National Non-Fiction November 2023

It’s only a month to go until November- the month in which the FCBG shines a spotlight on the importance of non-fiction- and Somerset CBG are at the heart of this year’s celebrations with our one-day conference. There is still time for booking tickets on Eventbrite or by emailing somersetcbg@gmail.com .

This month, we will be sharing information, ideas and books in preparation for the month ahead. A ‘Wonderful Water’ booklist is full of ideas of titles linked to the theme and a booklet of ideas and activities to try with groups- or at home- are available by clicking the links.

There is also a wonderful competition in association with Otter-Barry Books based on ‘Sea Change: Save the Ocean’, a wonderful collection of fifty original pictures and messages from illustrators around the world which are an appeal to save our seas and oceans. More details about how to enter can be found here.

Frome Writers’ Collective

On Saturday, we attended the Frome Writers’ Collective, hoping to spread the word about the Federation of Children’s Book Groups in general and the Somerset branch in particular. It was lovely to be amongst these book-lovers, many of whom were writers, there to share their work.

We had a little stall with information about the group and what we do as well as a few books for sale. There was a lot of interest in the work of the FCBG and we were delighted as a number of people signed up to find out more about Somerset CBG.

It was lovely to see Hunting Raven Books there as well as to find out more about local publishers and authors. A great way to spend time, we hope to be back next year!

The Children’s Book Awards

Over the past year, children from our member schools have been taking part in voting for the Children’s Book Awards. Books from each of the three categories- Books for Younger Children, Books for Younger Readers and Books for Older Readers- are distributed so that our young readers can choose and share their opinion about a wealth of wonderful books, sent by publishers, voting on each on they read. This is the first stage of the testing process from which the top 10 books are selected and takes place over the whole year, with new books constantly being fed into schools as they arrive.

Once this stage is complete, the ‘Top 50 Pick of the Year’ are identified and from this, the magic Top 10 emerges! Children can then be involved in voting on one- or more- of the categories, ranking the books once they have read all those in a category to cast their votes for the awards. At each step of the process, it is the children’s votes that count, resulting in an award which actually gives voice to young readers!

Every year, children love being involved and take voting very seriously. They love discussing the books with their peers, often resulting in some very heated conversations, and feeling that their opinion matters. They really value having access to such a wonderful range of up-to-date titles and feel that it encourages them to try books which they might not otherwise have discovered. Here are some of their thoughts on being invloved!

E.S - I really liked taking part in this category. I loved the range of books and I felt an urgency to get them all read and chatting about them with other in my class that also read them. My favourite book was Dread Wood. I loved the mystery and found it quite scary in places.

L.L- It’s so exciting when new books appear and we are allowed to choose whatever we like. When the Top 10 are revealed, it’s brilliant when something you really liked has made it to that stage!

L.F - After we had read all of the books, we could then chat about what had happened - we were all very good to not give any spoilers and ruin it for others, but it was great chatting about what had happened in each story. 

R.W- It’s great fun taking part in this award. I really enjoy hearing about what other members of the class are reading and deciding whether I might like to try it.

A.L - I liked reading through the books and thinking about which other children in my class/ group would like the book and who to recommend it to. 

P.T- It’s sometimes hard to choose what to read first as I want to read everything! I think it’s really important that we are allowed to vote and say what we think about the books. Instead of teachers telling us what we should read, we can learn from each other!

On Saturday, we will discover who the winners are at the CBA ceremony, which is always the loveliest occasion. I have been lucky enough to attend quite a few of these over the years- with and without children- and it is always an absolute joy.

Somerset CBG Launch

Yesterday, we were thrilled to welcome everyone to the launch of our new Somerset Children’s Book Group. After months of planning, it was wonderful to see everything coming together on the day and we couldn’t have done it without the support we received.

Children’s publisher, Nosy Crow, provided us with these gorgeous goodie bags, full of treats. Each included Fleur’s latest book, ‘Murder at Snowfall’, the new Frank and Bert story, ‘The One Where Bert Learns to Ride a Bike’ and a proof copy of either, ‘The Nowhere Thief’ by Alice M Ross or ‘My Life on Fire’ by Cath Howe, as well as the lovely Pip and Posy bags, bookmarks and postcards. It was incredibly generous of them and there were many ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ as people peeked inside! Sîan was particularly helpful and supportive and we are so grateful.

