Older Brother was most struck by Shaun saying that imperfection was a “very important concept for an artist”; and that he is always aiming for simplicity, because it’s through that apparent simplicity that he can achieve layer upon layer of meaning. Then accompanying the text with unexpected illustrations to create further tensions – but he pointed out that he wouldn’t call his work surreal per se: rather, the unexpected juxtaposition of familiar objects in his work is what is surreal.

Little Brother especially loved the first in Shaun’s series of cartoons depicting a day in his life: Waking to the Sound of a Solitary Cicada – a huge cicada looming in through the open window. He’s still laughing about that (but, as is so often the case with Shaun’s work, for me, the more I think about it, the more the funniness is tempered with a feeling of unease…). Little Brother also came home thinking about the humor and tensions achieved by people/creatures doing extrordinary things as though they are completely normal – like feeding Christmas decorations to a huge, friendly monster-machine aka the Lost Thing. And when Shaun pointed out that, as per the element of the familiar present in all his creations, the Lost Thing is a cross between a dog, a horse and an elephant, yes, you can absolutely see it.

I was bowled over by Shaun’s generosity in handing over his creations to their audience with an open invitation to interpret. He told us how in his writing, he pares the words down, excluding any emotional words because he wants the readers to have space to bring their own interpretation to his work. And he took us through his creation of the water buffalo giving directions to the little girl with a box from Tales from Outer Suburbia (you can see it in Shaun’s interview with Drawn here): how initially there was something peeping out of the box, and how he felt it wasn’t fair on the viewer to be so prescriptive, so he left it up to each person to imagine what was in the box.

It was also a real treat to see two extracts from the animated version of The Lost Thing and to hear about the ten-year project to bring the book to the screen, including Shaun’s determination to retain the flatness of the illustrations, so as not to imbue the animation with too much ‘reality’. Fascinating!

Shaun told us about his early days as an artist, with examples form his early childhood (yes, his talent was immediately apparent), and about his path to becoming an illustrator, including his first major picture book The Rabbits; how The Arrival started out as a conventional picture-book before evolving over five years to the genre-changing work it proved itself to be; about his unwillingness to be pinned down to a single interpretation of The Red Tree; and about how his immigrant background and his suburban upbringing have each affected his work.

Here are some of Shaun’s thought-provoking gems:

[About his studio] It’s not romantic… It’s like a kitchen with pencils.

[In his narratives] Big no no; never explain.

I’m always trying to work against language. Pictures provide an invitation to resolve differences.

[About people today being very visually literate] We’re so good at reading pictures, we do it very quickly. Through my artwork, I’m trying to get people to examine, to contemplate, to look at things for a long time and really think.

Images can expand or contract time. A picture book doesn’t have to be linear.

[We should read a picture book] three or four times. The first reading doesn’t count – all you get is an idea of the story.

One of the functions of fiction is to fill in the gaps in personal/social/collective memory.

Whatever readers see [for example, in The Arrival] is only a thin slice of the situation – like in real life.

I’m very fond of charcters pointing off into the distance at the end of a story.

Sometimes the best story is one without words or pictures at all.

I do want my work to be about everything - quite a tall order…

And despite it being well after midnight according to his bodyclock, Shaun then undertook a marathon and much appreciated book signing. I didn’t think my copy of The Arrival could be any more precious but now it’s priceless. Thank you, Shaun, for being so open and generous a speaker, and for signing our books. It was a truly inspirational talk.

The good news is that Seven Stories filmed the talk and I’ll keep you posted as to when it becomes available. In the meantime, do also read Seven Stories’ write-up of the event, as well as this post from the Templar Publishing Blog and Genkijen’s post, in which she reflects on Shaun’s talk from her perspective as a teacher. We were the family sitting next to her

This year’s award was won by Helen Limon for her story Om Shanti, Babe, “a story about growing up, family and friendship” described by the judges as “Fabulous . . . laugh-out-loud funny.” They were looking for a “strong story that an 8 to 12-year-old would want to read rather than a worthy book
that overtly explores social issues.” We were treated to an extract from the book and it certainly sounds like they found what they were looking for. Now we will have to be patient while we wait for the manuscript to go through its due process towards publication. To whet your appetite, here’s a brief synopsis:

Teenager Cassia joins her mother, who runs a fair trade craft shop, on a buying trip to India, a country that she mostly knows from her Bollywood dance routines. Troubled by a friendship gone sour at home, and feeling out of place in a new culture that challenges her assumptions, she reacts badly to her mother’s relationship with an Indian colleague. As Cassia sheds some of her preconceived ideas, she finds friends where she least expects to and starts to realise her dream to follow her mother into business. The story emcompasses fair trade and environmental issues alongside her spiky tussles with fashion-mad friend-to-be Priyanka, and her crushes on pop star Jonny Gold and Dev, a boy she meets on a train.

