OK, now is the perfect time for us to talk about Discover's London Children's Book Swap. It's just under a month away, so, don't you worry, we can all still get involved!
In case you don't already know about it, here's my five-point low-down:
The fun takes place on Saturday 14th February 2015
It is FREE!
There are 38 London venues taking part, including ArtHouse Crouch End, the Southbank Centre and Discover Children's Story Centre (of course!). For a full list of venues, have a look-see at the facebook page
There will be free activities and entertainment at some of the venues
All you need to do is take a book to swap!
The Book Swap is set to be a lot of fun, but you can get involved even if you can't make it on the day. How? You ask. By donating books, that's how! Just get in touch with Julia Cameron, Marketing Officer at Discover Children’s Story Centre for more info ([email protected]). And those of you who come along, please share your photos! You can find the good Book Swap folks on Twitter and follow the conversation using this wee hashtag #LDNChildrensBkSwap.
"The London Children’s Book Swap is an excellent means of encouraging families to read together while feeding children’s desire for stories and the drive to read and learn."
Today I am very excited to be posting a guest blog from the lovely Caroline Carpenter, Editorial Assistant at The Bookseller. I couldn't go to YALC, and so I've loved hearing about it - in conversation, over Twitter, anywhere - and that was my motivation when it came to asking a few people to tell me their YALC tales. Big, big thanks to Caroline for being the first!
The first ever YALC
As I entered the London Film and Comic Convention in Earls Court, passing several Mothers of Dragons and light sabres on the way, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the UK’s first ever Young Adult Literature Convention.
In the Book Zone at the back of the hall, I found publishers selling books, a chill-out area with a wall of hanging books and lots of keen YA fans already milling about. The panel area was a small stage with chairs set out in front. Though there were no walls separating us from the rest of the attendees, surprisingly it was easy to hear what all the speakers said.
How to get published
The first panel of the day was ‘How to get published’ with authors Phil Earle and Sally Green, chaired by Puffin Books’ editorial director Ben Horslen. It was interesting to hear how both of the authors came to writing, considering neither of them planned to. For Earle, working as a bookseller and being handed a copy of Louis Sachar’s Holes “turned a light on” and he eventually began writing himself, while Green discovered a love of writing while studying with the Open University.
Considering the shake-up going on in the industry at the moment, I was intrigued by Green’s statement that she didn’t even consider self-publishing as she doesn’t feel tech savvy enough and instead went down a very traditional route. She was also vocal about how sharing her work with others and getting and giving feedback during her Creative Writing course really helped her writing.
It was great to have Earle speaking as both a writer and a publishing insider (children’s sales and marketing director at David Fickling Books). He spoke openly of his worry approaching publishers having been on the other side of things and not wanting to embarrass himself or feel that anyone was doing him a favour.
Both writers were honest about the fact that part of their reason for choosing their publisher, Puffin, was down to vanity and wanting to have a brand with such a legacy on their books. They also gave out plenty of golden nuggets of advice, telling aspiring writers not to chase the market and instead “write the book that you want to read”.
I'm too sexy for this book!
Next, the newly-crowned Queen of Teen James Dawson chaired a panel consisting of fellow authors Cat Clarke, Non Pratt and Beth Reekles on the subject of sex in YA. I was impressed by how specific he was with his questions in relation to the other writers’ work and found this a really lively, fun panel with lots coming out of it.
All the authors on the panel were clear that, though their approaches ranged from Pratt’s graphic sex scene in Trouble to Reekles’ more tame fade-to-black scene for her younger readers in The Kissing Booth, they felt a duty to write about sex in YA as it reflects the reality of life for teenagers.
Pondering why sex in YA is still a taboo, Clarke raised some good points, highlighting the “ridiculous” discrepancy between this attitude and parents letting their children watch highly sexualised television shows such as Game of Thrones or reading violent books such as The Hunger Games. She suggested this is because there is an attitude that books should be “good for you”, which she called “crazy, because books are for entertainment!” Dawson made another good point - that it’s better for curious teenagers to find answers about sex in novels than the internet.
The panel seemed to be in agreement on most of the issues raised. All of the authors were opposed to the idea of age ratings on books and they all acknowledged the “trickle down effect” of 50 Shades of Grey on sex in books becoming more acceptable, though Clarke noted that most sex in YA is “doing something very different” to 50 Shades, with less focus on titillation. They all dismissed the label New Adult, with Pratt calling it “a marketing tool” and Reekles saying it merely “labels books for gatekeepers”.
