Nominations are now open for The O’Brien Bookseller of the Year Award. The closing date for entries is February 19th 2010.
Another gorgeous Panda Cub
We’ve just received the artwork in from Greg Massardier for our forthcoming panda cub The Train Driver by first time author Kunak McGann and we can’t wait to get feedback from booksellers about it! The lively graphics bring the text to life and we know that young readers are going to love them.
World Book Day Fun & Games
A lot of fun, a lot of cake, and a big red bus – that was World Book Day in Dublin this year! Authors like Celine Kiernan, Judy May, Marie Burlington, Conor Kostick, Karl O’Neill and others appeared at bookshops and libraries as part of the World Book Day celebrations. Visitors to Waterstones on Dawson Street would have been greeted by an army of Judi Curtin fans eagerly awaiting a reading with their favourite author! Alfie Green and Little Croker author Joe O’Brien gave a very entertaining reading in Eason’s O’Connell Street on World Book Day to launch the very special Irish World Book Day book (we should really call it stand-up comedy – ‘reading’ just doesn’t quite describe Joe’s performances!). Afterwards, Joe and his fans caught the special World Book Day ‘Big Red Book Bus’ which took them to Children’s Books Ireland for a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party!
Launch for Dublin Book Festival
The Dublin Book Festival launch will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 25th February, at 6pm in the National Library, Kildare Street – come and enjoy a glass of red (or white!) and hear about the great line-up for the Festival.
Running from 6th – 8th March 2009, check out the programme at Dublinbookfestival.com
Several OBP authors have been confirmed including Celine Kiernan, Joe O’Brien, Éanna ní Lamhna, Conor Kostick and Michael Kelly.
Pop in, you never know what you might discover!
CBI Summer Conference
Celine Kiernan, author of The Poison Throne, is set to appear at this year’s CBI Summer Conference in May – check out CBI for full programme details. Celine is in good company this year, appearing alongside Eoin Colfer, Patrick Ness and other luminaries from the world of children’s books.
OBP World Book Day Flipper Book
The OBP World Book Day flipper book (the only Irish one published this year, and the first bilingual one on record!) Daifní Dineasár / Alfie Green and the Monkey Puzzler will be launched in Eason’s O’Connell Street on World Book Day, Thursday 5th March 2009 at 11am.
Cover Competition
It’s almost World Book Day, and already the darkness of winter is lifting a little — we can almost get cheery about aspects of 2009! We have just had a great collaboration with CBI — a nationwide competition for kids to design a new cover for The Great Pig Escape by Linda Moller. The response was super, and some of the entries were very quirky indeed!
There’s more info here, including all the runners-up entries.
Change of venue!
The Irish Blog Award Book Event (The Blookie Event: thanks David!) has been moved to The Teachers’ Club, right around the corner from the IWC at 36 Parnell Square. Same day and time as before. Actually, slight change in personnel too, as Fiona McPhillips has been added to the bill.
That’s Wednesday 18 Feb, 7pm.
Irish Blog Awards book event
I’ll be participating in the Irish Blog Awards Book Event (catchy title!) in the Irish Writers Centre next Wednesday 18 Feb at 7pm: do come along! I’ll be there with Sarah Rees Brennan, Twenty Major, Mags Walsh and others to talk about the impact of blogging on books, and vice versa.
As a newbie to the blogsphere I’m looking forward to getting totally beaten up and told that we’ve completely missed the boat on The Tech Revolution, to which I will wittily retort that I have too much actual work to do, to be spending my life noodling away.
Which is flatly contradicted by this post — and so it goes on! Report to follow.
Ivan O’Brien
The Secret of Kells advance screening
A whole crowd of us attended an advance screening of The Secret of Kells: a total feast for the eyes, and great to see those stunning images brought to life on the big screen!
Both books are now available from all good bookshops and the OBP website.