Behind the magic of Potter…

I have to start with a confession. I haven’t read all of the Harry Potter series. *ducks while you throw things at me*

I LOVED books one to four, lost myself in them, adored the characters, watched the movies, couldn’t wait for book five to come out. But, the same summer that Order of the Phoenix was released, I also started my first job in publishing, and suddenly my reading list quadrupled overnight, my commute decreased and the 900 page HB in my bag got replaced by countless manuscripts and proof copies. I always swore to come back, but this pattern only got worse as my career progressed. I always felt a bit of a fraud working in children’s books and not having made it to the end, but I’m a terrible liar so I had to come straight out with it. (Now the ebooks have released though I am very tempted to pick up the story again…)

I have however, seen, and adored all the films; and which I recently watched back to back over the course of two weeks this January. This obsession and love coincided with the announcement of the Warner Bros Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter, so on a whim, I booked tickets. And yesterday, the magical visit took place.

It begins…

Our day wasn’t going well. Somewhat groggy from a birthday party the night before, Sunday transport not being at its best, resulting in a hellishly, stressful journey to get to Watford (faced with the very real possibility that we would miss our time slot and not get there at all) – we finally arrived at Leavesden with the belief that this had to be quite spectacular to cheer us up.

I can honestly say that within 5 minutes of making it through the queue and into the orientation theatre our mood had lifted. As the cinema screen rolled up to reveal the door into the Great Hall we were beaming and jumping up and down like small children at Christmas.

Much excitement…

The tour is self-guided, but you can pay £5 for a ‘digital guide’ which consists of an iPod touch filled with behind the scenes video and audio content, an interactive map and vast amounts of imagery. I’m normally not a fan of audio guides – sometimes I feel like all you do is listen and not look – but this one was different. It really encouraged you to use it with the exhibits rather than distract you from them.

From the Great Hall, through to a huge hanger filled with sets, props and costumes from all the films we were totally in awe: see the Griffindor Dorm and Common Room; walk into Dumbledore’s Office; use a wand to chop carrots in the Burrow; see the incredible door of Gringots which was an actual, mechanical work of art taking 3 months to build; look in the Mirror of Erised; stand outside Number 4 Privet Drive; drink Butterbeer; jump off the back of the Knight Bus…the amazing list goes on.

Ron’s bed…

Throughout the tour several things struck me. For one – the incredible attention to detail that every aspect of anything that appeared in shot was given. Every single piece of paper, every costume, every back drop – was planned, drawn, painted, sculpted, hand-made or aged etc so it would look completely realistic, even if it was only in shot for a matter of seconds.  Even if you have no interest in Potter, the intricacy of what you see here will blow you away in the art of movie making.

Incredible newspapers, letters and books all hand made for the films

Two – the scale of Rowling’s imagination was incredible. Every item is only believable as she made it so. Every character, from big to small, had a place, a point and emotional connection which made you care about them. And that is no mean feat for any author.

And finally, and most impressively I think – this all came from a book.

A book. A story. An author’s mind. And in a time when sometimes we’re told that reading isn’t cool or that the written word is dead, that is a very magical thing indeed.

I urge you to go. Young, old, Potter-fan or Not-a-fan (sorry), I challenge you not to enjoy it.

A word of warning though – watch out for the gift shop. Everything is remarkably reasonable…and therefore easy to spend a fortune. (I will be using my beautiful Slitherin leather notebook, eating my Every Flavour Jelly Beans, and sheltering under my Griffindor umbrella for a while yet though…)

Sarah B

Hot Key Carnegie Challenge Book 3: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Our reading challenge has been slightly delayed by London Book Fair but we remain dedicated to the cause! We WILL read the eight books before the winner is announced in June…

Over the last few weeks we’ve been reading Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys:

The blurb goes: Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they’ve known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin’s orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously-and at great risk-documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father’s prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

We’ve had lots of people tell us how much they loved this book on Twitter, so let’s continue the discussion below!