Helen had put together a display of pictures and objects she had brought back from a trip to Kerola, India in 2009, which was the inspiration for her book:

“Talking to the mothers about their lives and their ambitions for their families, and listening to
what the children said they wanted, inspired the story and made me conscious of the social and environmental themes that are woven into the book.

“My characters are not the sort of children that get written about much and I lived most of my life not in
England, so I do sort of know what it is like to be different inside your head even if you look like everyone
else on the outside.”

Runner-up in the competition was Karon Aldermon for her story For Keeps about Benedicta (Ben), her mother and younger sister who are asylum seekers from Cameroon. “While their uncertain future and hand-to-mouth existence cast a shadow over Ben’s friendships and fun times at school glee club and on church outings, she has decided that Newcastle is her home. With her friend Becky, she resolves to help a bullied schoolfriend, Jaz.” Karon received a Special Mention for her manuscript The Story Thief in last year’s competition, and wrote a Guest Post for our PaperTigers issue focusing on Refugee Children in August.

This year a Special Mention went to Australian Michelle Richardson for her Tek , “who accompanies her cold and distant father, an expert on Australian Aboriginal culture, to a desert army base, where her gift for communicating with the ngepan (spirits of the dead) surfaces just when it
is most inconvenient.” Again, it sounded really intriguing…

The occasion also marked the official book launch both of last year’s winner, Too Much Trouble by Tom Avery, and the sequel to the 2009 inaugural award-winning Takeshita Demons, The Filth Licker by Christy Burne. Christy sent a special message to the Divers Voices “family” from her home in Australia, and it was great that Tom was actually able to be present. He was clearly delighted to be celebrating the publication of Too Much Trouble and it was good to know that he is working towards his second book, despite a busy year (new baby, new home and new job, teaching in an ethnically diverse promary school in London). Earlier in the day Tom had given a presentation at a local school. For one activity he had encouraged the pupils to conjure up the different emotions in some highly-charged scenes by creating tableaux. While telling us about it, Tom press-ganged some volunteers, students from Lancaster University, to do just that – as you can see from the photo…

In her introduction to the Awards Ceremony, Seven Stories’ Chief Executive Kate Edwards announced the good news that the Award, which had originally been funded for three years, would continue for at least another three. This is thanks to Seven Stories’ commitment to the Award and the financial backing they are able to give because of their inclusion in Arts Council England’s National Portfolio, as well as to the continued support of Arts & Business. In order to encourage more entries from writers’ groups around the UK, it was also announced that the closing date for the fouurth Diverse Voices Award has been extended until 31st December 2012 – so if you have been toying with the idea of entering, now’s your chance; just contact Helena McConnell the Award Coordinator at helenaATsevenstoriesDOTorgDOTuk or diversevoicesATsevenstoriesDOTorgDOTuk for an application form… And for more information generally about the Award, go here.

The Award was announced at Seven Stories in Newcastle, and the occasion also marked the launch of Too Much Trouble, winner of the Award last year, by Tom Avery, and of The Filth Licker by Christy Burne, a sequel to her 2009 winner Takeshita Demons.

This great official photo shows (l-r) Helen, Tom and Karon with the three published books. You can also see some of my photos from the Awards Ceremony here; and read more about the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award here.

Too Much Trouble is the story of two [illegal immigrant] brothers, Emmanuel and Prince. Emmanuel tells us his story as he looks back on how events led to him holding a gun to a man’s head. The story opens on an ordinary day for the boys at school where they strive to go unnoticed, fending for themselves on handouts fom their drug-dealer uncle and living in a house where they compete for space with their uncle’s marijuana. But life changes completely when their temperamental uncle decides the boys are too much trouble and withdraws his already limited support. Left to look after themselves, the brothers are led into a life of crime from which Emmanuel cannot see a way out.

I have just returned home from Seven Stories in Newcastle, where the annoucement was made – and was lucky enough to hear Tom reading an extract from Too Much Trouble – it was part of where Emmanuel describes his last “ordinary day” – and I wished he could have continued a little longer. Instead, we will be looking forward to this time next year when Too Much Trouble will be published – just like the winner of last year’s inaugural Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Award, Cristy Burne‘s Takeshita Demons, which was launched today (and do read Cristy’s great blog, which charts the book’s progress from manuscript to print…).