Crossover: not just for kids
I also listened to a panel on the crossover appeal of YA, consisting of authors Matt Haig, Meg Rosoff, Anthony McGowan, Nick Lake, with David Maybury chairing. Out of all the panels I saw, I felt like this was the least engaging as not many questions were posed to the authors, which meant the conversation had a lack of focus and direction.
A few of the things discussed stood out for me, such as McGowan saying that the “intensity” of being a teen is what attracts him to writing YA, and Lake noting that YA readers seem to be “more willing to read across genres” than adult readers. They also talked about the distinction between YA books and an adult book about teenagers, with Lake saying that YA is told from the perspective of a teen looking out whereas an adult book is like looking in at a teenager’s life.
Controversially, during this discussion McGowan said that he doesn’t like fantasy or escapist books as he thinks books should make people question the world we live in and want to change their lives. He also said that he thinks teenagers should be reading books such as War and Peace rather than obsessively reading Twilight.
I was quite shocked to hear his comments in the setting of this convention, when everyone attending was there to celebrate YA despite the snobbery that often comes with it. That said, it did seem like he was playing devil’s advocate somewhat and hearing a different point of view did provide some debate. The other authors were quick to disagree with him, with Rosoff reminding him to “know your audience!” and Haig saying that “a book doesn’t have to be long and complex to be interesting or profound”.
Sisters doing it for themselves
The final panel I attended that day was about heroines in YA with writers Julie Mayhew, Tanya Byrne, Holly Smale and Sara Manning. It was really refreshing to get their perspective on both YA books about girls and what it’s like to be a female writing YA.
They talked about the pressure for YA heroines to be “strong” and “perfect”. Mayhew said that writing perfect teen heroines was “unrealistic” and unhelpful as teenage girls are already “under a lot of pressure to be perfect”. The example of The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen was brought up and Smale admitted that Katniss is a strong heroine that she doesn’t identify with, so in her own Geek Girl series she wanted to create a heroine “who’s brave in a different, more vulnerable and relatable, way”. There was general agreement with Byrne’s statement that “there is more than one type of teenage girl to represent in YA”.
When they were asked by an audience member if they felt they were taken less seriously by the publishing industry as female authors, Byrne said that she feels the covers given to books by female authors makes a “huge difference” to how they are perceived and who reads them, suggesting that less specific covers would encourage more diverse readerships. Manning said that she definitely felt taken less seriously as a woman, but Harrop disagreed, saying that YA is “one of the best places to be a woman in the media”, thanks to the high proportion of women writing and publishing YA.
After wondering around the Film and Comic Convention for a bit (and getting some snaps of Hodor from Game of Thrones!), I headed back to the Book Zone for a workshop on fan fiction and communities with Eva Caiden from Movellas and Elizabeth Minkel, a freelance journalist and expert on fan culture. As it was the end of the day and most people were queuing to pick up some free books, this was a much more intimate affair than the panels. I don’t know if I learned much that was new to me here but it was a good environment to ask questions and discuss ideas in and I got to see the passion of some teenagers that attended the session too, which is what it’s all about after all!
Leaving YALC, I felt like I had experienced something really positive and informative. Huge congratulations are due to everyone who helped make it happen for a job well done. I hope that it becomes a regular event and is even bigger and better next year!
Earlier this week, Zoe Griffiths (the ever-so-lovely Senior Commissioning Editor on the Fiction list at Bloomsbury Children's Books) and I decided to spend a lunch hour treasure hunting for some Books About Town BookBench sculptures. If you haven't heard about these benches already, then you are in for a treat, my friend, for they are sprinkled across London in the most delightful way. There are four different trails that you can go on (Bloomsbury, City, Greenwich and Riverside), each mapping a very satisfying number of benches.
In our lunch hour, Zoe and I managed to spot 10 benches mere minutes from the Bloomsbury office, and, I have to admit, there were some clear favourites. We both loved Aslan (the bench was in use when we got there, so we couldn't see Lucy and Mr Tumnus, but Aslan more than made up for that - he's quite beautiful), and The Day of the Triffids and Mrs Dalloway were also stunning. In a flurry of excitement, we pledged to do the remaining three trails, and I'm really looking forward to it!
The benches showcase some wonderful illustrators and books, and they are so worth a look - if you haven't come across at least one already you really must go out looking. A BookBench treasure hunt would make a great family day out - my neice and nephew loved hearing all about them and I've already planned an excursion with them. It strikes me as quite fantastic that this is something I can share with them that's absolutely free. How rare!
I'll keep you posted on mine and Zoe's highlights - with three more trails to do, I'll have lots to share with you! And if you'd like to find out more about why the BookBenches were made, you can do so here.