From the Intern Desk : My Little List of Covetousness

If I had to summarise my childhood home, and my parents’ influence, I would have to say that I grew up in a house of:

• Cheese (both of the edible and comedic variety)
•  Theatre (from Shakespearian plays in Hatfield Forest to the most unabashedly ridiculous musicals possible!)
•  And… mountains of books.

My parents’ shelves are sagging with the weight of them! Cookery books from low fat to coronary inducing, play scripts and poems, straight laced novels to holiday flutters, they are all present and correct. But there is one particular set of shelves which are special… Here there be treasure!

Here lie the oldest, best loved books. Beautifully bound and illustrated; only brought out for careful inspection and a chance to rediscover forgotten memories. Now, I know it’s selfish with brothers and sisters to think about, but I just can’t help singling out a few of the special ones that I’d someday like to inherit, along with photos, furniture, and the occasional teapot.

 So, here for your inspection are the two top contenders from my little list of covetousness:

Tales from Ebony is a gorgeous collection of fairy tales, published by Putnam in 1934 and given to my father from his, two years later. Its pages are well worn, and constantly trying to escape, but this is definitely one of my favourite books of all time. E. Harcourt William’s interpretations of Snow White and Rose Red, and The Tinderbox stand out in my memory and this book helped to instil a desire to help pass on lesser known/original versions of these tales. The more magical, and brutal, stories have gradually died out while ‘Disney-fied’ versions become common-place. I’m not sure if I was just a morbid child but I don’t think the story of Cinderella is quite the same without the comeuppances that originally befell the stepmother and stepsisters in different versions of the story; ranging from dancing in red hot shoes to transforming into pillars of salt.

(Tales from Ebony also happens to be one of the books that my dad relished reading to my sister and I, voices and all, along with many others such as the Hobbit. To this day his impersonation of Golem is spot on! )

 Another gem is The Silver Sword, given to my mum on her eighth Christmas in 1958. I think I was about the same age when I read this book…and then taking the story as inspiration I dressed as a 1940’s Polish girl for World Book Day in primary school.  I can’t remember what that outfit consisted of other than a wooden toy horse and cart that carried the book with me for the day. I think I had to explain to everyone which country I was supposed to represent as no-one could tell by my costume. To my eight year old self the story of three siblings surviving together despite all odds in the midst of the Second World War was  absolutely gripping, and I particularly loved the character Jan; the master pickpocket, the perfect war-time Artful Dodger.

There are many more gorgeous titles so, without boring you with the rest of my list, let’s just say it also includes the thrilling story of a Dr and his alter ego, a boy raised by wolves, a gentlemen in want of a wife, and downcast woman who finally lives for a day.

So come on guys, what heirlooms have you got your eye on? Don’t tell me I’m the only one!

On another note my month at Hot Key Books is over, I had an amazing time and have learned so much! I attended my first London Book Fair, sat in on many meetings and got completely addicted to reading book submissions. All I can say is: be prepared to drool when you look at the launch list and keep an eye out for future nail-biting releases! Thank you so much guys, I wish you all the best and I hope to bump into you all again soon.

Building the Hot Key list – a Publisher’s view

What could be more exciting than building a list from scratch? It’s every editor’s fantasy: to hand pick books and authors you love, that you have lots of room for, and getting to acquire a dream list!

But of course, there is more to it than that! There is a business to run, and a profit to be made, a future to be forged. As much as it is a thrilling task, it’s a daunting one. What makes it so much fun is knowing that Sarah Odedina, myself and Sara O’Connor share a passion and a vision: to cherish our authors and to work with them to produce outstanding books for all reading tastes and abilities for 9 year-old readers and upward. This shared vision makes the acquisitions process feel like so much less hard work!

