Snapshots of a weekend in Cardiff, at the YLG Conference (with Geraldine, Sam, Rosie and Laura)
Roald Dahl once declared: ‘If you want to remember what it’s like to live in a child’s world, you’ve got to get down on your knees and live like that for a week.’
The librarians at the YLG Conference in Cardiff ‘got down on their knees’ for definitely more than a week! They talk about children’s books (old and new) with contagious enthusiasm…
They are in love with the latest Skulduggery title, Mortal Coil. They’ve read it, their sons have read it, and they can’t stop telling us how much they love the characters and the illustrations.
They were all very impressed with the new cover of Diana Wynne Jones’ Homeward Bounders. One of the librarians told us this was the very first book she brought home from a library when she was a child, and she was immediately enthralled by Diana’s parallel worlds and sinister creatures.
And the new covers of Alan Garner? They couldn’t stop talking about them…
Dancing Jax was also a librarians’ favourite. We ran out of proofs in no time!
‘With your nose stuck in those books, you are the symbol of what YLG is all about… If I had a camera I would definitely take a picture of you two!’, a librarian told us. Luckily we had a camera and the librarian was very happy to take a picture of us: two 29-year olds reading young fiction titles and giggling…
In moments of quiet (when the librarians were at the seminars), Rosie was reading Iggy and Me by Jenny Valentine, and I (Laura) was enjoying Frankie Foster, the new title by Jean Ure. I find reading young fiction titles very refreshing, and…cathartic. It’s nice to look at the world through the eyes of a 10-year old and find the perfect excuse to stop wearing high heels! ‘If a herd of maddened elephants suddenly came roaring down the street you would at least be able to make a run for it’, says Frankie Foster (very wisely!)
This weekend in Cardiff, we talked about parallel universe and funny stories, and we forgot for a second that it was the 9/11 anniversary. Hope this is ok…
- Laura
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Long time reader / 1st time poster. Really enjoying reading the blog, keep up the excellent work. Will definitely start posting more in the near future.
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