#cpd23 Thing 4

Current awareness - Twitter, RSS feed and Storify
In this Thing we'll explore a few tools that  will help you to keep up-to-date and aware of goings on in the library and  information world, and make it easy to share news and stories with others
So as you're probably aware I am already on Twitter, have been for about 4 years, and I love it.  I follow authors, publishers, librarians and book bloggers.  Although I follow about 450 people, I have a locked 'quick check' list of about 100 that I look at regularly as I don't find the time to keep up with the whole stream!  I've never joined in with a twitter chat, keep meaning to but am never at a computer at the right time, but I do use #hashtags quite often.

iGoogle with Google Reader RSS has been my homepage on my laptop for quite some time - again, I follow a number of book bloggers through there, and a few librarians mostly found through cpd23 lists.  There are maybe 100 blogs I follow so I just look at the summaries and click further to read more if something catches my eye, as again I wouldn't have time to keep up otherwise.  Blog post headings are very important!

Storify is the one thing I've come across but not tried - I really like the idea so have now created my own one about the CILIP Carnegie Kate Greenaway medals.  Mind you, I signed in with twitter and then fell at the first hurdle - it refuses to 'pin' the storify bookmarklet to my bookmarks :-( I carried on anyway, searching in twitter for #ckg2012, and I embedded the url of the CKG website as well as a couple of YouTube videos of book trailers.

I had a quick glance at other cpd23ers efforts on storify but personally I think the most useful of the three is twitter.  You can skim through 140 character notes and click 'favourite' on items to look at more closely later.  People include links to really useful things from all sorts of sources, including blog posts meaning that an RSS feed becomes less important in making you aware of what is new.  It can be accessed from all sorts of mobile devices and so from anywhere, and again if you see a link you can't follow from your phone then you can just 'favourite' it to look at when you reach a PC.  You do have to use it regularly to make it worth having, I probably look 3 or 4 times a day but tweet less often than that.  To grow your follower base you need to tweet though!  I tweet mini-reviews of what I've read as well as links to things I find interesting in the library/book world.

Greenaway shadowing again...

Continuing shadowing the CILIP Greenaway award with a group of Year 7s. Have a look at my last post about it to see what we've looked at so far.

I wanted to show my pupils that illustrating isn’t as easy as it looks today, with 2 of their favourite from the Greenaway shortlist. 

Wolf Won’t Bite has deceptively simple illustrations while Can we Save the Tiger includes a lot of black and white pencil drawings with only some coloured.  I started the lesson by introducing them to the two books.

 …Tiger is not a typical picture book with the beautiful illustrations being complemented by scientific descriptions of the animals, and the story told is all true, about how a variety of animals are in trouble due to human activity. I read them the introduction and pointed out some of my favourite pages. I read the whole of Wolf… to them because it is a nice, quick, funny story.

I had photocopies of some pages from each for them to get inspiration from – the task was to either draw one of the endangered animals or to think of something else the pigs could get the wolf to do! The class was pretty evenly split as to which book they chose – I was surprised that 2 out of 3 boys decided to draw the tiger – while a couple of them had brilliant ideas of how the wolf could be tormented further. I particularly liked the wolf jumping through a flaming hoop, and wasn’t sure whether to be a bit alarmed by the idea of the pigs cooking him in a cauldron to eat for dinner! I like to do a display of their drawings alongside a display of the books in the library, last year’s was great but it was a bigger class and so a bigger display, at the moment most of them haven’t finished their picture so hopefully I’ll have a couple more brought to me next week.

At the end of the lesson we had heads on desks and eyes closed to anonymously vote for our favourite of the two – the other we will not look at again as part of the challenge. It was a really close thing, with a number of them having trouble deciding because they love them both, but in the end Can We Save The Tiger won with 60% of the vote.