As an editor, my tastes are varied, perhaps eclectic. Commercial, literary – any genre – but all submissions need to move me and take me somewhere, and with people I want to know about. There are some crucial ingredients: good – hopefully great – writing. A cracking story. Characters I must believe in. Our launch list delivers on each of these ingredients and encompasses the funny, the silly, the sinister, the sexy and the exciting – sometimes all in one book!  At Hot Key we will only go on building more books and authors of this calibre into our programme for the years ahead. We are buying books that children (and some adults) and we ourselves want to read. We are enthusiastically carrying the torch for the physical as well as the electronic book reading experience. Treasuring tradition, but embracing the new with our exciting digital plans. And our books are already causing a stir, as the trade is waking up to what we have to offer on our launch list, and our competitors look enviously at our beautiful collector’s bound proofs (a numbered one  for every book!)

It’s so great to be looking forward optimistically, excitedly and creatively to our backlist as well as our formidable front list.

And we have some surprises up our sleeves too. Projects that will showcase how creatively and laterally we think as a team and position Hot Key Books as innovators and influencers in Children’s fiction.

Enjoy, and watch this space!

Emily

On Reading Books in School

One of the best things about twitter is its ability to start a conversation. A passing comment can spark discussion that you didn’t see coming, perhaps with people you’ve never met. And that’s kind of a great thing, to be a sentence away from millions of different opinions, passions, and facts.

So yesterday, in case you missed it, Nina (@serifinaxxx) tweeted about how she was forced to read Skellig in school and hated it.  We were shocked! We love David Almond (some more than other, *cough* Sara OC *cough*)! How could reading one book in school have put someone off the author for LIFE? Then @lovereadingx named Animal Farm as a hated school text- what was it about reading books in school?!

Next thing we knew, there were outcries from readers, authors and bloggers alike naming books that have been forever tainted by their presence on a school reading list – Lord of the Flies, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, Sunset Song, Birdsong, The Color Purple… and some that were objects of pure hate until after that dreaded exam (see @samarnold_28‘s experience of Hamlet). From this one comment, we were talking about our worst teachers, our top five Shakespeare plays and being spat on by Macbeth (unfortunately for @JaneHoward), amazing teachers (@SweetBookshelf, we all wanted to be in your English class) and even running over a copy of The Great Gatsby (we’re looking at you @rachnmi).

This is immensely cool. Especially since we’re still talking about it – Meg had to study Macbeth three times in three different schools which is pretty crazy! (luckily this hasn’t spoiled the play for her, it just means she’s rather good at quoting Lady Macbeth ).

So, have you been forced to read a book in school that you now hate? Is there an author that you avoid because you can’t bear the memories of reading his or her words aloud in school? Join the conversation here or on Twitter!

Reasons to Eat More Chocolate

Not that we need any.

It’s a 4 day weekend, and what are you going to do with it?  We’ve got our Carnegie challenge and a pile of submissions from Bologna to read through, so that’s us pretty much sorted.

If you’re not joining in the challenge (and why not?) then The Guardian have got some brilliant ideas for Easter reading here and here.  Alternatively, here are some of our favourite books for sharing with rabbits in them.  (Or even sharing with rabbits).

Rabbit’s Nap

The Rabbit Problem

The Great Rabbit Rescue

We’re not just about the chocolate you know.

Hot Key Carnegie Challenge – Book 1: A Monster Calls

Last week we made a pact that we would read and discuss the Carnegie Shortlist here at Hot Key and today is the start of our first discussion. We’d love you to join in too!

We decided to start with Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls – mainly as it had been at the top of many of Team Hot Key’s TBR pile for a while.

For those of you who haven’t read it yet, or don’t know what it’s about – here is the publisher’s (Walker) blurb:

The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming… The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Costa Award winner Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final idea of much-loved Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself.

Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel of coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults.

This is the place where we’ll discuss what we thought of it, and please do the same! When we get through the whole list, we’ll run a poll on which one we all think will win.

SO, what did you think? Let us know in the comments below:

Guest Post: Do we judge a book by its cover? by M @We Sat Down

Please welcome our second guest blogger from We Sat Down who prompted by last week’s guest post, talks about how her and her daughter choose books from the occasionally overwhelming array that are out there…

Last week Literature For Lads’ guest post and the announcement of the Carnegie Greenaway shortlists prompted me to think about how We Sat Down chooses its books.

