#CKG15 nominations!

It is that time of year again, and I realise I haven't posted anything since last April!  The longlists are insanely long, 91 on the Carnegie, so I'm probably not going to see my good friend Matt for a few months as he gets through them in his official capacity of a judge.  So really quickly, I'm highlighting the ones I've read in red and the ones on my tbr pile in green, and at the end are my top picks from what I know of the list.  I've only read just over a third of them though, and some I know nothing about so my longlist is bound to change by February!

Angus, Sam. Captain

Avery, Tom. My Brother's Shadow

Baldacci, David. The Finisher

Barraclough, Lindsey. The Mark of Cain

Bedford, Martyn. Never Ending

Bergin, Virginia. The Rain

Black, Holly. The Coldest Girl In Coldtown

Blaxill, Gina. Saving Silence

Booth, Anne. Girl With A White Dog

Bowler, Tim. Night Runner

Boyne, John. Stay Where You Are And Then Leave

Breslin, Theresa. Ghost Soldier

Brooks, Kevin. The Ultimate Truth: Travis Delaney Investigates

Butler, Heather. Us Minus Mum

Buxton, Jamie. Temple Boys

Cain, Cate. The Jade Boy

Camden, Steve. Tape

Cantor, Jillian. Searching For Sky

Carroll. Emma. The Girl Who Walked On Air

Cassidy, Anne. Finding Jennifer Jones

Chan, Crystal. Bird

Christopher, Lucy. The Killing Woods

Conaghan, Brian. When Mr. Dog Bites

Cotterill, Jo. Looking At The Stars

Creech, Sharon. The Boy On The Porch

Crossan, Sarah. Apple and Rain

Crow, Matthew. In Bloom

Crowe, Sara. Bone Jack

David, Keren. Salvage

Dawson, James. Say Her Name

Day, Susie. Pea's Book of Holidays

Dickinson, Matt. The Everest Files

Doherty, Berlie. The Company of Ghosts

Don, Lari. Mind Blind

Doyle, Roddy. Brilliant

Earle, Phil. The Bubble Wrap Boy

Easton, T.S. Boys Don't Knit

Elson, Jane. A Room Full Of Chocolate

Furniss, Clare. The Year of the Rat

Gaiman, Neil. Fortunately, The Milk

Gardner, Sally. Tinder

Gavin, Jamila. Blackberry Blue: And Other Fairy Tales

Gemin, Giancarlo. Cowgirl

Gibbons, Alan. Hate

Gilman, David. Monkey and Me

Gleitzman, Morris. Loyal Creatures

Green, Sally. Half Bad

Haig, Matt. Echo Boy

Hall, Tim. Shadow of the Wolf

Hardinge, Frances. Cuckoo Song

Haughton, Emma. Now You See Me

Hearn, Julia. Dance Of The Dark Heart

Helsby, Genevieve. My First Orchestra Book

Howes, M.J. Feed

Ho-Yen, Polly. Boy In The Tower

Inglis, Lucy. City of Halves

Johnson, Catherine. Sawbones

Laird, Elizabeth. The Fastest Boy In The World

Landman, Tanya. Buffalo Soldier

Lewis, Gill. Scarlet Ibis

Lockhart, E. We Were Liars

Mason, Simon. Running Girl

Massey, David. Taken

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The Middle Of Nowhere

McGovern, Cammie. Amy and Matthew

McGowan, Anthony. Hello Darkness

McKenzie, Sophie. Every Second Counts

Mitton, Tony. Wayland

Moorhouse, Tom. The River Singers

Ness, Patrick. More Than This

Nicholls, Sally. Close Your Pretty Eyes

Pass, Emma. The Fearless

Pratt, Non. Trouble

Rai, Bali. Web of Darkness

Reeve, Phillip. Oliver and the Seawigs

Riddell, Chris. Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse

Rix, Megan. A Soldier's Friend

Robinson, Hilary. Where the Poppies Now Grow

Rosoff, Meg. Picture Me Gone

Sales, Leila. This Song Will Save Your Life

Sedgwick, Marcus. She Is Not Invisible

Sharpe, Tess. Far From You

Slater, Kim. Smart: A Mysterious Crime, A Different Detective

Smith, Alex. Devilskein and Dearlove

Smith, Andrew. Grasshopper Jungle

Stevens, Robin. Murder Most Unladylike: A Wells and Wong Mystery

Sutcliffe, William. Circus of Thieves and the Raffle of Doom

Suzuma, Tabitha. Hurt

Symon, Andrew. Jack Shian and the Mapa Mundi

Walter, Jon. Close To The Wind

Westcott, Rebecca. Dandelion Clocks

I will have definitely read more than half of them before the longlist is announced on February 10th, but at the moment my top 20 (that was how long the longlist was last time) are:

