July 22, 2005
Book Group Kit
Several people have written to me saying that they were planning to introduce Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure to their book groups. Let me know if you're planning to do this and I'll send you as many signed bookplates as you need. You can also download a list of discussion points from the Study Kit section of the website. On a number of occasions I've also had a live web discussion with a bookgroup using MSN Messenger. Please send me an e-mail if you need my input for your group. I'd be glad to help.
Posted by pbkerr at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
Recommended Books Aged 11-13
Scribbleboy by Philip Ridley
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
Stalky and Co by Rudyard Kipling
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by ....can't remember her name.... is it J.K. Galbraith?
Greenmantle by John Buchan
The 39 Steps by John Buchan
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis
Carry on Jeeves by P.G.Wodehouse
Facing the Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross
Posted by pbkerr at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
Recommended Books Aged 7-10
Stig of the Dump by Clive King
Paddington Bear by Michael Bond
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Biggles and the Black Peril by Captain W.E. Johns
Jennings Goes to School by Anthony Buckeridge
The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
The Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton
Tame the Wild Stallion by J. Williams
Posted by pbkerr at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)
Competition
Guess my middle name.
I'm often asked what the P.B. stands for. Someone in Illinois wondered if P.B. stood for Peanut Butter. Actually, I wish it did because I think Peanut Butter Kerr would be a fantastic name for an author. It's reasonably well known that my first name is Philip. But do you know what my middle name is? I will send a free signed copy of The Blue Djinn of Babylon to anyone who guesses what it is. No lists please. One middle name per entry. Post your entry in Comments, below. If you win I'll email you back. But don't expect to hear from me if you don't guess it correctly. P.S. It isn't Blog.
Posted by pbkerr at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)
Recommended Books
I'm often asked to recommend other children's books. It depends very much on how old you are. So what I'm going to do is provide two or three lists of recommended books according to how old you are. Some of these may be difficult to get hold of, but a good library may help you. If you're not already a member of a public library I urge to join one. I was a library member almost as soon as I could read, because my pocket money/ allowance only stretched to buying one book a week. Just for the rceord, my pocket money was two shillings and sixpence. That's twelve and a half pence in English coin; and about fifteen cents in American money. This was just enough for one thin paperback novel.
Posted by pbkerr at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)
Forthcoming Appearances
Durham
I will be in Durham on Wednesday September 28th. I will be visiting Newker Primary School and a local bookshop.
Posted by pbkerr at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
Forthcoming appearances
The Edinburgh Book Festival
I will be at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Saturday August 20th. The event, sponsored by Lloyds TSB - to whom I should like to offer my thanks - will take place in the Children's Theatre, in the tented village that occupies Charlotte Square Gardens. It starts at 10.00 a.m. and costs £3.50 for a ticket. I always like going to Edinburgh. It's where I was born and went to school, until I was 14. And, although I now live in London, there's a part of me that always thinks of Edinburgh as home. I feel especially at home in Charlotte Square. It's a stone's throw from the church I used to attend - Charlotte Baptist Chapel where I still have many friends. I am reliably informed by my publishers that the event will provide an opportunity to buy a very early copy of The Blue Djinn of Babylon. Do come along. Everyone who wants one will get an autograph whether or not you buy a book.
Posted by pbkerr at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2005
Book Two: The Blue Djinn of Babylon
Book Two, The Blue Djinn of Babylon will be published in the U.K. on September 19th by Scholastic Books. And it will be appearing in American shops in December, also published by Scholastic. Don't ask me why it's later in the U.S. than in the U.K., but I suspect that it might have something to do with the fact that Scholastic publish Harry Potter in America and maybe...this is just a guess....they have their hands full publishing that book for the next few months. It will also be published in Germany this autumn by Oetinger. The title in German is GEFANGEN IM PALAST VON BABYLON. I haven't actually seen a copy myself yet. But I thought the cover looked terrific. I will be explaining more about the book here in due course.
Posted by pbkerr at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
Errors
Several people have written to me and pointed the mistakes that are to be found in the hardback first edition of Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure. By all means contact me if you think you've spotted a mistake. But these are the ones I already know about:
page 335: At the end of the third paragraph it reads, " ... they had changed their minds and didn't actually want to go to the actual geographical point - zero degrees latitude and longitude - that marked the North Pole.".
(The North Pole is "actually" 90 degrees North latitude. The North and South Poles are special points on the Earth, because they are singularities of our coordinate system. All directions from the North Pole can be called South, because they are directed exactly away from the North Pole. The directions of North, South, East and West lose the meaning they have elsewhere on the Earth." (so Dr. Albion Taylor says, anyway)
page 306: the last line on the page is repeated on page 307.
page 354: 2nd to last line, 1st word should be 'Your'
page 204 of Chapter 16 it reads... "This sounds like djinn business," said Groanin, wiping his hands on a tea towel..." (Obviously with only one arm, Groanin could only wash "a" hand!)
Has anyone found any more? Please click on Comment and let me know. Thanks guys.
Posted by pbkerr at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)
Welcome to my Blog
Since the publication of Children of the Lamp:The Akhenaten Adventure, in 2004, thousands of you have e-mailed me, and I've done my best to e-mail all of you back. If you never received a reply that's probably because there was something wrong with the address you sent me. This is just one of the reasons I've decided to host this blog. So that you have another means of getting in contact with me. Another reason I've started this is so that I can make the website seem a little more up-to-date. A number of you suggested that the website needed updating, and this is my response. The blog is designed to enable you to comment on anything I say here. Which is what? I hear you say. Well for one thing I'll be telling you where I'm going to be. What schools I'm visiting. That kind of thing. I'll be recommending books for you to read. Announcing competitions. And generally describing some of things I've been getting up to so that you can have an insight into the life of a writer. Is there anything I've missed? Perhaps you could suggest some things for the blog yoursleves. And, by the way, a few of you have suggested that it's not me who writes the e-mails. Well, it is. I can't prove that, of course. But I can't see the point of having this site if I don't read and write the e-mails. Can you?
Posted by pbkerr at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)