I’m a huge fan of Stephan Pastis’ Timmy Failure series. It’s funny, incredibly silly and it’s perfect for readers who love their books with cartoons, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The latest book in the series, Timmy Failure: Sanitized for Your Protection is out now and I’ll be posting my review later in the week. For now, enjoy this book trailer for the new book:
Month: October 2015
Seriously Spooky Month: Interview with Derek Landy
Derek Landy is the author of the Skulduggery Pleasant series and the new Demon Road series. He is one of my absolute favourite authors and I have loved everything that he has read. I got the chance to meet him and interview him back in 2010 when he was part way through the Skulduggery Pleasant series (you can read the interview here). Since he has started a new series I wanted to ask him a few questions about it and get the scoop on Demon Road. Read my interview with Derek to find out how many Demon Road books we have to look forward to, what Derek’s favourite supernatural being is, and why Derek loves horror stories.
- How did it feel starting a new series after you had been living in Skulduggery’s world for so long?
Scary, daunting, but also thrilling and refreshing. I was fully at home writing Skulduggery, and possibly too comfortable. That’s not always a good thing for a writer, so a new challenge was needed to stop things from getting stale.
- Why did you choose to set your new series in America?
The idea of a roadtrip pretty much dictated where it was going to be set. I tried setting it in Ireland, but you can’t really have a roadtrip here. In America, you can drive for weeks without seeing anyone. In Ireland, every five minutes you’d be passing through some small town somewhere…
- How many books are you planning on writing in the Demon Road series?
Three. There was no way I was committing to a nine book series like I did with Skulduggery!
- What is your favourite supernatural being?
Vampires are endlessly fun. You can adapt them to fit whatever you need them to be. Dracula had them scary, Anne Rice had them romantic, Buffy had them cool, and Twilight had them sparkly. Er…
- There are some really gory scenes in Demon Road. Are these your favourite parts to write?
Gory scenes are definitely fun…! And it’s always an interesting exercise to see how far I can push things before my editor picks up the phone…
- Out of all of your characters which one are you most like?
I’d like to think I’m like Skulduggery — cool, charming, and awesome. But the truth is I’m probably a mixture of Glen and, I dunno… Scapegrace.
- Do you see your two series crossing over? Will Skulduggery characters make an appearance on the Demon Road?
That was a temptation that I ultimately decided against. I wanted people to be able to pick up Demon Road without needing to know the rules of magic as set down in Skulduggery. Plus my vampires in both series are completely different, and I didn’t want to confuse people.
- Why do you love horror stories?
I’ve always loved horror, since I was a kid. We love to be scared. Being scared is entertainment — provided you get to walk out of the theatre afterwards, or close the book, or turn off the TV. We love horror because it tests us within a safe environment. I doubt I’d love it so much if these things were really happening to me…
- What other books would you recommend to kids and teens who love your books?
These days I’m recommending ‘The Rest of Us Just Live Here’ by Patrick Ness to everyone, as well as the Shattered Sea trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Loved them both.
Demon Road by Derek Landy is out now. Go and grab a copy from your library or bookshop now.
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Rediscover Harry Potter through Jim Kay’s Eyes
Bloomsbury’s stunning illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philiosopher’s Stone was released world-wide yesterday. Jim Kay is the incredibly lucky illustrator who got the chance to bring his own version of J.K. Rowling’s world to life. Ever since I saw the first illustration that was released from the book I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the book. The digital images that have been popping up all over the place look amazing and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of the book.
Thanks to the wonderful people at Allen and Unwin NZ I can share with you an interview that Helen Boyle did with illustrator Jim Kay.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Words by Helen Boyle“So I got this phone call from my agent,” illustrator Jim Kay tells me, “and she said, ‘Are you sitting down? They want you to illustrate Harry Potter.’ As a big fan of the books and the films, Kay explains, “It was an incredible opportunity to design Harry’s world from the bottom up.”
But does the commission of a lifetime also come with the pressure of a lifetime?
“Yes, definitely. Everyone has an opinion on Harry Potter and that’s why it’s great, but that’s also why it’s challenging. But I’m not complaining, it’s an amazing commission.”
And Jim Kay likes to challenge himself. “My old art teacher used to say you have to keep testing yourself, don’t get comfortable. And I knew Harry Potter would be difficult for me: because it is children, because of the scale of it and because it’s fantasy. I probably think of myself more as a printmaker, expressing things through landscapes, but with Harry Potter I had to express emotions through characters.
“The hardest thing was the casting – I had to find my own Harry, Ron and Hermione. I’ve never really drawn children, so I needed actual references, especially as the kids grow up through the books. So my agent and I had to find children to cast as my characters.”
And how did he go about imagining Hogwarts?
