Maeve Friel.com

I’m leaving for Ireland in a few hours and looking forward to a busy and interesting couple of weeks there.

First up, I’m spending a few days in Cork, visiting the Eglantine School and Crab Lane School – a big HELLO to any of the pupils there who are reading this -I am so looking forward to getting to know you all.

On Saturday and Sunday, I will be attending the Children’s Literature Summer School in the National Library in Dublin where there is a great line-up of speakers including the multi-talented Emberley family and award-winning author and illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (who is married to Michael Emberley).  The summer school will kick off with an introductory speech from Ireland’s new Children’s Laureate, the brilliant illustrator Niamh Sharkey.

After that, I am off to spend a week in one of my favourite places, the Tyrone Guthrie artists’ centre in Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan, a splendid inspirational place where writers, artists and musicians can go to recharge their batteries, jump-start new work or work intensively on work-in-progress. I am hoping that a week of hard work there will be enough to finish the novel I am working on at the moment, a young adult novel provisionally called Expulsion.

Filed under: Artists' Residences, Authors and Illustrators, Children's Laureate, Childrens Books Ireland, Events by Maeve Friel
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Children’s Book Festival

Children’s Books Ireland are holding their summer school next weekend in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.

One of the highlights will be the opening address by the newly appointed  Irish Children’s Laureate, the  illustrator  Niamh Sharkey.

I first met Niamh at a CBI conference about twelve years ago when she had just published  The Gigantic Turnip (Barefoot Books) and where she astonished and charmed everybody with her demonstration of her painstaking technique of building up layers and layers of gesso. Here was an exciting new talent, we all agreed.

Since then she has become a hugely successful and well-loved writer, famous for her creation I’m a Happy Hugglewug , The Ravenous Beast and the daring road trip of the runaway animals in  On the Road with Mavis and  Marge.

Disney Junior are  currently making a pre-school series based on The Hugglewugs, which will be aired in over a hundred and fifty countries.

Filed under: Authors and Illustrators, Bisto Awards, Children's Book Festival, Children's Books, Children's Laureate, Childrens Books Ireland, Libraries by Maeve Friel
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Remembering Maurice Sendak

Here is another interesting article  and personal recollections  about the amazing (and obviously grumpy) Maurice Sendak who died on May 8th. The writer historian Leonard Marcus met him on several occasions. I love the mischievous story about Sendak’s reaction to a poisonous review of Dear Mili by  Salman Rushdie.

Filed under: Children's Books by Maeve Friel
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Do you know the one about the cat and the moon?

Here’s a chance for all you budding poets.

Hawk’s Well Theatre  in Sligo have just announced the Hawk’s Well Children’s Poet of the Year 2012.  It’s for 8-10 year olds, essentially children in 3rd and 4th class in national schools.

The rules are simple: your poem must be called The Cat and the Moon and it must be five lines long.

Can’t be that hard, can it? Entries must be in by June 1st.

(And no, you can’t copy that old nursery rhyme about the cat and the fiddle and the cow, and the dish and the spoon.)

Good luck, everyone.

For more information and to download an entry form, follow this link to the Hawkswell Theatre site.

Filed under: Children's Poet of the Year, Children's Poetry Competition by Maeve Friel
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Jennifer Lawrence in Madrid

Last night as I was walking around Madrid I was surprised to come across a large crowd of excited young people outside the Capitol cinema.  Next thing there  was a huge cheer and outbreak of clapping and there, on the red carpet  and on the giant screen dominating the square was none other than Jennifer Lawrence, the lead in The Hunger Games (Los Juegos del Hambre in Spanish) in town to promote the movie. Have any of you seen the movie yet or read the book – what do you think of it?

Filed under: Children's Books, Events, Spain by Maeve Friel
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King’s College Alicante First Literary Festival

I had a great day last week visiting King’s College, the British International School in Alicante where they were holding their first ever Literary Festival, a week-long extravaganza of poetry, story-telling, artwork, creative writing and performance.

The students at both the primary and secondary school here follow the British curriculum. Of the 120 students I met, i.e. all of the 6th and 7th years, most were Spanish but a good percentage were not.  There were children from China, Russia, Australia, London, Poland, as well as many towns, cities, regions and islands of Spain. When they asked me where I was from and I explained just how many places I have lived in, I got a spontaneous round of applause in recognition – these guys knew about upping sticks and moving house.

What they had in common with young people everywhere was that they were creative and funny, great readers and talkers – and with few exceptions, doing this all in a second language. Percy Jackson, Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson, Cressida Cowell, Anthony Horowitz were among  their favourites, aand they are reading them for pleasure in their second language.  Hats off to them, I say.

There was a great creative buzz in the school. I was amused by a display of “hand-made” musical instruments. Among the marracas, drums and flutes, there was one that was rather more unusual, a string instrument, a peculiar harp made of elastic bands and … what was that spiny thing?

The instructions read: First catch your spider-crab. Eat it. Wash the body. Allow to dry in the sun for two days….”

