Brighton Festival Events

The weekend is over, and my Brighton Festival events complete. All went well, thankfully, and I really enjoyed both of them.

On Friday evening I chaired a panel on the theme of "Creating Books for Very Young Children." The very talented Polly Dunbar, Chris Fisher and Axel Scheffler were speaking. Each gave a short presentation, followed by a group discussion and then questions from the audience. There was some resistance to the idea of addressing a particular age group at all, though Polly most clearly creates books aimed at the youngest of readers. Chris Fisher was lively and entertaining, which was especially impressive since this was his first event aimed at adults. And Axel showed a great array of images from his books, including various novelty titles (puzzles, pop-ups, etc.). All said that they really create images for themselves, that speak to them. We had an audience with many aspiring illustrators with keen questions, and the panelists kindly gave advice and looked at sample illustrations during the book signing which followed the event. Hilary Cooke who organizes the 26 Letters children's book events at the festival, was an efficient and friendly host. And she let me borrow her watch, since I continue to resist being a slave to time (though I am very punctual). This event was sold-out to around 200 people, and there was a great buzzy vibe.

Then on Saturday I attended a poetry workshop with Adisa, a very tall, charming and energetic man. I am writing an evaluation for the Children's Discovery Centre who are running an Arts Council-funded series of performances and workshops at book festivals. I was impressed with how Adisa engaged the children from the beginning, getting them to fill in the blanks for his rhymes in his poems, then write some of their own metaphorical poems about the place that feels like home. I'd definitely recommend him to anyone looking for an inspiring poet/performer.

And on Sunday, I interviewed author Patrick Ness. While the audience was smaller than the Friday night event, those people who made it got a real treat. Patrick, who wrote The Knife of Never Letting Go and his new book, The Ask and the Answer, was honest and full of wisdom. He spoke about his own writing development and gave several writing tips to the teens and adults in attendance. He also gave two lively readings to help bring the book to life for all of us there. Since I'm such a big fan of these books, I had no problems asking lots and lots of questions (I didn't even get to all of them). He went on afterwards to see the new Star Trek film, and I've heard he gave it two thumbs up. So there you go.

I love doing these sorts of events, as I luckily don't have a fear of speaking in front of crowds, and am just so keen to get to talk to people involved in creating children's books. Hilary was very kind (she called me her favorite chair so far), so hopefully there will be more to come at next year's festival. Watch this space...

Little Green Pigging - Part Deux

So it's taken me a few days to blog about my last and final Little Green Pig session. Ella wrote on the LGP blog, so you can see some of the books that the Saddlebacks (7-11 year olds) listed as their favorites.

I focused this session on inspirational books, and how they can shape our own writing. I did more or less the same thing with both groups, and it seemed to work well. I started by doing word association to get things loosened up. And then asked each person to name a book that they love and say why. Ella listed books chosen by the younger group. The teens, as far as I can recall, chose the Twilight Books (a very popular choice), Harry Potter, Now We Are Six, The Roman Mysteries...

I then talked about Skellig and David Almond, and read each group an extract keeping track of words or writing techniques that stood out to them (with the younger group, it was just words). I wrote a list based on their feedback and then asked everyone to write their own story, inspired in some way by Skellig. We got some great stuff back - some exploring Skellig's identity, others going in completely different directions but inspired by flight, by the mystery in the story, by the language. One of the younger ones came up with a funny bluebottle eating creature.

I really enjoyed this session, and generally working with Little Green Pig and the kids. I've done my best to attract the teens to my interview on Sunday with Patrick Ness. And a few might even make it. I hope so, as I've asked them to come up with particularly good questions if they do!

Children's literature and academia

An unusual article was published in today's Independent which describes Michael Rosen's path with children's literature academic study. I say unusual because I realize how rarely the non-academic children's literature world mentions that there is, in fact, an academic children's literature world. I can't remember if I have ever seen a newspaper article about it.

