Latest news with #childrenLiterature
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cornwall children's book festival to feature 'big names'
A Cornwall children's book festival has partnered with a children's newspaper. The St Austell Festival of Children's Literature, which is in its third year, has teamed up with First News for its 2025 event. The festival will take place on June 13 and 14. First News will send three young journalists from Mount Charles School, St Mewan Community Primary School, and Upton Cross Academy to report on the festival. These budding reporters will cover creative workshops, storytelling sessions, draw-alongs, and other activities. They will also conduct mini-interviews with children's literature stars attending the festival. The festival will have a 'Young Festival Reporters' Wall in the festival hub, where children can write their own news stories inspired by First News articles. Free copies of the newspaper will be available to 200 festival attendees. Heather Wright, festival director, said: "We're absolutely delighted to be partnering with First News for this year's St Austell Festival of Children's Literature. "It's a fantastic opportunity to encourage young writers and give local pupils the chance to experience journalism firsthand. "Now, having some of our local schoolchildren reporting on the festival as young journalists is truly magical. "It brings the world of books, writing, and real-life storytelling together in the most exciting way." The festival will host a Family Day on Saturday, June 14, open to everyone for just £1 per event, and a Schools Day on Friday, June 13, open to a network of host schools across St Austell, Newquay, and Bodmin. Authors Anika Hussain, Sue Hendra, and A.F. Steadman are some of the big names expected at the festival. St Austell Festival of Literature is now a designated Community Interest Company (CIC) working to benefit the local community it is based in. The team is led by four directors, Simon Pollard, headteacher of Carclaze Primary School; Reading Rocks founder, Heather Wright; primary school teacher, Amy Enever; and chair of Restormel Arts, Phil Webb. They are supported by dedicated volunteers from the community. More about the team can be found on the festival website. First News is the leading, independent news source tailored specifically for children.
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Next week, millions of children across the globe will read this Australian book at the same time
'They lose the cat, they find the cat again, they fall in love and then they get a baby.' This is how Clementine, four-and-a-half, summarises The Truck Cat, a picture book by children's author Deborah Frenkel and illustrator Danny Snell. On Wednesday 21 May at noon, more than one million children across Australia will read The Truck Cat in over 9,000 locations, including schools, libraries, homes and hospitals. It's the 25th instalment of the annual National Simultaneous Storytime, run by the Australian Library and Information Association (Alia). Last year's event saw 2.3 million people take part; this year, participants are registered from countries as far away as Albania, Lithuania and Italy. 'It's mind-blowing, really … it's hard to get your head around how big it actually is,' Snell says of having his book chosen for the event. The Truck Cat is the story of Tinka the cat, who travels with Yacoub, a truck driver and recent migrant who feels misunderstood in his new home. When Tinka chases after a butterfly, he and Yacoub are separated. Their journey back to each other brings them love and a newfound sense of belonging, in the form of a baker named Mari. With graphic novel-style panels in pastel tones, it's a gentle story about immigration, identity and kindness. 'Reading together builds community and literacy,' says the CEO of Alia, Cathie Warburton. 'We hope that children and their caregivers find that the book is a great way to start important conversations and grow together.' The popularity of National Simultaneous Storytime reflects an appetite for shared reading experiences in a turbulent time for literacy rates, with the most recent Naplan results revealing one in three Australian children are not proficient in literacy. The Truck Cat appeals to young readers for various reasons. Tinka the inquisitive little tabby cat and Yacoub's B-double tri-axle truck are popular with many, as are Snell's textural illustrations, which appear hand-painted. Feyza, nine, says, 'I like this book because it reminds me of how I have two homes. A mummy home and a daddy home … [And] I have two amazing cats.' Frenkel says every young reader wants to talk to her about their own pets: 'I'm hearing a lot [about] … the various exploits of everyone's cat and dog.' The inspiration for the book was a days-long road trip from Melbourne to Sydney that Frenkel made with her small children, stopping at 'what must have been every possible truck stop on the Hume Highway'. 'It gave me a good opportunity to notice the truck drivers … there's so many of them,' she says. A few months later, a neglected cat showed up at her back door, injured from a fight. Without a cat carrier, Frenkel planned to hold the cat tight while her husband drove to the vet, assuming the cat would be quite distressed in the car. 