Read Alert

Breaking Dawn, the long awaited final of the Twilight quartet has at last arrived.
The frantic hysteria in the build up to the release has seen teenage girls across the world feverishly awaiting the latest development in the very twisted love story of Bella and Edward. The book has an initial print run of 3.7 million [...]

This is from Boyce’s review of The Knife of Never Letting Go:
If I have one quibble, it is that I think it should be sitting proudly on the shelf next to these books, rather than being hidden away in the “young adult” ghetto. There’s been a lot of fury among authors recently about the proposal [...]

Here is JK Rowling’s commencement speech at Harvard.
And here is a website where some angry authors and book-people are railing against a UK plan to put age banding on all children’s books…
…and here is an article that has some very feisty commenting on the issue - both pro and con.
Happy Friday!

Randa Abdel-Fattah is among the panel tonight on ABC1’s Q&A. Q&A is the program where you can ask the questions. Go to the program website, register and send it in your questions. Other panellists include Crikey founder Stephen Mayne and Tony Burke, (opposition spokesman on immigration prior to becoming the now federal minister for Agriculture, [...]

Not necessarily ones that other people agree with:
“Whereas authors like Enid Blyton are hand-holding narrators who lead children into safe environments, J. K. Rowling is more of an adult writer in that she leaves you hanging in the air at the end of chapters with no idea what is going to happen next.
“Figures appear and [...]

CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, phew, have announced the shortlist for the 2008 Carnegie Medal.
Kevin Crossley-Holland, Gatty’s Tale
Linzi Glass, Ruby Red
Tanya Landman, Apache
Elizabeth Laird, Crusade
Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur
Meg Rosoff, What I Was
Jenny Valentine, Finding Violet Park
The list is an exciting mix of historical and contemporary fiction. At least two [...]

Oh, Heather Mills is NOT writing a children’s book. Say it ain’t so!
In much more pleasing news, you can read an extract from Philip Pullman’s new book here (it has Lee Scoresby and Hester!).
Fans of The Little Prince may be interested to hear this story from a German fighter pilot.
Jezebel has a Friday Fine Lines [...]

Last night I presented the Older Reader’s section at the Victorian Clayton’s. Here are the five books that I picked as the best of 2008.
The Last Days
The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld is a sequel to Peeps, but not really. It’s set in the same world – New York City, around the same time – [...]

Remember how Steve Jobs recently said that there was no point to the Amazon Kindle, because nobody reads books any more? Well the New York Times takes issue. Highly recommended.
Breaking News: Anne Rice is still crazy. Everyone’s favourite vampire-writing, God-fearing “I don’t need an editor because I’m perfect” is back in the papers. Remember how [...]

A very interesting article on YA chick lit, containing this pearl of wisdom from Nick Hornby:

“In a way, I think all books should be teen books. I can read them quickly without getting bogged down, and feel I’ve read something that was meant in the way literature’s supposed to be. They’re very digestible, designed not [...]