Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is hitting the Big Screen

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is hitting the big screens. The book, which loosely transposes Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book into a more sinister setting features a young boy Nobody "Bod" Owens who, like Mowgli, is separated from his parents. But whereas Mowgli is raised by wolves in the jungle, Bod is raised by ghosts in the graveyard. Bod's family have been murdered by "the man Jack" but the boy, then a toddler, managed to creep into the relative safety of the graveyard. Years pass and it seems that the murderer has forgotten the one that got away. But now Jack is back...

Last weekend Disney revealed that they have bought the rights to the book and have taken on Henry Selick to direct. Selick is best known as director of the much loved animated Nightmare Before Christmas as well as his stop-motion adaptation of Gaiman's Coraline.

Three Step Trilogy: Mockingjay [3]

Suzanne Collins' 2010 Mockingjay is the third and final part of The Hunger Games Trilogy. As discussed previously, the final part in any trilogy bears the weight of the entire series; it is the make-or-break book which decides whether or not readers will judge the collection a success or failure. It must complete a story arc begun two books earlier while at the same time introducing a satisfyingly new development on earlier themes and concerns. 

Collins achieves this with great aplomb. In the previous two books, the violence of the gladiatorial arena had started to seep out into the rest of the Districts in the form of scattered rebellions and general discontent. This dripping dissent has now become a flood as Katniss and the rebels literally explode through the walls of the Arena, taking the fight to the streets and making all of Panem a battleground for the greatest uprising ever. Let's take a look at the story so far.

UPDATE! Adaptations of children's literature favourites

Charlie Kaufman

There is big news this week with announcements of film and stage adaptations of two children's literature books. U.S. screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman has been hired to adapt Patrick Ness' book The Knife of Never Letting Go for the big screen. The book is the first installment in the hugely popular and edgy Chaos Walking trilogy, a series which is already tipped as being the "next Hunger Games". Kaufman is possibly best known for his Oscar winning film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Oscar nominated Adaptation.

Would you like to be a character in a book?

How cool would it be to read yourself as a fictional character?

To celebrate the launch of Merciless Reason (Book Three in the Wilderness Sage), Irish writer and illustrator Oisín McCann is offering one lucky reader an opportunity to appear in his next novel. You can enter by answering a simple question here and filling in some basic details about yourself. McCann has promised that the winner will get to make a "cameo appearance in my next novel - like a walk-on part in a film, except you won't have to walk". Runners-up will get a signed copy of all three Wildenstern novels.

For more information on the book in which your character could feature, click here. To enter the competition, click here. For more details, head on over to Oisín's website here. Good luck everyone!

Bilbo Baggins Comes to Ireland

Tá Biolbó Baigín ag teacht! 

Irish language speakers will be able to read J.R.R. Tolkien's classic The Hobbit or There and Back Again in their native language for the first time. 

The Irish language version of An Hobad, nó Anonn agus Ar Ais Arís will be launched in An Siopa Leabhar this coming Monday. The translators are Alan Titley and Nicholas Williams (who has received high praise from Irish speakers for his recent translations of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There). Both will be signing copies of the book at the launch next week.

Three Step Trilogy: Catching Fire [2]

Moving onwards and upwards now, it's time to look at Book Two in The Hunger Games trilogy. This is always a tough book for the trilogy author to craft. The first book in a trilogy is often a firm favourite. It sells the series to the reader and is responsible for world creation, as well as the construction of appealing characters. The final book provides a much anticipated denouement; the success or failure of the end book in a trilogy affects the entire perception of the series. Book Twos however, occupy a less distinguished position. They must inch slowly along a tightrope traversing the mid-point of the overall story arc; they elaborate on the action provided in the first book, maintaining reader interest in the series, while at the same time managing not to overshadow the final installment. It's no surprise really that a lot of trilogies are guilty of having a "saggy middle."

Blood Brothers: Darren Shan honours Bram Stoker

Darren Shan

Bram Stoker

In an interesting piece in today's Irish Times newspaper, children’s fantasy and horror writer, Darren Shan, pays tribute to Bram Stoker. Shan achieved worldwide success with his The Saga of Darren Shan series, the first three books of which have recently been adapted into the film Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. One hundred years after Stoker’s death, he proudly acknowledges the rich legacy of Bram Stoker's Dracula for all writers working within the horror genre. 

