Booker longlist

That's the summer's reading sorted then ....

MAN BOOKER 2011 LONGLIST

• Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending
• Sebastian Barry - On Canaan's Side
• Carol Birch - Jamrach's Menagerie
• Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers
• Esi Edugyan - Half Blood Blues
• Yvvette Edwards - A Cupboard Full of Coats
• Alan Hollinghurst - The Stranger's Child
• Stephen Kelman - Pigeon English
• Patrick McGuinness - The Last Hundred Days
• AD Miller - Snowdrops
• Alison Pick - Far to Go
• Jane Rogers - The Testament of Jessie Lamb
• DJ Taylor - Derby Day

Books to read with 5 year olds

In my experience, children at this age love to read a whole range of books, including sometimes quite sophisticated stories and tales from history in chapter form. Recently, publishers and readers have bemoaned the fact that parents sometimes move children on from picture books too early. Children who are just beginning to read still get so much pleasure from gorgeous illustrations, which fire their imaginations, so the following is a mix of picture books and story books I hope you'll find 5 year olds will love looking at and being read.

Oops! Pennie Kidd (parents + child forgive each other for those mishaps through the day)
Traction Man - Mini Grey (a boy gets his longed-for Christmas present)
A new house for mouse - Petr Horacek (mouse meets new friends in search for bigger home)
The Mousehole Cat - Antonia Barber + Nicola Bayley (re-telling of a tale from 16th C. Cornish history)
What Baby Wants (particularly lovely if you have a new baby in the house)
Love you Forever - Robert Munsch (although I defy you not to cry while reading this)
Charlotte's Web - EB White (warning: remember, they are saving Wilbur from the fate of pigs on a farm)

Katie in London/Katie and the Dinosaurs (series) James Mayhew
Terry Deary's Egyptian/Roman/Greek etc Tales (series)

Anything by:
Richard Scarry - including What Do People Do All Day?

Beatrix Potter
Francesca Simon - Horrid Henry series
Jez Alborough - including Some Dogs Do, Captain Duck, Where's My Teddy
the Flat Stanley series
Winnie the Witch - Valerie Thomas + Korky Paul
Mrs Pepperpot series
Charlie and Lola
Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs
Meg and Mog
Dr Seuss

Classics - best retellings for children.

I would like your help for this one, please.

My children are interested in the Greek Myths, in King Arthur, in lots of classical myths and legends.

I am wondering which versions you have found the most accessible for children. We have read a few - some with more success than others.

Please let me know which authors have made the ancient stories compelling for children.

Over to you.

Books that really make them laugh

There are lots of humorous books written for children, but which are the ones which really make them laugh? Which are the ones you know really tickle them, because you hear the giggles?

These are a few which provoke the snorts in our house. (They are all good for 7yrs+ readers who are reading to themselves, but younger children will enjoy most books if you are reading to them.)

Mr Gum (series)                            Andy Stanton
Captain Underpants (series)          Dav Pilkey

Krazy Kow Daves the World ...    Jeremy Strong

Dear Dumb Diary                          Jim Benton (like Wimpy Kid, but from a girl's perspective)

The Twits                                       Roald Dahl

Also boys love comic strips, and Calvin and Hobbes is laugh out loud, as well as touching and wise.

Please add yours.

Poetry for Children

Children are really open to poetry, in a way that many of us lose when we grow up.

This may be because so many children's books rhyme, and feel like poetry, so the leap is not so great from the rhyming prose, which they are familiar with, to poems.

It is wonderful reading poetry to, and with, children.

Here are some of the poems, poetry books, and rhyming stories that we love. Please add your own suggestions.

Poems for younger children:

Tickle My Nose (and other action rhymes)    Kaye Umansky
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish      Dr Seuss
Oops!                                                              Pennie Kidd
A Book of Things                                           Freddie McKeown
Some Dogs Do                                               Jez Alborough
Where the Wild Things Are                           Maurice Sendak (reads like a poem)
My Granny Went to Market                           Stella Blackstone
Down the Back of the Chair                           Margaret Mahy

Getting older:

Revolting Rhymes                                           Roald Dahl
The Dangerous Journey                                   Tove Jansson (Moomins) retold by Sophie Hannah

One Hundred Years of Poetry for Children     (Oxford)

Can We Have Our Ball Back Please?              Gareth Owen 

Collected Poems for Children                           Gareth Owen

Other great poets who write for children:

Benjamin Zephaniah
Michael Rosen (check out his own performances of his poems on Youtube)
Roger McGough

Books to go back to

After I have finished reading the Orange Prize longlist, there are a couple of books I want to pick up and re-read.

I am always astonished how fresh some books remain, even when you have read them a number of times.

Ones that I will return to when the judging process is over include:

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin

What do you like to re-read? How many times have you read the books you like to go back to? What is it about those books that recalls you?

Orange Prize 2011 Longlist

An extraordinary, rich and diverse longlist. How many have you read? What do you think of them? Let me know your thoughts. Pluck any book from this list and have a stimulating and enriching read. 


The Orange Prize 2011 Long List:

• Lyrics Alley, by Leila Aboulela
• Jamrach's Menagerie, by Carol Birch
• Room, by Emma Donoghue
• The Pleasure Seekers, by Tishani Doshi
• Whatever You Love, by Louise Doughty
• A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
• The Memory of Love, by Aminatta Forna
• The London Train, by Tessa Hadley
• Grace Williams Says it Loud, by Emma Henderson
• The Seas, by Samantha Hunt
• The Birth of Love, by Joanna Kavenna
• Great House, by Nicole Krauss
• The Road to Wanting, by Wendy Law-Yone
• The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht
• The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer
• Repeat it Today with Tears, by Anne Peile
• Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, by Lola Shoneyin
• The Swimmer, by Roma Tearne
• Annabel, by Kathleen Winter

Enjoy!