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Weekend Reads

The weather has been dreadful recently, but I don’t mind a bit of rain so much when I can head to a cozy cafe for coffee and cake with a good book (or several). Here are some of the new children’s, teen and young adult books I’ve been enjoying recently.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, illustrated by Maira Kalman


I fell hard for this book: a quirky story of first love and first heartbreak, beautifully told by Daniel Handler, who you may know better as the author of the Lemony Snicket series. It’s an unusual book in all sorts of ways but for me what really made it special were Maira Kalman’s gorgeous, faux-naif colour-saturated illustrations. I love that we are beginning to see more illustrated books for teens and young adults, and these beautiful artworks perfectly fit with the atmosphere of the book.

Debutantes by Cora Harrison


From its sugar-plum coloured cover to its delicious descriptions of flapper fashions, Debutantes is delightful. Set in 1923, it’s the story of four sisters growing up in a crumbling country house. In spite of their lack of money and social connections, the girls are determined to make their way to London and experience the glitter and glamour of the roaring twenties. Each has their own particular ambition – Daisy, the central figure of the story, aspires to become a famous film director, whilst Poppy aims to become a jazz musician and eldest sister Violet simply wants to be the perfect debutante. It didn’t always feel quite true to the period – the bubbly confidence and open-mindedness of Daisy and her sisters often seemed a touch unlikely for 1920s teenagers. But strict historical accuracy aside, anyone who (like me) loves the Mitfords and I Capture the Castle will enjoy this charming and readable novel for younger teens.

The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo

I like a good fantasy and The Gathering Dark is great fun: the first in a trilogy set in the fictional country of Ravka, centred around its magical elite, the Grisha. Our heroine is downtrodden orphan Alina, whose life changes dramatically when she discovers she has magical powers of her own. Drawing on Russian traditions and folklore, Leigh Bardugo has created a vivid fantasy world: the plot rattles along with plenty of exciting twists and turns, and Alina makes for an engaging heroine.

The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson

This delightful book is fun, warm and imaginative – but reading it left me feeling rather sad. Why? Because it’s the last book from the wonderful author Eva Ibbotson. The incomplete manuscript for The Abominables – a lovely story about a family of kind-hearted yetis who go on an unlikely road-trip – was found among the author’s papers at her death in 2010, and has been completed by her son, but nonetheless it feels like vintage Ibbotson, following in the tradition of One Dog and His Boy and Journey to the River Sea. A classic in the making.

What’s Up With Jody Barton? by Hayley Long

You’d be forgiven for glancing at the brightly coloured, doodled cover of this slender novel, and dismissing it as another funny love story for younger teens, but Hayley Long’s newest book is full of surprises. This is the story of Jolene and Jody – twins who couldn’t be more different, at least until they both fall for the same boy. So far, so predictable? Maybe, but there’s a twist ahead that I certainly wasn’t expecting. I won’t give it away here, but this isn’t your run-of-the-mill teenage book, but rather a warm-hearted, thoughtful and very readable story about family and coming to terms with who you are.


The Diviners by Libba Bray


Back to the 1920s again, but this time we head to New York, for the latest novel from Libba Bray. I loved Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty – a mysterious story set in a turn-of-the-century girls’ boarding school, which has much more about it than your average teen paranormal romance. The Diviners publishes in September and I devoured the proof copy. It’s a beautifully-written and thrilling murder mystery set in glamorous Manhattan, complete with flappers, speakeasies, Gatsby-esque parties, and of course (this being Libba Bray) an unearthly, spine-chilling supernatural side. Every detail is perfect: I love the 1920s flapper lingo and from now on I’m only referring to alcoholic drinks as ‘panther sweat’ and’giggle water’.

The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable


Also publishing this autumn is The Wolf Princess – a heartwarming children’s adventure. Lonely schoolgirl Sophie lives a fairly humdrum existence in a dull boarding school, until a long-cherished dream unexpectedly comes true, and she and two friends find themselves heading to Russia on a school trip. But after a series of strange encounters, the three girls find themselves lost and alone in an unknown wilderness – until they are rescued by the beautiful Princess Anna Volonskaya. The Princess takes them away to her winter palace and tells them tales of lost diamonds and her family’s tragic past – but what does she really want from them? Vividly conjuring up the crumbling grandeur of the winter palace, from its dusty crystal chandeliers to the wolves howling in the forest outside, this is an atmospheric and enchanting story for older children.

