Ten-Minute Blog Break - 24th June

I spent most of Saturday running the second-hand book stall at our school fete. It probably won't surprise you that parents constantly go gaga for the books they read as kids, while their children actually want the recent books with cool covers!

Another unsurprising fact is that the prolific Sarah McIntyre has yet another awesome project on the go. This time, it's her contribution to Moose Kid Comics, a high-quality all ages free webcomic that aims to increase the breadth of UK comic publishing. The site was a little slow when I tried it, but hopefully that's down to all the kids reading it!

You may have heard that there's some sort of football thing going on in Brazil? Dave Cousins wisely starts his latest blog post for The Edge by acknowledging: "I like football, but I appreciate it’s not for everyone." You said it Dave, but I enjoyed this post about using sports books to improve literacy despite myself. Dave's list of his top football 11 books for the Guardian is also worth a look.

The timing of this post (after the Carnegie Medal announcement) could have made Space on the Bookshelf's final Carnegie shortlist discussion somewhat moot. But it's a lively read and worth dipping into, especially if the selection of Kevin Brooks' The Bunker Diary proves controversial...

The web is a wonderful tool for making connections across geographical and ideological space, which is demonstrated by John Shelley's excellent interview for The Iranian Research Quarterly of Children and Youth Literature. John's interview is full of great thoughts on the dynamic between writing and illustration, and the importance of strong editorial input.

Finally, Sarah Broadley gives a great report on SCBWI South East Scotland's recent event on Voice and Point of View. The gathering was also an opportunity to celebrate Christina Banach's recent publication and the exhausting achievement that was Sheila Averbuch’s story written with the pupils at Pencaitland Primary School (here are some photos of the latter's launch).

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is a former Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Nick's most recent blog post is a fairy tale on the "dangers" of fairy tales: The Improbable Prince.