Carnegie and Greenaway 2012 shortlists announced!

The shortllists for the CLIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards 2012 have just been announced.

The CILIP Carnegie Medal is the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing. Although there is no cash prize, the CILIP Carnegie is regularly described by writers as "the one they want to win". 

The eight books on this year's shortlist are suitable for readers of 12 years or younger and feature no less than four debut novels.

And here's they are!  Click on a cover to check availability, or click here to bring up the whole list.

The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal is the UK's most prestigious prize for children's book illustration, and the only one to consider illustration exclusively.

This year the shortlist highlights the importance of illustration in books for older readers.

Click on a cover to check availability, or click here to bring up the whole list.

 

 

 

There, lots and lots of lovely new titles for you to be getting on with.  Why not let us know what you think of them?  Why not try to second-guess the judges and predict the winner?

And, in the true spirit of both prizes, we shall NOT be offering a cash prize for correct suggestions.

Teens Aloud - a new reading group for...um, teens!

Welcome to the Reading Revolution!

"Teens Aloud", a  reading group with a difference, is being launched in Cardiff Libraries at the end of February.

“So what’s the difference?” I hear you ask.

Well, the difference is that all the reading is done during the session, rather than before - making it ideal for those social animals who find it difficult to fit regular reading into their manic lifestyles.

Inspired by the ‘Read to Lead’ training delivered by ‘The Reader Organisation’ (TRO), the aim is to bring teenagers together to read aloud, talk and share ideas about books, short stories and poetry, or reflect on similar experiences of their own. 

TRO work to bring the pleasure and value of reading to as many people as possible, bringing books to life by reading aloud in the company of others. 

According to TRO , the benefits to young people of reading aloud include -

• Increased personal confidence
• Improved health and well being
• Increased love of reading
• Greater social skills
• Improved literacy
• Improved stability and security

‘Teens Aloud’ will be launched at Cardiff Central Library on Wednesday, February 29^th, and will meet weekly from 4.30pm-5.30pm.

And there’ll be biscuits – so no speaking with your mouth full!

Crumbs.

The most borrowed books in Cardiff Libraries 2010-11!

Well, the PLR (Public Lending Rights) results for 2010-11 are out and here are our top 100 most borrowed books -