Michael Rosen successfully completed a PhD which involved research, analysis, and writing a collection of poems. I'm afraid I didn't quite make it that far (at least not yet). I started the PhD, managed to complete 16 interviews with authors and editors, but became blocked when it came time to write it all up. I do still want to do something with the interviews, as I think there's important oral history there that is rarely revealed or discussed. My project focused on ways in which the publication process affected books written by non-white authors in the UK, and I interviewed authors and editors on this theme. My first attempt to really get back into the material will be at the August IRSCL conference in Germany, which will focus on cultural diversity and children's literature.

But I'm thinking now about the lack of attention to children's literature academic scholarship outside of our own community. English Literature scholars do get more public play, and authors like David Lodge and A.S. Byatt bring that world to life through fiction. It may be a good thing, as generally I've found that children's literature scholars are a friendly and open group. People like Peter Hunt, who are giants in our field, are approachable in a way I wouldn't expect equivalent bigwigs to be in other academic contexts.

Still, it's refreshing to see acknowledgement in a national UK newspaper that this path exists, and that it can be important for society. I have my own questions about the academic path and how much it engages with or participates in the "real world." But mostly, I feel that study and scholarship are key parts of our society, and enjoy being connected to that.

Little Green Pigging

I ran my first session today at Little Green Pig, a weekly afternoon writing group for young people. The "Piglets" are 7-11 years old, and the "Saddlebacks" are 12+. I haven't done a lot of work lately with young people, so was a bit nervous going into it. I'm particularly out of touch with the younger ones, as it's been almost twenty years since I was camp counselor at a bilingual Spanish/English day camp.

I decided to use the theme of animals for both groups, talking about how authors use animal characters in different ways. We looked at picture books - younger ones for the first group, and more sophisticated ones for the teens (such as The Rabbits, Arlene Sardine, Chato's Kitchen, Willie the Dreamer). I was really impressed with some of the younger ones, who proposed that perhaps using animals wasn't so different from using people, since we all evolved from the same origins. Then I had them use their writing time to create animals characters/situations. One of the teens wrote a fantastic poem about a cat who falls in love with a dog against her family's wishes. We also had an amusing story of a leper fly who was left handed.

I read the second group the opening from Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go, and told them how he created a talking dog as an antidote to all the non-animal-like talking animals in books he'd read. I'm hoping some of the teens will come and see my interview with Ness on May 10th as part of the Brighton Festival, as it would be great to have them in the audience asking questions. It's so hard getting teens to writing events, as I found out when directing the Brighton Children's Book Festival. So fingers are crossed.

Overall, I was happy with how things went, though it's hard to know what is getting through and effective. Anyone have any tips for good ways to activate and engage young writers? Now I have to come up with a plan for next week...

Patrick Ness shortlisted for Carnegie Medal

They've just announced the shortlist for the Carnegie and Greenaway Medals. I was pleased to see that Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go was included. I read this because I'm going to be interviewing Patrick on May 10th as part of the Brighton Festival (tickets are still available here).

This book, and the sequel which is just being released (The Ask and the Answer) were both phenomenal. It's difficult to describe without sounding a bit silly (a world where men's thoughts can be read by everyone, animals can talk, it's another planet...), but he pulls it all together so convincingly. And it's a gripping and pacey read. Not for everyone, as there's some pretty gruesome violence, and the world described is fairly dark. There's also exploration of how we each form our identities, we are the choices that we make, etc. He does end both books on cliff-hangers, which can be frustrating when you know you have to wait for a year before the next book comes out. But I'm sure it will be worth the wait!

Call for entries for teen writers

Mitali Perkins has posted a "call for entries" on her blog. You have to be a teen living in the United States or Canada, and have at least one parents who was born outside of the United States. Please help to spread the word to any teen writers you know!