1. Bedford, Martyn. Never Ending
2. Bergin, Virginia. The Rain
3. Black, Holly. The Coldest Girl In Coldtown
4. Booth, Anne. Girl With A White Dog
5. Boyne, John. Stay Where You Are And Then Leave
6. Cassidy, Anne. Finding Jennifer Jones
7. Conaghan, Brian. When Mr. Dog Bites
8. Crossan, Sarah. Apple and Rain
9. Crowe, Sara. Bone Jack
10. Dawson, James. Say Her Name
11. Doyle, Roddy. Brilliant
12. Earle, Phil. The Bubble Wrap Boy
13. Easton, T.S. Boys Don't Knit
14. Gardner, Sally. Tinder
15. Hardinge, Frances. Cuckoo Song
16. Ness, Patrick. More Than This
17. Pratt, Non. Trouble
18. Rosoff, Meg. Picture Me Gone
19. Slater, Kim. Smart: A Mysterious Crime, A Different Detective
20. Smith, Andrew. Grasshopper Jungle

It was really difficult to get the list down as there are so many great books this year!

So many questions: can Tinder do the double - nominated for the Carnegie and the Greenaway?  Might we have a "middle grade" funny winner that no one will complain about? Will Patrick Ness win again? Take a look at all the details, including the fabulous Greenaway nominations, on the official CKG site.

#papervspixels April Challenge: thoughts

I have a Nook that I bought in order to use Netgalley.  I read far too much to buy every book so rely on libraries a lot and, if I were to ever pay money to read a book, I would always rather buy a 'real' copy so that it could live on my shelves at home rather than only exist for as long as the technology does...perhaps that is silly but when the power goes out who'll be laughing eh?  I've only read a few dozen books on the Nook in the year or so since buying it so when I saw the #papervspixels challenge on twitter I decided it would do me good to try and use it more!  So for the month of April I only read electronically...

Expecting to really struggle and be tempted to my massive TBR pile at home, I had a look on Netgalley  and requsted some titles.  I was pleased to see a couple of titles I had on my shelves so that I could kill 2 birds with one stone: 'Smart' by Kim Slater, 'Vango: Between Sky and Earth' by Timothee de Fombelle and Roddy Doyle's 'Brilliant'.  Some, 'Cuckoo Song' by Francess Hardinge, 'The Finisher' by David Baldacci and 'Echo Boy' by Matt Haig, I wanted to read anyway and others, 'Don't Even Think About It' by Sarah Mlynowski and 'Half my Facebook Friends are Ferrets' by J.A. Buckle I just liked the look of.  I also read a book that I'd bought in a K*ndle sale months ago on the app on our iPad, the wonderful 'Mr Penumbra's 24hour Bookstore' by Robin Sloan.

pros:

• I didn't miss the feel of books as much as I thought I would because the convenience of having it lying on the table made it really easy to read at the same time as eating
• much lighter bag to carry around
• easier to hold on a busy train or while waiting for one
• no panic about having a second book in case I finish the one I'm reading when nowhere near home or a library!
• I actually found it easier to decide what to read - in fact I just read them in the order in which I downloaded them
•  It was great to get round to reading things I'd intended to read for ages but because they're not physically in front of me other books kept taking precedence!

cons:

• constant fretting that the battery might die or the book corrupt (it has only happened a couple of times, but never happens with paper!)
• because they were proofs in some instances the formatting was wonky which could be distracting
• pictures never look as good electronically as they do on a real page
• I missed looking at the cover and reading the blurb before beginning reading (but often with proofs you miss that anyway)
• I might have skim read a little more than usual, and frustratingly often accidentally tapped the screen to turn the page before I'd actually finished reading the page...
• I can't pass it on to another reader (or wave the library copy under someone's nose)
• If I hadn't had access to Netgalley, i.e. I were any normal non-library/publishing/blogging person, it would have been a far greater struggle to find something worth reading because the library selection of eBooks is currently rubbish and I have a long term book buying ban that I will only break in extreme circumstances (e.g. when a new Pratchett is available for pre-order...)

I don't think the process of reading these books electronically affected my enjoyment of them although I definitely didn't prefer it to reading hardcopy books.  I actually preferred reading on the iPad to the Nook when sitting eating breakfast but when travelling the Nook was far easier.  I guess the point is that no one format is perfect for every occasion.  From a purely practical point of view eReading is easier but from a purely aesthetic point of view 'real' books are far superior.

