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Posted By Jacob Hope,
19 July 2022
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Maisie Chan is the winner of the 2022 Branford Boase award with her
brilliantly funny and thoughtful Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths. We were delighted to talk with Maisie about
her writing and about the award.
What
was your journey to becoming an author?
It’s
been a long journey!
I
guess I had an epiphany when my mum passed away in 2003. I remember telling
someone I wanted to ‘write books!’ but I had no idea where to begin. Three
years later, I began with short stories and flash fiction for adults. I felt
that was a good place to begin as the form is short and I could then move onto
novels. I have to say that I was immensely scared of writing a novel and didn’t
try to write one for years. I felt it was too big a hurdle and that I was not
ready for the task. I also wanted to write a memoir, however, I remember
someone telling me that I was ‘too young’ to write a memoir. At the time, I
didn’t agree, I felt I had a lot to say about my life. Yet, they were right in
terms of my writing ability. I was still very much learning to become a writer.
I had support from Writing West Midlands.
I
had some short stories published and lead creative writing workshops for adults
and children, but I still didn’t write a novel until I became a mentee on the
inaugural Megaphone scheme with
mentor Leila Rasheed back in 2016. I’d had some time away to have children and
had hardly written a thing for five years but felt that this was a great
opportunity for me to get back to what mattered to me, which was writing. I had
wanted to try writing for children after a librarian had told me my ‘voice’
suited children’s and Y.A. I thought I would give it a go. The year I spent as
a Megaphone mentee was brilliant. We had masterclasses from Patrice Lawrence
(just before Orange Boy was published!), Catherine Johnson, Candy Gourlay, Alex
Wheatle and more. We got to speak to editors and agents, and we had a showcase
at the London Book Fair. I wrote a novel for teens called Looking For Lily
Wong and landed my first agent soon after I finished writing it.
During
the time I was editing my teen novel, I felt something just wasn’t working and
put it aside. My agent asked me if I had any middle grade ideas and I pitched
her Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths (which was then called Lychees and
Bingo Balls). She liked the idea, and I wrote it. A year later we went on submission,
and it was picked up by Piccadilly Press in a two-book deal and it was bought
by Amulet in the States a few weeks later. I thought Danny Chung might do
better in the States than in the U.K. because there hadn’t been many (or any) titles
published here for that age group by or for British Chinese people. I wasn’t
sure there was going to be a readership. But I’m glad to say I was wrong!
Can
you introduce us to Danny Chung please?
Danny
is eleven-years-old and is a young artist. He loves drawing comics and getting
his friend Ravi to help with the speech bubbles. It’s an activity that makes
them laugh and one where they can be truly themselves. He also uses drawing to
vent his frustrations and to work out things going on in his life.
Danny
lives above a Chinese takeaway with his parents. They want him to do well at
school, and in their eyes that means being good at maths and other subjects.
His mum’s best friend, Auntie Yee is always comparing him to Amelia Yee who is good
at everything. This makes Danny feel bad.
Danny
also wants to be part of a ‘cool’ group of boys who play physical games
(scooting and shooting their foam pellet guns around the park) rather than the
more imaginative activities that he and Ravi partake in. And to make things
worse, he’s got a math presentation and his gran from China moves in. No-one
has told him this is going to happen, so it’s the worse surprise he can think
of getting. Danny has a lot of personal challenges to overcome in the book.
He's
a regular boy on one hand. But he’s also a British Chinese boy too and so there
are things about his family’s situation and lifestyle which are uniquely
British Chinese. My main concern when writing him was making him relatable.
He’s got wants and desires like any eleven-year-old boy whose parents hope they’ll
to be a certain way, but he has his own path to follow.
The
relationship between Danny and his grandmother, Nai Nai, is beautifully
realised and is often very funny, was it challenging creating the dynamic
between the pair when language is a barrier for them?
Well,
yes and no. My concern for Nai Nai was that I wanted her to inhabit the space
in the book without speaking much and so she is very physical in how she moves,
and her actions speak volumes. I wanted readers to ‘see’ her in their minds clearly
when they read the book and she is by far the most beloved character. I have a
lot of experience in real life of staying with people or communicating with
others who don’t speak the same language as me. I lived in Taipei for a while
and I was the one who was the outsider, who couldn’t speak the language and
would smile and point at things. You find that you can use your body, your
expressions and your hands for communication when language is a barrier, so I
put all of that into the novel. There may be the occasional blip too and you
can see that in the scene were Danny takes Nai Nai to the bowling green and
there is an incident with a large fruit. It made me laugh to write those kinds
of scenes and I think people have enjoyed the humour of the book, but it was
hard not to make Nai Nai into a caricature. She is based on a few older women
that I know, grandmothers and mothers who do spit out lychee seeds into
buckets, or who bash watermelons with their palms. Women who want to show their
love by feeding you and feeding you some more.
The
book is written in first person, so we see things form Danny’s point of view
and I think he was meaner to her in the earlier drafts. My editor helped me to bring out Danny’s
feelings about his grandmother more, but to have him less stroppy. She said he
also needed to be likeable! I think the tricky part was making him dislike her
for taking up space in his life, rather than disliking her for being ‘foreign’
– I didn’t want readers to see her to ‘other’ even though she is newly-arrived,
so that was a challenge and I hope it worked. In the scene with the chicken
feet this came to the forefront – I didn’t want Danny to be embarrassed by the
food, he loves the food she brought to school. He wanted to eat it. He’s
embarrassed that she’s shown up to school. Little things like that were important
for me. I’ve seen books where Chinese food is posited as ‘disgusting’. It’s
about showing the relationship between them as a bridge between generations and
cultures. I had a lot of worries about representation when writing it. I wanted
to centre a British Chinese character, he’s from the diaspora and so it’s
almost a third space. Non-Chinese people might see him as an outsider even
though he’s British, Chinese from Asia don’t see him as fully Chinese because
he can’t speak the language. It’s a precarious place to be.
