The Ravenous Beast is now on iphone!

Walker Books have just launched enhanced e book apps for the iphone, news here in The Bookseller. Walker Books have teamed up with Scrollmotion to develop them and one of my Books The Ravenous Beast is one of the first ones available!

I mentioned this back last year when I got an iphone myself and my three year old at the time loved drawing and looking at photos on it. I am just downloading it now from itunes. I'll show it to Aoibhe later and report back to let you know what I think!

Kitty Crowther

Kitty Crowther has just been awarded the Astrid Lindgren Award, so it's a great day now for Picture Book Makers!

'Master of line but also of atmosphere. She maintains the tradition of the picture book while transforming and renewing it. In her world, the door between imagination and reality is wide open. She addresses the reader gently and personally, but with profound effect. In her deeply felt empathy with people in difficulty, she shows ways in which weakness can be turned into strength. Humanism and sympathy permeate and unify her artistry.'

Astrid Lindgren Award

And to top today off the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced today at 1pm. It is the Worlds Largest Children's Literature Award. The countdown is on....

A great day for books.

The Bisto shortlist has been announced and will make great reading for the months ahead leading to the prize in May.

Also fantastic news is that David Almond has won the world's most prestigious prize in children's literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Award! I am thrilled, he is a fantasitic writer and lovely person. David talked at the CBI summer school last year and it was great to meet him.

Read about it here. I love the fact when he was contacted he was just at home, "It's amazing. I didn't think I'd win but you never know — I'd never heard anything from the prize organisers though, so I thought it was all sorted, and that the winner would be out there in Bologna."

The winner of the Illustrators prize was Jutta Bauer from Germany, you may know her book Selma.

Children’s Laureate – Laureate na nÓg.

Children’s Books Ireland have announced the launch of Ireland’s first Children’s Laureate – Laureate na nÓg. It is in association with The Arts Council and will be awarded once every two years to a writer or illustrator of children's books.
This is really exciting initiative and a fantastic way to raise the profile of Children's Books in Ireland. Nominations must be received by 5pm March 19th 2010, that’s tomorrow. Information can be found on David Maybury's site and the application form can be downloaded here on the CBI site.
To give you an idea of what a laureate is all about have a look at what the UK's Laureate Anthony Browne is doing here.

Hurray for Books!

Thank you to St Mary's School in Donnybrook for inviting me over to your school last Thursday. It makes a huge difference to an author when you are given a warm welcome, by staff and the children. St Mary's were brilliant, it was clear to see that this school loves books.
Look at the walls above they were covered with drawings of Hugglewugs and Ravenous Beasts before I arrived! I did not stop smiling all day the kids were just fantastic. I did drawing workshops with the younger children and I showed a slide show for the older classes so I got to meet everyone. Hurray!

St Patricks Day

Barefoot Books have a special on myself and Malachy Doyle's Tales from Old Ireland.

Happy World Book Day!

Happy World Book Day everyone! Yes today is when we celebrate books, reading them, drawing them, writing them. My absolute favourite day of the year.

This morning my kids had to dress up as their favourite character from a book for school. Megan was 'Judy Moody' she drew a shark and wrote 'I ATE A SHARK' with black marker on a white t-shirt. Just like Judy Moody did in the first book, when Judy is starting third grade, she's worried that she doesn't even have a T-shirt with words, like all the other kids, because her family didn't go anywhere on vacation. So she whips up her own T-shirt (I Ate a Shark!). Megan coupled it with stripy tights and tussled her hair. She really did look like Judy Moody. I over heard Megan saying, 'I did actually eat a shark' to Harry Potter when I dropped her off at her class.

Oscar was dressed up as Flinn from Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, and Aoibhe was Mrs Fox from Roald Dahl'sFantastic Mr Fox. There was huge excitement in Holmpatrick School in Skerries.
Today the younger children from the Junior classes will be coupled up with a older child, they have to show and tell their choosen book to each other. So the Junior infants will experience a bit of Patrick Ness or Eoin Colfer. Rare!

Also today, watch out for books that are free for the taking! It's part of Book Crossing, Irish authors plan to turn Ireland into a free library for World Book Day. Authors and Illustrators will be leaving signed copies of their books in public places for lucky readers to find. Books will be registered and tracked on www.bookcrossing.com

No excuse now, get your head stuck in a book and celebrate today!!!!!

Over at Scamp...

Some new work is up on scamp.ie The theme was Pet Life Drawing and you can see everyones illustrations here.

Doodle for Google

The 2010 winner for the Doodle for Google was Ruth Deeney from Loreto Community School, Millford, Co. Donegal. You can see all the shortlisted doodles here. It's fantastic to see the diversity of all the doodles!