Moving and Rottingdean

I've been preoccupied of late as we are hoping to be able to move to a new house. We've been squeezed into our very sweet one-bedroom flat, but with Cassy almost two years old, it's feeling tighter and tighter. So I was thrilled to find out that a three-bedroom flintstone cottage built in 1902, practically next door, is going up for rent. We'll have to rent out our flat, and go through the application process with the new one. But if all goes well, we'll be moving at the end of May (just in time for Cassy and my birthdays).

All of which gets me thinking about place. We live in Rottingdean, a village that is much sweeter than its name. We're in the south coast of England, a few miles away from Brighton. So we get a duck pond and the sea, with access to a bigger city with arts, movies, and all that jazz. Rottingdean has its own children's book and literary connections. Enid Bagnold lived here and the butchers that still stands on the high street was the inspiration for the book National Velvet. Nick Tucker gave a talk a few years ago at the Brighton Children's Book Festival, and described how the other villagers were scandalized when she walked from her house down to the sea in her bathing costume. Shocking!

It turns out the butchers didn't much like her representation of them, and so refused to have/sell the book in their shop. I read the book years ago in a class taught by Nick Tucker (British Children's Literature 1900-1960 as part of the MA at Roehampton University). And I thought it was quite an affection family portrait, but could see how it might seem condescending, especially in class terms.

Rottingdean also has a connection with Rudyard Kipling. He moved here after visiting his uncle, Edward Byrne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelite artist. The Elms, where the Kiplings lived, is still there. And we also have the Kipling Gardens, which were going to be bought by a developer but were saved by the venerable Rottingdean Preservation Society. They passed it to the council, and it is a wonderful public park space with rose gardens, a croquet field, a herb garden (pronounced with a hard 'h' - thank you very much!), and an enclosed grassy area. Kipling got fed-up with his fame when in the village, paying a boy to fend off autograph seekers when fishing on the raised pier (no longer there), and getting annoyed by horse-drawn tour buses trying to peek in his office window. He also lost his daughter when in New York through an accident, and the village reminded him of her. So they moved to Bateman's in Burwash, which is now a National Trust site that is worth a visit.

Kipling brings up all sorts of strong reactions. Scholar Peter Hunt feels that Puck of Pook's Hill is the best children's book written in this century. I'm afraid to say all I've read my Kipling so far is The Just So Stories, so can't comment on that. There are all the racist and empire-building associations. But I've heard of two authors, Farrukh Dhondy and Jamila Gavin, who cite Kipling as a love and influence on their own work. Dhondy spoke at the British IBBY/NCRCL MA conference several years back, when the theme was East Meets West in Children's Literature. He said the thought Kipling's Kim and Twain's Huckleberry Finn were the two best multicultural books ever written. He described a scene in Kim on a train, where people speak to each other in a variety of Indian dialects, and how he thought Kipling's use of English conveyed that variation better than anything else he'd seen.

Complicated stuff, race, literature, storytelling. Class as well, with the uppercrust Bagnold inhabiting, and perhaps maybe not fully inhabiting, life in Rottingdean. Which brings me back to our village now, and how happy I am to (hopefully) be able to put down even more roots here. In addition to the children's book history, we've got a fantastic range of children's book folks in the local area - Rottingdean, Brighton, Sussex. Here's just a short taste: Jill Hucklesby, Emily Gravett, Polly Dunbar, Chris Riddell, John Lord, Raymond Briggs, Cliff Wright, Nicky Singer, Miriam Moss, William Nicholson, Marcus Sedgwick, John Agard, Grace Nichols...

All topped off by Rottingdean Kite Day, taking place on Sunday, 26th April. You can go inside the old windmill which I've heard is the logo for Heinemann Publishing. And to quote the family in Mary Poppins (which I've been enjoying of late with Cassy) - 'Let's go fly a kite!'



Oh, but wait, one more wonderful things about Rottingdean. They built the most ridiculous railway during the Victorian period (I think) - a train on stilts that ran through the ocean. At high tide it went just over the top of the water, and during low tide it ran way above. I think it was destroyed by storms, twice. And then they gave up. But you gotta' love them for trying!