Danny
finds self-expression through his art, did you have any means for release when
you were growing up?
I
used to like drawing when I was a child. I won a couple of art competitions
when I was in reception class. My painting of Little Red Riding Hood was put up
in my local library (the now closed Selly Oak Library in South Birmingham) and
I used to like music. I was a fan of Shakin’ Stevens and Adam and the Ants and
put masking tape on my face to replicate the Adam Ant stripes that he used to
have on his face. I liked to read and to go to the library. I had a few of
those Ladybird fairytale books at home but we weren’t a family who read. My
parents would read the local newspaper and my dad would buy the Angling Times,
as she was a fisherman, but that was it. I liked to make up games and play out
on the streets and in the local park, which was called Graffiti Park by the
kids, you can guess why!
There's
a lot of thoughtful comment around the fusion of different cultures and
traditions but there is also a lot of humour, were you conscious of creating a
balance between the two and is humour a useful means for exploring complex
ideas?
I
think the humour comes from my family background. I think humour can be used to
break down barriers between people. It can also create divides if you are using
it to bully or make fun of someone. How can I centre this person’s
experience and add nuance to their character? I think was one question I
looked at when writing the characters. For example, Auntie Yee is a tiger mom.
She is like a lot of parents I’ve met (Chinese and also non-Chinese) who are
pushy, they’re competitive and think about their child as the sum of their
academic achievements. I presented that stereotype (because there are people
like that I know), but I also added a layer of empathy where we can see that
Auntie Yee, also strives to belong in a culture that does not accept her fully
so then she thinks that by having certain things or having a daughter who is
the best is the way to make friends of be accepted.
The
Branford Boase recognises both a debut author and also their editor, can you
tell us a little about the relationship you had with your editor Georgia Murray
at Piccadilly Press?
Georgia
loved my writing from the beginning. When we met for the first time, I was sure
this was the right editor for my book. I could tell she loved the characters
and she said it was in ‘good shape’ which made me feel like I wasn’t a total
novice.
Georgia
sends me notes about the big things like structure, characters, plot and then
there are notes on the actual manuscript. I must say that each time I’ve had
editor notes from Georgia, they have been kind (which is very important for
first time writers), the tone is not condescending, or demanding either. She
offers gentle suggestions and so far, there hasn’t been a note which I’ve
disagreed on or had to dispute. I think there is a now an inherent trust
between us. She knows how I work, which can be disorganised, as I have a rough
plan when I start writing but I like to see what will appear as I’m writing. I
have to delete a lot of words sometimes as I try things and they may not always
work but I accept that as part of the process of writing.
It
was interesting for me to have Georgia there from the idea stage with my second
novel - Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu and I would say her input into the
shaping of Lizzie Chu was a lot more than with Danny Chung as I had her support
all the way through. She was particularly helpful when I was stuck. I think
sometimes I want someone else to come up with the answers for me, but Georgia
is good at encouraging me to stick with the process. Parts of the novel appear
in the writing of it and some of it feels unconscious and magical almost, I
don’t know where some of it comes from.
I
value Georgia’s measured nature and if I have any concerns (I am a worrier!)
then I feel I can always go to her and tell her what’s on my mind. I trust
Georgia (and her team) to know about the market and so when they came up with Danny
Chung Does Not Do Maths as the title of the book, I wasn’t sure, but then I
told myself, I have to trust her and the team to know what is best for the
book.
Your
latest book is 'Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu,' can you tell us anything about it
please?
Keep
Dancing, Lizzie Chu
is about a young carer whose grandad, Wai Gong is acting a little strange. They’re
huge Strictly Come Dancing fans and Lizzie gets tickets to the Blackpool Tower
(the home of Ballroom and Latin dancing) and she wants to take him there for a
special day out but she’s twelve-years-old and needs help. It’s got a road
trip, cosplay and of course, dancing. But there are also intermissions of
Chinese myths and legends about the goddess Guan Yin who features in the book.
She is the goddess of compassion and mercy. The book is influenced and was
written during the pandemic. It was hard going! It’s really a homage to popular
culture which was our escape during a tough time, and also, it’s a book about
joy and kindness. It’s quite different from Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths,
the themes are a little bit older, as is the voice. The writing was also
different as the story isn’t as layered as Danny Chung either and there isn’t
an antagonist as such, the obstacles are linear. But it is emotive, so I’ve been
told and there is humour in there too and a lively cast of characters. I hope
readers like it!
The
winner of the Branford Boase traditionally goes on to judge the award, is there
anything you will be particularly keen to see next year?
Ohhhh,
what an interesting question! I don’t know! I loved seeing a highly illustrated
book on this year’s shortlist. I think graphic novels are highly sophisticated
and so perhaps I’d like to see one of those do well – a YA graphic novel maybe?
They’re becoming increasingly popular for all age ranges. Also, funny books are
hard to write but often don’t get the kudos that they should in children’s literature.
If you can make a children smile, laugh or giggle that is no mean feat and I
think children need joy now as they’ve been through so much. So maybe a funny
book where you learn something new too? Who knows what we are going to get next
year!
A big thank you to Maisie for the interview and to Andrea Reece for the opportunity.

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
10 July 2022
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The Youth Library Group are delighted to be part of Teri Terry’s Black Night Falling blog tour. This high energy, high action title marks the
conclusion to circle trilogy, begun with Dark Blue Rising and continued
with Red Sky Burning. In Black
Night Falling, Tabby has been captured by the Circle and is finding out
more about the ancient sisterhood and Hayden become a figurehead for activists
that are determined to see through change at almost any cost. The questions below are intended to open up
discussion around the third book in the trilogy.
How important do you think it is that people act to
save and protect the environment?
What dangers does Black Night Falling suggest
might exist if this doesn’t happen?
Does the book suggest any barriers that might make it
difficult to act? If you were involved,
how might you overcome these barriers?
‘Now they face the anguish of impossible choices with
the climate crisis.’ (p283)
Choice is very important in the novel can you think of difficult choices that
exist for characters in the book? Is it
always clear whether there is a right or a wrong choice?
