Illustrators, The Multiplier Effect
28/04/2011 by Mags Walsh · No Comments
A terrific post today over on Playing by the Book has asked the recent winners of Book Trust's best new illustrators award to select some recent picture books that they liked themselves. It's well worth a savour and fun to see what are very familar and which are just a little outside the usual suspects.
For me if was great to see Jeffers, Tan, Waldron and Haughton in there but it also reminded me how much I loved Mc Kean's Crazy Hair. Picture books are so international and travel across…
Continue Reading →The Lonely Beast
28/04/2011 by Mags Walsh · No Comments
New Irish picture book maker Chris Judge has created this lovely video piece featuring the character from his debut The Lonely Beast. Thanks to Kim Harte for finding this. You can meet Chris at the CBI conference this year.
When CBI went to Bologna…
14/04/2011 by Mags Walsh · No Comments
The International Children’s Book Fair in Bologna is an incredible place to visit. Jammed with all sorts of brilliant books from every part of the world, it’s a true immersion in international children’s books. Have a look at what else caught our eye this year over on our Facebook page
Philip Pullman writing in the Guardian in 2004
14/04/2011 by Mags Walsh · No Comments
The GuardianChildren need to go to the theatre as much as they need to run about in the fresh air. They need to hear real music played by real musicians on real instruments as much as they need food and drink. They need to read and listen to proper stories as much as they need to be loved and cared for.
The difficulty with persuading grown-up people about this is that if you deprive children of shelter and kindness and food and drink and exercise, they die visibly; whereas if you deprive them of art and music and story and theatre, they perish on the inside, and it doesn’t show.
So the grown-ups who should be responsible for providing these good and necessary things – teachers, politicians, parents – don't always notice until it’s too late; or they pretend that art and theatre and so on are not necessities at all, but expensive luxuries that only snobbish people want in any case; or they claim that children are perfectly happy with their computers and video games, and don't need anything else.
I’m not going to argue about this: I’m right. Children need art and music and literature; they need to go to art galleries and museums and theatres; they need to learn to play musical instruments and to act and to dance. They need these things so much that human rights legislation alone should ensure that they get them.
Pullman has always spoken out about the importance of arts and stories for young people. In the run up to a special showcase event for TDs and policy makers next week, it's worth revisiting some of his strong words from 2004.
