Engaging reads for children, from Books go Walkabout

Month: July 2010

Nuffin Like a Puffin

70 years of Puffin Books – what an amazing feat!! And celebrated by the opening of an exhibition at Seven Stories, Newcastle featuring a whole host of brilliant authors and illustrators.

This is an exhibition about everyone’s childhood reading, whichever generation is yours, you can find books that will take you straight back to your own memories. As we approached Stig of the Dump‘s Cave I touched the Stig type clothes, someone next to me said’
‘I’m not going in there! I always worried about the smoke from Stig’s fire.’

Mr Big is there with his piano and author Ed Vere is delighted to be in the exhibition,
“ It’s a real honour for me to be part of Puffin’s 70th birthday celebrations and this wonderful exhibition.”

A real gem of the exhibition has to be the Kaye Webb Collection . Kaye was the second editor at Puffin and much of her work inspired the addition of so many titles and new authors and illustrators.
Along with her complete archive of children’s books, which was the first major purchase of Seven Stories, there are letters written to authors and friends. Written on the old style type writer and with a soft way of expression, they make enchanting reading, especially when there is the odd correction, crossed out and over written.

There are some very modern ways too of interacting with characters, The Borrowers , by Mary Norton is well worth stopping at, just past the grandfather clock….. thanks to the team at Newcastle University for providing support.

If you are in Newcastle, then do visit the exhibition and Seven Stories, its just up from the Quayside and make sure you get to find the little boat in the Ouseburn…..

And even if you can’t get to Seven Stories in Newcastle on Tyne, you can still take part.

Everyone has a favourite place to read. In a comfy chair, on a bus, up a tree… It could be anywhere! Email Seven Stories a picture of you reading in your favourite spot and you can be on the super screen in the exhibition too!

Sue Martin at Dolphin Booksellers – information and books always on line

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art- Washington DC

ifIfeoma Onyefulu has just returned from Washington. She was a huge success and her books about life in Africa, illustrated with wonderful photographs were extremely popular.

Her book Welcome Dede! was part of play reading session at Washington Covention Centre , with a number of other well known authors.The session brought the books to life as the play scripts were directly from the books and written by the authors.

This is a great way to bring two huge continents of Africa and America together. There is much we can all learn from different ways of life, not least of which is that families have great similarities. Their values, hopes and dreams for their children are about living a great life with friends, family. Having time to share, to laugh and to love and to make the best of opportunities.

Another of Ifeoma’s books, The Girl Who Married a Ghost, also published by Frances Lincoln has also had a recent great review by Gwen Grant on Armadillo, the on-line magazine. It is a series of tales from Nigeria with amazing titles and fascinating stories and as it says in the review’

girl
“As soon as I began reading the introduction to this book, I was sitting down, crossing my legs and hunching up closer to the story teller for whilst these ten stories in The Girl Who Married a Ghost are spiky, scary and funny, the ghosts are some of the scariest I have ever met. “

Gwen Grant

Dolphin Booksellers has titles from Ifeoma available – information and great books always available on line.

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