Guardian Children's Fiction Longlist

The Guardian Children's Fiction prize will be awarded in September and this is the Longlist, a mixture of revenge, romance and revolution:
Genesis by Bernard Beckett (Quercus, £10.99)
The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner (Orion, £9.99)
Nation by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, £16.99)
Then by Morris Gleitzman (Puffin, £5.99)
Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn (Oxford, £10.99)
Exposure by Mal Peet (Walker Books, £7.99)
Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling Books, £10.99)
Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion, £9.99)
More details about each of the books

Carnegie Medal - Author interviews

Watch, Listen and Read on the Shadowing website features all the authors on the shortlist for the Carnegie Medal, and also the illustrators shorlisted for the Kate Greenway Medal. Definitely unmissable. Click here http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/shadowingsite/watch_listen.php

Branford Boase Award Shortlist

The Branford Boase Award was set up to reward promising new writers, as well as to reward excellence in writing and in publishing. A shortlist has been announced, and the winner will be revealed on 9 July.
The Traitor Game by B R Collins (Bloomsbury)
The Toymaker by Jeremy De Quidt (David Fickling Books)
Flood Child by Emily Diamand (published originally as Reavers Ransom by Chicken House)
Between Two Seas by Marie-Louise Jensen (OUP)
Bloodline by Katy Moran (Walker Books)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls (Marian Lloyd Books)
More information

Carol Ann Duffy becomes first female Poet Laureate

Carol Ann Duffy has been appointed the first female Poet Laureate succeeding Andrew Motion, and 400 years after the first Poet Laureate John Dryden. Her tenure will last for ten years. This is poetry's most prestigious job, though it has no job description and the salary is nominal. The poet has decided to donate her yearly sum of £5,750 to the Poetry Society to fund a new poetry prize for the best annual collection, but has said she will be happy to receive her 'butt of sack', the 600 bottles of sherry traditionally given to the laureate .
The Poet Laureate is chosen by the monarch from a list of nominees compiled on behalf of the Prime Minister, and is expected to write about events of national importance, although this does not always happen. Past Poet Laureates include William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sir John Betjeman and Ted Hughes.
Carol Ann Duffy
List of Poets Laureate
Andrew Motion biography

10 years of the Children's Laureate

Earlier this week Michael Rosen and the four previous Children's Laureates - Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson - celebrated the tenth anniversary of the award. They also gave a lsit of their favourite books when they were young.
Jacqueline Wilson's favourites include A Little Princess, Little Women, Ballet Shoes and The Family From One End Street. Anne Fine’s favourite is The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, and her list includes Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea, set in the Amazon. Michael Rosen chose Fairy Tales by Terry Jones, Emil and the Detectives, Daz 4 Zoe by Robert Swindells, and Anne Frank's Diary. Blake, who is an illustrator, chose Rose Blanche, Ian McEwan's touching story of a young girl’s view of a concentration camp; John Masefield’s The Box of Delights, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, and Stuart Little. Michael Morpurgo's choices include Dickens' Oliver Twist, The Happy Prince, Five Go To Smuggler's Top, A Book of Nonsense, and the Just So Stories.
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