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

I’d not heard of this book until it appeared on my desk at work, but something about it immediately grabbed my attention. Like How We Broke Up, it is enhanced by lovely illustrations, this time atmospheric black and white drawings from Ian Schoenherr. It’s an unusual and inventive story set in the early 1950s: Californian teenager Janie hates the idea of moving from sunny LA to cold, grey, drab post-war London, but once there things look up when she meets the rebellious Benjamin, who dreams of becoming a spy. Events take an unexpected turn when Benjamin’s father – an apothecary – is suddenly kidnapped, and he entrusts Janie and Benjamin with a book full of ancient spells and potions that they must protect at all costs. Combining fantasty with the very real nuclear threat of the 1950s, The Apothecary is an unusual, magical and highly engaging tale.

PS. These pictures were taken at Fork, a new favourite cafe on Marchmont Street in  Bloomsbury which does great coffee and even better Chelsea buns.

Five Things

Here’s another set of five cultural delights that I’ve recently been enjoying:

1. THE ROBINSON INSTITUTE

I really enjoyed this immersive and thought-provoking exhibition from Patrick Keiller at Tate Britain. The Robinson Institute documents a walk through Berkshire, Buckingham and Oxfordshire undertaken by the mysterious Robinson, a fictional academic and ‘scholar of landscape’ who has featured in various films previously made by Keiller. Here, the Duveen Gallery is filled with clues to Robinson’s journey and which point to his strange disappearance – potent photographs of cloudscapes and pylons, offbeat maps, unusual artefacts, landscape paintings and quirky black and white film clips, creating an intriguing web of ideas and references.




 

 

 

2. MARIA KALMAN

I love Maria Kalman‘s beautiful illustrations for Why We Broke Up, a new young adult novel from Daniel Handler (who is perhaps better known as Lemony Snicket). Kalman is the illustrator of numerous books for both adults and children, and has also created many covers for the New Yorker: I love the way she combines brightly-coloured illustrations with handwritten texts in her artworks. Pictured above is one of her images from The Pursuit of Happiness, a fascinating ‘visual column’ she wrote and illustrated for the New York Times in 2011: read it here.




 

 

 

3. A MONSTER CALLS

If you haven’t read A Monster Calls yet, you must. Based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, this is an extraordinary and deeply moving children’s book, in which a beautifully-written text by Patrick Ness mingles and merges with incredibly powerful illustrations by Jim Kay. It’s no surprise that the book has just become the first ever to win both the Carnegie and the Kate Greenaway Medals. (I interviewed Patrick and Jim about winning these prestigious prizes here).




 

 

 

4. PINTEREST

Addicted. Follow me here.


 

 

 

 

5. WRITING BRITAIN

I’m never entirely convinced by the British Library’s exhibitions: displays of beautiful old books are all very well but it might be more fun if you could actually read them. However, their latest exhibition, Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands, certainly has some real treasures in it for bibliophiles to enjoy. My highlights were a 1940s first edition Famous Five, the notebook in which Daphne Du Maurier planned Rebecca, the manuscript of Jane Eyre, a first edition of Mystery at Witchend by Malcolm Saville and the original manuscript of Cold Comfort Farm.

Interview with Patrick Ness & Jim Kay: Carnegie & Greenaway winners

From a Monster Calls written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay

From a Monster Calls written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay

This interview was first published on the Book Trust website http://www.booktrust.org.uk

A Monster Calls, written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay, has become the first book ever to win both the CILIP Carnegie and CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals. I spoke to Patrick and Jim about how it feels to share this remarkable honour.

‘One of the defining books of its generation’ is how Rachel Levy, Children’s Library Services Manager for Sutton Libraries, and Chair of the 2012 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway judging panels, has memorably described A Monster Calls – the first book ever to win both the Carnegie and Greenaway medals.