'But the cat suddenly became really relaxed and started purring on my lap. My husband said, 'He's like a cat that belongs to a truck driver' – at which point I was like yep, that's a picture book.' The Truck Cat is also informed by Frenkel's family history, as the granddaughter of Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Sydney in 1947. Their transition towards feeling at home in a new place is echoed in Yacoub's experience, and Frenkel was conscious that many young readers and their families might have similar stories. '[H]ow do you find your way home when you're in a strange new place?' she ponders in the book's endnote. 'I discovered one answer in Tinka, the truck cat – because cats are very wise.' The Truck Cat is broadly relatable in other ways, too. 'This book isn't just about cities, it's not just about a particular place, it's literally about the entire country,' says Frenkel. 'It's really nice that a book that is kind of about travelling around, is itself travelling around the country.' National Simultaneous Storytime takes place on Wednesday 21 May at noon; registration is free. The Truck Cat is out through Hardie Grant ($24.99)
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Pick Up This Book and Be Spirited Away
In one of those unsigned cartoons that seed themselves across internet platforms, a house cleaner wearing a duster, as we used to call it, stands outside the open door of an armoire. The question she poses via speech balloon: 'What are you doing in that wardrobe?' The balloon reply from deep inside the piece of furniture: 'Narnia business!' There's been a lot of Narnia business since the first novel by C.S. Lewis landed in children's lives 75 years ago. A good thing, too. Kids walking by an uncovered well or a beguiling garden gate need to be ready in case they're whisked into a world built on principles other than our own. Travel is so broadening. And any good book for children proves a reliable portal. 'The Village Beyond the Mist,' published in Japan in 1975, arrives in a crisp English translation by Avery Fischer Udagawa. Its eight brisk chapters tell the story of a Brigadoon-type settlement whose location is unverifiable because it is cloaked by vapors. Promotional copy advertises this novel as the story that inspired Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece film 'Spirited Away.' We'll return to this. First things first: Sachiko Kashiwaba's novel is indeed transporting. Traveling alone, a girl from Shizuoka named Lina has been dispatched to spend the summer in Misty Valley, a place her father once visited as a child. She alights at a rural train station, where kindly adults point out the route to follow. Partway there, the umbrella that blows from her grasp leads her through thick fog to a peculiar settlement. Its only street is called Absurd Avenue. One of Misty Valley's few buildings is Picotto Hall, where Lina will lodge. The quirky boardinghouse is governed by an irascible doyenne, Ms. Pippity Picotto. 'What is this hairstyle?' she snaps at the girl. 'You have a plain face, so if you don't take care with your hair, where will people look?' Nothing is quite as it seems in Misty Valley. Ms. Picotto requires Lina to work for her room and board. She sends her out to lend a hand at a used-book store, a ceramics shop and a toy store. The proprietors are grateful if sometimes ornery. Lina, though naïve, has a mind of her own, and thinks the bookstore smells like a library: 'She had always had the impression that bookstores smelled only of paper and ink, while libraries also smelled of old books and real life.' Nata, the bookstore owner, clears up some mysteries, noting that as her books age their 'charm' gets stronger: 'You know how books have the power to attract people and even influence them? That's the charm I mean.' When Lina spots titles like 'Chemical Analysis of Flying Brooms' and 'The Complete Collection of Spells,' Nata explains that the residents of the tiny village are all descendants of sorcerers. An overworked student wanders into the shop and finds something to satisfy him that is unrelated to his studies: a poetry collection. Lina observes that the boy doesn't seem to be a village resident. 'People who really need to can come here,' Nata replies. 'The village is choosy that way.' Several other episodes link together loosely, the common thread being the boardinghouse and the gnomic Ms. Picotto. The summer comes to an end and Lina is dismissed to return home. She is changed, but we don't know quite how. Summer changes all children, doesn't it? A word on the droll and affectionate line illustrations. Miho Satake's introductory sketch of Ms. Picotto seems straight out of Studio Ghibli: 'Beside the window sat a sofa with a large floral pattern. Interrupting it like a stain was a small, elderly woman dressed all in black.' The depiction of her giant pompadour evokes Yubaba, the proprietress of the bathhouse in 'Spirited Away.' And Lina has the wide-eyed yet feisty look of Lin, the young protagonist of Miyazaki's movie. The drawings bewitch with a character of their own, however. If the story itself, by the author's admission in an afterword, was inspired by Mary Poppins and Narnia, where's the harm in that? But was the Studio Ghibli magnum opus 'Spirited Away' inspired by this charming Kashiwaba novel? Online commentary suggests that Miyazaki read the novel and considered animating it but put it aside to construct 'Spirited Away' out of other sources. I can't say. There are few plot correspondences but for the fact of a child marooned in a magical place where she must work for a living. If we're talking truth in advertising, 'influenced' might be a choicer word than 'inspired.' Still, if we had the chance to ask Miyazaki himself, he might just wave his hands in the air and remark softly, 'It's Narnia business.' And he'd be right. Pick up this book and be spirited away.
