Countdown to NCRCL/IBBY UK 2018 – 10 Days to Go!

25th Annual NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference

‘Crafts and Hobbies in Children’s Books’

Saturday 10th November 2018, 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Tickets are available here.

This short blog series will span the next ten days, counting down to the 25th Annual Conference. It will be showcasing some of the papers anticipated for this year’s NCRCL/IBBY UK conference. Each day we will be turning the spotlight on to a different parallel session, giving an idea of what’s to come! You can expect lots of exciting content from well-known illustrators and craft practitioners, academics, and key figures in the children’s literature world!

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This year’s closing plenary will be given by Jemma Westing. Jemma is an award winning book designer and paper engineer who has worked with DK publishing, and has created a range of slot-model kits and innovative interactive books. In 2013 she also founded the not-for-profit workshop BrilliantBuilds which encourages children and families to be creative using recycled materials. 

Countdown to NCRCL/IBBY UK 2018 – 11 Days to Go!

25th Annual NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference

‘Crafts and Hobbies in Children’s Books’

Saturday 10th November 2018, 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Tickets are available here.

This short blog series will span the next eleven days, counting down to the 25th Annual Conference. It will be showcasing some of the papers anticipated for this year’s NCRCL/IBBY UK conference. Each day we will be turning the spotlight on to a different parallel session, giving an idea of what’s to come! You can expect lots of exciting content from well-known illustrators and craft practitioners, academics, and key figures in the children’s literature world!

Su Blackwell, Wild Flowers of the British Isles

Roehampton Readers: Thornhill by Pam Smy

Review: Thornhill by Pam Smy

By Clare Walters

Cover via  http://thornhillbook.com/

 

Thornhill is a ghost story that interweaves the stories of two girls. The first is Ella Clarke, who is alive and well in 2017, and the second is Mary Baines, who died in 1982. These girls are mirror images of each other, and Ella’s tale is told through the illustrations while Mary’s is told through her diary entries.

Ella, who has recently lost her mother, has just moved to a new house with her father. Mary has been – and still is in her 1982 diaries – incarcerated in a children’s home called Thornhill. By chance, Ella’s new bedroom window overlooks Thornhill, now boarded up and derelict.

In both girls there is an absence of a physical voice – actual on the part of Mary who is a selective mute, and virtual on the part of Ella, who simply has no one to talk to. This is linked to a lack of agency, as neither girl has control over her life.

There is a third girl in the story, too, another abandoned child in the children’s home, who is simply referred to as ‘She’. Described as a cruel teasing, tormenting, bully who makes life unbearable for her victim Mary, she assumes the role of villain. But because She never speaks for herself, she also lacks a voice. We discover her solely through Mary’s diary, so we are learning about her through the classic unreliable narrator. Are the diary descriptions true? Or could Mary be the actual villain?

Countdown to NCRCL/IBBY UK 2018 – 12 Days to Go!

25th Annual NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference

‘Crafts and Hobbies in Children’s Books’

Saturday 10th November 2018, 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Tickets are available here.

This short blog series will span the next twelve days, counting down to the 25th Annual Conference. It will be showcasing some of the papers anticipated for this year’s NCRCL/IBBY UK conference. Each day we will be turning the spotlight on to a different parallel session, giving an idea of what’s to come! You can expect lots of exciting content from well-known illustrators and craft practitioners, academics, and key figures in the children’s literature world!

Su Blackwell, The Stork Wife

Countdown to NCRCL/IBBY UK 2018 – 13 Days to Go!

25th Annual NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference

‘Crafts and Hobbies in Children’s Books’

Saturday 10th November 2018, 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Tickets are available here.

This short blog series will span the next thirteen days, counting down to the 25th Annual Conference. It will be showcasing some of the papers anticipated for this year’s NCRCL/IBBY UK conference. Each day we will be turning the spotlight on to a different parallel session, giving an idea of what’s to come! You can expect lots of exciting content from well-known illustrators and craft practitioners, academics, and key figures in the children’s literature world!

Su Blackwell, The Snow Goose

Countdown to NCRCL/IBBY UK 2018 – 14 Days to Go!

25th Annual NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference

‘Crafts and Hobbies in Children’s Books’

Saturday 10th November 2018, 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Tickets are available here.

This short blog series will span the next fourteen days, counting down to the 25th Annual Conference. It will be showcasing some of the papers anticipated for this year’s NCRCL/IBBY UK conference. Each day we will be turning the spotlight on to a different parallel session, giving an idea of what’s to come! You can expect lots of exciting content from well-known illustrators and craft practitioners, academics, and key figures in the children’s literature world!

Su Blackwell, To Kill a Mockingbird

Countdown to NCRCL/IBBY UK 2018 – 15 Days to Go!

25th Annual NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference

‘Crafts and Hobbies in Children’s Books’

Saturday 10th November 2018, 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Tickets are available here.

This short blog series will span the next fifteen days, counting down to the 25th Annual Conference. It will be showcasing some of the papers anticipated for this year’s NCRCL/IBBY UK conference. Each day we will be turning the spotlight on to a different parallel session, giving an idea of what’s to come! You can expect lots of exciting content from well-known illustrators and craft practitioners, academics, and key figures in the children’s literature world!