In my review of Takeshita Demons, I said I hoped there might be a sequel – well, it was really welcome news to hear today that not only will there be a second book published next year, with the intriguing title The Filth Licker, but in 2012 a third title will be published to complete the trilogy: The Matsui Monster.

Not only that, but Takeshita Demons is to be featured in Booktrust’s Children’s Book Week Pack, which will be sent to all UK primary schools, and has also been selected for this year’s Booked Up list, which gives a free book to every child in their first year at secondary school.

I will be writing a bit more about the awards evening soon – I just wanted to share the news straight away. Congratulations, both to Tom and to Cristy.

Frances Lincoln Limited, the award-winning publisher, and Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books, are proud to announce the second Diverse Voices Award in memory of Frances Lincoln (1945 – 2001), to encourage and promote diversity in children’s fiction.

The Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award is for a manuscript that celebrates cultural diversity in the widest possible sense, either in terms of its story or the ethnic and cultural origins of its author.

The prize of £1,500, plus the option for Frances Lincoln Children’s Books to publish the novel, will be awarded to the best work of unpublished fiction for 8-to-12-year-olds by a writer, aged 16 years or over, who has not previously published a novel for children. The writer may have contributed to an anthology of prose or poetry. The work must be written in English and it must be a minimum of 15,000 words and a maximum of 35,000 words.

For more details and to download an entry form, visit the Seven Stories website.

Australian writer, Cristy Burne’s 2009 winning book, Takeshita Demons, is due to be launched at the 2010 award ceremony in June next year. After being tantalized by an extract at the 2009 Award ceremony (you can read my post about it here), I can’t wait! Cristy has a fabulous blog, which includes great interviews of the other shortlisted writers. She and her husband, along with their three-month-old baby, have just returned to Australia after living in the UK for two and a half years, so we wish them all the best for this new stage of their journey…

… now you know what one of the surprises was that I mentioned!

And here are the others:

For details about visiting the exhibition, go to the Seven Stories website.

In keeping with Seven Stories’ aims to inspire and spark the imagination, the walk-through exhibition has something to suit everyone – from hands-on activities and props to fascinating artefacts and displays: and a whole lifetime’s original artwork and manuscripts. For, despite escaping Nazi Germany at very short notice and moving several times across Europe before finally settling in England, Judith’s mother kept many of her daughter’s early paintings and story-writing. As Kate Edwards, Seven Stories’ Chief Executive, pointed out, it is particularly special to have “a whole life-time of drawing and story-telling encapsulated in one wonderful archive” and through that archive and now also through this exhibition, “we start to experience Judith’s life through her eyes”: as a child, a refugee, a wife, a mother, an artist, and a wonderful storyteller. “She’s also very funny: she moves us but she also makes us laugh, which is a wonderful, wonderful gift to give to children.”

That humor, as well as the upheaval of Judith’s early years, is beautifully conveyed in the exhibition. My two were immediately captivated by the tiger paw-prints leading the way upstairs in suitably long strides; and younger brother threw himself through the enormous cat-flap between sections in the exhibition, gleefully pointing out how the tiger tracks on one side had become Mog’s on the other. There are also a couple of fabulous surprises but I won’t give them away!

It was a privilege to hear Judith Kerr speak about her now classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog stories, as well as her books for older children, based on her childhood as a refugee from Nazi Germany, growing up in wartime London and going to art college: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Bombs on Aunt Dainty and A Small Person Far Away. And certainly, for Older Brother, whose school topic this term is the Second World War, it was especially emotive to listen to someone whose life had been so drastically and directly affected by Hitler – and indeed to come face to face with the grown up who was Anna in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

We were shown a delightful and moving film, also part of the exhibition, made by a group of primary school-children who had worked with Seven Stories and Judith herself as a Their Past Your Future project – read about it here. It had been particularly poignant for the class because some of the children were refugees themselves. Some of the children were present and it was evident that their affection for Judith and enjoyment of her work went way beyond the project, which had concluded with the children sending her a present of a pink, furry rabbit. They still had plenty of questions for her and one boy regaled her with the antics of his cat along the lines of Mog’s Bad Thing – which, when asked, Judith asserted to be one of her favorites: “ I like the one that’s rude – Mog’s Bad Thing!”

So, a few snippets we learned:

Judith regrets the passive way her father, Alfred Kerr, a well-known critic and journalist, is portrayed in her trilogy: she only found out about all the work he had done during the war on anti-Nazi propaganda long after she’d written the books.

