Wittgenstein, NTM and me or What happens when you Google yourself

A note before we begin: I don't normally Google myself. I have agents who do that for me. Or should that read 'parents'? Well, they know who they are.
Anyway, I've great hopes of updating my French website and I thought I should check on the etherweb if I'd missed any of my glorious recent publications. Yes, I could check my shelves, but Santa has taken over some of the house and the last thing I want to do is open Some Cupboards in front of Some People.
Googling yourself almost always brings up interesting results. You wouldn't believe the number of forthcoming publications I first heard of via web search (as opposed to being told by my publishers). It's the case, in particular, for stories that are given a new life in different compilations or as e-books. More rarely, and more annoyingly, it's Google (or Amazon) who gives me the heads up on the foreign editions of some of my titles. And then, there's the odd mention of my picture books in academia...
So, here goes:

First off, we have some intriguing worksheets and activities based around my one picture book that made it (so far) to the US, In Search of Happiness. The good folk at CrunchCrackleCreate have come up with tasks inspired by the books that come under the following headings: Empathise, Question, Innovate, Persist, Take Responsible Risks and Think Together. That looks to me like a very sound and promising program me.


Next we have this… On page 171 of Wittgenstein and Aesthetics: Perspectives and Debates ( edited by Alessandro Arbo, Michel LeDu, Sabine Plaud): 
"A true work of art requires a pure experience and requires exclusively an aesthetic interpretation. Any moral reflection is inappropriate. It is inappropriate to speak morally about The Straight Story - a movie by David Lynch - about Hamlet - a Shakespearian play, or about the youth book A la Recherche du Bonheur by Juliette Saumande and illustrated by Eric Puybaret, the songs of NTM, the TV series 24 or the whole of Céline's work. To evaluate these works of art from a moral (positive or negative) point of view is a mistake about their nature.













And then, on the NewSouth Books website… my first title to make it to Australia! It's, obviously, a rewrite of Oliver, with amazing illustration by Italian artist Daniela Volpari. Out in February down under!

Meanwhile, to celebrate the last few sleeps before 2014, the blog has gone all shiny. Hope you like it and see you all on the other side!