Wasted on children...

The Goth Girl Series by Chris Riddell

Just over a week ago I was lucky enough to be working an event with the former Children's Laureate - Chris Riddell.

I've long been a fan of his illustrations and political cartoons, and last summer I picked his Travels With My Sketchbook as a top read but for some reason I've not read any of the books solely written by him, despite recommending them to all and sundry based on the illustrations and blurbs!

I've rectified this now as I've raced through three of the four Goth Girl books in the past 10 days, I picked these ones on the back of Chris's comment at his talk where he talked about some painters of bucolic scenes calling themselves the twee-Raphelites  and something about this dreadful pun really spoke to me.

The Goth Girl books were a delight, and as an adult the fun came in the puns and jokes as much as the plots and I was giggling hysterically from the description of Ada Goth's father as being mad, bad and dangerous to gnomes at the start of the first book right up until the very sweet book in a book that slots into the fourth book and gives an alternative origins story to the Narnia books.

I am really surprised that these books haven't been recovered and rebadged for the adult satire market as they really do stand up against books like Bored of the Rings. I hope that the plots do mean that the books appeal to children as much they do to me!

In addition to this Chris is a great guy and spends time talking to, and listening to his fans of all ages, I'd hoped that would be the case as I'd hate to have had my illusions of such a library and reading advocate to have been not so nice in real life!

Be warned - everyone in the family is going to be getting books by Mr Riddell for birthdays and Christmas from now on...

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it - attributed to Voltaire.

Banned Book Week 2010

I've been working on a big project for work just recently. The last week in September is the ALA's Banned Book Week and this year Norfolk Libraries are taking part.

The library where I work is planning a discussion evening and to prepare I am reading lots of books that have been banned as well as lots of reference books about censorship.

It is a really interesting project to work on and my eyes have been opened to a lot of things - including just how much censorship has taken place in this country in the not too distant past.

I don't know if I am too liberal but so far while I haven't liked some of the books we've read there is nothing I'd want to ban or restrict. Just because I don't like something, or find something uncomfortable to read it doesn't mean that I don't think anyone else should read it, it just means that it wasn't my cup of tea.

I'm not even sure where I stand on books like The Satanic Verses. OK I don't think that people should go out of their way to insult other races/creeds/religions etc but at the same time if you know you are going to be offended you don't have to read it and for most views it is possible to find another book proposing the other side of the story...

This whole project is stirring up a lot of thoughts and emotions in me, and one of the things that it has really done is to make me want to study seriously again.

If anyone is interested the discussion evening is going to be on Tuesday 5th October at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library. We will spend a little time talking about the ALA, Banned Books Week, Censorship in the UK and Norfolk and how we buy books for the Norfolk Library Service and then we shall move on to discussing ten books that have been banned or challenged around the world.

The ten books are:

Alice in Wonderland
James and the Giant Peach
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Tropic of Cancer
Fahrenheit 451
Beloved
To Kill a Mockingbird
Not Without My Daughter
Nineteen Minutes
The Da Vinci Code