Browsing all articles tagged with children’s books.
Children’s Fantasy: Eight of the Best – Part One
I do not write for children, but entirely for myself. Yet I do write for some children, and have done so from the beginning. This wonderful, contradictory statement comes from Alan Garner, who merits a place – at least in my mind – at the high table of children’s fantasy literature. Garner continues: Only recently […]
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
This is one of the tenderly beautiful children’s books that is written with wit and an elegant simplicity for all ages. A close comparison that I’m sure many of you know is The Last Unicorn. If you enjoyed The Last Unicorn, you will enjoy Haroun and the Sea of Stories. That is as much of […]
Fantasy Movies & Games Encouraging Children To Read
We often see on the news or hear from public figures that children are spending too much time in front of screens playing computer games or watching television. Of course, with new media, children are never going to read as much as the they did in the past, but new research suggests that films and […]
When YOU Were The Hero – An Adventure In Gamebooks
Gamebooks aren’t something you see much of these days but back in the 80s and 90s they were doing a roaring trade all over the world as readers embraced the possibility of interactivity in their entertainment. They generally work like this: The reader becomes the protagonist in a second person narrative, the outcome of which […]
Wheel-Mouse vs All The Crazy Robots
Wheel-Mouse vs All The Crazy Robots is a joint project between fantasy author Mark Lawrence and his daughter, Celyn. Now, I wouldn’t want Mark to take too much of the credit and so I’m going to tell you that Celyn did all the creation, the coming up with characters and plotting of the story line. […]
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
A Monster Calls is a book that I would never have picked up. It was only because it won The Kitschies Red Tentacle Award for Best Novel that I’d even heard of it. I know the founders of The Kitschies, and with Lauren Beukes and China Miéville having won the previous two awards, I knew […]
Children & Fantasy – The Introductory Phase
Since I finished university, I’ve had a little more free time on my hands. My favourite way using some of this time to help out my aunt and a friend by babysitting a 6-year-old, a 5-year-old and an 18-month-old. Kids are brilliant. Of course, the older two love stories. Being the adult in charge, I […]