“The preparatory stage, visualising the ‘architecture’ of Hogwarts, took a huge amount of time. I drew a floor plan of what I imagined Hogwarts was like, referring across all seven books. But when I started stacking different floors on top of each other, I found it difficult to understand how they fitted together. So the only way I could work out how to draw it was to build a model of it. It’s the same thing I did as a child – building things in Lego so I could then draw them. So I made quick models out of paper and Plasticine, and used these to draw from. Models are great also to work out the lighting and how the buildings relate to each other.”
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films also had a big impact on Kay.
“I’m a massive John Howe and Alan Lee fan, both of whom worked as concept artists for Lord of the Rings films. I’ve definitely been influenced by the way that Peter Jackson went about his films, getting artists involved to try out different creative avenues. And so the opportunity to approach Harry Potter in the same way was incredibly exciting and enjoyable.
“I can’t work in silence; I have to have background noise and it has to be something familiar. So while I worked on Harry Potter I had the Lord of the Rings films on as background noise. I played the whole three films on a loop all day, so I know the whole script of each film.”
Here is a video of Jim Kay talking about his illustrating process for Harry Potter:
Also check out some of the sample images from the book below:
Illustration by Jim Kay © Bloomsbury Publishing 2015
Illustration by Jim Kay © Bloomsbury Publishing 2015
Illustration by Jim Kay © Bloomsbury Publishing 2015
Illustration by Jim Kay © Bloomsbury Publishing 2015
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Seriously Spooky Month: Guest Post – Lesley Gibbes
As part of my Seriously Spooky Month I asked some of my favourite spooky authors to write a guest post for My Best Friends Are Books. Today I’m joined by Lesley Gibbes, author of the award-winning book, Scary Night. Lesley joins me on My Best Friends Are Books today to talk about her spooky picture book.
There’s no denying, I love all things scary! When I was a child I loved a good scare and nothing was scarier than the darkness of night. There’s something so deliciously terrifying about noises in the dark made by things you can’t see. My imagination would run wild and I loved it!
So of course, my first picture book just had to be set in the dead of the night when anything can happen. And in SCARY NIGHT when three friends, Hare with a hat, Cat with a cake and Pig with a parcel set out on a mysterious night-time journey all sorts of scary things happen. Close your eyes and imagine snapping crocodiles, roaring bears, mountain cliff tops, graveyards, bats, spiders, castle ruins and rats. Are you brave enough to join the journey and find out just where the three friends are going? Go on, you won’t believe the surprise!
SCARY NIGHT has just the right amount of scare to give your kids a thrill with a reassuring ending that’s sure to have everyone celebrating. It was awarded Honour Book, by the Children’s Book Council of Australia for Early Childhood Book of the Year 2015 and is the perfect book for Halloween this October!
SCARY NIGHT written by Lesley Gibbes, illustrated by Stephen Michael King and published by Working Title Press 2014. CBCA Honour Book 2015 Early Childhood Book of the Year. Shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia, Book of the Year (3-5 years) 2015. You can visit Lesley Gibbes at www.lesleygibbes.com
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13 Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt
When I was a kid there weren’t many books about ghosts available for my age. As a 12/13 year old I wasn’t ready for Stephen King and there weren’t many other scary books to choose from. Thankfully there are more and more ghost stories for kids and teens being published and it’s always good to read a different and exciting take on ghosts. Leo Hunt gives readers a good helping of ghosts in his new book, 13 Days of Midnight, about Luke and the 8 murderous ghosts he inherits.
Sixteen year old Luke Manchett has a pretty ordinary life living in a small northern town with his Mum. Until one day, a letter informs him that his celebrity ghost-hunter Dad is dead and Luke is the sole heir. But this is no ordinary inheritance – Luke finds himself in charge of eight horrendous ghosts, his Host, with his life and that of his Mum, loyal dog Ham and new friend Elza all in terrible danger. It’s up to Luke to open the Book of Eight and find a way to stop the Host destroying everything at Hallowe’en. Even if it means stepping into Darkside…
13 Days of Midnight is a deliciously dark, creepy read that will make you want to keep the light on at night. It’s a genuinely scary story that creeped me out in several places. Much like making a deal with the Devil, you don’t get quite what you expected with this book. Just when you think the story is taking off in one direction Leo pulls you in a completely different direction and he certainly keeps you on your toes.
Leo introduces us to some seriously creepy ghosts in 13 Days of Midnight! Luke inherits his Host of eight ghosts from his father – the Vassal, the Shepherd, the Judge, the Heretic, the Fury, the Oracle, the Prisoner and the Innocent. As Luke has just inherited them he doesn’t know how to control them, so they are trying to break free. They’re violent and unpredictable, and even though they can’t kill Luke, they find other ways to hurt him and the ones he loves. There were moments in the book when each of them sent a shiver down my spine but I think the one that scared me the most was the Prisoner with his shears.
