his warrior. But soon, his manipulative grandmother arrives with a scheme to recover the power and glory of her former life in the Elven Realm; and Haydan is paramount to her plans. Lavinia casually lures Haydan and his wa...

Welcome to my contribution celebrating The Hairy Hand by Robin Bennett! Over the next week, you can find quite a number of posts for this wonderful middle grade book presented by Rachel's Random Resources. So, let's get started! THE HAIRY HAND author: Robin Bennett Monster Books (19 January 2019) ISBN: 9781999884444 Septimus Plog always knew he was very different from everyone else that lived in the village of Nowhere. Even his own parents made him feel like a complete stranger. His name was different; he thought differently; he wanted to be happy when no one else seemed to care and...he could read. Now THAT was different. One day, a mysterious letter arrived for Sept; a letter that would change his life...eventually. The letter sent him off on a long, dangerous journey and led him to an inheritance from his Uncle, a great and powerful wizard and (more to the point, as far as his parents were concerned) a very wealthy man. Sept arrives back home after facing weird and ...

That's right...it's nearly time for World Book Day! In just a few short weeks, schools, libraries, bookshops and literacy groups will be joining together on Thursday, 7 March to celebrate the joy of reading and the pleasure of books with children everywhere, just as we have done for the last 22 years. And to encourage children to explore the wonderful world of books, schools are provided with special World Book Day Tokens to give to their students so that each child can have a book of their own, chosen from the special selection of World Book Day books released every year. (One token=one World Book Day book...so, that's a book for free!) This may sound like a very simple idea, and it is...but it is also an incredible opportunity, given the fact that so many children don't have access to books at home. I can assure you that the most powerful way of getting children into reading is to offer them the chance to own their own books. It makes all the difference...

In 2017, Angie Thomas burst into the book world with her pivotal YA novel, The Hate U Give . Both amazing and gut-wrenching, this book is now highly acclaimed, award-winning and has been made into a film. THUG quickly became one of the most essential, spectacular reads seen in a long time. Now...in just a few short weeks, we will have the release of the highly anticipated second novel from this new voice of a generation, On The Come Up and it does not disappoint. On The Come Up tells the story of 16-year-old Bri. She dreams of being one of the greatest underground rappers of all time. But Bri has quite a battle ahead of her. Living in a poor black neighbourhood; the daughter of a great street rapper who was murdered just before he hit it big , a mother recovering from drug-addiction; Bri is label as 'trouble' at school. She is fighting prejudice in the community, racism on a national scale, old-fashioned ideas within her own family and poverty. Her mother loses her job, th...