Alfred Kerr’s books were among the first to be branded “un-German” and burned by the Nazis.

As a child, Judith often made and illustrated stories as presents for her family because she didn’t have any money to buy them (and some of them are in the exhibition).

Judith worked as a textile designer in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s and some of her designs are incorporated into the exhibition.

You can read a full biography of Judith here; a delightful encounter with her here and visit her in her studio here.

And finally, a question:

If you had only 20 minutes to pack, what would you take?

The name of Seven Stories not only refers to the axiom that there are but seven stories in the world told in an infinite variety of ways, but is also played out in the Centre’s daily life: it is housed in a seven storey building that is open seven days a week for a seven hours a day.

The late-nineteenth-century building was originally a mill warehouse. Many original features have been restored and the interior spaces have been designed with imagination and children in mind. The criss-cross of original beams in the top-floor room, beautiful to behold, also gives you a start, as you realise that there is a weird, curvy beam, winding its way through all the other beams – what structural use can it possibly be? Aaah – it is a bookshelf! And as it snakes its way down almost to floor-level, it houses enough copies of Julia Donaldson’s Playtime! for young visitors (and older ones too!) to come together and put on a play in the theatre corner, with the help of a sumptuous array of costumes. These include Donaldson’s and Axel Sheffler’s creation, the Gruffalo and the Mouse (and by the way, read this lovely interview with Julia Donaldson by Vulpis Libris – Part 1 and Part 2). Under this panoply of beams are also to be found a story-teller’s area complete with its exuberant throne, and a vast selection of books for a family storytime.

The current exhibitions are All Aboard, Away We Go! and From Toad Hall to Pooh Corner – both a feast for the eyes, ears and hands, and each with its own beautifully produced interactive trail. During our family visit, we chanted Mrs Armitage’s Mantra (“What we need, what we really need…”) and flew a plane while marvelling at Robert Crowther’s intricate paper-engineering from his book Flight. We discovered new-to-us old stories, like The Little Train, ostensibly by Dorothy Craigie but really written by Graham Greene and illustrated by Dorothy Glover (read this great post from Bear Alley for the full story…). We toot-tooted our way to (imaginary!) destruction in Toad’s car and, the highlight for me, we gazed on original’s of Robert Ingpen’s beautiful illustrations for Wind in the Willows, then looked at them in the book, while listening to the appropriate extract, seated in a replica, from the illustration, of Badger’s kitchen. Perfect!

I was astounded, when speaking to Lynda Jackson, Seven Stories’ Exhibitions Curator, to discover that these exhibitions are not permanent but usually run for about eighteen months – and the really good news is that they can tour elsewhere after their space in Newcastle has been taken over by something else… And I was given a sneak preview of what the next something else, From The Tiger Who Came to Tea to Mog and Pink Rabbit: A Judith Kerr Retrospective, will look like. So we’ll definitely be going back in September and I’ll tell you all about it!

In the meantime, I’ll be posting again soon about Seven Stories, with a closer look at its background and its role as a keeper of British children’s books, not to mention its superb children’s bookshop.

“There are dozens of supernatural yokai that most Japanese people will be familiar with. They appear over and over again in all kinds of stories. Some are benign, some are nasty and some you’re just not quite sure. The demons that Miku [the book’s young heroine] has to deal with include the nukekubi, a kind of child-eating flying-head demon, and the noppera-bo, a faceless demon that can take on other personae.

Most Western children don’t know about these yokai in the way that they know about vampires and werewolves, but just as vampires fear garlic, the demons often have an Achilles heel or fatal flaw. The nukekubi, for example, must leave its body somewhere while its hungry head flies around, and you can destroy the head by destroying the body. I chose the demons I thought would have the most potential for an adventure story, but there are plenty more for future stories. I like to write about children, especially strong girls, having great adventures.”

Created in memory of publisher Frances Lincoln, who died in 2001, the award was co-founded by Frances Lincoln Publishers and Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books in Newcastle in the UK. The Award was announced on Thursday at Seven Stories, which was a magical and perfectly fitting place to host the evening and I will be devoting a separate post to it next week. This is a photo of Hannah Green, archivist at Seven Stories, with a display of books and manuscripts from the collection.

In her introduction to this inaugural presentation of the Award, Kate Edwards, Chief Executive of Seven Stories, talked about the importance of highlighting global communication in a way that will promote understanding; and of finding the right voices to communicate with the 8-12 age group. She made a very striking point about considering books as cultural mirrors – sometimes they offer a true reflection of their contemporary society; sometimes they distort or play with that reflection.