Do you think technological and scientific advances are
always a good thing?
When thinking about your answer it might be useful to consider
- the way The Circle use DNA
- the use of chemicals to try to
combat climate change
‘How can you even begin to justify the things The
Circle have done?’ (p29)
Do you think the actions and decisions The Circle have made can be justified? Sometimes people use the phrase the ends justify
the means. Do you think this could apply
to The Circle?
Hayden wonders ‘Would telling her have been worth
the risk of losing her friendship?’ (p47)
Do you think Hayden should have told Eva how he felt about her? What are the reasons for your answer?
What benefits do you think there are to being part
dolphin? If you could chose an animal whose
features you could have which would it be and why? Would this help you achieve a particular
goal?
‘If all of these environmental groups want to stop
climate change, stop pollution, stop the sixth mass extinction what is there to
argue about?’ (p73)
Why do you think the groups do argue and what benefits might there be if they
could come together more?
If you had the
opportunity would you ever be tempted to become part of a group like The
Circle?
When thinking about your answer it might be useful to consider:
- What it feels like to be part
of or outside a group?
- The work and the knowledge
that The Circle has.
- Whether being part of a group can affect the feelings
and decisions we make individually?
If you have enjoyed reading The Circle trilogy,
you might like to read another trilogy by Teri Terry, you could try The Dark
Matter Trilogy which is all about an epidemic and its aftermath, or The
Slated trilogy, a dystopia where those accused of crimes have their
memories wiped to give a clean start…

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
08 July 2022
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We
are delighted to welcome Mini Grey to the blog to discuss her hugely exciting
and ambitious new picture book The Greatest Show On Earth. Mini is a multi award winning author and
illustrator. Biscuit Boy won the Smarties
Book Prize, Traction Man is Here won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award,
and The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon won the Kate Greenaway
Medal. You can find out more about Mini
by visiting her website.
Please
can you introduce us to ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’?
It’s
the entire 4.6 billion year story of life on Earth, brought to you in the form
of a performance by Rod the Roach and his insect Troupe in a Shoebox Theatre.
[See photo one in picture gallery]
What
was the reaction from your agent and/or publisher to such an unusual and big
book idea?
The
idea for the Greatest Show actually began around 10 years ago, and to begin
with the book was small and very long! It was a little zigzag book that pulled
out into a 4.6 billion year tape measure (which was on the back.) The lovely
people at Penguin tried to find a way to publish it, but the zigzag format was
difficult, and the little pages didn’t do justice to the story that Rod was
trying to tell. For some years it drifted around, in search of the right
format. And then I realised it could be a big book, rather than a little one,
with space to delve into Earth’s story, and my editors Joe Marriott and Emily
Lunn at Puffin decided we could make this happen!
You
say the idea for ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ started with a trip to the Oxford
Natural History Museum, can you explain how the idea grew?
When
my son Herbie was about 5 years old, we spent a lot of time hanging out in the
Oxford Museum of Natural History. Gazing at the dinosaur skeletons, I realised there
were enormous gaps in my knowledge of prehistoric life, and I didn’t even know
how old the Earth actually is. Well, it’s 4.6 billions years old – and I just
wanted to see what all that time looked like, and hold it in my hands. Later, when
Herbie was at primary school, they would do projects on the Ancient Greeks, the
Egyptians; how did those timelines fit with the dinosaurs? Could it be possible
to tell the whole history of Earth as a story? We humans are uniquely good at absorbing information through
stories. Before writing, story was how information was passed down generations.
Stories are memorable. Story makes us want to know what happens, makes us pay
attention.
It seizes our imaginations and curiosity.
[See
Photo Two in Picture Gallery]
Could
this be a first story-scaffold to hang subsequent knowledge about life on Earth
upon? I think once you have a mental framework
you start to collect new knowledge, and you see things that could be added to
your scaffold everywhere – you see more, just in your ordinary everyday world.
[See Photo Three in Picture Gallery]
There’s
a wonderful sense of drama and theatricality in the presentation of the book;
how did the idea for this develop as the central conceit for the book?
I
have a mild obsession with toy theatres, and at one point long ago I worked as
a theatre designer. Making a picture book is a bit like making a theatre
performance: – both in how you make them, but also how you perform them (every
reading is a new performance). But also the theatre was the answer to how to
present my story – especially the Victorian-style Pollocks toy cardboard
theatre. Modelling my book page on a Victorian theatre meant that I could
organise the information into areas. The main stage is where you look first, to
see at a glance THE MAIN STORY.
But then to be able to delve deeper in, if you want to, you can peruse the wings
and also see what's going on down at the Tape Measure of Time.
[See Photo Four and Five
in Picture Gallery]
How
much research was involved with the book and did you have any support with
that?
When
I’m making picture books, sometimes I am creating artwork, and have worked out
most of the story-telling and the layouts. At these times the listening-and-words
part of my brain is at liberty to listen to things – in fact sometimes I really
NEED to listen to things to keep on persisting at making pictures. I developed a
massive thirst for all online lectures, podcasts, radio broadcasts– about
things prehistoric. (In Our time on Radio 4 has brilliant prehistoric
broadcasts in its archive!) So I had an overview of what my ‘scenes’ could be.
I took a copy of Richard Fortey’s LIFE – An Unauthorised Biography on
holiday & scribbled on it. Making the final storyboard – I had to be sure I
was telling the right story. But places to find information are infinite, it
wouldn’t be possible to read up everything there is to know. I ended up with a
shortlist of my go-to books: about 5 books for adults, and also about three
go-to children’s illustrated information books. And lots and lots of Wikipedia.
At the next stage, when I thought I’d worked out what to say: a few friendly
expert fact checker professors helped, and another level of Puffin in-house
fact checkers. But you can never get everything right and the science changes,
as we see deeper in, as it should.
Were
there any facts which particularly surprised and stuck with you?