So still in the running as far as we're concerned: Can We Save the Tiger?, Slog's Dad, The Gift, Puffin Peter and A Monster Calls.  We finished reading Slog's Dad and thought it was really good, they found some of the illustrations very disturbing!  The only one we haven't yet looked at is A Monster Calls.  It is beyond most of them to read but I think I'll show them the clip of Patrick Ness reading an excerpt that is available on the shadowing site to give them a feel for it.

Greenaway shadowing continued...

Have a look at my last post about shadowing the Greenaway award to see how we narrowed down the books to look at 4 of them in session 2...

Firstly, I gave them a simplified version of the criteria and we discussed what each aspect means and how we should assess the books. One thing they find very difficult is to recognise that the fact a book is babyish doesn’t mean it is bad but that it is aimed at a younger readership, with this in mind it wasn’t surprising that 3 of the ones they liked the least last week are the ones that are the  classic definition of ‘picture book’. While we discussed the criteria I showed them pages from the 4 books that demonstrate what we were talking about, and then gave them a brief summary of what each story is about. The task for the day was, in pairs or threes, to look at one of the books in more detail to decide why it is a worthy contender for the prize.  They had 10minutes to do this and then present their reasons verbally to the rest of the group while showing them their favourite pages.

Puffin Peter’s readers loved the colours, Solomon Crocodile’s readers loved the expressions on the characters’ faces, while There are no cats in this book led discussion about the different methods of illustration that are used in it and how it involves the reader. Those looking at The Gift initially said they didn’t like it, but I said they have to think of something positive to say so have a closer look, and eventually the brilliance of the cut out design of the pages brought them round and they spoke really well about how detailed the pages are and how effective the use of one colour on each page is.

The goal was to persuade the rest of the class that the book was a worthy contender, and the end result was that we had to vote out 2 of the books. They put their heads on the desk so they couldn’t see what the others were voting for and put their hands up when I called out titles. The two we’re never going to look at again…Solomon Crocodile and There are no cats in this book! I was very surprised that The Gift ended the lesson as a favourite as none of them had wanted to have it as their book to promote, but I think it is their dislike of babyish things coming out again. The Solomon Crocodile team were very disappointed but everyone agreed that we needed to let the cats out into the world...

In another session I decided it was time to do some reading, so we started Slog's Dad together, looking closely at the pictures and discussing what story they are telling.  I wouldn't say they're enjoying it because they know it is really sad and they're pretty squeamish about how his Dad wastes away, but I think they are appreciating how well the pictures tell the story without even really needing the words.  I wouldn't be surprised if it stays a favourite right to the end of our shadowing.

Greenaway shadowing

I don't have a Carnegie shadowing group at school, the library is too busy for me to be able to concentrate on a reading group after school so I just make do with informally saying to regulars 'read this, it is amazing and it has been shortlisted for the Carnegie', followed with an explanation as to why that is important.  What I am doing, for the 3rd year now, is shadowing the Kate Greenaway award with a group of Year 7s in their weekly lesson.  Today I told them about the award and showed them some previous winners, then introduced them to the books by making them "Judge a book by it's cover".  Obviously they can't be trusted to just look at the covers and not open the books, so I wrapped them in cling film first and gave them about a minute per book to rate them out of 5.

While I totted up their scores they had a browse of the previous winners and shortlists to see what kind of thing appeals to the Greenaway judges, and then I announced our favourites so far.  Next lesson we will only look at the 4 they liked the least based on the cover, those were 'Solomon Crocodile', 'Wolf Won't Bite', 'Puffin Peter' and 'The Gift'.    We'll discuss the criteria for the award and actually open the books this time, ooo, and get to know them a bit better.

The winner will be announced in about 9 weeks, we won't have 9 lessons looking at the books as there are other things to do as well, but I'm planning a few more sessions for us to whittle the shortlist down to our favourite.

I was surprised to see that the overwhelming favourite so far is 'Can we Save the Tiger?', I'll be interested to see how much opinions change when they see what's inside them all!

