Being a bit of a daydreamer is a great quality to have if you’re an author: first time it’s ever come in handy in my life. Generally speaking though, it’s not something you look for in a sailor.

I always have to start any blog posts about the sea and sailing with a caveat explaining that I’m not actually a particularly good dinghy sailor: it’s just something I love.

Oh how embarrassing then to have an entire series of eminent authors (and me) writing posts dedicated to sailing. I’m starting to feel like I’m on one of those radio confession slots now. But, dear reader, I have to admit that I am such an inadequate sailor that it nearly done for me, and another unfortunate.

I’ve blocked most of the details from my mind but suffice to say it was a summer in the 1980’s; I was trying to learn how to be a slightly-less-average sailor courtesy of a UKSA week-long course, and was dutifully tacking across Cowes harbour in a Wayfarer with some poor boy from London.

It had not been an auspicious pairing this young man and I. He was shy, I was awkward, the weather was freezing: we didn’t get off to a brilliant start. And after we’d spent 30 minutes in the mouth of Wootton creek – in the water and the pouring rain – trying (and failing) to right our capsized boat, relations were on the downhill slope.

But what do you know, come the last day the weather turned, we were a bit more confident and things started to feel much better. ‘How lovely,’ I thought to myself as I sat at the helm. It was Dinghy Week and there were lots of other boats on the water, the sun was shining. ‘Isn’t this pretty?’ I expect I was thinking to myself, possibly whilst playing a 1980s tune in my head by way of a soundtrack.

Lovely green water, clear blue sky, I wonder if I’ll get a tan today…

Until suddenly my crewmate’s hand grabbed mine angrily and tacked our Wayfarer violently. Read the rest of this entry »

Ahoy there, and a Happy New Year to ye!

Over the next 2 months, the storyblog is going to be awash(ho ho) with nautical tales - of sea, sand, salty air, and sailing!   Last week, we published A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton and Heart of Stone by Melanie Welsh, and next month we’ll be releasing The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan.  Although very different, all three titles share some common ground: a journey over water, a harbour town with magical history and Selkie legend.  That’s right, all three stories take place in, on and besides the sea!   So, the DFB Storybloggers – authors and ilustrators all – will be sharing their thoughts, memories and ideas based on the seaside – these might be photos, jokes, artwork, prose…  We’ll have to wait and see.   Watch out for the first post from Linda Newbery this Thursday!

They say “worse things happen at sea”. But what if you are at sea?
What if you’re at sea in a tiny boat with a big smelly bear? And the only food you have left is a sandwich that is so old and mouldy that it glows in the moonlight? And the bear says something about sea monsters but you just don’t know whether he’s joking or not?

Yes, what then? Well, one of the things that you might not expect to come out of such a predicament is wave after wave of laughter. But Dave Shelton has managed to do just that. A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is a book like no other; a story which, in its bare bones, could be utterly bleak: a young boy is lost at sea, with no compass, no food and (seemingly) no chance. But Shelton’s masterful prose transforms this premise into a brilliantly funny and tender tale of friendship. While some of life’s problems are beyond our control, others may seem less worrisome if only you have a cup of tea, a ukulele and a bit of wishful thinking.

This book is rather different from anything we have published before. It is over three hundred pages long and Dave has illustrated it throughout, with several pages of beautiful full colour.

The unique humour of the story also meant that it was tricky coming up with the right cover look. Read the rest of this entry »

DFB Story Blog whip-cracker Tilda (pictured right) has requested us Storybloggers to write about our favourite stories of the year.

Well that’s a really tough call for this author who’s read (and LOVED) gazillions of stories this year.

So I thought ’twas more like the season to wax nostalgic for all those stories I have adored in Christmases past.

This past year there has been some controversy about school reading schemes vs ‘Real Books’ … but growing up in the Philippines at a time when there was hardly any local publishing for children, I discovered many of my favourite stories in reading schemes. These were imported from the United States and so featured no Filipino characters whatsoever (but that’s another story) … so it was all fantasy to me.

My Christmas favourite was a short story that never failed to bring a tear to my eye called A Tree for Nick by Mary Lou Brown (originally published in 1959).

A Tree for Nick was about a brother and sister decorating a tree for a Christmas tree competition. Except they couldn’t help thinking about their eight year old brother Nick, who was blind.

So they left out the shiny, sharp edged foil stars and the electric lights that burned Nick’s hand when he accidentally touched them last year. Instead, on went the soft fuzzy sheep and candy canes and the old horn that hooted when you blew it and the old tinkling music box. The tree they ended up with wasn’t pretty – but you could feel and taste and hear it.

‘Wheee!’ breathed Nick, his face shining with happiness. ‘This is the prettiest tree I’ve ever seen!’ Read the rest of this entry »

There were  lovely reviews of 3 very different DFB titles in the papers this weekend - with Magic Beans and This Dark Endeavour featured in The Times’ best children’s books of 2011!  See more here.

‘One of the best value books for 6 plus is Magic Beans an entrancing collection of classic fairytales retold by leading storytellers such as Philip Pullman, Adele Geras and Malorie Blackman. Elegant line drawings by Ian Beck, Debi Gliori, Peter Bailey and others add to the magic.’

‘It’s a beautifully balanced novel with the darkness of the central crime never forgotten or over-sweetened by the love story….. readers wanting to discover if the relationship overcomes all the odds are sure to find themselves provoked, moved and rewarded in equal measure.’  Click here to read the full Guardian review of You Against Me by Jenny Downham. 

‘Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavour a captivating Gothic novel for 13 plus about the future Dr Frankenstein and his competitive love for his twin brother. Books this good are for life, not just Christmas.’

..You lucky readers.  This year, you’re definitely getting a  treat – from The Etherington Brothers!   Just click on the opening panel below  to see their special, spooky snippet… Happy Halloween!

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In the Sea is the true account of Enaiatollah Akbari’s escape from Afghanistan to Italy. Enaiat was only around ten years old when his mother took him to the Pakistani border and then disappeared in the night, leaving him alone. In doing so, his mother had made an impossible decision. Either Enaiat could stay with the family, where as a young boy he would live in constant danger of being attacked, indoctrinated or made to work as a slave (this had happened to his father, who was eventually killed), or she could give him the opportunity to escape and make his own way to a better life. In the Sea follows Enaiat’s treacherous journey through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Greece, and documents the memorable acts of human cruelty and human kindness that he experienced along the way. Thankfully for Enaiat, he eventually found safety in Italy. Many other boys were not so fortunate.

Read the rest of this entry »

I find life to be bizarre and inexplicable on a pretty much daily basis, and I’d like to share with you the tale of one recent misunderstanding. I should warn you up front, it’s a baffling and nerve-shredding tale of tension and terror, and you will need all your deductive powers to help decipher it. Join me, if you dare, for…

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Talking of stories, Candy Gourlay – author of TALL STORY and blogger extraordinaire – is here to spark off our first wave of storyblogs. Thank you Candy!

‘Tilda

I love taking pictures but I hate having my photo taken. I can happily go for years without having a single picture taken of me.

But last year I became an author.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a fan of either Linda Newbery or Monica Edwards, or interested in pony books, click here to read Linda’s guest blog on the website Books, Mud and Compost. And Horses.  Linda talks about two of her favourite childhood books and the effect they had on her as both a reader and writer. Great stuff – and straight from the horse’s mouth!  If you look further, you’ll be able to spot Linda elsewhere on the site too..  Happy Reading!