The splatter on the front cover boldly claims that ‘If you like Skulduggery Pleasant read this!’ and I totally agree with this. Leo has a great mix of spookiness and humour that will appeal to fans of Derek Landy. Whether you are looking for the book to fill the whole that the Skulduggery series has left behind or you just want a really good scare grab a copy of 13 Days of Midnight now. Leo leaves us with a sense of impending doom at the end of the book. You know that something big and scary is coming, but what that is I have no idea. I can’t wait for the sequel, 8 Rivers of Shadow coming in 2016!
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Imaginary Fred Book Trailer
Imaginary Fred is the first collaboration between two giants of children’s literature, Oliver Jeffers and Eoin Colfer. I’m a huge fan of both of these guys so I’m very excited to read this book.
Sometimes, with a little electricity, or luck, or even magic, an imaginary friend might appear when you need one. An imaginary friend like Fred… Fred floated like a feather in the wind until a lonely little boy wished for him and found a friendship like no other
Here is a funny book trailer for Imaginary Fred:
Imaginary Fred is available this month from HarperCollins NZ.
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Seriously Spooky Month: Guest Post – Gareth P. Jones
As part of my Seriously Spooky Month I asked some of my favourite spooky authors to write a guest post for My Best Friends Are Books. Today I’m joined by Gareth P. Jones, author of my favourite funny book about ghosts, Constable and Toop, and the forthcoming Death and Ice Cream. Gareth talks about why he loves writing about death. Thanks for joining me Gareth!
“Honestly, Gareth, why do you have to write about death?”
My new novel (published by Hotkey Books) comes out January 2016, and I already know that my mum won’t like it because of its title. It is called Death or Ice Cream?
“Why can’t you write a nice book like Little Women?” she says.
“I think because I was born a hundred years too late,” I reply. “Also, I’ve not read it but I have seen that episode of Friends about it and I’m pretty sure someone does die in it. Beth possibly?”
“Black Beauty then.”
“I’m not massively keen on horses.”
My mum’s real question is: “Why do you have to write about death?”
Firstly, I should explain that I don’t only write about death. I have three series of books (Ninja Meerkats, The Dragon Detective Agency and The Adventures of the Steampunk Pirates) in which the vast majority of the characters make it to the end. I have also written the text for two picture books, (The Dinosaurs are Having a Party and Are You the Pirate Captain?) which are very light on the subject of mortality.
But when it comes to writing my standalone novels, I am often drawn to the subject of death. The Thornthwaite Inheritance is about a pair of twins trying to kill each other, The Considine Curse begins with a funeral, and Constable & Toop is a Victorian ghost story named after a real undertakers.
It was the real Constable and Toop that sparked the idea for my new book, Death or Ice Cream? I follow them on Twitter (sure, why wouldn’t an undertakers have a twitter account?) and they put up a link to an article called 500 Ways To Say Dead about all the euphemisms we use for dying (kick the bucket, push up the daisies, fall asleep, bite the bullet, pop your clogs etc.) It got me thinking about why we have such a long list of ways to express the one thing that will definitely affect us all. The answer is that death is something we are scared of so we use language to soften its impact. We try to make it sound funnier, gentler… more temporary. But, if Dumbledore has taught us nothing else, it is that fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.
“Yes, Gareth.” This is my mum again. “But you write children’s books. Why can’t you be more like that nice Beatrix Potter or Enid Blyton?”
Over the nine years I have been a published author, I have visited hundreds of schools and met thousands of children. I have observed that these children have not yet learned to fear death but they are fascinated by it. And literature allows us to consider subjects in a way that is engaging, satisfying and, above all else, entertaining. So whether it’s war, religion, prejudice, sex or death, books help us explore these tricky subjects in a unique – and rather wonderful – way.
Anyway, my new book isn’t just about death. My favourite thing about being a children’s author (rather than – say – a crime writer or a purveyor of historical fiction) is the freedom to employ different genres and draw upon a variety of influences to tell my stories. As my publishers will tell you, Death or Ice Cream? is a difficult book to describe but I’ll have a go anyway. Death or Ice Cream? is a selection of dark morality tales, closely interwoven and all set in the same fictional town of Larkin Mills. While the characters change from story to story, the book has an underlying theme about the duality of the daily choices we are forced to make. Let me try that again. It’s about god and the devil and why religion forces us to make a choice between them. It’s also about domestic sharks, concrete sculptures, dodgem cars, corrupt politicians, evil doctors, the Roman empire, the dangers of archeology, zombies, the art of making television, alien landings, death and ice cream.
Oh and if you’re thinking that the question Death or Ice Cream? is a no-brainer, then I should point out that it is not really a choice at all.
After all, you can choose never to have an ice cream.
Cover illustration by Adam Stower
Death or Ice Cream? is published January 2016 by Hot Key books.
You can read my review of Gareth’s Constable and Toop here on the blog.
My Best Friends Are Books 