How did I miss this?

They’ve made a movie of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold! I have no idea how this passed me by?

I’ve just watched the trailer about a dozen times – it looks amazing. Am now very much wanting to see it. There’s a lot out in the cinema at the moment that I want to see and that is always a reassuring thought for me.

 

Check out the trailer here.

I LOVE Meg Cabot

I am not in the slightest bit ashamed to say that I have loved and enjoyed all ten of the books in the Princess Diaries series. Sometimes I do feel that I should be a little embarassed by that and keep my stash hidden away, but I am not. They’ve made me laugh, cringe, blush, giggle and feel as awkward as a 15 year old girl again and I am super sad that I have now read Ten Out of Ten and that is it. No more hijinks with Princess Mia and her friends. I now know what happens with her and Michael Moscovitz and I can safely say that the ending was very satisfying – yay!

So, when I did finish that final book in the series it left something of a hole in my life. That feeling that you are never going to have that special kind of escapism that a really great book has given you, ever again. I have read Meg Cabot’s blog on and off for quite some time now and so I turned to it once again in my time of need. For the gossip and to dream about her life; adventures in Brazil, book signings, her cats, her ability to know everything going on in Hollywood etc…

And so to today. I thought I couldn’t love Meg Cabot anymore than I already did as she gave me ten books of pure cheesy, teen pleasure, until I read this post.

LOVE IT!

I too am completely obsessed with disaster movies. I have also seen all of the disaster movies made for TV including the really, really bad ones. I totally agree that there was no need for the CGI wolves in Day After Tomorrow (I don’t though agree that we should feel sad for them – I have a very big phobia of wolves stemming from some childhood traumas and The Box of Delights… shudder), I too found the lake of acid scene in Dante’s Peak hilarious – though I thought it was two teenagers who fried? Maybe this was just at the beginning. Either way – brilliant! I’m looking forward to seeing 2012 very much.

So I love Meg Cabot because of her obsession with disaster movies. But that’s not it. Nope. I am now so completely in agreement with her for this one line:

“2012 stars John Cusack, who gave us Lloyd Dobler, arguably the greatest romantic hero ever created!”

SO VERY TRUE. (Turn away now relatives who read my blog). Lloyd Dobler is everything, EVERYTHING I ever wanted in a man. And that scene in Say Anything is probably the most lovely, wonderful and romantic one of its kind in all of cinema. Ever.

So I’ll leave you with this, and that’s all that needs to be said.

I know I’m a little late in saying this…

I am absolutely thrilled that Neil Gaiman has won the Booktrust Teenage Prize for The Graveyard Book.

I was first given one of Gaiman’s graphic novels as a present from a friend when I was 16. I still have my battered copy of Death on our bookshelves and a lot more Gaiman books have gathered around it, but I particularly love The Graveyard Book.

It’s the type of read that makes me laugh out loud when I try and think how the author came up with the idea behind it and thank my lucky stars that some people do just think of these things and go with them!

There’s an interesting article in the Telegraph that talks of Rudyard Kipling’s obvious influence on Gaiman when writing The Graveyard Book.

And of course there are lots more articles and news snippets around all toasting his success:

BBC
The Guardian
The Bookseller

The big question is, which version did you get? Illustrated by Chris Riddell or David McKean? A fan of both but I went for McKean. I loved his work on David Almond’s The Savage and something about his artwork for this cover reminded me of Stephen King and as its all a little bit Stephen King at the moment, I went for that version.

And just because I love it so, here’s a picture from the Coraline movie.

Bookish hide and seek

I was reading the other day about the game that Stephen King has been playing with his fans in the lead-up to the launch of his new book, Under the Dome.

And it made me think, why don’t we do stuff like that with when we publish a children’s book? Isn’t childhood a time when the fantasy of reading and the fun of hide-and-seek are at their most intertwined?

Bookstart on GMTV

Apologies for my disappearing act of late. I’ve been hugely busy with a poorly baby (much better now), building work going on in my house, Booktime work and also reading a manuscript that’s got some good potential. All a bit of whirlwind.

