Two pieces of news have given me a warm glow this week.
Ever so often I receive a lovely package from Margaret K. McElderry Books in New York containing a copy of the latest printing of You Have to Write
by Janet Wong and illustrated by me. The accompanying letter always lets me know which reprinting we are on. I was pleased to find out that You Have To Write is on its eleventh printing! All credit to Janet for her excellent text and to McElderry Books for their support.
The other good news is from Scholastic Children’s Books about WOW! 366: Speedy Stories in Just 366 Words,
an anthology that includes Yellow Rabbit, my very short story about the adventures of a stuffed rabbit left behind in a hotel by its young owner. All the contributors to the book, including such luminaries as Michael Morpurgo, Roddy Doyle, Charlie Higson and Anne Fine (as well as Monty Python’s Terry Jones) donated their stories and a hefty percentage of sales goes to Childline, a telephone helpline for children run by the NSPCC. The nice news about WOW! 366 is that it has been selected for the 2009 Booked Up programme, funded by the government and administered by Book Trust. 600,000 eleven year olds in the UK will be able to choose one book from the list of twelve Booked Up selections and keep it. I feel honoured to be part of such a worthwhile programme!