In winning the Carnegie this year, former Booktrust online writer in residence Patrick Ness also becomes the second author ever to win the award in two consecutive years: he also won the medal in 2011 for the third part of his acclaimed Chaos Walking trilogy, Monsters of Men.

‘Sharing the honour with Jim is great,’ says Patrick. ‘I never expected to win the Carnegie again, but I hoped they might give the Kate Greenaway medal to Jim this year. That was my best case scenario. I never thought they would give both medals to us, so it was a huge surprise.’

Remarkably A Monster Calls is only the second children’s book Jim Kay has illustrated: he credits it with ‘changing my life’. Of winning the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal, he says: ‘It was great to even be shortlisted. To win the award was just fantastic and not at all expected. It’s a wonderful feeling and it still hasn’t really sunk in. For anyone in illustration, this is a big deal. The list of winners is like a “who’s who” in illustration and it’s fantastic to think my name will be on that list alongside people like Michael Foreman.’

Patrick also acknowledges the prestige of winning the Carnegie. ‘It’s the oldest prize. CS Lewis won it, Ransome won it. It has an incredibly august history.’ But for both Patrick and Jim, it’s ultimately the Carnegie and Greenaway judging processes that set these prizes apart. The judging is rooted in the professional expertise of librarians across the country, who nominate titles to be considered for the shortlist. Patrick explains: ‘Children’s librarians are the ones who are right on the frontline, talking to teenagers and children every day about books. They are the real experts.’

The CILIP Carnegie Greenaway shadowing scheme, which sees children and young people in book groups in schools and libraries all over the country read amd discuss the shortlisted books, is also key to the prize. Patrick says the scheme is ‘brilliant: it’s one of my favourite things in the whole world…. Yesterday I spoke to several shadowing groups in Berkshire and there were a couple of hundred kids there, who were all arguing about the books. They’ve read the books – they are are excited about them, they disagree about them. It’s fantastic.’

Jim adds: ‘We’ve spent hours going through the comments on the shadowing website. I don’t have that much direct contact with readers, and what’s really interesting to me is how well they understand the books. And they’re so honest! It’s fantastic to read their comments.’

One young reviewer from the shadowing scheme described A Monster Calls as a book that ‘not only has the ability to break your heart, but to heal it as well’, touching on the emotional power of a book that Rachel Levy has described as ‘outstanding in every way… a book that readers will remember and return to over and over again.’

But for both Jim and Patrick, it’s also the format and illustration of this beautifully-presented book that make A Monster Calls special. Patrick explains: ‘Books for teenagers and older readers rarely get illustrated – almost never. We thought: why not try to break those rules? Illustration isn’t just for picture books, though picture books are glorious things. Illustration is for everyone.’

Jim adds: ‘Walker didn’t limit us to plates… I was allowed to flow in and out of the text, and that’s a hugely liberating thing for an illustrator. It’s a very rare thing – you see it more in graphic novels.’ Both hope that the book will help to set a precedent, encouraging other publishers to be more adventirous with illustrated books for older readers. Jim comments: ‘I hope it does kickstart a bit more freedom in the way that we see illustrated books, and give illustrators the opportunity to do things differently.’

Of Jim’s illustrations, Patrick says: ‘I think the reason they work so well is that they are suggestive. You never see Conor, for example – you only see silhouettes. Jim’s illustrations give you space for imagination. They create an atmosphere but they don’t tell you how to read the book. Instead they provide a landscape in which you can read the book, and that’s an important difference.’

Jim adds: ‘The text gives you a certain degree of ambiguity and the description is quite sparse. It allows the reader to evolve the story in a very personal way. As an illustrator it was great because not every character is completely pinned down. It gives you that manouverability to build a stage set around the characters and that’s really what we were trying to do.’

The book is also particularly special in that Patrick created the story from the final idea of the late children’s writer Siobhan Dowd, who died in 2007, herself a Carnegie Medal winner (posthumously for Bog Child in 2009). Patrick is specific about how he sees the relationship between Siobhan’s original idea and the finished text:

‘I don’t want to suggest that I’m somehow a conduit for Siobhan. I always think of writing as secret. You have to create a really private space to be free to create, that can’t be seen by other people. For me, in the process of writing this book, it was about bringing Siobhan along to that secret place with me.