The Official CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards shortlists!

The wait is over and today we know what the judges have chosen as their shortlists from the 100-odd books nominated across the two awards.  Remember, the only nomination criteria were that it had to be written for children or teenagers and have been published in the UK between 1^st September 2010 (seems a long time ago!) and 31^st August 2011 (without having been published more than 3months earlier in another country).

The titles they chose for Carnegie, meaning they think they are “outstanding literature for children and young people” are:

The Midnight Zoo by Sonia Hartnett

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Septys

Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans

Everybody Jam by Ali Lewis

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

My Name is Mina by David Almond

Trash by Andy Mulligan

Eight titles this year so I could have chosen two more for my short list!  As you will remember from my previous posts relating to the Carnegie, I loved four of these, with two making it onto my short list.  I posted in November, February and earlier this month.  I didn’t like the other four, though I can understand why people did, but I am surprised that the judges thought they were better than any of the other titles on the list!

A nice variety, they’re all very readable and not too worthy or difficult for your average school child to read, probably the most accessible short list there has been for a long while and I think less for your average School Librarian to criticize.  There are always complaints about the Carnegie short list being full of books that are too difficult but all of these titles are age appropriate for KS3 reading groups.

My prediction for the final winner:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

I read a proof copy before it was published and at the next YLG London meeting said there’s no point reading any more books because this is the next Carnegie winner!  It is such a beautiful, sad story.  Second choice would be The Midnight Zoo.

The short list for the Greenaway Award for outstanding illustration is:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay

Wolf Won’t Bite by Emily Gravett

Puffin Peter by Petr Horacek

Slog’s Dad by David Almond, illustrated by David McKean

Solomon Crocodile by Catherine Rayner

The Gift by Carol Anne Duffy, illustrated by Rob Ryan

There are no Cats in this Book by Viviane Schwarz

Can we save the Tiger? By Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Vicky White

I’ll be shadowing the Greenaway with a group of Year 7s at school so I’ll let you know what we think!

My personal Carnegie shortlist

I have finally got to the end of the 52-book long long-list for this year's Carnegie!  I shall tell you which I think should be the final 6, and which I think might actually be on the short list, but first a brief look at the ones I've read since my last related post.  Again, red means I liked it and green means it didn't live up to expectations :-)

Deary, Terry Put Out The Light

Diterlizzi, Tony The Search for Wondla

Doherty, Berlie Treason

Halahmy, Miriam Hidden

LaFleur, Suzanne Eight Keys

Mason, Simon Moon Pie

McCaughrean, Geraldine Pull out all the Stops

McKay, Hilary Caddy's World

Mitchelhill, Barbara Run Rabbit Run

Morpurgo, Michael Shadow

Priestley, Chris The Dead of Winter

Revis, Beth Across the Universe

Saunders, Kate Magicalamity

Stephens, John The Emerald Atlas

I'm afraid I don't have time to explain those opinions today, have a look at my twitter feed (@cazapr1) for my mini-reviews of them all.

Such a huge variety of books, some of which I would not have picked up if they weren't on the list and so some nice discoveries, as well as the occasional disappointment.  But without further ado, my personal short list is...

Blackman, Malorie Boys Don't Cry

Dogar, Sharon Annexed

Gibbons, Alan An Act of Love

Hardinge, Frances Twilight Robbery

Hartnett, Sonya The Midnight Zoo

Ness, Patrick A Monster Calls

with special mention for Earle, Phil Being Billy, Pitcher, Annabel My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece and Young,

Moira Blood Red Road.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Almond, David My Name is Mina, Peet, Mal Life : an Exploded Diagram, or Rosoff, Meg There is no Dog on the real list because, among a couple of the other names on the long list, they're high-hitting literary types even if I didn't enjoy the stories much.

Next week we'll find out whether I have good taste or not!

