News

  • More Award News!

    Posted: 8th February 2010

    Wow! It seems that February is the time of year when everyone starts nominating books for their awards.  I have heard this week that How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant has been nominated for the Hounslow Junior Book Award; The Lancashire Fantastic Book Awards; Dorset SLS New Horizons Book Award; the Bedfordshire Libraries Children's Book of the Year; the 1066 Schools Book Award and finally, Sheffield Children's Book Award. Phew! I think it's time to buy a party dress! Thank you to everyone involved in these awards. I am absolutely thrilled!

  • Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award

    Posted: 21st January 2010

    Hooray! How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant has been shortlisted for the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award 2010. I am especially happy about this because Tracy Alexander is a friend of mine and she is also on the list. So we will be able to hang-out together at the award ceremony in May! The full shortlist is:

    Tarantula Tide by Sharon Treganza

    Tribe: Jonno Joins by T M Alexander

    The 13 Treasures by Michelle Harison

    How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant by Elen Caldecott

    The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

  • Carnegie Medal longlisting

    Posted: 10th November 2009

    I am so pleased to be able to tell you that How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant has been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2010. The medal is voted for by librarians across the Uk and is awarded to outstanding books for children and young people. Some truly amazing books have been awarded the medal in the past. I have my fingers crossed for the shortlist, but, to be honest, there are some stunning books on the longlist. It is a real honour to be listed among them. For a full list of both the Carnegie nominees and the Kate Greenaway Medal nominees take a look at the Carnegie-Greenaway homepage and follow the links. I am bouncing like Tigger about this news!

  • East Sussex Children's Book Award Shortlist

    Posted: 19th October 2009

    How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant has been shortlisted for the East Sussex Children's Book Award 2010. I am really pleased! Especially when I consider how good the other shortlisted books are. They are:

    • Dark Summer by Ali Sparkes
    • The TV Time Travellers by Pete Johnson
    • Shark Island by Dave Miller
    • Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

    Children in Years 5 and 6 in East Sussex will have the opportunity to read the books over the next few months before voting for their favourite. The winner will be announced at a fancy event in June. For more information, go to the East Sussex website.

  • Bath Time!

    Posted: 1st October 2009

    I have just finished a busy week helping out at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature. It's a brilliant festival that happens once a year just a few miles from where I live (yes, I know I'm lucky!). This year we welcomed loads of great guests, including Francesca Simon, Jacqueline Wilson and Michelle Paver. I blogged about my favourite bits of the festival at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure. But I didn't mention the event I did with Julia Green and Marie-Louise Jensen. It was a lovely evening where we talked about and read from our work. Thanks very much to the brave girl who came to be the first person in the signing queue afterwards! And to everyone else who came to listen.

     

  • New book moves one step closer to publication

    Posted: 27th September 2009

    The copy-edits of my next book, How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini, have been completed. This means that all the punctuation and spelling errors (and, yes, there were plenty!) have been corrected. Next, the artist (the very talented Linzie Hunter) will design a cover. Then, it's ready to be printed. The story is set on Kirsty's estate, but is about a different character. Ali has just moved into Lever Tower with his mum, Anita. He's all ready for adventure, but what he finds on the estate is even wilder than he could have imagined! I hope you'll like Ali Ferguson when you finally get to meet him. The book will be in the shops in 2010!

  • How Kirsty Jennings Stole the Elephant nominated for Tower Hamlets Children’s Book Prize

    Posted: 13th September 2009

    I was delighted to find out that How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant has been longlisted for the Tower Hamlets Book Prize. Thank you! This is the third year that the Schools Library Service, Idea Stores and Tower Hamlets Primary and Secondary schools have joined together to run the Tower Hamlets Book Award. The book award is to be awarded to the fiction book for ages 10 - 13 voted for by pupils in years 5 - 8 as the best book of 2008. The aim is to encourage children to read, to bring children together to enable debate and discussion about books and to encourage children to share the pleasure of reading. To find out about the award and to see which other books have been nominated visit www.ideastore.co.uk

Events

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    Next Blog Post

    Wed 10th Mar 2010

    My next contribution to An Awfully Big Blog Adventure will be on 10th March. This is a blog written by loads of children's writers. We write about children's books, the writing process, publishing news and anything else that takes our fancy! You're always welcome to drop in and say hello.

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    East Sussex Children's Book Award Visits

    Tue 16th Mar 2010

    I will be visiting schools in East Sussex on 16th March as part of the East Sussex Children's Book Award. Kirsty Jenkins has been shortlisted for this award and I'll be talking to some of the pupils taking part. For more info take a look at the East Sussex Libraries webpages.