‘Even for the best reasons, you cannot write a book as tribute… The risk of that is that you write a bad story, which would be the worst tribute. But in the introduction to the book I talk about running with the baton, and I think that’s the spirit of it. I wasn’t trying to guess what Siobhan would do, but just to grow the story as she would have done. In the end, I hope it isn’t a final tribute but something better, because it keeps people talking about her. It keeps people going back to her other books and reading them; it keeps her name in discussion. It’s a living thing, not a memorial.’

One question that many people will now be asking is whether the two have any future plans to work together. Jim explains: ‘We don’t have any concrete plans yet but I would love for us to work together again in future. I would be delighted and honoured. ‘

Sarra Manning Interview: We have nothing to declare but our dorkiness

Sarra-Manning

This interview was first published on the Book Trust website here.

Teen queen Sarra Manning started out as a journalist for Just 17 magazine and has gone on to write numerous books for teenagers, including Diary of a Crush and Nobody’s Girl.

I met her on a rainy Monday morning in a cosy Muswell Hill cafe to hear about her newest book, Adorkable, and why she’s still passionate about writing for teenagers after all this time…

Sarra Manning’s latest book, Adorkable, opens with a manifesto: ‘We have nothing to declare but our dorkiness… Better to make cookies than be a cookie-cutter… Don’t follow leaders, be one… Quiet girls rarely make history.’ Taken all together, it might be a manifesto not simply for being ‘adorkable’ but for Sarra’s approach to writing for young people itself

Sarra started her career as a journalist for teenage magazines like Elle Girl and J17. It was here that she made her first foray into writing fiction for teenagers with the hugely popular serial story Diary of a Crush which ran for several years in J17. The story followed 16-year-old Edie’s tumultuous on-again off-again relationship with moody ‘art boy’ Dylan, who captivated teenage girl readers. Sarra explains:

Diary of a Crush was how everything started. I’d written so many features about crushes for the magazine that we decided to do it from a fictional angle… Dylan was really just wish-fulfilment, this cool boy who is really elusive. But the column lasted for years, and it was how I got my first publishing deal. I was approached by Hodder Children’s who said: “We really love Diary of a Crush – have you ever thought of writing YA?” so I sent them Guitar Girl.’

After Guitar Girl – the story of three teenage girls who start a band – and Diary of a Crush, which was subsequently published as three short novels, Sarra went on to write a number of other books for teenagers, including Pretty Things, Let’s Get Lost and Nobody’s Girl, which was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize. However, writing teen fiction has remained for Sarra very much an extension of what she had loved about being a magazine journalist:

‘At J17, I had such freedom to write what I wanted. It was the most feminist magazine around, and I was able to write things like “be yourself, don’t take any nonsense from boys, if your friends are horrible to you, then dump them”. I felt very privileged but I also felt a huge responsibility to the reader. Today, I think it’s sad that magazines like those aren’t around anymore, and that’s one of the reasons I still want to write YA.

‘I think it’s a hard time to be a teenager… It’s great that there are so many blogs and so much happening online, but it can be hard to filter. Where do teenage girls get their information from? Not just advice about sex, but real emotional stuff, which teen magazines always did so well, about friends, relationships and parents. I dread to think where teenagers are getting their information from now, which is one of the reasons why YA is so important.’

Sarra’s latest book Adorkable, which is also her first for publisher Atom Books, is set in a distinctly contemporary context – its heroine Jeane is an award-winning blogger, trend-spotter and self-declared ‘iconoclast in training’ who rejects the identical American Apparel outfits of her fellow pupils in favour of eccentric jumble sale garb – a British equivalent of the superstar teen blogger Tavi Gevinson, perhaps.  In Jeane, who is not only self-identifies as a card-carrying feminst, but ‘like, seriously… [has] the word feminist on her business cards’,  Sarra has created a powerful heroine, who shares her own feminist ideals, and motivates her peers to think differently and be more politically engaged:

‘My feminism is so deeply ingrained. I grew up as part of a generation who were told we could be whatever we wanted, and that we should be independent. There’s a lot in popular culture that I have to stand against, like the whole WAG phenomenon – girls just wanting to have rich boyfriends. In teenage fiction, characters like Bella Swan [inTwilight] sadden me, because the message they send out is that you should give up everything for a boy. These books are all about a rescue fantasy. I understand that it’s seductive – you want people to look after you and protect you – but why can’t you rescue yourself?’