What I liked best about the challenge was that I had a set list of things I would read that month so I'm thinking I'll do that again.  The books in my bedroom are always library books + those given to me that I want to read asap, but I often get distracted by the bigger pile downstairs or by new arrivals.  So for the next few weeks that pile is only going to shrink as I am not going to let myself look further than the bedroom set when choosing the next read until it is empty, then I can enjoy refilling it!  What should I pick first though?

CKG Shortlists announced!

Before I even got to school this morning the shortlists were announced:

CILIP Carnegie Medal 2014 shortlist:
Julie Berry ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME Templar (14+)
Kevin Brooks THE BUNKER DIARY Puffin (14+)
Rachel Campbell-Johnston THE CHILD'S ELEPHANT David Fickling Books (11+)
Susan Cooper GHOST HAWK Bodley Head (11+)
Anne Fine BLOOD FAMILY Double Day (14+)
Katherine Rundell ROOFTOPPERS Faber & Faber (11+)
Rebecca Stead LIAR & SPY Anderson Press (9+)
William Sutcliffe THE WALL Bloomsbury (11+)

CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2014 shortlist:
Rebecca Cobb (illustrator) Julia Donaldson (text) THE PAPER DOLLS Macmillan Children's Books (3+)
Olivia Gill (illustrator) Michael Morpurgo and Clare Morpurgo (text) WHERE MY WELLIES TAKE ME Templar (8+)
Oliver Jeffers (illustrator) Drew Daywalt (text) THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT HarperCollins Children's Books (5+)
Jon Klassen (illustrator) THIS IS NOT MY HAT Walker Books (5+)
Jon Klassen (illustrator) Lemony Snicket (text) THE DARK Orchard Books (5+)
Dave McKean (illustrator) David Almond (text) MOUSE, BIRD, SNAKE, WOLF Walker Books (9+)
Birgitta Sif OLIVER Walker Books (5+)

Some overlap with my lists but a few surprises!
 

CKG 2014 shortlist predictions

The official shortlists will be announced on Tuesday 18th March but earlier this week I, along with some other fantastic librarians and bloggers, made our predictions for the Carnegie shortlist on acaseforbooks.  I thought I'd just quickly put mine on here as well:

but also share my Greenaway predictions having had a chance to look through 17* of them today:

Open Very Carefully by Nicola O'Byrne (illustrator) and Nick Bromley (author) (Nosy Crow)
Weasels by Elys Dolan (Nosy Crow)
Puss Jekyll Cat Hyde by Jill Barton (illustrator) and Joyce Dunbar (author) (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)
The Day the Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffers (illustrator) and Drew Daywalt (author) (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Mouse Bird Snake Wolf by David McKean (illustrator) and David Almond (author) (Walker Books)
Oliver by Birgitta Sif (Walker Books)
Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali (illustrators) and Alix Barzelay (author) (Templar)
Too Noisy! by Ed Vere (illustrator) and Malachy Doyle (author) (Walker Books)

This personal shortlist could very well be different to the 'real' one as I didn't think too much about the criteria, I just went for those I loved for their cleverness, cuteness (not allowed in the judging room) and originality!  My favourite is The Day the Crayons Quit.

*I wasn't able to get hold of:
The Dark by Jon Klassen (illustrator) and Lemony Snicket (author) (Orchard Books)
Where My Wellies Take Me by Olivia Lomenech Gill (illustrator) and Clare and Michael Morpurgo (authors)(Templar)
The Journey Home by Frann Preston-Gannon (Pavilion Children's Books)

The Official CKG Longlist is announced!

Today the longlist for the Carnegie Kate Greenaway Awards 2014 was announced:

• The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas by David Almond (Walker Books)
• All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry (Templar)
• The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks (Penguin)
• The Child’s Elephant by Rachel Campbell-Johnston (David Fickling Books)
• Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper (Bodley Head)
• After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross (Oxford University Press)
• Heroic by Phil Earle (Penguin)
• Blood Family by Anne Fine (Doubleday Children’s Books)
• Infinite Sky by CJ Flood (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
• Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn (Electric Monkey)
• Monkey Wars by Richard Kurti (Walker Books)
• Hostage Three by Nick Lake (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• The Positively Last Performance by Geraldine McCaughrean (Oxford University Press)
• Brock by Anthony McGowan (Barrington Stoke)
• Binny for Short by Hilary McKay (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Far Far Away by Tom McNeal (Jonathan Cape)
• Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (Indigo)
• Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (Faber & Faber)
• Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead (Andersen Press)
• The Wall by William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury)

I've highlighted the ones I've read, less than half :-/ so 11 more to go!  Am disappointed that some of my other favourites aren't there, and not surprised by a couple of the ones I haven't read yet that are on there.  I'd been avoiding reading the McCaughrean and McKay because I really don't fancy them :-( But a few of the ones I have on my TBR shelf that I've been looking forward to are there so swings and roundabouts!