John Nicoll, Managing Director of Frances Lincoln Limited, then spoke as Frances’ husband of his quest to establish the right kind of project in her memory: and this, he felt, was exactly what she would have supported, in its promotion both of new talent and of good stories to provide a bridge for people who find the unknown challenging.

In all, there were fifty entries, mostly from the UK but also from Australia, Canada, Germany, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the US, from writers from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. These were whittled down by Seven Stories to a shortlist of ten and the panel of four judges selected the final four (who were all presented with a copy of the superb We Are All Born Free):

Winner: Takeshita Demons by Cristy Burne;
Highly Commended: The Gift by Gemma Birss;
Commended: The Ever-changing Mum by Ruth Patterson;
Special Mention: The Queen of Sheba’s Feet by Clare Reddaway.

The judges treated us to an outline of each of these books – and Cristy then read us a very exciting extract from Takeshita Demons, seated in Seven Stories’ glorious Storyteller’s throne. We will now have to be patient and wait for the book to go through the practical publishing process before we’ll be able to read the rest of it. And it was tantalising too to hear about the other three novels and not be able to run and pick them up afterwards!

At the beginning of this post I described the award as ground-breaking: this is because it seeks both to celebrate diversity and to foster new talent. Entries must be unpublished manuscripts aimed at 8-12 year olds from writers who have not previously published a novel for children (although they may have contributed to an anthology of prose or poetry). The Award’s stated purpose is fourfold:

To take positive steps to increase the representation of people writing from or about different cultural perspectives whose work is published in Britain today;
To promote new writing for children, especially by or about people whose culture and voice is currently under-represented;
To recognise that as children’s books shape our earliest perceptions of the world and its cultures, promoting writing that represents diversity will contribute to social and cultural tolerance;
To support the process of writing rather than, as with the majority of prizes, promoting the publication.

The closing date for entries for the 2010 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award is 26 February 2010.

You can read more about the Award on both Seven Stories’ and Frances Lincoln’s websites, including how to enter…

(Click on event name for more information)

Guadalajara Book Fair~ ongoing until Dec 7, Guadalajara, Mexico

Jewish Book Month~ ongoing until Dec 22, Canada and USA

Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Children’s Books Exhibition~ ongoing until Jan 17, Chicago, IL, USA

Summer Reading Club 2009~ ongoing until Feb 15, Australia

Over Rainbows and Down Rabbit Holes: The Art of Children’s Books Exhibition~ ongoing until Mar 8, Amherst, MA, USA

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI Tokyo) Illustrators Exhibition~ Dec 1 – 14, Tokyo, Japan

Australian Poetry Slam 2008 – National Finals~ Dec 4, Sydney, Australia

Dromkeen Annual Literary Luncheon and Presentation of the Dromkeen’s Librarian Award~ Dec 5, Riddells Creek, Australia

University of the Philippine’s Writer’s Day~ Dec 5, Manila, Philippines

Barefoot Books Young Storyteller Competition Winners Announced~ Dec 6, Bath, United Kingdom

5th Annual Frostburg Storybook Holiday: A Community Celebration Through Children’s Literature~ Dec 6, Frostburg, MD, USA

Meet Four Children’s Authors From Pemmican Publications, Canada’s Only Dedicated Métis Press~ Dec 6, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Nordic Festival at Seven Stories, The Centre for Children’s Books~ Dec 6 – 7, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

PJ Lynch “The Champion of Picture Book Illustration in Ireland”~ Dec 8, Dublin, Ireland

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Meet the Author Event~ Dec 10, Paris, France

2008 Governor General’s Literary Awards Presentation~ Dec 10, Ottawa, ON, Canada

1st International Conference on Popular Culture and Education in Asia~ Dec 11 – 13, Hong Kong

American Identity in Children’s Literature Symposium~ Dec 13, Chicago, IL, USA

The Best of the Best in 2008: Distinguished American Picture Books for Children~ Dec 13, Amherst, MA, USA

Artist Reception for Illustrator Felipe Dávalos and his Exhibit “Tiempo de Niños/ Time for Children”~ Dec 13, Sacramento, CA, USA

Mantles of Myth – The Narrative in Indian Textiles~ Dec 13 – 15, Jaipur, India

6th Annual Houston Latino Book & Family Festival~ Dec 13 – 14, Houston, TX, USA

Exhibit: The Magical Toy Shop -Trade and Enterprise in Children’s Books~ Dec 13 – Mar 6, Toronto, ON, Canada

4th Karachi International Book Fair~ Dec 26 – 30, Karachi, Pakistan