CKG Longlist update

I think it is about time I updated my 'read' list of the Carnegie longlist - you may remember that way back in November I told you all about the list and which ones I'd read already.  Have a look at that one to refresh your memory because here are those I've read in the last (nearly) 3 months...as with the last post, red means I loved it and green means it wasn't all that. Reverse traffic lights, sorry, but I like red!

Bowler, Tim Buried Thunder - I don't think it could end up on the shortlist, but pretty gripping

Bruton, Catherine We Can Be Heroes - I found it very uncomfortable reading, too much of the racisism and not enough of the balanced opinion in the bulk of the story
Crossley-Holland, Kevin Bracelet of Bones - might be well written but I found it really dull

Donnelly, Jennifer Revolution - very exciting and not what I expected at all
Evans, Lissa Small Change for Stuart - meh
Fine, Anne The Devil Walks - didn't ring true, far too easily resolved, definitely not one of her best
Forward, Toby Dragonborn - far too long
Gibbons, Alan An Act of Love - what 'We Can be Heroes' failed to be!
Grant, Helen Wish Me Dead - nowhere near as good as 'The Glass Demon' so very disappointing
Hardinge, Frances Twilight Robbery  - absolutely my favourite book on the list so far
Hartnett, Sonya The Midnight Zoo - really moving wartime story
Ibbotson, Eva One Dog and His Boy - cute and innocent, classic children's adventure story
Lewis, Ali Everybody Jam - didn't grip me at all
Lewis, Gill Sky Hawk - tonnes better than I expected, never would have picked it up if it wasn't for the CKG nomination, but better than your average animal story
Rooney, Rachel The Language of Cat - collection of poems - very clever and witty, reminded me of Roger McGough's poetry (An Imaginary Menagerie is my all time favourite book of poetry, I never really progressed with age!)
Young, Moira Blood Red Road - one of the better of the recent plethora of dystopian fiction, definitely for fans of the Hunger Games

Here are the last of the 52 that I haven't tried yet:

Deary, Terry Put Out The Light
Diterlizzi, Tony The Search for Wondla
Doherty, Berlie Treason
Halahmy, Miriam Hidden
LaFleur, Suzanne Eight Keys
Mason, Simon Moon Pie
McCaughrean, Geraldine Pull out all the Stops
McKay, Hilary Caddy's World
Mitchelhill, Barbara Run Rabbit Run
Morpurgo, Michael Shadow
Priestley, Chris The Dead of Winter
Revis, Beth Across the Universe
Saunders, Kate Magicalamity
Stephens, John The Emerald Atlas

Not because I don't like the look of them, they've just not yet reached the top of my heap!  The shortlist is going to be announced on March 30th, so my next Carnegie post will be my personal shortlist, just before the official one comes out, so we can see how much overlap there is!

Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge

As dusk approaches, the good people of Toll-by-day slam shut their doors and tremble. New openings appear in the shadows, a black carriage rumbles through the streets and a wicked underworld emerges. It is time to discover Toll-by-Night – and it's a very different place.

Black-eyed orphan Mosca Mye and conman Eponymous Clent are down on their luck. Again. So when they find themselves embroiled in a daring kidnap plot, the whiff of money is too tempting to resist. Before she knows it, Mosca is trapped in Toll's deadly night city on a mission to rescue a girl she can't stand with only a midwife, a murderous goose and a war-crazed dandy knight to help her…

Twilight Robbery is the long awaited sequel to Fly by Night.

Macmillan 2011

People don't rave about Frances Hardinge enough as far as I'm concerned, I loved this book!  Fly by Night all those years ago was brilliant, Verdigris Deep wasn't as brilliant but also really good, but Twilight Robbery is wonderful.

Hardinge is a little over fond of slightly pretentious phrasing, but she is an Oxford graduate so I guess she can't help it...part of the premise is that the two main characters are clever and educated while surrounded by uneducated people so it works.  I thought it started a little bit slowly but the idea of Toll-by-Night and Toll-by-Day is amazing and brilliantly executed, and the story is perfectly plotted.  I didn't want it to finish but was very satisfied with the way it did!

