Luna’s Prose Ramblings

The BBC has a wonderful article on the joys of oral histories and a project called StoryCorps, which collects them.

After the case was originally dismissed, a 2-1 majority opinion of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the claim by Miami-Dade County School Board that they were in their right to remove Vamos a Cuba by Alta Schreier, published by Heinemann Library, from school libraries for reasons of it not being an accurate representation of life in Cuba.

The case was picked up by the Miami-Dade County School Board after complaints by several people including a former political prisoner of Cuba. The book offended mainly because it depicts smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba’s communist youth group and the book tells of “carnavals” that in reality are commemorative days celebrating Cuba’s revolutionist history. According to the complainers, the fault of the book is one of omission as the aspects of totalitarianism that effect Cuban life are not covered.

Over at Children’s Book Examiner Diane Petryk Bloom questions where the line lies between books being age appropriate and inaccurate.

Today I came across the list of Hugo nominees for this year’s prestigious Sci-Fi award. I have highlighted some of the nominees here;

Best Novel

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)

• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)

• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)

• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, story; Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, screenplay; based on characters created by Bob Kane; Christopher Nolan, director (Warner Brothers)

• Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro & Mike Mignola, story; Guillermo del Toro, screenplay; based on the comic by Mike Mignola; Guillermo del Toro, director (Dark Horse, Universal)

• Iron Man, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, screenplay; based on characters created by Stan Lee & Don Heck & Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby; Jon Favreau, director (Paramount, Marvel Studios)

• METAtropolis by John Scalzi, ed. Written by: Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder (Audible Inc)

• WALL-E, Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• “The Constant” (Lost) Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, writers; Jack Bender, director (Bad Robot, ABC studios)

• Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen , writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

• “Revelations” (Battlestar Galactica) Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, writers; Michael Rymer, director (NBC Universal)

• “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” (Doctor Who) Steven Moffat, writer; Euros Lyn, director (BBC Wales)

• “Turn Left” (Doctor Who) Russell T. Davies, writer; Graeme Harper, director (BBC Wales)

As is said on the Hugo website, the nominees announcement on the Anticipation website includes links to purchasable and freely available downloadable and readable content from this year’s nominees.

Boston-based ‘The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood’ has concluded that publishing group Scholastic unfairly uses its book club for peripheral advertising. When assessing the monthly fliers that the publisher distributes among the schools and pupils that participate in their book club, Boston CCFC found that 14 percent of the items on Scholastic’s book club fliers were not books, while an additional 19 percent were books sold with mechandise like stickers, posters and toys.

Susan Linn, director of CCFC, reminded Scholastic that marketing in schools is a privilege and should be regarded that way.

“The message that children get when books are marketed with other items is that a book in and of itself isn’t enough. And what it does is encourage children to choose books based not on the content but on what they get with it.”

When contacted, Scholastic said that in a class of 24 kids, some of them will be turned on by a game and it helps kids engage in the book club process.

A host of Irish writers are protesting the termination of funding to the Irish Writers’ Centre. As the Guardian writes, closure of the centre would mean the loss of a focal point for events, discussions, conferences and holding archives.

The Irish Writers’ Centre, which [Irish author] Seamus Heaney has called “a part of the literary culture” and [Costa prize winner John] Boyne “a part of the fabric of literature in Ireland”, works to develop and foster new Irish writing, providing a space for literary events, festivals and courses, as well as a home for a host of writers’ groups. [T]he decision to terminate its funding meant that access to these resources would be lost, “leaving the next generation of Irish authors in a vacuum and having to look elsewhere for guidance and development”.

Every once in a while, I am amazed when I hear about literary freedom being compromised. However, I am astonished if it happens in my own city.

The BBC reports on the cancellation of a reading and book signing that Waterstone’s Cardiff branch would host for Welsh poet Patrick Jones. His collection of poems ‘Darkness is where the stars are’ is described as questioning the beliefs in society. However, a campaign by the christian organisation Christian Voice, led to Waterstone’s deeming it prudent to cancel the event to avoid potential disruption to the store and consequently led to the author signing his books on the street.