Sidcot School kindly allowed us to use their Meeting House to host the event. Their housekeeping and catering departments were brilliant, making sure we had everything we needed. We were also pleased to be joined by some students from the school who ran the raffle and helped with the teas and coffees. Thank you to all involved.

The Somerset CBG is one of the many children’s book groups up and down the country that collectively form the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. Each group is unique in its approach, but we are all united by our commitment to sharing the love of books and reading to everyone, everywhere. There has been a huge wave of support from our fellow groups and we were delighted that members from several other groups were able to join us for our launch. Book-ish people are lovely people!

Alistair (and his lovely dad!) from Books on the Hill in Clevedon came to set up a bookshop for the event. Once people had registered and gathered their goodie bag, they were quick to grab a cup of tea and spend some time browsing the wonderful range of books on offer, including a couple of exclusives. ‘Nell and the Cave Bear: The Journey Home’ by Martin Brown and ‘Winter’s Keep’ by Tamsin Mori are not available yet, but if you know the right people..!

Well known and much loved as the illustrator of the incredibly popular ‘Horrible Histories’ series, Martin Brown was our first speaker of the day. He had the audience completely enthralled as he talked his books and about the importance of drawing and teaching people the skills they need. He firmly believes that everyone has the ability to draw and his inspiring enthusiasm was infectious.

On arrival, everyone had been given a pink raffle ticket and there was a great ‘oooh’ of excitement as we announced that the winning number would receive this lovely picture (above) of Cave Bear which Martin signed and dedicated.

During the tea break, plenty of cake and biscuits were available and it was wonderful to see so many people getting their books signed and chatting to old friends and new. If any evidence was ever needed about how supportive the children’s book community is then the number of authors who attended our launch surely proves it. Anthony Burt, J M Joseph, Shauna Darling Robertson, Tamsin Mori, Rachel Delahaye, Emma Perry, Andy Seed, Anne Parsons, Laura Mucha and Cathy Faulkner plus a couple of authors who are not-yet-to-be-named all came along to offer their support as did Roy Johnson of Troika Books. Our lucky attendees were able to chat to these lovely people and get their books signed.

After the break, Fleur Hitchcock told a captivated audience about her childhood and other inspirations for writing, including a mysterious abandoned cabinet and a visit to Longleat. It was fascinating to hear about everything from the cover designs to the edits and alterations which contribute to the magic of creating a book. There were so many questions..!

Our event closed with a selection of poems performed by the joyful and exuberant Laura Mucha whose energy and enthusiasm had everyone joining in. It was the perfect way to close the perfect session.

Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped to make our launch so special. We look forward to holding more events very soon and hope to welcome many new members to the group. If you are interested in finding out more about membership, please email us somersetcbg@gmail.com

Our new logo!

The Federation of Children’s Book Groups is a national, voluntary, self-funded organisation whose aim is to promote enjoyment and interest in children’s books and reading and to encourage the availability of books for children of all ages, from first picture books to young adult. The Somerset Group is launching at the end of January and is committed to helping teachers, parents, schools, libraries, booksellers…anyone involved in sharing books with children to promote a lifelong love of reading and books. We are particularly keen to support author events to engage as many children as possible with those who write for them.

We are delighted to be able to share our new logo, designed for us by the incredibly talented (and very kind!) Steve Antony. Bev, the group secretary, loves giraffes which formed the initial idea and Steve worked his magic with the rest! We are delighted with it as it captures the energy and enjoyment of books which each committee member feels and are so grateful to Steve for his kindness.

Steve is the author/ illustrator of some of our favourite picture books and has illustrated many others. He offers excellent school events, much loved by adults and children alike, which we highly recommend to anyone looking for an engaging, enthusiastic author/illustrator. He also makes an excellent judge of pumpkins-as-book-characters competitions! You can find out more about Steve and his work on his website.

We look forward to sharing more book group news soon!