	Title	Author	Year	Issues
1	The lost symbol	Dan Brown	2009	603
2	Wolf Hall	Hilary Mantel	2009	597
3	The Finkler question	Howard Jacobson	2010	508
4	Room	Emma Donoghue	2010	485
5	Worth dying for	Lee Child	2010	469
6	61 hours	Lee Child	2010	466
7	The short second life of Bree Tanner : an Eclipse novella	Stephenie Meyer	2010	453
8	Private	James Patterson	2010	449
9	Caught	Harlan Coben	2010	445
10	The girl with the dragon tattoo	Stieg Larsson ; translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland	2008	443
11	Deliver us from evil	David Baldacci	2010	442
12	The long song	Andrea Levy	2010	434
13	The killing place	Tess Gerritsen	2010	430
14	Play dead	Harlan Coben	2010	428
15	9th Judgement	James Patterson	2010	426
16	The Search	Nora Roberts	2010	420
17	A perfect proposal	Katie Fforde	2010	410
18	Horrid Henry v Moody Margaret	Francesca Simon ; illustrated by Tony Ross	2009	400
19	Worst case	James Patterson	2010	398
20	Blind fury	Lynda La Plante	2010	397
21	True blue	David Baldacci	2009	396
22	Bad boy	Peter Robinson	2010	388
23	The burning wire	Jeffery Deaver	2010	387
24	The other family	Joanna Trollope	2010	384
25	Don't blink	James Patterson & Howard Roughan	2010	384
26	In their footsteps	Tess Gerritsen	2010	381
27	The Lacuna : a novel	Barbara Kingsolver	2010	378
28	From the dead	Mark Billingham	2010	377
29	The way we were	Elizabeth Noble	2010	373
30	Gone tomorrow	Lee Child	2009	368
31	A rush of blood	Quintin Jardine	2010	368
32	Zog	Julia Donaldson ; illustrated by Axel Scheffler	2010	362
33	Solar	Ian McEwan	2010	360
34	Nine dragons	Michael Connelly	2009	358
35	Swimsuit	James Patterson and Maxine Paetro	2009	357
36	Broken	Karin Slaughter	2010	354
37	The postcard killers : a novel	James Patterson and Liza Marklund	2010	352
38	Horrid Henry v Moody Margaret	Francesca Simon ; illustrated by Tony Ross	2009	352
39	The woodcutter	Reginald Hill	2010	346
40	New moon / Stephenie Meyer	Stephenie Meyer		344
41	The spy	Clive Cussler and Justin Scott	2010	339
42	Big girl : a novel	Danielle Steel	2010	339
43	The cobra	Frederick Forsyth	2010	339
44	The girl who kicked the hornets' nest	Stieg Larsson ; translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland	2009	336
45	First family	David Baldacci	2009	335
46	8th confession	James Patterson	2009	335
47	Ambitious love	Rosie Harris	2010	333
48	Breaking dawn	Stephenie Meyer	2008	332
49	Play to kill	PJ Tracy	2010	332
50	One day in May	Catherine Alliott	2010	331
51	Stick man	Julia Donaldson ; illustrated by Axel Scheffler	2008	330
52	Rough justice	Stephen Leather	2010	330
53	House rules	Jodi Picoult	2010	329
54	I, Alex Cross	James Patterson	2009	329
55	Started early, took my dog	Kate Atkinson	2010	328
56	Horrid Henry and the football fiend	Francesca Simon ; illustrated by Tony Ross ; read by Miranda Ric>	2010	327
57	The complaints	Ian Rankin	2009	327
58	Trick of the dark	Val McDermid	2010	325
59	The first rule	Robert Crais	2010	322
60	The shadow of your smile	Mary Higgins Clark	2010	321
61	Time's legacy	Barbara Erskine	2010	321
62	Beyond the sunset	by Anna Jacobs	2010	318
63	The dealer and the dead	Gerald Seymour	2010	318
64	The choice	Susan Lewis	2010	317
65	Alex Cross's trial	James Patterson	2009	317
66	The betrayal	Helen Dunmore	2010	317
67	The love verb	Jane Green	2010	316
68	Family ties : a novel	Danielle Steel	2010	316
69	The queen of new beginnings	Erica James	2010	316
70	Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone	J. K. Rowling	2001	315
71	Stolen	Lesley Pearse	2010	312
72	Heading home	Katie Flynn	2010	309
73	Tigerlily's orchids	Ruth Rendell	2010	308
74	Bloodline	Mark Billingham	2009	308
75	Horrid Henry and the bogey babysitter	Francesca Simon: ill Tony Ross	2002	308
76	Trespass	Rose Tremain	2010	308
77	The scarecrow	Michael Connelly	2009	307
78	206 bones	Kathy Reichs	2009	305
79	The Scarpetta factor	Patricia Cornwell	2009	304
80	The girl who played with fire	Stieg Larsson ; translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland	2009	303
81	The fort	Bernard Cornwell	2010	303
82	A mistletoe kiss	Katie Flynn	2010	302
83	Whispers of love	Rosie Harris	2010	301
84	Savour the moment	Nora Roberts	2010	301
85	Parrot and Olivier in America	Peter Carey	2010	299
86	The sweetest thing	Susan Sallis	2010	298
87	Deception	Jonathan Kellerman	2010	297
88	The business	Martina Cole	2008	296
89	U is for undertow	Sue Grafton	2010	296
90	And thereby hangs a tale	Jeffrey Archer	2010	295
91	Horrid Henry rocks	Francesca Simon ; illustrated by Tony Ross	2010	295
92	The Judas gate	Jack Higgins	2010	294
93	Soldier girl	Annie Murray	2010	293
94	The official DSA theory test for car drivers ; and, The of>	Driving Standards Agency (Great Britain)	2010	293
95	6 Rainier Drive	Debbie Macomber	2010	292
96	Edge	Jeffery Deaver	2010	292
97	Silent scream	Karen Rose	2010	292
98	This body of death	Elizabeth George	2010	292
99	Where death delights : a forensic mystery of the nineteen->	Bernard Knight	2010	292
100	Storm prey	John Sandford	2010	291

No great surprise that as usual the list is dominated by crime and thrillers, but nice to see lots of other stuff in there too.


Nationally its been a great year for children's authors, taking 5 out of the top 10 places.


The full list and lots of interesting regional and other breakdowns can be seen here

The main PLR site gives lots of information about their work in helping authors get just a little of what they deserve for entertaining us so well, and a big "thanks" to them for making alll this information freely available.


And now I'm off to change my name to James Patterson in the hope of some financial fallout.