[See
Photo Six in Picture Gallery]
So
many! It’s amazing and terrifying that life on Earth has been REALLY close to
being snuffed out (the worst: 251 MYA). How the Earth has often been a TERRIBLE
place to live in the past – (possibly even trying to get rid of life, you could
suspect…) There have been huge volcanic lava outpourings, there have been
tremendous freezes, there have been times when the ocean became anoxic and
hostile to life. There’s also just how extremely bizarre animals of even not so
long ago are: for example, the chalicotherium was an unholy mammal mash-up of a
horse and a gorilla – it just looks all wrong! There is the almost accidental
way one animal group takes over from another after a mass extinction: mammal-relatives (therapsids) were poised to
dominate Earth 270 million years ago, but it was ultimately dinosaurs who kept
the mammals small and in the shadows until that fateful asteroid impact 66
million years ago. But also dizzying is the incredible recentness of humans,
and the extremely nice climate we happen to find ourselves in (compared to a
lot of the past), and that our happy Holocene times (the last 10,000 years), on
my tape measure of time, is just the last one-tenth of the last millimetre.
[See
Photo Seven in Picture Gallery]
It’s
a huge and very exciting topic, do you think picture books are a useful means
for explaining big and complex ideas and if so what helps with that?
The
secret power of picture books – is to tell with pictures as well as words, and
pictures can tell big and complex ideas. But actually they show, not tell! I
hope with very visual pages, picture books can reach ‘reluctant readers’ and also
children excited by prehistoric content, who have a thirst for science. I think
giving children big numbers, long names, the actual facts – is something they
can handle. Picture books can make things visible and tangible.
Can
you tell us a bit about your technique for creating the book and the media you
used?
When
I was making the pages, I was building each scene as if it was a theatre set,
with actors, scenery and backdrops in layers. I’d work out the layouts with
loads of layers of tracing paper cut-outs that I could move around. I’d make
artwork for all my actors and scenery pieces separately, and then layer them up
in Photoshop in my theatre page framework. The fun challenge was inventing what
sort of puppetry Rod & Co might be using; there was quite a thrill in
making insects manipulate giant puppet insects (in the Carboniferous era). I
was also trying to hide jokes maybe for grown ups: eg in the Cambrian explosion
page, Brunhilda (beetle) and Edna (earwig) are trying to work out which way up
a creature goes: that creature is Hallucigenia. When it was discovered in the
Burgess Shale, it was so odd-looking that palaeontologists couldn’t work out
which appendages it walked on, and which were (maybe) for defence, and its name
reflected its very mind-bending puzzlingness.
[See
Photo Eight and Nine in Picture Gallery]
The
tape measure is a clever way to create a time, what was involved in mapping
events across such a huge span of time?
[See
Photo Ten in Picture Gallery]
There
were massive problems with mapping the entire 4.6 billion years. For the first
4 billion years, there’s no complex animal life. But on my scale of 1 million
years to 1 centimetre, this bit would be 40 metres long – right down the
street! But very luckily, after the dawning of complex animal life, about 600
million years ago, time becomes more mappable. The International Stratigraphy Chart
was invaluable! I discovered a lot of geological time periods last about 50
million years. (There’s usually some sort of extinction event that
differentiates the rock layers of different geological periods.) This was
incredibly useful and lucky, because my open book was going to be about 50cm
wide – so each spread I’d have 50 million years of timeline to play with. I had
to be careful not to overload the tape measure – so that meant a lot of thought
& research to work out what climate ‘story’ to tell on each spread. With
the Tape Measure I was trying to show: the date/time, earth’s changing climate,
earth’s changing continents, and snippets of the animals that were around at
the time, and introduce the geological eras. The Time Team use cocktail stick
animals and teeny road signs to mark out what’s going on.
[See
Photo Eleven and Twelve in Picture Gallery]
Are
there any other ideas for information topics which you’d love to approach?
How
there are so many amazing animals that didn’t get to appear enough in The
Greatest Show – for example: dimetrodon, therapsids, mad palaeocene mammals.
What would happen if Rod and the Troupe had a time machine instead of a tape
measure?
A
huge thank you to Mini Grey for a fascinating interview and to Puffin Book for
the opportunity. If you have enjoyed
reading about The Greatest Show on Earth, you may also be interested to
attend the YLG annual conference this year, Reading the Planet follow the link
for more information.
Picture
Gallery:
One: The Greatest Show on Earth
Two: Oxford Natural History Museum
Three: First Zig-Zag version of The Greatest
Show on Earth showing the
Timeline.
Four: A Pollocks Toy Theatre
Five: This page explains how to read the
book
Six: 251 million years ago – the End
Permian mass extinction
Seven: A chalicotherium – from the DK
Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs
Eight: Some of the pieces for making the Age
of Fish page
Nine: Hallucigenia
Ten: International Chronostratagraphic
Chart
Eleven: Tape Measure research
Twelve: Tape Measure

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
06 July 2022
|
We
are delighted to welcome Jen Horan, Chair of the Youth Libraries Group to talk
about all things Youth Libraries Group conference.
I
have just been reading an article claiming that “summer FOMO” (that’s fear of missing out, for the kids who don’t
speak acronym) will reach peak levels this year, after two summers of there
being not much to miss out on. I’m
already finding myself envious of social media photos showing beach parties and
cocktail soirees. Gathering together with other people
who share our passions and interests has become such a treasured occurrence
that it enriches our lives now more than ever, and it is something I am valuing
professionally like never before. Now
unfortunately I can’t promise sunshine and sky-high temperatures, but this
September I can guarantee an opportunity to gather together at a live YLG
conference for first time since 2018, and you do not want to miss out on what
we have to offer.
This
year YLG Conference heads to Sheffield, from Friday 16th to Sunday
18th September. Reading the
Planet: Libraries in a Changing Climate will focus on the environment and
climate activism, and we are delighted to be able to offer an incredibly strong
programme, which can be viewed below.
Here are just a few of my highlights.