Filed under: Children's Books, Events, Spain, Uncategorized by Maeve Friel
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A quartet of winning libraries

Thank you to everybody who has written to me since the World Book Day events in Dublin, Shannon, Lisdoonvarna, Ennistymon, Sixmilebridge and Galway. It was great fun to meet you, see you demonstrate your inventive broom-flying techniques and, best of all, to hear your fantastic stories about gorillas in top hats,  a gun concealed in a compartment in an old leather notebook, enchanted bookshops and spies in opera houses. Five stars for the lot of you.

(If by the way you have not received a reply from me, please email me again – one or two emails bounced back to me, suggesting your email address was wrong.)

The four libraries I visited in County Clare were all outstanding for different reasons.

Kilfinaghty Library in Sixmilebridge was once a derelict Church of Ireland but has been lovingly restored to become a beautiful state of the art library. It still retains its original wooden balcony but has a bright new stained-glass window which features both a computer and a builder in a hard hat. I wanted to nominate it for the Children’s Books Ireland Library of the Month – but it had already won in January.

Lisdoonvarna library was a tiny gem set in a small public park. It had once been the Iron and Magnesia Pump Room of this famous spa town. It was thrilling to learn that its main emphasis is on books and other materials for children. Again, I thought of nominating it for Library of the Month – but too late. It was announced as the overall winner on 29th February. Congratulations for a well-deserved win.

Ennistymon Library held a surprise too for it is next to the renowned Ennistymon House, now the Falls Hotel and Spa, a Georgian house on the grounds of an earlier medieval castle – Dylan Thomas was a regular visitor here as his wife Caitlin once lived in the house.

And finally, the spanking new Shannon Library, was a hive of activity – book clubs and story-telling, art displays and a host of other regular clubs and events. Exactly what we all want from our local library.

Let’s hear it for our local library and librarians and do everything we can to save them from cuts and closure.

Filed under: Bookshops, Children's Books, Childrens Books Ireland, Events, Libraries by Maeve Friel
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The Edible Book Festival 2012

All you have to do is think of a book or a character you love, then bake your cake with that theme, take two photographs of it and submit. (Do not send the cake – it’s a virtual edible book festival!) You do not have to be either a superb baker or even a dab hand at the icing – they are looking for fun ideas and originality.

Filed under: Uncategorized by Maeve Friel
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World Book Day

As everybody knows, we are celebrating World Book Day in Ireland and the UK on March 1st – except that World Book Day doesn’t seem to be content with one day and is taking over the whole week.

See the World Book Day website to see what is going on near you.

I am delighted to be involved in this great celebration of the joys of reading and will be visiting one school, four libraries and a bookshop next week.

Monday 27th February – Terenure Boys’ National School, Dublin

Wednesday 29th February – 11am – Sixmilebridge Library, Co. Clare

Wednesday 29th February – 1.30pm. – Shannon Library, Co. Clare

Thursday 1st March – 11am – Ennistymon Library, Co. Clare

Thursday 1st March – 1.30pm – Lisdoonvarna Library, Co. Clare

Friday 2nd March – 10.30 – Dubray Bookshop, Galway to meet with students from Claddagh and Scoil Iognaid.

Looking forward to meeting you all, hearing about your favourite books and characters and sharing some stories.

Filed under: Children's Books, Events by Maeve Friel
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Nominations for Irish Children’s Laureate

You have only two days to nominate your choice for Ireland’s 2nd Children’s Laureate  - the Laureate na nó“g is an initiative of the Arts Council with the support of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMCYA), Children’s Books Ireland, Poetry Ireland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

This important project:

1. Introduces high quality children’s literature to a new audience of adults, children and young people.

2. Raises the profile of children’s literature in Ireland.

3. Increases media attention for children’s literature in Ireland and internationally.

4. Brings children’s literature into the mainstream conversation about books and literature in Ireland.

5. Builds partnership and cooperation among various players in the children’s literature sector.

The initiative was instigated in 2010 with the inauguration of Siobha¡n Parkinson as Ireland’s first ever Laureate na nÓg. Siobha¡n will complete her imaginative and successful term in May 2012.

The person nominated must meet five key criteria:

1. The laureate should be a writer or illustrator with an internationally recognised body of high quality children’s writing and/or illustration, and may write in Irish or English.

2. He or she must have made a particularly significant contribution to the field of children’s literature in Ireland and have had a considerable positive impact on readers as well as other writers and illustrators.

3. He or she must demonstrate both eagerness and skill in engaging with children, young people, adults and media and with the sector as a whole.

4. He or she should demonstrate an enthusiasm for promoting children’s literature in general.

5. The laureate must be Irish

The new laureate 2012 – 2014 will be chosen by the selection committee which will include representatives from the Arts Council, Children’s Books Ireland, OMCYA and Poetry Ireland as well as experts from a range of relevant fields. The new Laureate na nó“g will be announced in May 2012.

Send your nomination via email to info@childrensbooksireland.ie with your full name and postal address.

Filed under: Children's Books, Children's Laureate, Childrens Books Ireland by Maeve Friel
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