‘What’s more, he [Edward Cullen] is emotionally abusive! If Bella was your friend you’d just be like “Dude, your boyfriend is really creepy…”‘ Sarra continues.  ‘There’s a deeply worrying message about sexual abstinence too. Stephanie Meyer comes from a Mormon background and she’s been frank about that, but it’s I really don’t agree with instilling the moral viewpoint that sex is bad and sex will be the end of you.’

Her own novels are notable for their frank, open portrayal of teenage sexuality – from the awkward, funny and touching sex scenes with Jeane and Michael in Adorkable to the uneasy relationships between the four protagonists of Pretty Things, as they struggle to make sense of their own sexuality and discover that this may not always be as straightforward as they have been led to believe. Sarra explains:

‘We live in weird times – 15 years ago, teenage girls looked like teenage girls but now they look like glamour models. Your teenage years are a time when everybody is kind of figuring things out and experimenting, but there are all these messages that you have to be really sexy but without being sexualised.  There’s a terrible shaming of sexuality, but I want to get the message across that just because you have sex, and enjoy sex, it doesn’t make you a “slag” or a “slut”.’

But whilst there’s no doubt that a sense of responsibility to her young readers always informs Sarra’s writing, it’s the characters themselves that drive her work. ‘The characters dictate the story. I never write with a definite agenda, though I suppose that every book I write has a common theme, which is about figuring out the person you want to be.’

Not all of her characters are initially as strong-minded and feisty as the outspoken Jeane, who specialises in brilliantly witty put-downs. Characters like Brie in Pretty Things or Hadley in Fashonistas put a different spin on contemporary teen experience, angsting about whether they look right, have the right clothes, or will ever really fit in. ‘I really like writing those kinds of girls, like Brie or Scarlet in Adorkable. I think characters like Brie, inside they’re just a quivering mass of hormones and neurosis. I always go back to that thing Joss Whedon said, which is something like “Everyone is miserable in high school and if I’d had a single happy day in high school I wouldn’t have written Buffy.”‘

Unlike many young adult authors, Sarra has actively resisted the trend for paranormal romance or dystopia. ‘I can see the appeal of those layered worlds, like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, but I’m not interested in writing those kinds of books,’ she explains candidly. ‘Teen romance is sometimes looked down upon, but it has a real appeal for readers. Teen readers can often be reluctant, and it’s a really big deal to me that I’ll get an email – which happens quite a lot – that says “I used to hate reading but I love your books” or “my mum made me read one of your books and I loved it”. Some people like the romance element, but for others they’ll read a book like Let’s Get Lost and relate to the other issues, like how it feels to lose a parent. There is a perception that these kinds of books aren’t as heavyweight or important as others, but you can take what you want from them.’

‘I get letters from girls saying “I had no confidence but Edie gave me confidence”. You’re helping people discover who they are going to be, and those books stay with them in a way that other books don’t.

It’s perhaps for this reason that, although Sarra has gone on to write for adults, she still feels passionate about writing for young people. ‘I like the freedom of YA. Teenagers are a lot more accepting of a difficult heroine like Jeane. Besides, your teenage girl self never goes away…  People sometimes ask me, ‘do you have to do a lot of research for your books?’ and I always say ‘well, no, not really’ because it’s really easy for me to channel those feelings. I do feel the same way that I felt then. You get better at tempering it and smoothing down the rough edges but it’s all still bubbling away inside you.’

Olympia Le Tan

I love these handmade embroidered book clutch bags created by Olympia Le Tan – these images are all from her tumblr blog.

Together with Spike Jonze, she has also created Mourir Auprès de Toi, a quirky stop-animated film about book characters that come to life after dark in the famous Parisian bookshop Shakespeare & Company. 

You can watch the film in full here, and read more about how it came to be made, but an excerpt is below.