Keynote
speakers will offer a range of presentations including Environmental Activism
in Picture Books, Empowering Young People Through Stories, the Earthwatch
Debate, and Nicola Davis delivering the Robert Westall Memorial Lecture. We have a host of spectacular speakers
including new Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, who will share his love of
libraries, SF Said, Emma Carroll, Michelle Paver, Sita Brahmachari, Louisa Reid
and Dara McNulty. We are also offering a
great choice of breakout sessions including paper craft and activism workshops,
storywalks, and digital & multiligual storytelling opportunities, giving
you first-hand, practical ideas to take back to your own workplace.
As
always, there will be plenty of opportunities to network, particularly over
book-themed tea breaks and delicious Gala Dinners. Michael Murpurgo joins us on Friday night to
celebrate 40 years of War Horse, and Saturday night hosts presentations
of our 2022 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal (which may feature the shortlist
shoes that trended on ceremony day Twitter) and YLG Honorary Memberships. And, of course,
it wouldn’t be a YLG Conference without our incredible Publishers’ Exhibition
and bookshop – leave space in your suitcases for all those irresistible
purchases!
Early
bird discounts end on 15th July, so book your place now and leave
FOMO behind as YLG Conference re-ignites our enthusiasm for our profession
after two relentless years. There has
never been a more exciting time to join us. Find out more and book here.
Looking
forward to seeing you there!
Jen Horan, YLG Chair

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
01 July 2022
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We are hugely excited to welcome the incredibly talented
authors and illustrators James Mayhew and Jackie Morris to the blog to talk about their new
collaboration Mrs Noah’s Song, illustration, influences, music and
nature in a far-reaching and wide-ranging interview.
Please could you introduce us to Mrs Noah?
Jackie:
Mrs
Noah is a woman of few words, but great action. She is kind and gentle and
thinks for herself. She’s also a wise woman. She is a mother first and her
family mean the world to her, but/and her family includes all that is living,
from stone to tree to bird to bee to mythical creatures whose blood are stories.
James:
I
love the connection Mrs Noah has to nature, and her strength and
resourcefulness. What I love about her in this story is her vulnerability,
which we haven’t seen much of before. This story explores sadness, memory, and
what you leave behind when you migrate. At the same time, Mrs Noah is a
positive force, and through song she connects her family deeply in their new
land.
What was involved in building out the character of Mrs Noah?
Jackie:
There
are parallels between the story of Noah and Mrs Noah and the story in the
Bible, but they are most certainly not the same thing. Mrs Noah is a story of
migration, whilst the Bible story is one of apocalyptic vengeance, involving
the death of all life, except for the one chosen family. As a child I could
never understand why this story of extreme horror was told to children as a
cute ‘look at all the animals, two by two’. I saw all that was left out, all
who were drowned, punished and wiped from the face of the earth. Horror. Mrs
Noah may have an ark, a husband and lots of animals. The roots may have
sprouted from the Bible, but they all come from a place of love, not vengeance.
James:
I’m
always amused when people complain that this doesn’t follow the bible story! In
fact, Jackie was initially prompted to write the story after seeing my designs
for Benjamin Britten’s children’s opera Noye’s Fludde. This has a rather
irreverent Mrs Noah, who gets drunk, gossips and in one scene slaps Mr Noah -
and the text is from the Chester Miracle Plays, written down in the 13th
century! So the idea that Mrs Noah can only be one thing is absurd and has been
for centuries. Jackie version is the best of the lot, of course!
In this book Mrs Noah is teaching the children to sing.
How important do you think it is for children to sing and what benefits do you
think this brings?
Jackie:
Singing
it a beautiful thing, and the rights of the child to sing, to be heard, to
learn how music fits together and to find their own voice is of fundamental
importance to me. Through music children can learn so much about listening and
sharing.
James:
Children
are naturally musical. This fundamental means of communication seems incredibly
important to me, and I really don’t understand while music (and all the arts) are
sidelined in education. The benefits are huge: language, memory, collaboration,
confidence, storytelling, history, cultural differences, celebration, mourning,
joy and sorrow - and humour! It’s all there in song.
You’ve
both been involved with projects that bring music, stories and art together,
can you tell us about this and the impact of music on children?
James:
I’ve
been painting with musicians and orchestras for 15 years. It’s grown to become
a huge part of my professional practice and inspired my book Once Upon A
Tune. I work mostly in the classical world, restoring original tales to
music inspired by myths and legends, and illustrating live to underpin the
meaning of the music. It’s had a hugely response with family audiences who come
back year after year. But also, as an art/music workshop in the classroom, I’ve
been moved to see how many of the quiet, under confident children start to
shine. Autistic children, elective mutes, Down’s Syndrome children too, they
see to respond deeply to the music, and create and join in. It’s been
exceptionally rewarding.
I
was fortunate enough to see Jackie painting to music at the World premiere of Spell
Songs at Snape in Suffolk. This concert of folk music is inspired by her
collaboration with Robert McFarlane, The Lost Words (for which Jackie
won the Kate Greenaway medal). It was very special to be in the audience and
witness how art, words and music can intertwine so powerfully, so gracefully.
Jackie has gone on to tour all over the country, painting in beautiful inks and
casting her own spell. It’s funny we’ve both ended up enchanted and bewitched
by music, and song.
Are
there any particular pieces of music which especially resonate with you and do
you listen to music when writing and illustrating?
James:
When
I’m writing I need silence. When I’m illustrating I listen to all sorts of
music. I love any music that tells a story. I tend to listen to mostly
classical music, but I also have a big long of traditional folk songs from
other countries. I especially love
Spanish folk music - I have many records by a Spanish/Catalan soprano Victoria
de Los Angeles. Although she was best known as an opera singer, she was also
the first to record many traditional songs of Spain. What fascinates me is the
Arabic, Indian or Jewish influences on the songs, many written during the time
the Moors ruled Spain. The Arabesques in the music remind us that these are
songs that travelled from other cultures. Like Mrs Noah and her family, songs
migrate too!
