Alexis and me

This past weekend saw the return of that exciting, unequalled and highly inspiring event: the Children's Books Ireland conference. As always, the speakers were brilliant and it was great to wander among the delegates with free hands (thank you, childminders of this world!) and meet known and new faces.

The particular highlight for me, I must admit, was writer-illustrator Alexis Deacon's talk on the Sunday. It was one of the typical conference sessions where I'm mentally going 'yes, exactly' every two sentences and that make me want to go home and read, read, read and write, write, write.

So what a great honour and bonus it was to spend the next hour interviewing the man himself!

More on that once the paper is written (and published).

I leave you in his extremely capable hands in the meantime. 

(and for those French speakers out there, yes, his books are available en français from l'Ecole des Loisirs et Kaléidoscope)

Shocking pink and lonely beasts

Who said writing or illustrating were always a lonely business? The folks at Children's Books Ireland have cooked up a deadly programme for their next conference to show the world how collaborations can and do work when it comes to creating great books.
The conference will be held in the National Library on the 21st and 22nd of May and here's who you can expect to hear:
Jane Davis, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham, David Lloyd, Keith Gray, Mary Byrne, Liz Page, Garrett Carr, Judi Curtin, John Newman, Sheena Wilkinson, Philip Ardagh, Louise Rennison, Áine Ní Ghlinn, Karen Bertrams, Emma Byrne, Chris Judge, Steve Simpson, Chris Haughton, Robert Dunbar and Derek Landy

More info here.

What's a classic?

A lovely day was that ISSCL conference, so it was, so it was. A great line up of speakers from far and near, a brand new building, some fancy cookies and a heap of food for thoughts.
Here are a few tidbits:

• is a classic a book that keeps being retold, rewritten and generally adapted in many shapes and guises?
• is it a book to which different people bring different things and from which they take away different things?
• do we still read Shakespeare today because his themes are still relevant or is it his language that makes him 'immortal' (so far)?
• why did Mole uncork his beer?
• why don't we wear powdered wigs anymore?
• why does British (and Irish) children's literature view the countryside so positively and depict cities as hell or dangerous forest that one had better keep away from?
• why does American kidlit do exactly the opposite?
• what's in the Pollard collection in Trinity?
• what's the percentage of teachers in training who have read Where the Wild Things Are?
• who ate all the cookies?

[Thanks for the pic, Alice!]

Coming up | The ISSCL conference

The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature will be holding its annual conference Saturday 26 February in Trinity College on the theme of Children’s Literature, Classics and the City. Professor Peter Hunt (if you’ve ever studied kidlit in an academic context, you’ll know who he is) will be giving the keynote address, titled 'Re-Editing the Children's Classics: Engaging Modern Children and Modern Adults'. As I have a vested interest in the matter of rewriting classics for children, I’ll be all ears.

Possibly the best yet

Ok, I said I was going to make myself scarce over the next while, but after posting so many times about the CBI conference, I felt I HAD to write about how it went and how it was possibly the best I've attended so far (this was my fifth). Maybe it was all because of those lovely nibbles provided by the National Gallery.
David Maybury has a very comprehensive summary of the weekend, complete with photos and quotes, so you really should head that way. I thoroughly enjoyed all the speakers, and what will stay with me is:
1- Spanish illustrator Elena Odriozola's list of the 17 needs she has as an artist, from the proper colour of paper to the removal of her characters' feet (for improved stability); and the accompanying pictures where everything was exciting: the birds, the print on a girl's dress, the glowing cheeks of a baby, the fact that all the action is happening outside the page...
2- Nikki Gamble's illuminating point that the best books act as mirrors or windows for their readers and that ''a child's mirror is another's window''. Nikki asked the audience several questions which I think will be haunting them for some time: "which book is the most representative of your culture?'' is still bouncing around my head and demanding an answer.
3- the honesty and openness of the panel of new and newish Irish voices.
4- the enthusiasm and respect I felt flowing from Siobhán Parkinson and Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin  in their discussion of children's books in translation.
5- Michael Rosen's performance of his poems; the piece about tiredness is going straight on my fridge.
6- Niamh Sharkey's exploit in getting a roomful of delegate to stand up and sing and act the Hugglewug song (!).
7- Marcus Sedgwick's sense of humour.
8- The excellent company all round, on stage and otherwise.

Are we there yet?

Only one more week to go before the CBI conference! Have you got your ticket yet? No? Well, here's your chance to get a free one.

To celebrate the Conference, we have two free weekend passes to give away! Tweet us @kidsbooksirel, or leave a comment on our Facebook page, telling us why you want to go to the Conference, in 140 characters or less!

You have until Wednesday 12th May to impress us with your brevity and wit, and the two responses that make us laugh (or cry!) the most will win free weekend passes to the Conference. These get you access to all speakers and panels at the event, as well as refreshments provided by the National Gallery.

Go on, you know you want to. See you there!

Spoilt (rotten) for choice

The Irish Society for the Study of Children's Literature (that is, ISSCL) has announced the (most impressive) line-up for its next conference, to take place on the 5th-6th of March. The keynote speaker is Victor Watson (of Seven Stories fame among many, many other things) and the papers will be addressing "performance, drama, music, film and adaptation, visual culture, graphic novels and digital storytelling". There is so much material that the conference had to be organised in panels and you have to choose which ones you want to attend. I am torn already...