Geek Dad
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
‘Shrapnel Boys:' A Book Review
This week sees the 80th anniversary of V.E. Day, and here in the UK, there have been fly pasts and street parties (blighted by the weather, of course) to celebrate. Following on from the excellent Under a Fire Red Sky , published last month, Usborne Books has brought us another first-class children's novel set in World War 2. Shrapnel Boys by Jenny Pearson is compelling from first page to last, and a fine addition to the genre. The book takes place in almost exactly the same part of London as Under a Fire Red Sky , on the south side of the Thames. The two share a starting point, too. The eve of the war, as the evacuation trains are leaving. Once again, this story follows children who stayed in London. Ronnie and his brother Michael have remained in London so that their mum isn't alone. Their dad upped and left, and they are all she has. Together with their friend Billy Missel, or 'Lugs' as they call him, they'll end up embroiled in a plot that will place the British war effort in jeopardy. The villain of the piece is Johnny Simmons. A young man who helps Ronnie and Michael's mum dig their Anderson shelter. He sticks around, inserting himself into the family, and while Ronnie can see his darker side, his mum and brother are enamoured by this good-looking man with a smooth voice and a twinkle in his eye. The story is narrated in the first person by Ronnie, and its delivery is pitch perfect. When I was growing up, it was 40 years closer to the end of the war. I was never that drawn to war stories, but the ones I do remember focused heavily on the heroics of the British and the implacable evil of the Nazis. They were largely 'Boy's Own' adventures. With another 40 years to reflect and examine the history of the period, the stories have changed. They can be told with a more modern outlook and understanding. In this book, Lugs' father is a pacifist. He's sent to the front line as a stretcher bearer. Ronnie thinks of him as a coward, not wanting to fight, but over the course of the novel, he begins to understand that this takes a different sort of bravery. Another child returns from his evacuation, haunted, vowing never to go back. I don't think this element would ever have been present in a story 40 years ago. Much like in Under a Fire Red Sky, we see the social history of the war, as well as the psychological toll it leaves on those bombed night after night. Ronnie's dad is abusive, but he also signs up to be a pilot, and this is after he has already fought in World War 1. A conflict that, by Ronnie's mum's account, left him a changed man. How is Ronnie supposed to feel about this? Is his dad hero or villain? A major plot point is Johnny's links to Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts, which is juxtaposed against the fact that Lugs' family is Jewish. Johnny pulls Michael, Ronnie's brother, into his sphere of influence and begins sending him about the city on nefarious tasks. Ronnie can see it happening but is powerless to intervene. Johnny always seems to have an answer. Ronnie has sworn to protect his brother, but how can he, without alienating Michael completely? These are the comparatively small frustrations Ronnie must deal with, especially when set against the canvas of a world of turmoil. Small, but the center of Ronnie's world, and Pearson makes his story utterly compelling. She conveys the tension and horror of the period, as well as the strength of wartime camaraderie, penning a host of well-drawn characters. Shrapnel Boys is not overly sensational, yet Pearson still manages to ratchet the tension to almost unbearable levels. There is nothing not to enjoy about Shrapnel Boys. It's a first-class read that delivers thrills, laughs, and a tear at the end. It's a book about the strength of friendship and the difficulties of speaking out, especially when you're in a position of weakness. Shrapnel Boys is also a timely reminder of what war does to a civilian population. I was reminded of Ukraine and Gaza, conflicts that have been reduced to short news reports and casualties that have become mere numbers. 80 years on from a victory in Europe. Shrapnel Boys reminds us of the true human cost of war. If you would like to pick up a copy of Shrapnel Boys, you can do so here in the US and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links) If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here. I received a copy of this book in order to write this review. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