In
the classical world, my biggest loves are Sibelius and Rimsky-Korsakov - they
were both “musical illustrators” creating wonderful images and stories in
sound.
Jackie,
how does it feel to write stories that are illustrated by somebody else?
I love writing for other illustrators, and it is always a
delight to see my words come to life in the paintings and collages. I would
love to do more. I would so love to write for Petr Horacek and Angela Barrett,
but then would have loved to have written for Brian Wildsmith and Pauline
Baynes.
James,
please can you tell us about the process and media you used for illustrating
Mrs Noah’s song?
This
is a technique I developed especially for the first Mrs Noah book. Essentially
it is collage, but it involves lots of printmaking too. I love printing and
lino-cutting, so I create often abstract linocuts and print them to create
interesting textures. These linos can be printed on all sorts of paper,
including music scores. other papers are painted, scribbled on, rubbed with
crayons etc. I them cut these up the create the images. Often an unexpected
decision is made - sometimes a paper will suggest something different to what
I’d intended. There is a huge amount of experiment and play, which I love.
Ultimately, my eye, my *vision* guides it all, but I constantly surprise
myself. Some small details are fiddly and difficult (and I may resort to
drawing for those), and it’s a time-consuming (all- consuming!) practice. It is
hard work. But I love that until every bit is glued, it can continually change.
The
depiction of nature and of light is beautiful and there’s a real sense of joy
and wonder in how children connect with nature and the environment around
them. Was nature important to you growing up and has it continued to be?
Jackie:
This seems like so strange a question. Without Nature we do
not exist, so, yes, it was important to my basic life support. It’s not a theme
park, it is life support. We are all connected, and humans are so small a part
of the natural, wild world. We just happen to be a very badly behaved part, who
need to take a good look at our place in the universe and re-establish our
focus on what is important. EVERY LIVING THING.
James:
One Spring, when I was about ten years old, I woke up in the
night, and decided to creep downstairs. I tiptoed through the kitchen and
unlocked the door. The sky was almost green, and the grass in the garden was
wet with dew. In our garden was a very old apple tree, big enough for a
hammock. There is a special magic about being somewhere you shouldn’t,
especially when the rest of the world is asleep. I lay in the hammock and
watched the sky change. One by one the birds awoke, singing their little hearts
out, louder and louder! A thrilling sound, bursting with life and music; an
exultation. It was transcendent and never forgotten: my first drawn chorus.
When I first chatted to Jackie Morris about her ideas for Mrs
Noah’s Song, I described this memory. She very generously wove it into the
story. When she first read it, I cried. It touched on something very deep
inside - obviously my memory, but also something more - the beauty of the
natural world, so often smothered in mankind’s noise, or threatened with
environmental damage. But it also spoke of the power of music, of the arts, and
of communication, and sharing.
I grew up in the country, in a tiny village in Suffolk. There
was nothing else there *except* Nature. Perhaps I take that immersion in the
natural world for granted? I don’t know. It was a very simple, very ordinary
childhood in many ways. It wasn’t an idyll. But I learned huge respect for
nature, for weather. In Suffolk, the skies and sunsets were astonishing. As an
adult, going out into the world, it’s been quite demoralising to see what the
human race has done to the planet - the roads, the cities, the trashing of
Nature. Five years ago, I moved back to Suffolk. It called me home, and I
couldn’t be happier. I need to be near woodland, river and birdsong.
A big thank you to James Mayhew and
Jackie Morris for the interview and to Tatti de Jersey and Otter-Barry Books
for the opportunity. The Youth Libraries
Group annual conference this year focuses around nature and the environment, Reading
the Planet. To find out more visit here.
Photos: James Mayhew by respira fotografia; Jackie Morris by Elly Lucas

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
25 June 2022
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The Children’s Book Award was founded in 1980 by the
Federation of Children’s Book Groups and is the only Children’s Book award to
be voted for entirely by children across the whole of the United Kingdom.
Shortlist testing is open to all children in the UK and
the overall winner is given the Children’s Book Award Silver Tree which they
keep for a year and an engraved silver acorn which is theirs to keep. Category winners each receive an engraved
glass trophy and every shortlisted author and illustrator receives an
impressive portfolio of writing and artwork created by children responses to
the books.
Peter Bently and Steven Lenton’s Octopus Shocktopus is
the overall winner of the 2022 awards as well as being the category winner for
Books for Younger Children. M. G.
Leonard and Sam Sedgman won the Books for Younger Readers category with The
Highland Falcon illustrated by Elisa Paganelli and Liz Kesler was the Books
for Older Readers category with When the World Was Ours.
Congratulations to all of the authors and illustrators recognised
by the Children’s Book Award and to the children involved in testing.
Peter Bently and Steven Lenton said, ‘We’re
absolutely thrilled that Octopus Shocktopus! has won the Children’s Book
Award 2022! A massive THANK YOU to all
the children who voted and the Federation organisers – knowing that this award
has been chosen by children themselves makes it truly special. In fact it’s OCTOTASTIC!’

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
22 June 2022
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We are delighted to welcome Emma Finlayson-Palmer, to the
blog. Emma is an author, artist and
illustrator and runs the #ukteenchat on Twitter
and is one of the mentors for #WriteMentor.
Emma discusses her involvement with social media and how this has
supported her own writing including the brilliant new chapter book Autumn Moonbeam: Dance Magic,
illustrated by Heidi Cannon and published by UCLan Publishing.
We’re in a world where it is virtually (no
pun intended!) impossible to avoid social media or digital aspects of life. It
can be addictive and a drain on precious writing time if you’re not careful.
But it can also bring opportunities, friendships and a sense of community and
belonging.
For me, Twitter has been a huge writing
base ever since I joined in back in June 2011. It was a place I could be
myself, and be a writer, unlike Facebook where it was filled with people who
didn’t know I was a writer. Twitter provided a platform for me to openly talk
about writing with other people who were writing and industry professionals
too.