By far my favourite on the Carnegie 2011 long-list so far.

The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Longlists 2011

The longlists for the two awards, nominated and voted for by Children's Librarians, were announced this month.  As I've mentioned before, the Greenaway award is for outstanding illustration in a book for children/young people while the Carnegie is for the writing.  The main criteria is that the book has to have been published in the UK between september 2010 and end of August 2011, and not have been published in another country more than 3 months earlier.

Remember they're not necessarily amazing literature, at the moment each book is on the lists because at least one Librarian in the country enjoyed reading it and so voted for it (each member of CILIP can vote for 2 books in each award).  The judges have to read them all and narrow them down to a shortlist by Easter 2012.  By that point they will have looked at the detailed list of criteria for winning the awards (you can find these on the CKG website if you're interested).

Here's the Carnegie list.  Those in red I read and love, those in green I've read but don't think they're amazing, those in white I haven't read yet.  For the last 3 years running I've read the whole shortlist before it was announced so I'll try to keep that streak going!

Almond, David My Name is Mina
Publisher: Hodder ISBN: 9780340997253

Barraclough, Lindsey Long Lankin
Publisher: Bodley Head ISBN: 9780370331966

Bedford, Martyn Flip
Publisher: Walker ISBN: 9781406329896

Blackman, Malorie Boys Don't Cry
Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 9780385604796

Bowler, Tim Buried Thunder
Publisher: Oxford Children's Books ISBN: 9780192728388

Boyne, John Noah Barleywater Runs Away
Publisher:David Fickling ISBN:9780385618953

Brahmachari, Sita Artichoke Hearts
Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 9780330517911

Bruton, Catherine We Can Be Heroes
Publisher: Egmont ISBN: 9781405256520

Collins, B.R Tyme's End
Publisher: Bloomsbury ISBN: 9781408806470

Condie, Ally Matched
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141333052

Crossley-Holland, Kevin Bracelet of Bones
Publisher: Quercus ISBN:9781847249395

David, Keren Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery
Publisher: Frances Lincoln ISBN: 9781847801913

Deary, Terry Put Out The Light
Publisher: A & C Black ISBN: 9781408130544

Diterlizzi, Tony The Search for Wondla
Publisher: Simon & Schuster ISBN: 9781847389664

Dogar, Sharon Annexed
Publisher: Andersen ISBN: 9781849392211

Doherty, Berlie Treason
Publisher: Andersen ISBN: 9781849391214

Donnelly, Jennifer Revolution
Publisher: Bloomsbury ISBN: 9781408801529

Downham, Jenny You Against Me
Publisher David Fickling ISBN: 9780385613507

Earle, Phil Being Billy
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141331355

Eastham, Ruth The Memory Cage
Publisher: Scholastic ISBN: 9781407120522

Evans, Lissa Small Change for Stuart
Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 9780385618007

Fine, Anne The Devil Walks
Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 9780857530646

Forward, Toby Dragonborn
Publisher: Walker ISBN: 9781406320435

Gibbons, Alan An Act of Love
Publisher: Orion ISBN: 9781842557822

Grant, Helen Wish Me Dead
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141337708

Halahmy, Miriam Hidden
Publisher: Meadowside ISBN:9781845395230

Hardinge, Frances Twilight Robbery
Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 9781405055390

Hartnett, Sonya The Midnight Zoo
Publisher: Walker ISBN: 9781406331493

Ibbotson, Eva One Dog and His Boy
Publisher: Marion Lloyd Books ISBN: 9781407124230

Kennen, Ally Quarry
Publisher: Marion Lloyd Books ISBN:9781407111070

LaFleur, Suzanne Eight Keys
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141336060