When I was a teenager, apart from a few US titles, I had to flit between children’s and adults’ fiction – some of which was completely inappropriate. Today’s growing array of books out there for secondary school readers is so different. It’s like a whole new treasure trove.

But for a parent and child who’re just peeping round the edge of the 8-12 bookshelves, where do we start to dig? Often we’re faced with a sea of covers that are barely distinguishable from one another.  And browsing online can throw back thousand of hits.

We Sat Down, our personal book review blog, explores middle grade and YA books. Little M wanted to find more books that she thought she’d enjoy.  So why doesn’t she ask the librarians? “I think librarians will probably suggest girly things for me.  I just think they will. Girly books are the first thing I see in the library.”

She complained about the amount of “really, really girly books. The ones that are pinky, girly, have hearts, kiss-marks, broken hearts.” But she also didn’t want “really, really boyish books..(…).. if they have cartoons or playing football – no. They just don’t intrigue me.”

Covers aside, most of Little M’s choices are based on recommendations, sometimes from friends but “you normally recommend books to me. You know the sorts of things I like. Action, adventure, science fiction, war, history. Oh, and horses. I want to find out about things and these books are more intriguing than non-fiction.”

But YA is uncharted waters for me too. And while Little M thinks there’s too much pink out there, I think there’s an awful lot of red and black too. At the moment, we’re after something a bit more in between. And this is where the Carnegie Awards come in.

It’s a filtering process and while the cover can influence us, a trusted recommendation makes a world of difference. The book awards lists, not just the Carnegie, are often a good starting point in finding trusted recommendations for books and authors we might not otherwise have found.

But the thing that really clinches it – it’s always the first few pages.  Little M says, “If a book’s recommended to me, I skip the cover and go straight to the blurb. And then I read the first few pages. If I like them, I won’t put it down.  If I don’t like it, I put it down.”

How do you choose your books?

*****

We Sat Down is a personal book review blog started by mum and daughter, M & Little M.  Little M is in KS3.

http://wesatdown.blogspot.com      Twitter: @wesatdown

Thank you M – your post is really fascinating. It’s great to see a mother and daughter reading and sharing books together.

And again, anyone interested in guest blogging for us get in touch!

On Buying Beautiful Books

What makes a beautiful book?

Well, I suppose that’s subjective. Perhaps you like the feel of a hardback with thick pages, or relish the purchase of a smooth paperback that embodies the ‘page-turner’ promised within. Are uncoated paper covers are your thing, or are you sold by a beautiful jacket image that tells the story as you imagined it? Maybe you now exclusively buy books digitally or borrow them from a library, later scouring bookshops and the internet tirelessly for first editions of stories you’ve stumbled upon, fallen madly in love with and subsequently obsessed over physically owning a copy you can cherish and pass on to your friends and family.

I guess that’s the whole point – choice. Today we have more choice than ever before. Like it or not, the old phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ has taken on a whole new meaning as we consume stories in different ways. Physical books have become more than their content; they are expressions of our preferences, symbols of our continued love of reading and essentially whole shelves stuffed with personality (though let’s be honest, we all wish we had the space to have a library like this, or the one in The Beauty and the Beast).

For me, although my kindle is great for travelling, it is beautiful hardbacks all the way – I love the weight, the satisfaction of turning the final pages (and the heartache when that shelf built with the help of a YouTube tutorial collapses after inadvisable double-stacking). Not to mention the history that a hardback can hold- my Grandparent’s collections of leather-bound Thomas Hardys and Collection of Welsh Fairy Tales are family treasures, and have been passed down through three generations.