Three Step Trilogy: The Hunger Games [1]

When it comes to reviewing trilogies, there is a strong critical tendency to lay emphasis on Book One, with parts Two and Three serving as variations on the central idea. In an attempt to amend this critical gap, I'm launching a new feature on Yellow Brick Reads: The Three Step Trilogy. Every month, I will look at a different trilogy and post on each book in the series individually. 

The first series of posts in April's Three Step Trilogy will take a look at Suzanne Collins' phenomenally successful The Hunger Games. Credited with inspiring the current vogue in dystopian fiction, The Hunger Games trilogy has divided critics due to its violent content, making it the third most challenged book in U.S. libraries this year. Complaints about the depiction of violence and sexuality exist alongside accusations that the books are "anti-family," "anti-ethnic" and "occult/satanic." Over the next three posts I will consider each of the books of The Hunger Games trilogy to see what all the fuss is about.

And after Harry Potter J.K. Rowling wrote...

Speculation has been rife as to the nature of J.K.Rowling's first post-Potter book. Since the seventh and final book in the Potter series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in 2007, Rowling's has been dropping tantalising clues as to the nature of the project. She has always insisted that the next book she wrote would be "very different" from the magical world of Harry Potter and for a long period there were hints that the next publication would be a "political fairy tale." The time of speculation is over as the details of the new book, Rowling's first book for adults, have been released on the Little, Brown Book Group site. For more details, read on.

Interview with Nicola Pierce, Author of Spirit of the Titanic

Author Nicola Pierce

On the night of 14/15th April 1912 the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. More than 1,500 of the ships 2,223 passengers and crew died when the ship hit an iceberg and sank. To mark the centenary of this tragic voyage, author Nicola Pierce has very kindly agreed to join me here at Yellow Brick Reads. Her wonderful book Spirit of the Titanic (see book review here) is a must read for young (and old) readers interested in this historic passage or indeed,  anyone just looking for a good yarn.

7 Reasons Why Adults Read Children's Literature

"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

C.S. Lewis

The phenomenon of adults reading children's literature is widespread. In many ways, it went public with the unprecedented popularity of the Harry Potter books. No longer a guilty pleasure to be hidden away in bedside lockers, adults were now openly reading and talking about children's books, competing in their understanding of the intricacies of wand lore and wizarding houses. Many genres we associate today with children's literature were, in fact, written with adult readers in mind. Fairy tales, for example, were originally intended for adults; it wasn't until the nineteenth century that they became predominantly associated with child readers.  

Five do Stuff in Wherever

I'm experiencing mixed feelings about the recent decision by Hachette to modernise Enid Blyton's Famous Five Series. Hachette have recently acquired the worldwide rights to the entire Blyton estate, excluding the Noddy series. 2012 marks the seventieth birthday of the Famous Five Series and Marlene Johnson, the managing director of the children's books division has announced that Hachette have "great plans for the future." But are the Blyton books in danger of losing out to the Blyton brand?

Meet "The Illustrators" at Riverbank Arts Centre

You have three more weeks to get to "The Illustrators" exhibition, currently running in the Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Kildare. The exhibition, which is curated by Julia Donaldson (of The Gruffalo fame), features over 50 original artworks by renowned children's illustrators such as Axel Scheffler, David Roberts, Joel Stewart, Emily Gravett and Nick Sharratt. There are also a number of film screenings, workshops and performances running in conjunction with the exhibition. RTÉ Six One News did a nice feature on the exhibition here.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

Author Reif Larsen

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet tells the story of the eponymous protagonist, a twelve year old genius mapmaker who lives on his parents’ ranch in Montana. Life with his tight-lipped cowboy father and scientist mother Dr. Clair would not be so lonely if he had a brother. But Tecumseh’s brother Layton is dead and he can’t help but feel responsible for his part in the tragedy. His sister Gracie is unburdened by genius and therefore remains alien to him; his isolation is acute. Tecumseh withdraws from his moments of emotional turmoil by drawing maps, seeking through this introspective endeavour to escape the emotional chaos without. The mapping that began as a hobby now seems more akin to a survival strategy.