Little Grey Rabbit (first published by Collins in 1934) – Alison Uttley

An early cover

The Hobbit (1937) – J.R.R Tolkein

First edition

The Sword in the Stone (1938) – T.H White

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) – C.S Lewis

White Boots (1951) – Noel Streafeild

A Bear Called Paddington (1958)  – Michael Bond

Mary Poppins  (1958) – P.L Travers

Born Free (1960)  – Joy Adamson

Cover from the 70s

The Phantom Tollbooth (1961) – Norton Juster

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971) – Judith Kerr

Scanning a Sunday paper yesterday, I was amazed to see a headline on the front page declaring that J.K Rowling might write more Harry Potter books.

On eagerly reading down, I was disappointed and then somewhat surprised to see that the entire piece was built around her basically saying, “I probably won’t, but never say never”. Hardly a statement to drive Amazon pre-orders.

What a shame. Though the idea of Voldemort coming back is obviously very scary and not to be taken on lightly.

I was very excited on my holiday in Croatia to find our Carrie Diaries TPB in not one, but two bookshops!  Obviously I had to get shriek and get a picture. This one was in Dubrovnik, I like to think it added a necessary touch of glamour to their window.

This is one I took of a cat with David Bowie style eyes. He’s hasn’t got anything to do with books as far as I know.

If you haven’t seen me yet, it’s possibly because I’m covered with a pile of mailing envelopes like a big lego tower on my desk. For someone who just finished A-levels, getting a work experience place at one of the leading publishing companies is just so lucky. And things I get to do are awesome too! 

Things I do are:

-         mailings (of course as I mentioned)

-         uploading images from children’s picture books onto retailer websites

-         introducing competitions on facebook and Youtube

-         doing some research

-         getting some ideas for promoting new- books

 So, if I describe my favourite task in a maths equation, it will be:

Sayaka + Mailing = what keeps her quiet from bugging her supervisor for more things to do

Sometimes, I come across the address label of the bookstore I buy books from and secretly get excited! All of you who received book copies of ‘Billionaire Boy’, ‘Burning Secrets’ and ‘Frankie Foster’ I’m the one who sent them to you!

 Seeing the response from people on facebook puts a smile on me and my supervisor (Laura’s) face J It’s just very nice to see how people contribute in competitions and we can share HarperCollins’ lovely books to others. So thank you guyssss!

 Sometimes, I feel professional when I’m given the opportunity to write promotion lines for new books and updating Michael Morpurgo’s website. It’s written in my own words. MY OWN WORDS!! Sorry, I lied a little. Most of the time I ‘Ctrl C + P’ from back of the books, but some words are still mine. Just some.

 Writing interview style promotion for ‘Billionaire Boy’ by David Walliams was just great!… and at the same time, I was playing ‘what if’-game in my head imagining myself as rich as Mr Spud and thought of having a Louis Vuitton coat, a mini and a holiday house in Spain. Hmmm… Maybe one day.

 Every place has a unique thing that surprises people. At HarperCollins, you sometimes forget that you are at work. Here are the top 3 reasons:

1. there is at least 1 cake time in a week

2. most emails I receive are regarding to ‘cake time’, ‘someone’s leaving so more cakes’ and ‘someone’s leaving so drinks’

3. sometimes, my job is to read a book

 Although sugar helps activating your brain, I am pretty certain that my sugar intake is waaaaaay too high to be just a ‘support’ for my brain but ‘support’ to gain some weight. But never mind, because I’m enjoying my ‘fatty working days’.

- Sayaka

Have just finished reading Dancing Jax….oooooooh so good. Unlike anything I’ve read for some time. Anyone else read it yet?