North East Teenage Book Award

There are a whole host of book awards that are awarded across the country to various types of books and authors. In the last year I've had a couple of small groups of students from school involved reading and voting in the North East Book Award and the North East Teenage Book Award. I'm hoping to attend a meeting next week with a bunch of other school librarians where we'll put together the shortlist for this year's NETBA which will start in September. As a result I'm reading as fast as I can through at least some of the books on the longlist.

Last night I skipped through Kat Got Your Tongue by Lee Weatherly. I've enjoyed it and rather wish I'd had time to do it a bit more justice. Kat wakes up after a car accident with memory loss. She doesn't know who she is, doesn't recognise her mum, and has no recollcetion of a major falling out with her friends immediately before the accident. It's a cleverly told story with chapters alternating between Kat's narration as she readapts to life, and her diary from before her amnesia. The reader is left to piece together what dreadful thing Kat did to her friends just as Kat herself has to.

On a very similar theme there's also a book called Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. It's a while since I read this one (and it's nothing to do with the Book Awards) but I'd would highly recommend it. Interestingly neither Naomi, the protagonist of this book, nor Kat are necessarily the most likeable characters before their memory loss, but seem considerably nicer people afterwards.

A dilemma

One of my latest reads from the school LRC has been The Summoning by E.E. Richardson. Justin and Joy have always been fascinated by their grandfather's collection of curios and books, but when Justin sneaks into his grandfathers house and 'borrows' a book he and his friends find themselves caught up with more than they had bargained for. The items in the house are all connected with the occult, they accidentally unleash a demon, ending up with one of the friends being possessed.

It's a well written and exciting story, dark enought to give you a bit of a scare but not to bring on nightmares - if you like that sort of thing. And that's where the dilemma comes in. I'm a Christian, and as such I don't like the idea of kids reading about the occult, even if it is fiction. But equally I'm a librarian by profession and as such I stand, where I can, against censorship. As a result I'm torn. I don't have a problem with stories of witches and wizards where the setting is clearly a fantasy world, so Harry Potter and other tales of magic. I'm not really bothered about ghost stories and other spooky things. Bring it on I say! But The Summoning seems like a different kettle of fish, and therein lies by dilemma. No easy answer.

What do the following things have in common?

Tarantulas, poison ivy, green martians, killer bees, germs and sharks? The answer... Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of them all!

Back in the days when I worked for a Schools Library Service, looking at picture books was one of the best parts of the job. I still enjoy them but am nowhere near as well informed about them as I used to be. Scaredy Squirrel by Michelle Watt is one of my recent favourites. Because his many fears and worries, Scaredy stays safe in his tree, with his emergency kit (a parachute, bug spray, mask, antibacterial soap and sardines) at the ready just in case. In the first book featuring Scaredy he finds out that the Unknown isn't quite as scary as he thought. Moral of the story: be willing to take a few risks!

It's a lovely book - funny but with a really great message. And Scaredy is rather cute! There's a good review of the book and interview with the author on the Calgary Herald website.

Blood and snow

Just finished Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick. It's a fictionalised biography of Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons. I'd forgotten that Ransome had also written Old Peter's Russian Tales. Sedgwick's book starts with a information about Old Peter, and we learn about Ransome's fascination with all things Russian. As a newspaper journalist he is based in Russia at the start of the Russian Revolution, and soon finds himself embroiled in dangerous events.

He is in contact with British officials, and with the Bolsheviks, not to mention in love with a young Russian who is Trotksy's secretary. It is fascinating to think that a man known for wholesome and now rather old-fashioned children's books was at one point deciding which side to spy for in the midst of terrifying times

I must admit that I didn't find it an easy read, though like Marcus Sedgwick's other books, it is a book for young people. A review in the Sunday Times says that it "will reward readers of any age". I have my doubts. Interesting, and very well written it may be, but I can't see if gripping too many of my teenage readers at school.