We’re pleased to share another author blog with you – this time from Linda Newbery, all about an event she took part in last week..

Being shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal has had long-lasting effects. Although I haven’t been on the shortlist since 2004, Lob was longlisted this time, and I was invited to Cardiff for a special Shadowing Day organised by Karyn Chapman, librarian at the Bishop of Llandaff High School. She’s been organising these celebration days for six years now, and the occasion has steadily grown in scale and ambition. This year, it took place at the Gate Theatre, a former church which is now a theatre with gallery space and café, and involved fourteen schools from South East Wales, over two days.

The participants from the various schools were put into mixed groups on Tuesday morning, each to represent one of the shortlisted books in a short dramatisation on Wednesday. Quite a tall order, especially as those taking part had been chosen for reading keenness rather than for acting ability. There were about twelve in each group, ranging in age from year 7 to year 10, each with a teacher or librarian to help them develop their presentation.

My job was to take part in the judging panel, and of course we were assessing the presentations rather than the books. First, I’d read five of the six titles – the one I missed was the book that turned out to be the Carnegie winner, Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness. From the five I read, I thought it was a very strong shortlist, any of which could deservedly have won.

The groups clearly had great fun devising their presentations. There were two performances – one in the afternoon, for an audience made up from the various schools, and another in the evening, for parents and teachers. As judges, we were told that we could make two different choices, if we wished – and certainly all the groups had refined their acts by the evening. But, in the end, we chose the same one both times – the presentation of Out of Shadows, by Jason Wallace. This group focused well on key events in the Zimbabwean boarding school, including nasty bullying episodes. Everyone played their part well, including the boy who took the role of Weekend, the telephone operator – a small part which he made characterful and endearing.  The female presenter held it all together with presence and style, and was awarded a trophy for best participant overall.

Also memorable were the market scenes from Meg Rosoff’s The Bride’s Farewell, and the creepiness of the chosen episodes from Marcus Segwick’s White Crow.  This book was also voted as the shadowers’ choice for Carnegie winner. Monsters of Men ran the winner close, in my opinion, and Prisoner of the Inquisition was also very dramatic. The group presenting The Death-Defying Pepper Roux , by Geraldine McCaughrean, had great fun with the mixed-up love notes in the department store.

It was a lovely day, well-supported by Camelot Books and Literature Wales as well as by the schools. It’s great to see how the shadowing scheme continues to grow, and particularly good, I think, to bring readers together in a special setting such as the Gate Theatre. I’m sure those children and teenagers will always remember taking part. I only wish such a thing had been going on when I was at school – I’d have loved it!

The Carnegie shadowing scheme is sometimes criticised because the children’s vote, although recorded on the website, doesn’t contribute towards the judges’ decision – the Carnegie and Greenaway Medals are awarded by panels of librarians from the various regions of the UK. So far, CILIP has resisted urgings to include the children’s vote in some way, and I think that’s right. There are numerous awards now which are voted for by children, and the Carnegie must keep its special status as the most prestigious prize for a children’s writer by respecting the judgements of specialists.

I’d like to thank Karyn Chapman and her fellow organisers for inviting me to take part in such a memorable and enjoyable event. Congratulations to Patrick Ness for winning – and at least I can now sit next to a Carnegie winner on the bookshelves!

Linda Newbery

Mistress of the Storm introduces Verity Gallant, an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. She goes to school, spends time with her family and passes spare time in her local library. Wellow, Verity’s home, is a place steeped in mystery and intrigue, but it is a history Verity knows little about. But what she does find out about the history of her ‘ordinary’ family during the course of the book transforms her.

When a famous smuggling ship arrives in the town’s port, closely followed by the arrival of a mysterious grandmother Verity has never met, her life and family begin to unravel and she battles with her knowledge that something unnatural is happening, but this all takes place against a backdrop of normality: school days, sailing lessons and making friends.

