There’s a new award in the offing: the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, announced today.

Eligibility:

1) be a work of fiction, ideally a novel (stand-alone or part of a series);
2) be published within one year prior to the call for titles (2008);
3) be published in the United States but may have been published elsewhere prior; and
4) possess a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit

which, according to point 3, means that our YA authors can continue to wow them. Guidelines are here.

Finalists for the first award will be announced later this month and the winner on September 1. Watch this space.

First, legislation in the UK to ‘vet’ authors before they can visit schools. Along with all others working with children, authors must register on a national database for a fee of ₤64.

Philip Pullman’s objections are loud:

Both Pullman and former children’s laureate Anne Fine said the legislation would mean that they would not speak in a school again. “I refuse – having spoken in schools without incident for 32 years, I refuse to undergo such a demeaning process,” said Fine. “It’s all part of a very unhealthy situation that we’ve got ourselves into where all people who are close to children are almost seen as potential paedophiles.”

Coincidentally, in an essay entitled Manhood for Amateurs : The Wilderness of Childhood in the New York Review of Books, US writer Michael Chabon reflects on how (over) protecting our children may lead to the death of the adventure story. Because there are no more adventures.

There is a small grocery store around the corner, not over two hundred yards from our front door. Can I let her [Chabon's daughter] ride there alone to experience the singular pleasure of buying herself an ice cream on a hot summer day and eating it on the sidewalk, alone with her thoughts? Soon after she learned to ride, we went out together after dinner, she on her bike, with me following along at a safe distance behind. What struck me at once on that lovely summer evening, as we wandered the streets of our lovely residential neighborhood at that after-dinner hour that had once represented the peak moment, the magic hour of my own childhood, was that we didn’t encounter a single other child.

Even if I do send them out, will there be anyone to play with?

Art is a form of exploration, of sailing off into the unknown alone, heading for those unmarked places on the map. If children are not permitted—not taught—to be adventurers and explorers as children, what will become of the world of adventure, of stories, of literature itself?

Image used under Creative Commons licence

The  winner for the tenth anniversary year has just been announced, so watch out for Bridget Collins, who is sure to be on the up and up. The Traitor Game won’t be available here in paperback until November.

The award is named in honour of two women, novelist Henrietta Branford and editor Wendy Boase, who both died of cancer in 1999.

Here’s the lineup of writers for young people. Something of a Who’s Who for a Book Week crossover event.

Browne’s first move as laureate, he says, will be to attempt to reinvigorate the role of picture books in society, “to encourage everybody to value the act of looking. In recent years, picture books have become the sole province of the very young; children are encouraged to move on to ‘proper’ books earlier and earlier. Looking is just as important as words: if vision is marginalised, we lose our ability to really see.”

Philip Pullman is one of a number of authors to comment:

Designers at Random House have given Lanagan’s novel one cover illustration for younger readers, while another has been chosen for the adult edition being published by Jonathan Cape. Pullman feels the mysterious cover portrait picked for a young audience is likely to draw readers in without giving much information. He does not believe, though, that children’s writers should steer clear of tough material.

“I don’t think there should be areas that children’s books can’t deal with. Why should there be, given that children are likely to encounter much stronger subjects in real life, ranging from divorce - which once used to be something terrible and awful that you must not talk about - to drug trafficking and sex?”

Earlier this week we commented on Newsweek’s choice of Jenna Bush to suggest suitable titles for readers in the northern summer.

The UK Telegraph has gone 22 better, with no fewer than three Children’s Laureates and many other distinguished authors and illustrators creating a terrific reading list for holidays, or any time. And yes, some of ours make the cut. Here’s Meg Rosoff on Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels:

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan is a genre-smashing novel. Set in the dark, dark fairy tale world of the Brothers Grimm, it raises questions about the price of living without risk, and how unspeakable trauma can be passed on to children. The sexual content, though not exactly explicit, made me gasp with shock, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone under 15. But everyone else? Definitely.

This is a list ideal for a lazy (northern) summer day that can just as easily be enjoyed in front of a cosy fire in (southern) winter.

Image used under Creative Commons licence.

Both ask questions, but is one more likely to be picked up at random than the other?

The US cover of Tales from Outer Suburbia

or the Australian and British one?

Tamesis prope ripam Grahameius ventum inter salices susurrantem audivit; qui etiam hac in urbe est sepultus. Oxoniae Alicia terram mirabilium intravit; Oxoniae gens hobbitorum nata est; Oxoniae porta ad Narniam est aperta. At hic quem nunc produco hunc ipsum locum vel maioribus laudibus ornavit, quippe qui in suis fabulis Oxoniam lepide descripserit et, ut ita dicam, dramatis sui personam fecerit.

Image of the City of Dreaming Spires used under a Creative Commons Licence

Authored by judij. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/07/01/oxford-honours-pullman/feed/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/07/01/oxford-honours-pullman/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CmisEvaluationFictionFocus/~3/Xf7L7ZKoie4/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/07/01/ask-an-expert/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:03:08 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=602 The current issue of Newsweek has another of those lists - you know, the best 100 books. Best. Books. Ever. Always good for a debate.

If you check the links on the right hand side of the page, you’ll note that nine authors are commenting on their favourite books:

We asked nine authors to tell us the essential books in their chosen areas of expertise.

Patricia Cornwell on True Crime, Bob Woodward on Political Scandal - you get the drift. So far, so good.

Children’s literature gets a mention, too. The expert here? None other than the former First Daughter, Jenna Bush. Well, she has written a book. And her mum was a school librarian, so that’s OK.

The Child_Lit listserv brought this one to our attention. We share their incredulity.

Flickr image used under Creative Commons licence.