21 January 2007
Reading Club
The Carnegie, and Kate Greenway Medals are celebrating 70 years in 2007. National anniversary celebrations will include a Top 10 for each award, to be announced in April, and a public vote will decide a favourite for each award. The winners will be announced in June. Reading Club will be focussing on some of the past winners, as well as keeping up to date with new publications, and making displays for other readers.
Carnegie Shadowing - with the award date of the Carnegie Medal moving forward this year to 22 June, Reading Club members have already made a start by reading some of the books nominated (the ‘longlist’). The list includes Ivy by Julie Hearn, who is the guest for our forthcoming Joint Schools Author Visit on 1 February.
16 January 2007
TS Eliot Prize for Poetry
The Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who is a Nobel Laureate, has won the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, for his latest collection District and Circle, which draws on his travels to work on the London Underground in his younger days.
The TS Eliot Prize for Poetry is organised by the Poetry Book Society, which was founded by Eliot in 1953 to develop and maintain poetry reading in the
10 January 2007
2006 Costa Book Awards category winners
2006 Costa First Novel Award winner
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
What the judges said:
"The Tenderness of Wolves stood out from a very strong shortlist. We felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless story-telling. It is a story of love, suspense and beauty. We couldn't put it down."
2006 Costa Novel Award winner
Restless by William Boyd
What the judges said:
"Restless remains in the mind long after you finish it. Its scenes of wartime tension, the smell of espionage and the consequences of deceitful lives. Double cross, double bluff - all written with effortless clarity resulting in an unputdownable read."
2006 Costa Children's Book Award winner
Set in Stone by Linda Newbery [NB Suitable for older readers]
What the judges said:
"As beautifully crafted as one of the statues adorning the house in the story, this emotionally charged narrative will thrill all lovers of intelligent fiction."
2006 Costa Poetry Award winner
Letter to Patience by John Haynes
What the judges said:
"John Haynes Letter to Patience was the judges unanimous choice and a clear winner; a unique long poem of outstanding quality, condensing a lifetime of reflection and experience into a work of transporting momentum, imaginative lucidity, and consummate formal accomplishment."
2006 Costa Biography Award winner
Keeping Mum by Brian Thompson
What the judges said:
"This vivid, life-affirming and deftly-written book is a perfect antidote to the 'misery memoir'. We defy anyone not to enjoy it."
The Costa Book of the Year 2006 will be announced on Wednesday 7 February 2007.
Last year's overall winner was Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling, who collected the main prize of £25,000.
Information from: http://www.costabookawards.com/awards/category_winners.aspx
04 January 2007
Happy New Year!
Exciting news for Harry Potter fans such as myself: the title of the seventh and final book was revealed just before Christmas by J. K Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There has been much discussion about the meaning of the title, especially of ‘hallows’ and the significance of 'deathly' over 'deadly'. Much more about this on the Leakey Cauldron website.
No date of publication has been given. The premiere of the latest HP film is due in July 2007, so will the book appear around the same time, I wonder?