I first found more writers through
#AskAgent sessions, where I went from seeing names of literary agents in books
such as the Writers and Artists Yearbook to suddenly being accessible. Here
they were online and open to answering the burning questions aspiring writers
had about each stage of the writing process and publishers and talking about
their favourite biscuits.
Social Media has been a huge part of my
career as a writer. There are so many different events, festivals, both online
and in real life that I’d never have known about if it wasn’t for social media.
I’ve become an active part of writing
communities on social media over the years and seen some start up and grow
because of places like Twitter, without which they wouldn’t exist. It brings
writers from all over the world together in one place, giving a level of access
and inclusion that wouldn’t exist without it.
This has been especially important in
recent years, if it hadn’t been for the communities and writing friends I’ve
made online I’m not sure how I would have managed during each lockdown. I love
how this new hybrid way of life has evolved out of a terrible situation and now
we have a blend of online and in person events, allowing access to individuals
that wouldn’t be able to attend in person events.
Twitter is host to many different writing
related chats that cater to every genre and age group people are writing for.
One area that seemed to be lacking in the market I found was Teen, for that gap
between MG and YA, where there needed to be more of a bridge between the two.
And from this and a discussion with other writers and literary agents, that my
own writing chat came about. #ukteenchat came about to champion Teen fiction
and help people understand exactly what it is. Over the years since I set up
the chat back in February 2016, the chat has evolved into a community where
writers support others and we talk about all aspects of being a writer. The
chat has also given me the opportunity to talk to so many wonderful writers and
industry professionals from agents to competition organisers and publishers
too. It started off as a fortnightly chat, but it’s now become weekly to
accommodate the interest and being able to give a platform for me to shout
about writers and stories that I love. I feel very lucky to be part of such a
wonderful book related chat!
After swearing I never would, I have
recently joined TikTok and have found it to be great fun to create book, nature
and writing related videos. As long as I don’t post any embarrassing dance
videos my children might not be totally mortified at having their mother on
there! It’s a great community for writers and book reviewers, and more and more
indie bookshops, publishers and writers are joining. I love the more immediate
and visual side with TikTok, couple with music and the random mixture of cute
cats, asmr relaxation videos, BookTok and more.
Whilst I have to be careful not to allow
myself to give too much time to social media, and it’s a good idea to set aside
a certain amount of time for this each week, it’s also influenced my writing.
Social media filters into my own writing in various ways whether it be through
my characters and their use of it, or for research purposes. But one thing I
have found about social media that influences every aspect of my writing life,
and that’s community.
The communities I’ve found myself part of
and wouldn’t have been if it wasn’t for being on social media, have been
integral to making me the writer I am now. So whilst it might have its
downsides, for me social media has been a place of friendship, fun and finding
my feet in the world of writing.
A huge thank you to Emma Finlayson-Palmer for the blog and to UCLan Publishing for the opportunity. Don't miss the amazing activity pack based around Autumn Moonbeam below.

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
10 June 2022
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To end our week long blog takeover celebrating the publication of The Mab, we are delighted to host an interview with author and the inaugural postholder for the Children's Laureate Wales, Eloise Williams.
Do you remember reading the Mabinogi when you were a kid?
No. Not at all. I think we may have done something to do with King Arthur at some point but there wasn’t a specific reference to Wales. I grew up in Llantrisant in Rhondda Cynon Taff, was a voracious reader, lived opposite a library and took home stacks of books all the time. It seems so strange that I didn’t know anything about these stories. I’m hopeful that The Mab will change this situation for lots of young people.
Why do you think stories are important?
They give us an insight to our ancestors. How they lived, their values, what they thought was important. It turns out that the things which mattered to them are still common themes in our lives today. Love, grief, fortune, war, friendship, the wisdom of listening to animals and nature, the way life can turn on a penny. Stories are such an important part of keeping the voices of the people alive. I hope that these stories will be a celebration of past and present and that they’ll be told in new voices in the future too.
Why did you want to retell the story of Blodeuwydd?
Blodeuwedd, like so many of the women of The Mab, is such an interesting character. A woman, conjured entirely from flowers by a magician because a cursed man wants a wife will surely have a lot to say about her situation? It was really interesting to explore her actions and the consequences of them in the ancient landscape they were originally set in but with 21st Century sensibilities. She’s inventive, cunning and manipulative, and why shouldn’t she be? She is taken from the freedom of her existence and forced into a life she doesn’t want. The extent to which she takes things to escape that life are murderous and I don’t want to give too much away, but they involve a bath and a goat.
What are some of your favourite bits from The Mab?
There are so many wonderful moments. Creepy bits and weird bits. Moving storylines and belly laughs. Nothing is as expected. The stories are surprising and strange and completely unpredictable! I like so many things about each of the stories and find something new in them with every reading. My favourite bits change daily.
Was there anything about the process of creating The Mab that you think has had a lasting effect on you?
Yes. Working collaboratively has been a joy. I’ve learned such a lot from creating The Mab with Matt Brown. He is just brilliantly calm and focussed, where I am more tempestuous and impulsive. He has a unique style of comedy and is such a generous and hardworking person to collaborate with. Writing can be a very solitary career, and it has been really fantastic to have someone there to bounce ideas off. The whole process has been truly amazing. It has opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities.
A big thank you to Eloise Williams for the incredible interview. Special thanks too, to Max Low, illustrator of the The Mab for use of its brilliant cover.

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
09 June 2022
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On day four of our blog
takeover to celebrate the publication day itself for The Mab we
are delighted to welcome back author and the inaugural postholder for the Children's Laureate Wales, Eloise Williams to
introduce us to the role of magic in The
Mab.
The world of The Mab is steeped in magic. The
legends tell of shapeshifters and magicians, witches and giants, spells and
curses. Dead people come back to life with the use of a magic cauldron,
characters are transformed into animals or can speak to them to gain their
wisdom, people disappear into the Otherworld or walk from that world into ours.
Anything can happen. Everything is possible. In fact, in The Mab, the only
thing which can be expected is the unexpected!