Now, it doesn’t get more beautiful than clothbound classics designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. The graphic interpretation of original covers (see Lady Chatterley’s Lover)! The mouth-watering colours and ribbon page marker! The wonderfully lustrous white pages! Serious love. Avid collectors will know that Madam Bovary and Crime and Punishment are the ultimate prizes (they are virtually impossible to get hold of), while The Arabian Nights collection remains my favourite (I originally read a dog-eared university library copy until investing in these editions). Not to mention the gorgeous twenties-inspired dust jackets for the F. Scott Fitzgerald hardbacks. Book lust.

Check out Tara Books too, they make the most wonderful screen-printed, hand-made books.

They are SO gorgeous, I for one have never been more interested in trees (or peacocks, or matches, or sealife). Not to mention recent editions of Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls or The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

So to all the great designers and production teams out there who are working hard to create gorgeous books that reflect the wonderful stories they contain, a massive ‘well done, thank you and please continue’. Let’s celebrate wonderful stories and get more people to invest in beautiful books – and if anyone would like to offer shelf-building guidance, I have a feeling I’m going to need it.

Guest Post: It’s not all pink…

A little while back we invited the blogging community the chance to guest blog for us, and today we have our first taker! Please welcome Duncan from Literature for Lads who takes the floor to talk about boys and reading…

“Boys just don’t read”.  Is this perhaps one of the most popular myths of contemporary education?  I would certainly argue that the concept of boys being reluctant readers or unwilling to read fiction is not an experience that rings true with me in my role as school librarian at the all-boys school,  Stewart’s Melville College, Edinburgh. Although I have a somewhat captive audience here the sheer number of titles published and aimed squarely at young adult males would suggest that there is a real appetite for fiction amongst this particular demographic.

However something I have recognized in my role as librarian is that despite the popularity (not to mention influence that they can have) there are very few book review blogs dedicated to the discerning male reader.  Apart from the excellent and longstanding Book Zone for Boys, the blogging world can appear as a rather large sea of pink and purple.

There are many excellent book blogs out there (www.bookangelbooktopia.com & www.thebookette.co.uk are two great blogs which provided inspiration for my own blog) but many are not particularly ‘boy-friendly’.  (Boys are notoriously bad at ignoring anything that can be construed as girly, i.e. flowers, the colour pink, cute pictures of kittens).  In order to try and redress this balance I decided to launch the book review blog, Literature for Lads.

The concept of Literature for Lads was, and remains, a simple one.  Read and review books that I feel boys (and men, as I review across a range of ages from 10+ – adult) would be interested in reading.  In addition to the book review I felt it was important to include some extra information at the end of the review as I feel boys are always keen to be able to explore further.  At the end of each review I include a link to the author and/or book website and also a You Tube video.  The video is usually a book trailer, or if a trailer is not available, a video which links to the story or the author of the book.

Within the site I also feature interviews with authors and sometimes I’m lucky enough to have authors write guest posts.  Each of these appeal to boys as they enjoy finding out about the person behind the books.  The reviews follow the same structure, (book summary followed by approx. 300 word reviews) and I’ve tried to keep the layout as clear and easy to navigate as possible.  Boys are notoriously lazy and easily distracted so it’s important to keep distractions to a minimum!

Literature for Lads was launched in September and I have been overwhelmed with the response I’ve received.  Authors, publishers and fellow librarians have all given valuable feedback and the site does seem to be attracting a regular readership.  (Maintaining this readership whilst balancing my day job can be a tricky balance!)

There have been a number of books published recently which are guaranteed to be a hit with boys and I have been lucky enough to be able read and review some of them. Here are a few of my highlights…
•    May Contain Nuts (The Word of Norm) – Jonathan Meres, “Full of jokes, comedy scenes, and rip-roaring laughs”
•    Socks are not Enough – Mark Lowery, “A hilarious debut novel from Mark Lowery….full of both laugh out loud moments and points where you will find yourself snickering behind your hands.”
•    Blade 1: Enemies – Tim Bowler, “The pace of the book is electric, with suspense and mystery in nearly every chapter”

Duncan
www.literatureforlads.com

Thanks Duncan! If anyone else would like to take the floor and blog about a subject of their choice please email me!