I think my no.1 so far is The Wall.  What's your favourite?

#CKG2014 - my personal longlist

I read a few more Carnegie nominations in January:

Bradford, Chris, Bodyguard: Hostage (Puffin Books)

Dockrill, Laura, Darcy Burdock (Corgi Children's Books)

Kessler, Liz, North of Nowhere (Orion Children's Books)
McDowell, Nigel, Tall Tales from Pitch End (Hot Key Books)

Pass, Emma, ACID (Corgi Children's Books)

Watts, Helen, One Day in Oradour (A & C Black)

Whyman, Matt, The Savages (Hot Key Books)

None of them were anything special so I haven't changed my mind about my personal longlist so far.  The official longlist will be announced tomorrow so I've run out of time to add to it!  Of the 27 books I haven't yet read I hope to see the following on the main list because they look like great reads:

Berry, Julie, All the Truth That's in Me (Templar)
Campbell-Johnston, Rachel, The Child's Elephant (David Fickling Books)
Carthew, Natasha, Winter Damage (Bloomsbury)
Jarratt, Laura, By Any Other Name (Electric Monkey) 
Jones, Gareth P., Constable and Toop (Hot Key Books)
Kuehn, Stephanie, Charm and Strange (Electric Monkey)
Kurti, Richard, Monkey Wars (Walker Books)
Lake, Nick, Hostage Three (Bloomsbury)
Mayhew Julie, Red Ink (Hot Key Books)
Sepetys, Ruta, Out of the Easy (Puffin Books)

Really excited to see what the judges have picked out as Carnegie worthy!

CKG2014 update

The longlist will be announced in about 4 weeks, on Tuesday 4th February, so I thought it was about time I updated my personal list.  Because I've been alternating nominations with new books, and read literally nothing during the Christmas fortnight, I've not added to my 'read' total by many titles:
Almond, David, The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas (Walker Books)
Bowler, Tim, Sea of Whispers (Oxford University Press)
Bryce, Celia, Anthem for Jackson Dawes (Bloomsbury) 
De Quidt, Jeremy, The Feathered Man (David Fickling Books) 
Fisher, Catherine, The Obsidian Mirror (Hodder Children's Books) 
LaFleur, Suzanne, Listening for Lucca (Puffin Books) 
McGowan, Anthony, Brock (Barrington Stoke)
Prue, Sally, Song Hunter (Oxford University Press) 
Yangsze, Choo, The Ghost Bride (Hot Key Books)

I'm half way through Cooper, Susan, Ghost Hawk (Bodley Head Children's Books)

Again, I enjoyed them all but don't think any stood out as definite winners, but there are still 34 (and a half) that  I haven't read! 

Unofficially someone involved in managing the CKG this year made an educated guess that the longlist might be about 20 books, so here (in alphabetical order) are my personal top 20 so far:
Brooks, Kevin, The Bunker Diary (Puffin Books)
Cooper, Susan, Ghost Hawk (Bodley Head Children's Books)
Cousins, Dave, Waiting for Gonzo (Oxford University Press)
Creech, Sharon, The Great Unexpected (Andersen Press)
Cross, Gillian, After Tomorrow (Oxford University Press)
Diamand, Emil, Ways to See a Ghost (Templar)
Dowswell, Paul, Eleven Eleven (Bloomsbury)
Earle, Phil, Heroic (Puffin Books)
McGowan, Anthony, Brock (Barrington Stoke) 
Mussi, Sarah, Seige (Hodder Children's Books)
Pitcher, Annabelle, Ketchup Clouds (Indigo)
Shearer, Alex, The Cloud Hunters (Hot Key Books)
Stead, Rebecca, Liar and Spy (Andersen Press)
Stiefvater, Maggie, The Raven Boys (Scholastic)
Stroud, Jonathan, Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase (Doubleday Children's Books)
Sutcliffe, William, The Wall (Bloomsbury)
Torday, Piers, The Last Wild (Quercus)
Wein, Elizabeth, Rose Under Fire (Electric Monkey)
Wooding, Chris, Silver (Scholastic) 
Yangsze, Choo, The Ghost Bride (Hot Key Books)
There are a number of other books I've yet to read, of those 34 there are at least a dozen that I would choose to pick up, so it could still change dramatically!

 Have a look at my initial post about the Carnegie nominations to see the whole list...hopefully I do a bit better in these next 4 weeks.