The characters in The Mab live in a landscape
where magic happens so often, they unquestioningly believe in it and in its
power. The boundaries of this world are moveable, and the linear spaces are
filled with strange and wonderful things.
In Follow the Dream, the Emperor of Rome, Maxen
Wledig, takes a nap after a day of hunting and has dreams of crossing the sea
to find an island where a majestic castle lies. There he sees the most
beautiful maiden and immediately falls head over heels in love with her. When Maxen
wakes, instead of getting on with his day he decides that his dream should be
followed. He sends some of his men to seek out the beautiful maiden and find
her they do. In Wales, of course, where the original stories were told.
Three Graces is
a story of three terrible plagues. The first is a plague of whispering
listeners who have the ability to hear everything everyone is saying, so that
people are afraid to speak. The second,
an ear shattering screaming which comes from a red dragon and a white dragon in
combat. The third plague is caused by a magician who steals people’s food while
they sleep, so that the poor go hungry. You might well be able to find
parallels between this world and ours.
The stories were originally part of an oral tradition
of storytelling. The storyteller would need to keep the listener interested in
the tale as they told it. For this reason, they drew heavily on the landscape
of Wales, so that an audience would be able to relate to the stories and used
magic to spellbind them too. Because of this the stories don’t necessarily
follow a linear path. Storytellers would throw in as much drama and mystery as
possible to keep listeners on their toes. If they could feel the interest
ebbing, they might add in an enchantment, or a curse, a giant, or a hideous
monstrous claw. This still works today as you turn the pages. You might gasp in
wonder at something magnificent or wrinkle your brow at something strange.
Either way, the magic will draw you in as it did those listeners of medieval
times.
The characters who populate The Mab find ways to
live with magic, sometimes harnessing it for their own gain, or battling
against it to find a way through their weird and wonderful world. When you step
into the pages you become part of that mythical landscape too. Wild and unpredictable,
shimmering and enchanting, you are a magician, and you also walk between the
Otherworld and this.
A big thank
you to Eloise Williams for writing this fantastic blog feature for us. You can find out more about The Mab every day this week during our blog takeover
and might like to think about attending the YLG Wales Zoom training day Empathy in Your Library which includes a conversation with Eloise
Williams and Matt Brown who will be discussing The Mab with librarian extraordinaire Alison
King. Special thanks too, to Max Low, illustrator of the The Mab for use of its brilliant cover and the image from Luned
and the Magic Ring.

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Posted By Jacob Hope,
08 June 2022
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For day
three of our blog takeover to celebrate the publication of The Mab we are delighted to welcome
author Matt Brown back to the
blog to introduce us to some of the animals that appear in The Mab and to consider their roles.
For as long as
people have told stories, animals have always played an important role in
storytelling. The Mab is full of animals and they are always trying to
tell us something. Animals carry messages and people, they are used as portals
to the Otherworld, or become mighty foes that our heroes need to overcome. They
are also used to show traits about certain people or situations. They can even
tell us something about the values people had in the ancient world in which the
Mabinogi is set, you just have to know how to listen to what they say.
In the time when
the Mabinogi was first written down, people had a deep respect for animals and
the natural world, which you can see in the story, The Amazing Eight. At
the beginning of their first task, the Amazing Eight seek the help of animals
to find the legendary hunter Mabon ap Modron. Our heroes know that animals
possess great knowledge and understanding about the world and ask the advice of
a blackbird, a stag, an owl, an eagle. The order that they ask the animals in
is symbolic of the hierarchy of importance that these animals once had.
In order to find
Mabon ap Madron, the Amazing Eight ride on the back of a gigantic salmon. It’s
no wonder that ancient storytellers used a salmon to help the Amazing Eight in
their quest. Salmon travel between salt and fresh waters and so are used to
navigating between two different worlds (the real world and the Otherworld). They
perform a miraculous feat by travelling upstream and can even scale waterfalls
so they are used to overcoming obstacles in pursuit of their goal.
If you see a stag
in The Mab you can be certain that someone is about to have an adventure
where they have to prove their strength or courage. Stags were, and still are,
a high-status animal. In both Peredur, the Monster and the Serpent
of the Cairn and Geraint, Enid and the Big Knight Fight, the stories begin
with a hunt for a stag. Both hunts are used to show how fearless and bold Peredur
and Geraint are. The hunt is not the focus of either story but are used as a
springboard for adventure.
Horses are another
high-status animal that tell us that the rider is important, either in terms of
the position they hold in society or the position they hold in the story. In Rhiannon,
Pwyll and the Hideous Claw, Rhiannon first appears “caught in a blade of
sunlight” riding “her magnificent shining white horse”. We know from this
description of her steed that Rhiannon is extraordinary, maybe even
Otherwordly. This suspicion is proven true when later, “Pwyll’s horse trotted
up to her and dipped its head, as if it were bowing in front of a queen.”
Rhiannon is often thought to be a representation of a horse Goddess. In this
story, her horse is a symbol of her divinity and power.
Birds too appear
for a variety of reasons in The Mab. Sometimes characters transform into
birds, or they talk to birds, or use birds to carry messages. In The Strange and Spectacular Dream of
Rhonabwy the Restless, Rhonabwy uses ravens to symbolise the bandits’ greed
and low-down, rotten selfishness. He also uses the call of the raven as a way
of signalling to the prince’s men to come and arrest the bandits.
When you read the
stories in The Mab, perhaps the animals will speak to you. Maybe, like in the
Amazing Eight, they will pass on their deep knowledge and understanding about
the world.
A
big thank you to Matt Brown for writing this brilliant blog feature for us. You can find out more about The Mab every day this week during our blog takeover
and might like to think about attending the YLG Wales Zoom training day Empathy in Your Library which includes a conversation with Eloise
Williams and Matt Brown who will be discussing The Mab with librarian extraordinaire Alison
King. Special thanks too, to Max Low, illustrator of the The Mab for use of its brilliant cover and the image of Branwen.

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