But I saw this today and couldn’t let it go unmentioned. Rosemary Clarke, the director of Bookstart chatting on the GMTV sofa about the importance of nursery rhymes ahead of National Bookstart Day tomorrow. Take a look if you didn’t catch it earlier today. Here’s the link.

A birthday feast of cake

I had my birthday recently and much to my delight all the lovely pressies that came my way were very cake themed – hurrah!

I got three very different books on baking and some super cake decorating equipment.

I am especially pleased with Jane Brocket’s Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer: A golden treasury of classic treats. The recipes are all inspired by favourite children’s books and it is absolutely the sort of book I wished I’d though to write myself.

There are lovely black and white illustrations throughout and half the fun when flicking through the pages, is trying to guess which children’s book they’ve come from.

I do wish though that there were some picture of the finished recipes, just because the images on Jane’s blog always look so tasty.

I also got this lovely cake stand and a gorgeous, gorgeous cake slice from Bombay Duck.

I already have the teaspoons to match the cake slice, but apparently there are butter knives too – how exciting! If the good folk at Bombay Duck happen to read this post – it would be a lovely idea to perhaps make some Vintage Teaparty cake forks? Just a thought!

Hungry now.

Harry Potter he ain’t

So Milo’s moving around a lot more now. Commando crawling as opposed to the traditional kind. I’m considering wrapping his tummy in dusters so he can be productive while on his way to destroying something else that I hadn’t considered baby proofing yet.

Unfortunately the wand like instrument in his hand isn’t his attempt to play at being Harry Potter. It is sadly the cane that once belonged to my Charlie Chaplin figurine that sits in a corner of our living room. He is a strong boy it would seem.

In another attempt at being a boy wizard, I discovered that Milo had “magically” made the flap on the monkey page of Dear Zoo disappear – into his mouth. Will this relentless eating of books ever end?

Funny it was this page really. Not sure the zoo would accept Milo though.

Yay – books are so fun!

Loving this post on Cupcakes for Clara!

Might have to get Milo copies of Elephant Wellyphant and Octopus Socktopus (Nick Sharratt) for his birthday which is coming up quicker than I like to think about. In November I’ll be the mum of a one year old. How did that happen?

Roald Dahl funny prize shortlist

The Roald Dahl funny prize shortlist has been announced today and it’s a really great bunch of books:

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under

The Great Dog Bottom Swap by Peter Bently, illus. Mei Matsuoka (Andersen Press)
Octopus Socktopus by Nick Sharratt (Alison Green Books)
Elephant Joe is a Spaceman! by David Wojtowycz (Alison Green Books)
Crocodiles Are the Best Animals of All! by Sean Taylor, illus. Hannah Shaw (Frances Lincoln)
Mr Pusskins Best in Show by Sam Lloyd (Orchard Books)
The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg, illus. Bruce Ingman (Walker Books)

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to 14

The Galloping Ghost by Hilda Offen (Catnip Publishing)
Eating Things on Sticks by Anne Fine, illus. Kate Aldous (Doubleday)
Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky by Philip Ardagh, illus. Jim Paillot (Faber and Faber)
The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams, illus. Quentin Blake (HarperCollins)
Purple Class and the Half-Eaten Sweater by Sean Taylor, illus. Helen Bate (Frances Lincoln)
Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan (Simon & Schuster)

With David Walliams on the shortlist and Mini Grey, Michael Rosen, Louise Rennison, Andy Stanton and Bill Bailey all on the panel, I really wish the judging could be streamed live as it would be hilarious to watch!

August – month of birthdays

So for our little family, August is a bit of a month of birthdays. It is the turn of Milo’s dad today, it will be mine tomorrow and my mum’s birthday on Sunday (an expensive week for Milo when he is old enough to buy his own presents!).

Of course there has to be some cake. I made a coffee and walnut cake for Milo’s dad today.

Delia sponge (her sponges always come out great), coffee buttercream filling and a coffee glaze. Yum.

Whilst out shopping for pressies last week, I noticed that someone had wrapped up Liberty.

I bet they needed a lot of sellotape.