We were thrilled to see Meg Rosoff’s brilliant review for White Time by Margo Lanagan in last Saturday’s Guardian. Meg says: “There is a great deal to admire about these stories, not least the author’s terse, angular prose and her extraordinary talent for creating hybrid worlds. As in the best fantasy and science fiction, the characters and settings are familiar enough to resonate emotionally while remaining wholly other; Lanagan’s vision of the world skews effortlessly towards the seriously weird.” To read the full review, click here.

Meg finishes by saying that she looks forward to reading whatever Margo writes next, and so do we! To find out more about Margo, check out her blog here.

It has been a quietish kind of August. But one recent highlight has been the arrival of another Charlie Small manuscript, The Hawk’s Nest, courtesy of curator, Mr Nickelodious Trumpery Ward. He visited the office earlier today, so I took the opportunity to ask him a few pertinent questions.

Have you and Charlie Small ever met? No, I have never met Charlie, but I feel as if I’ve got to know him very well. I was lucky enough to find the very first volume of adventures on the muddy banks of the River Wyre.

It seems that Charlie is getting closer and closer to home. How does his mum feel, bearing in mind she sent him out for a pint of milk 400 years ago but he’s not back yet?  Luckily for Charlie’s mum (and for Charlie),  it seems as if she is stuck in time at the very moment that Charlie crossed over into the strange world of his adventures.  

The Hawk’s Nest, the manuscript we’ve just received, reads like a cross between Hound of the Baskervilles and Scooby Doo. Do you think Charlie Small’s adventures will ever be made for the small or big screen? A media company is developing Charlie’s stories into a live action series for TV with computer generated special effects, to appear in 3D. I will keep you informed of this very exciting development!

My favourite characters are Braemar, the arctic wolf from The Puppetmaster’s Prison, followed by Bella the dancing SAS badger in The Forest of Skulls (for obvious reasons). Who is your favourite character? I really like the pea-brained bullying gorilla, Thrak; Charlie’s brave friend, Philly; but I think my favourite character is one of Jakeman’s incredible inventions, The Steam-Powered Rhino. Although he is only a machine, he has a real personality and sacrifices himself to help Charlie.

When is the next book coming out? Land Of The Remotosaurs is out on  September 2nd – it’s a full-on battle against robotic dinosaurs in a life-sized gaming stadium where Charlie meets his Nemesis and befriends a tribe of wild boar troopers. The recently discovered journal The Hawk’s Nest will be published in February.

Thank you very much, Mr Ward! And we hope Charlie gets home for tea as soon as possible…

We had great fun! Well done to the lovely team at Blackwell’s Bookshop, Broad Street, to everyone who came(&drew in our ‘visual guestbook’!), but especially to the fabulous Kate whose stunning work we were celebrating!! Kate & her Blackwell’s sidekicks set up the space with book displays, artwork and even some A3 books & pens so that everyone could have a doodle - it was brilliant to see adults and children alike getting really stuck in, playing around and producing some beautiful drawings! There was a raffle, where the winner(chosen from a sparkly silver top hat!) was able to choose one of Kate’s mouth-watering cover designs,  and an auction of 5 original line drawings, made by Kate to raise money for the mental health charity, Mind. Vish was the lucky raffle winner, whose family helped him choose the framed cover of Bekka sitting in the moon, and The Story Museum placed the winning bid for the auction of Kate’s original drawings!

Here is a shot of David and Kate mid-auction -

- David made an excellent auctioneer, and coaxed the crowd along very well indeed!

Below are some more photos taken at the launch by Kate’s friend & fabulous photographer, Lisa Curtis – see here for the full gallery on her site. And if you’d like to hear more from the lady of the moment herself, nip over to Kate’s blog to hear her thoughts and follow her news!

Tonight, at Blackwell’s in Oxford, David Fickling Books will be celebrating the launch of Kate Brown’s astonishingly beautiful DFC Library book THE SPIDER MOON. (Click here to see a sample!)
Kate is an award-winning artist who previously contributed to THE DFC, and it should be a lively, fun event, full of familiar faces! It is also open to the public, for any locals who may wish to pop in! See here for a review of THE SPIDER MOON by one of the brilliant YA bloggers who visited Random House Children’s Books in Ealing recently. More news – and pics – from the launch shortly!

We are immensely proud to announce that we will be publishing Jenny Downham’s second novel in December this year – see here. YOU AGAINST ME arrived in its entirety a few months ago and glued us to our chairs until we’d finished reading. It is an incredibly special book. The manuscript has been recently making its way around our sales, marketing and publicity departments, and reminds me of the time we received the manuscript for Jenny’s first novel, BEFORE I DIE – we were at a Random House Children’s Books sales conference in Amsterdam (ah, those conference days are long gone) where two A4 copies were feverishly passed around about fifty people, who invariably embarrassed themselves by crying on trains and planes all the way home. More on Jenny’s new novel to follow - watch this space.

..or rather barks.. or growls?  More suggestions for dog ’speech’ description please! In fact, have a go at naming this mystery(ie. ‘where the barks went’, ‘growls in hiding’ etc) and send us your ideas - best suggestions win a DFC badge! Just leave your doggy verb or title & your email address as a comment below.. 

One Robin Etherington - a rather sharp-eyed and sharp-witted young man - has already solved ‘The Mystery of Lost Words’ by bringing to our attention that fact that text & speech bubbles were missing from the final page of Dave Shelton’s miniature treat, THE STAKEOUT – !! ‘Eek!!’ I hear you say – but never fear, thanks to our crime-busting dog duo and their trusty sidekicks, Robin & Dave, the final pages have been restored for your viewing pleasure! Just click here  to read the rectified newsletter :)  ..Phew!

If you should need any brainfood whilst thinking up your doggy descriptions, take a look at Dave Shelton’s fascinating website  - it’s crammed with glimpses of new work and beautiful pages from Dave’s old sketchbooks – a real insight into his hilarious, engaging and completely charming work.

I’ll be keeping my eyes on the comments box..   ’til next time!