Waterstone’s spokeperson said ‘(t)he book remains available through Waterstone’s and we are very happy for that to be the case. We don’t act as a censor, we stock books in the tens of thousands and would only remove them from sale on the advice of the publisher’.

Stephen Green of Christian Voice said the decision was a triumph ‘for the Lord, not for us. Just the knowledge that we were on our way has put the fear of God into the opposition’.

Today the No To Age Banding organisation has spoken again. The message read;

The age-banding of children’s books was discussed at an eagerly-awaited and packed session held on 31st August at the Society of Authors’ Conference at Robinson College, Cambridge.

On the No To Age Banding website, authors Philip Pullman and Anne Fine have posted their respective address and report. I agree especially with Philip Pullman’s address and am very pleased that he has stepped up as the organisation’s spokesperson. Even for someone who might not agree, his address is an excellent read. I think he brings up very valid points as to the potholes in the research (hey, if you let actual scientists read the report, you’re asking for it !) and ignorance of the publishing establishment and does so with flair.

See the research report here, and see what The Guardian and Fidra Books – an independent publisher ran by scientists – had to say about it;
Publishers Association’s resources on Age-banding and download the actual report here
The Guardian on Age-banding
Fidra Books on Age-banding

At the moment it’s for an outsider still difficult to read the influence and consequences of these meetings especially because Kate Wilson of Scholastic was the only representative of the publisher’s band that had enough bravado to participate, but I am very confident that the Publishers Association will do exactly as Philip Pullman suggests;

(…) put this age-guidance idea into a dark cupboard, shut the door, and forget it. Leave it to gather dust and fade away. We won’t say any more about it if you don’t. It was a bad idea to start with, and now that you’ve roused all this opposition, it’s an impossible one. It will not work, so walk away and have done with it.

Yesterday I received this word from No To Age Banding;

“The Society of Authors has added an extra session at their Cambridge Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference, 29-31 August, to include a discussion on age guidance. They are keen to air all views.

The session will be chaired by R4’s Libby Purves and will include Philip Pullman and Anne Fine, prime movers behind the No to Age Banding appeal, Graham Marks from Publishing News and Becky Stradwick UKHQ Children’s Buyer from Borders. Publishers have also been invited to take part. “

I’m looking forward to the outcome.

A while ago some nitwit in the United Kingdom had thought up that it would be a good plan to sell publishers on the idea of Age Banding of books.

The idea was born of the notion that it would be easier for the publishers to sell to supermarkets. As we all know supermarkets are nothing more than stocking piles of random products and the sales people often know as much about their goods as they can read off of the product label while their customers are waiting. So if books were to have an age indication on books, publishers would have no problem getting supermarkets to stock a lot more books than they are doing now since their employees can just shelve them according to age.

Fortunately, even with the push on Age Banding by the Publishers Association, there are people out there that possess the art of reasoning. A joint effort has been mustered in the form of NoToAgeBanding.com with author Philip Pullman spear-heading the campaign. Over 3000 signatories have undersigned the campaign and these people include writers, illustrators, librarians, teachers, booksellers, publishers, educationalists, psychologists, readers, parents and grandparents. The signatory authors include Philip Pullman, Jonathan Stroud, Neil Gaiman, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Horowitz, Terry Pratchett and J.K. Rowling. And yours truly, of course.

The situation at the moment is divided amongst publishers;

Walker Books: not age banding any titles
Bloomsbury: not age banding any titles
David Fickling Books: not age banding any titles
Usborne: not age banding any titles
Barn Owl Books: not age banding any titles
Orion will apparently be offering authors a choice.
OUP are clearly offering authors a choice.
The Chicken House will be offering authors a choice.
HarperCollins: certain authors know they will not be age banded.
Macmillan: evidence of a choice offered here.
Puffin: at least one author has been assured banding will not take place without express permission
Random House Children’s Books: it is hard to believe that although some of their high-profile authors have made their positions crystal clear both privately and in the press, will be age banded by this publisher.

There have been meetings between representatives of publishers and the Publishers Association and the representatives of the Society of Authors to discuss the matter.