Carnegie Medal Nominations 2017

First, to anyone at YA Shot in Uxbridge today, have a great day! Second, if anyone here's going to be at the UKYA Blogging Awards at Uxbridge tonight, yay! I'll see you there.  On with the post!

photo from CILIP website

It seems to to come round quicker and quicker every year, Yesterday, the nominations for the CILIP Carnegie and the Kate Greenaway medals were released. Due to my being at uni now, I sadly don't have the brilliant booklet my school librarian produced which had all the blurbs of the books recommended, so this post is based upon a)the bits I've heard from social media over the year and b)when I googled the things with interesting titles. But here- a list of the books that I am glad to see on the list, and would totally bump up a reading pile if I had time to do any reading for pleasure right now.

• Crush by Eve Ainsworth. I've heard people say how well written Ainsworth's characters are in both this and 7 Days, so  even with the heavy subject, it should be good.
• Chasing the Stars by Malorie Blackman. Othello in space with a girl as the lead? I've had this on my pile at home for ages, but the concept of this is great and so is Blackman.
• Twenty Questions for Gloria by Martyn Bedford. I like thrillers when I read them, I just haven't really read that many. I should though. 
• What's A Girl Gotta Do? by Holly Bourne. I'm sorry, I haven't read any in this feminist trilogy/series (not sure which...) but so many people say good things about it.
• Why I Went Back by James Clammer. Myth and magic and mystery? And maybe a better version of Skellig? 
• Monsters by Emerald Fennell. The atmosphere of  an Enid Blyton story (which I loved when I was little) plus murder? Yep.
• The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon. From the blurb, the story of a refugee in a detention centre, and a girl with a notebook of family history, it looks beautiful. 
• Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin. Alternate history and fantasy and a badass main character. Looking forwards to it.
• Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. So many people have told me to read Oseman's work. Some day, hopefully.
• Unboxed by Non Pratt. Loved Remix and Trouble, hoping for more good things. 
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. Again, loved Between Shades of Grey, and hoping for another book of similar quality. 
• Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens. Murder Most Unladylike and Arsenic for Tea were just fun reads-mystery, friendship, and a Chinese main character. I should catch up on this series.

And also, the things I have read and think totally deserve to be here!

• All Of The Above by Juno Dawson. About finding your identity, and with some pretty good poetry.
• George by Alex Gino. A middle-grade story about a transgirl, which just left me feeling happy.
• London Belongs to Us by Sarra Manning. I read this book about my favourite city in on sitting and it's full of great characters and adventure. 

That's not to say the other books are undeserving! There's 114 of them, as well as 93 nominated for the Kate Greenaway award, and I applaud the judges who will read ALL of them. But even more applause goes to all the creators who made the books. Congratulations on the nomination, and good luck!

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TEDx HAPPENED!

You may have noticed me on Twitter speaking about TEDx. Well, it happened, and it went really well.

TEDx is an offshoot of the TED talks, where a collection of speakers come and do short talks on a subject of their choosing. The x marks the event as independently organised. One of my friends, Tanya, decided we should do a TEDx event. She looked into getting a license, she got one, and plans started being made.

  

We had a mix of students and external speakers and performers, all covering a range of topics.

NON PRATT, author of TROUBLE and REMIX, talked about how we condition generations into genders.

SARAH SKY, author of the JESSICA COLE series, gave us a quick tour though female spies, past and present.

The A LEVEL DRAMA group did part of their performance of Monsters, revolving around the killing of Jamie Bulger

SHONA DIXON analysed  the response to Ebola.

DR GEORGINA NEALL talked about, among other things, how she balances studying, working, and raising four children.

TOM POLLOCK, author of THE SKYSCRAPER THRONE series, examined the media's role in creating fear in the masses.

GABBY WASSER told us about how mushrooms can help, heal, or bring about an apocalypse

CHARLOTTE SPRUZEN was one of two explaining the science of science fiction, looking at how time travel would theoretically work.

SONDER, a band made up of two students, played two songs.

SARAH RABY BUCK gave the second science of science fiction talk, explaining how biochemistry could work on other worlds.

NATALIE RUSSO talked about the importance of language and why it's not too late to learn a new one.

JEANNIE GALSTON , ex Miss Universe, told us what it was like to be a model in the days before Photoshop.

NAFEESA MOHAMMED performed some of her work (she's an amazing slam poet) and what poetry means for her.

I, NINA CRISP, did a talk about why you should diversify your reading. What else would I say?

REBECCA JURDON summed up very eloquently the failings of an exam orientated education system.

All these talks will soon be available on YouTube, so if you missed them and want to see them, or if you want to relive them, you can! I'll link them when they're available.

We had a selection of world food, both main and desert. The highlights were the  cupcakes. We sold books, both the authors' and some diverse ones I highlighted in my talk.

We also had plans to have a bloggers' alley, but it didn't work out because we forgot that devices need to be registered to the school's WiFi system to work, and that the council's service blocks all blogs anyway. Still, it was brilliant to see FAYE (A Daydreamer's Thoughts) and FIONNUALA (Books for Birds).

Thank you, everyone who came and supported us, especially all our external speakers and bloggers who came from a long way away! Also, thank you all the people who worked hard on making TEDx Beaconsfield High a thing. It was brilliant.

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Book Review- Trouble by Non Pratt

Title:  Trouble

 Author:  Non Pratt

Series:  N/A

Published:  6 March 2014 by Walker

Length:364 pages

Source: publisher

Other info: this is Non’s debut novel.

Summary : A boy. A girl. A bump. Trouble.Hannah’s smart and funny ... she’s also fifteen and pregnant. Aaron is new at school and doesn’t want to attract attention. So why does he offer to be the pretend dad to Hannah’s unborn baby? Growing up can be trouble but that’s how you find out what really matters.

Review: Hannah is fifteen and pregnant. And she won't tell anyone who the father is. Aaron is the new boy at school whose father is a teacher. Aaron offers to pretend to be the father. Hannah agrees. Trouble ensues.

I read this because everyone was saying how good it is. I am very glad I followed everyone's advice.

I would very much like to congratulate the cover designers. It's eyecatching, instantly tells you what  Trouble is about, and doesn't make it seem off-putting at all.

Hannah is very frank throughout her narration, while Aaron is a bit more secretive. I liked the contrast between the two styles, and I think Non did very well at differentiating the two. She also gets teenage thought processes, priorities and ideas really well.

I loved the characters so much. Neville, the old man that Aaron visits. especially-he doesn't seem very nice to start with, but as you learn more about him, you feel emotionally connected to him. All the characters are real, likable, and stick with you. Watching Aaron and Hannah  develop is really nice, and the diverse supporting characters make a great cast.

When we found out who the father is, I was just “Woah. Yeah, I can see why you'd want to keep that hidden. This makes the story infinitely more interesting.” The plot comes along really well, and I loved reading it.

I find it odd that the teachers don't have much involvement, what with Hannah being fifteen and pregnant at school. Jim (YaYeahYeah)said  it's because Non doesn't want to come across as judgy, which I totally get and totally love the lack of preachy message, but it just took away a little bit of realism from an otherwise really believable story-I'm fairly sure that if anyone at my school got pregnant, everyone would be freaking out. It's also weird reading this when I did- I am in the year that will be coming up to GCSEs. It's scary to read this. Not bad scary, but good.

I loved reading all the sideplots other than the main one about teenage pregnancy, which, instead of just supporting it, were each equally good.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a wonderfully real contemporary.

Links: Amazon| Goodreads | Author twitter | 

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