M.L. Welsh presents a very readable portrayal of a teenage girl struggling to find a sense of identity. This book could be described as a coming of age story and, in this sense, feels familiar. But what is different about this story is that Verity’s experiences blur the line between reality and the supernatural. Mistress of the Storm brings the mysterious and the magical into the realm of everyday life. As Verity discovers more and more about the history of Wellow, and her family itself, she learns to accept (and convince others) that there are forces outside the ordinary at work. The magic in the tale is placed alongside reality in a way that turns the impossible into the believable: ‘Perhaps we should consider other possibilities that might previously have seemed far-fetched’.

Welsh writes openly and vividly, giving each character a distinct voice, and the end of the book leaves us with a feeling of triumph and hope. I am greatly looking forward to the next instalment!

The new paperback came out earlier this month – click here for details.            

Have you heard of Hay Fever?..

Several DFB authors and illustrators authors caught it this year! Sarah McIntyre, Candy Gourlay and The Etherington Brothers all went down with bad cases of the contagious fever this year, from attending Hay Festival 2011.

Symptoms?

Shivers of excitement, blistering friendliness and a rash of book-lovers..

The cure?

A strong dose of workshops, talks and festival antics, taken with a marquee-ful of your favourite authors and illustrators!

So what did these lovely DFBers get up to all weekend?? Well…

Robin & Lorenzo Etherington(AKA The Etherington Bros) -  sold out their workshop(!), and it sounds like they had a blast monkeying around with their 200+ fans(!!). . When I asked Robin what his festival highlight was, I was  hit with a wave of enthusiasm and a list as long as my arm. But I think that ‘Finally getting to perform our show for our respective wives and see them really enjoy it’ and ‘getting papped by ten year olds and knuckle bumped by a legion of new readers’  were probably two of their more memorable experiences! Check out what else they got up to on their awesome blog here. Or for more details of what these boys can teach and show you, have a look around their new Comic Club site..

Sarah McIntyre and Candy Gourlay appeared as part of a triple-decker event alongside a favourite author of theirs, Geraldine McCaughrean – what a treat for the audience!  And beforehand, when Sarah heard the weather forecast, she drew this fantastic picture of how their trio might end up -

 - but, of course, the event was far from a wash out.

And, needless to say our fantastic authors didn’t leave it at that, they also ran their own their own talks and workshops! You can read Candy’s hilarious blog about the group experience, and of course her own workshop here. Candy’s writing workshop was all about legends… and there were some brilliantly silly ideas.

Sarah was also full of fun and seemed to meet up with nearly ALL the festivalgoers at Hay – even the Duchess of Cornwall!! For the lowdown on how Sarah a)wangled and b)handled this, check out Sarah’s blog, here.

Hooray for Hay, and for our truly brilliant authors who helped make this year’s festival such a success!!

(And if all that wasn’t enough, see how much fun was had by the many celebrity and non-celebrity attendees here.)

A few weeks ago at DFB I was introduced to WE by John Dickinson. I have to admit, I was initially a little dubious about reading it, as science fiction and fantasy are not my favourite genres. But I began and within a few pages I could not put the book down!

WE tells the story of Paul Munro, an engineer who is sent to work on a scientific station on a distant moon. The book is set in the future and the Earth that Paul leaves behind is a very different place to the world we know today. Paul and the people he lives with in the station are the only people able to look at the Earth from a distant perspective and perhaps the only ones able to save the human race from a terrifying future.

It is a mission from which Paul knows he cannot return and I found it terribly moving watching him come to terms with the isolation and loneliness of his new home. Gradually Paul comes to trust his fellow researchers, but the claustrophobic atmosphere they inhabit (they are trapped on the moon for the rest of their lives, in a small dome from which it is difficult and dangerous to leave) leads to explosive events which threaten to tear the team apart.

WE is full of grotesque characters and quite terrifyinging ideas: the crew have spindly bodies and swollen heads, and humans are growing up in a system from which they can never escape. But for me, the book was brought to life by the human drams at the cenre of it. The future of Earth portrayed in the book may seem like a remote possibility for our planet, but  the people fighting for a future of freedom and happiness for their children are no different from those we see around us today.

This tale is the perfect thriller for young adults. It is a gripping story carrying a poignant message that will make you question the very nature of who we are and where our world is going.