Award Winners All

There are some books that really break the mould - and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is one of them. It's the kind of book that makes you laugh and fills you with feelings of the deepest sadness at the same time. A wonderful book for young adults, and older of course. It has won The Whitbread Book of the Year 2003, the Guardian Children's Fiction Award 2003 and the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2003.

When I first encountered the writing of David Almond (with Skellig), there was that same sense that here is a writer with a unique way of telling a story. I have enjoyed each of his subsequent books and particularly enjoyed Kit's Wilderness and his latest, The Fire Eaters. Both are set in the north-east of England and evoke for me the warmth of the people that I lived among for a decade. But you don't have to have lived there to realise that Almond is particularly gifted at bringing out the subtleties of emotional life of his characters. The Fire Eaters has won the Smarties Prize 2003 in the 9-11 year old category and is also the Whitbread Children's Book award winner for 2003.

I have checked and updated the links on our website to ensure you can access the latest awards lists, and do please call or email us if you would like to reserve or order any of the titles you see there.

Olympics

As usual, Nooraini's creative flair has resulted in another wonderful display area at the front of the shop. This month concentrates on the Olympics, sport and Ancient Greece.

There's a wonderful website put up by the Pennsylvania Museum which gives the whole story of the Olympics in Ancient Greece. There are some eye-opening facts here - for example, that women had their own, separate Games. Read about the history and the politics of the Games (yes, even then, they were fraught with problems)- great stuff to help the kids with school projects, but good just for a general read.

A great website

This is a great website from the uk and their own blog, achockablog is literally chock-full of the latest news reports from every available source for children's literature.

Among the entries are news that The Sleeping Beauty is children's favourite fairy tale, followed by Cinderella; also the sad news of the passing of well-known American author Paula Danziger; and the fact that 2004 is the 75th birthday of Eric Carle and the 35th anniversary of his classic tale of overeating and metamorphosis - The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

While we don't currently have a version of The Sleeping Beauty in our store (though there must surely be one hidden in one of our many anthologies), we have a beautifully illustrated version of Cinderella, published by North South Publications. I remember skipping to a rhyme when I was young that went "Cinderella, dressed in yella ..." and this particular Cinderella looks particularly fetching in her gorgeous yellow gown ...

Paula Danziger was an immensely popular children's author, whose death at the age of 59 must surely sadden her many fans. She published more than 30 novels, with millions of copies in print, among which are the Amber Brown series and "The Cat Ate My Gymsuit" - now in its 30th year of publication. This and others are currently in stock in the shop now.

Eric Carle is another extraordinarily prolific author whose popularity seems unrelenting. Look out for a special offer only available at Bookaburra later this month ... oh, ok I'll tell you what you can look forward to! It's a big board version of the book with a plush caterpillar to go with it, and we are going to be offering it at a very special price. More details when I have them! New stock of Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Polar Bear, Polar Bear has also just come in in board book and we'll soon have copies of his latest book (still only available in hardback though) Mister Seahorse.

We have also just received our new shipment of Eric Carle letters from Crocodile Creek which are really bright and will look great on any door or wall spelling out your child's name.

Welcome!

Welcome to Bookaburrablog!

We are hoping this blog will keep you informed in a more up-to-date way with things happening as we hear about them. There will be more in the way of interesting links to other sites to do with good books, information about authors and their websites and general background to some of the issues they deal about in their books as well.

That way, Bookaburra will be your portal to a myriad doorways to children's literature.