Auntie Enid was really quite a dish in her younger days!

Kids Book Blog

She was voted best-loved author ahead of the likes of Roald Dahl, J K Rowling and even William Shakespeare in the 2008 Costa Book Awards, so how could we NOT give Enid Blyton pride of place when beginning our Kids Book Blog!

With over 600 million copies of her books sold world wide, and even today, some 40 years after her death, annual sales of some 8-10 million copies being reported, we cannot do otherwise than acknowldge the huge contribution Enid Blyton has made to child literacy- not to mention the parents she has kept amused!

There is so much of her stuff still out there - so where do we start? First let's remember , she is best known for several series of titles such as The Famous Five (4 children, 1 dog, 21 novels), The Secret Seven (7 kids, 15 novels), The Circus Trilogy of Mr Galliano's Circus, Hurrah for the Circus and Circus Days Again !

And if you fancy a bit of alliteration (you've probably noticed by now, if you've read much else on this site, that we do!), then there are always The Barney Mysteries, each beginning with the letter "R" - as in The Rockingham Mystery, The Rat-a-Tat Mystery, etc.

Oh how we could go on for ages singing Enid Blyton's praises! But you all have your favourites, and there is a stack of information out there on the Web about dear old Enid and all she ever wrote. Many of her titles are still in print, and even those that are not can often be found though the many second-hand booksellers who keep an online presence through the likes of Amazon Marketplace, Abebooks or Alibris. So, keep up the good seach and you are sure to find what you are looking for!

And in the meantime, news has reached our ears that Noddy, the character that Enid Blyton first introduced to her readers in 1949, will feature in a new books to be written by her grand-daughter, Sophie Smallwood and illustrated by Robert Tyndall who worked with Blyton in the 1950s. Provisionally titled Noddy's Birthday Surprise, the book will be out for celebratuions surrounding the 6oth anniversary of Noddy in 2009. 

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Amazing Tales of Aotearoa

'A story is something you look through to see things more clearly. It wakes you up. I used to think these stories were asleep but really it was me. One day they grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and shook me. The world is full of colour and noise.' - Glen Colquhoun

Something different from down under! Amazing Tales of Aotearoa is described as a retelling of the old Maori myths in a fresh contemporary voice for today's children, with one told in rap and one told in comic-strip format!  

Author Glenn Colquhoun - while better known as a poet - lives and works among the Maori as a doctor in the far north of New Zealand. The stories are narrated by characters who live in a village called 'That Place', which bares an uncanny resemblance to Te Tii in the Bay of Islands where he was based - and where he is said to have lived next door to the sisters Hareata and Brianne around whom the tales revolve! 'He pinched the stories because they ate his biscuits', is how one other blogger put it!

Amazing Tales of Aotearoa is published by Raupo Publishing (NZ) Ltd / Penguin NZ (Nov 2008), paperback, 144 pages, ISBN: 0143304321. It is not yet readily available in the UK though we have seen a few copies available in the £13.90 - £14.19 price range through sellers on Abebooks and Amazon Marketplace. To grab your copy before Christmas we suggest you click on the Abebooks or Amazon links above and type in the ISBN number or title!

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Beast Quest !

We've been talking to a friend of ours, the librarian at a local primary school where we support an extra-curricular reading programme, and she tells us that these well-written books with such colourful covers are really flying off the shelves - as they've caught the attention of boys - who as we all know - need something really cool to get their eyes glued to those pages!

Scripted by a team from Working Partners under the pseudonym of Adam Blade, the series was launched in July 2008 and has already exploded into over 30 titles! You can see our range below, each title available by clicking through to Amazon.

Each book features a different beast, enchanted by an evil wizard that Tom, the central character, must free to prevent the beast from destroying Aventia, the world they all inhabit!

Apparantly, collectors cards and bookmarks are available with every books when purchased new!

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Let’s all give a big hand for Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen...who tells it like it is – when he says ‘he believes (in The Sunday Times 16.11.08) that futile “testing” in schools ‘has reduced literature to a series of tick-box exercises.’

‘The tragedy, Rosen believes, is that children are no longer encouraged to love books’. In the same SundayTimes article he goes on to say “If you go into a staff room now, no one’s talking about children’s books: they’re talking about tests. But if we want literacy standards to improve, we should be creating book-loving schools”.

Well said, though thankfully we do come across some great teachers and school librarians who are able to fire their pupils with a love – or at least an appreciation - of reading – and long may it continue!

If you would like to read the full article from The Sunday Times you will find it at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article5161225.ece 

This is not the first time that Rosen has spoken out on this issue and will probably not be the last. In the meantime though, he is supporting an initiative of Times Newspapers - to be run throughout 2009 – that will allow readers of both The Sunday Times and The Times to collect tokens from both newspapers to provide free books for UK schools. A selection of 170 titles for children aged from 3-14 has been chosen by Times Newspapers and Scholastic Book Clubs. Full details at: www.freebooksforschools.co.uk

If you are a reader of both, or either newspaper, then we ask you to support this initiative and donate the coupons to a deserving school near you!

In the meantime, we would commend to you  Michael Rosen’s  latest offering for young readers, a pop-up book called Dear Mother Goose – a “take” on the old tale in which Agony aunt Mother Goose helps Humpty Dumpty conquer his fear of falling and Little Miss Muffet deals with an over-friendly spider. With witty, jokey letters, it is a nursery rhyme book with a twist. Available from Amazon – as are all his other books – through the link below.