Lewis, Ali Everybody Jam
Publisher: Andersen ISBN: 9781849392488

Lewis, Gill Sky Hawk
Publisher: Oxford Chldren's Books ISBN: 9780192756237

Mason, Simon Moon Pie
Publisher: David Fickling ISBN: 9780385618519

McCaughrean, Geraldine Pull out all the Stops
Publisher: Oxford Chldren's Books ISBN: 9780192789952

McKay, Hilary Caddy's World
Publisher: Hodder ISBN: 9781444900538

Mitchelhill, Barbara Run Rabbit Run
Publisher: Andersen ISBN: 9871849392495

Morpurgo, Michael Shadow
Publisher: HarperCollins ISBN: 9780007339594

Mulligan, Andy Trash
Publisher: David Fickling ISBN: 9780385619011

Ness, Patrick A Monster Calls
Publisher: Walker ISBN: 9781406311525

Peet, Mal Life : an Exploded Diagram
Publisher: Walker ISBN:9781844281008

Perera, Anna The Glass Collector
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141331157

Pitcher, Annabel My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
Publisher: Orion ISBN: 9781444001839

Priestley, Chris The Dead of Winter
Publisher: Bloomsbury ISBN: 9781408800133

Rai, Bali Killing Honour
Publisher: Corgi Childrens ISBN: 9780552562119

Revis, Beth Across the Universe
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141333663

Rooney, Rachel The Language of Cat
Publisher: Frances Lincoln ISBN: 9781847801678

Rosoff, Meg There is no Dog
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141327167

Saunders, Kate Magicalamity
Publisher: Marion Lloyd Books ISBN:9781407108964

Sepetys, Ruta Between Shades of Gray
Publisher: Puffin ISBN: 9780141335889

Stephens, John The Emerald Atlas
Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 9780857530189

Young, Moira Blood Red Road
Publisher: Marion Lloyd Books ISBN: 9781407124254

So I've read 22 out of 52 so far...how many have you read and which is your favourite?

YLG London CKG Nominations evening

This evening the Youth Libraries Group London is meeting to decide which books they will put forward as a group vote for the CILIP Carnegie Greenaway awards awards this year.  The committee has decided on a shortlist and each of us is going to tout one or two of them to the rest of the group.  The Kate Greenaway award is for an outstanding picture book, as I don't see many picture books nowadays I'll enjoy watching the others pitch them.  I'm nominating My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece by Annabel Pitcher  for the Carnegie, which is for an outstanding piece of literature for children or young people - here's my pitch:

Her first book, it is for a younger audience than many other Carnegie contenders or past winners, has a lovely simple and accessible style.

It is a story about a family coping, or not, with the death of Jamie's older sister Rose in a terrorist attach a few years before we meet them.  Mum deals with it by running off with a member of her support group, Rose's twin sister Jas deals by rebelling against their parents' image of her.  Dad deals with it by turning to drink, and turning against Muslims who he blames for his daughter's death.

Jamie, our protagonist, is too young really to remember Rose, and believes his Dad when he says that moving to the Lake District will be a fresh start, until Rose's urn goes straight on the mantlepiece and he finds empty vodka bottles in the recycling.

To make matters worse, in his new school he is sat next to <gasp> a Muslim girl who, shock horror, turns out to be lovely.  We follow his innur turmoil as he tries to reconcile his feelings for her with the opinions of his father, and as she turns into his best friend, trying to keep her a secret.

It is a very moving and well written book, a perfect candidate for the Carnegie!

The others being put forward for the Carnegie are:

My Name is Mina - David Almond

0.4 - Mike Lancaster 

Small Change for Stuart – Lissa Evans

Noah Barleywater Runs Away – John Boyne

One Dog and His Boy – Iva Ibbotson

I've read My Name is Mina and Noah Barleywater, have you read any yet?  I'll let you know whether I can persuade a room full of Librarians that my choice is the right choice!