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January 2012

January 19, 2012

 

      

So it’s January and the start of another year, the Christmas holidays really did speed by, didn’t they! The New Year brings with it both good and bad things: the realisation that Christmas is 355 sleeps away, a new school term, the appearance of Easter chocolate in the shops (yes really!) and of course New Year resolutions. Now I love making resolutions at the start of a New Year. It’s just the perfect excuse to try something new or put an end to that bad habit.

But historically I’m not the best at resolutions, mainly because I choose ones that are just too hard. For example last year I came up with the idea of only eating chocolate once a week, I mean seriously that was never going to work was it? Similarly the idea of walking home from work every day (only an hour a day) was a big fat fail when it rained on January 5th. So this year I was determined to come up with a more realistic resolution and so I’ve settled on the idea of a reading resolution, so in 2012 I’m going to read more. 52 books to be precise, one book a week for the whole year. I think this is a fairly realistic resolution and will be a lot of fun (although ask me again in December when I still need to read 20 books in three weeks)!

Coming up with my reading themed New Year resolution got me thinking about what other resolutions you could make that are related to books and reading. So below I’ve shared some of the ideas I’ve come up with, who knows it might inspire you to make your own reading New Year resolution.

Read every book written by Roald Dahl – Roald Dahl is the World’s Number 1 Storyteller so reading all his books would be a fantastic treat. What fun it would be to be transported to the wonderful world of The Twits, James and the Giant Peach and Danny the Champion of the World.

Read all the Puffin Classics – Anne of Avonlea, What Katy Did, Wuthering Heights, Peter Pan, Black Beauty, The Wizard of Oz and The Railway Children. There are so many fantastic Puffin Classic books available that I wouldn’t know where to start with this, but it would certainly get me reading more!

Read all the books featured on the Puffin blog – this would be a fun reading challenge and help me keep my resolution of reading more books in 2012. It would also involve quite an eclectic mix, a bit of Wimpy Kid, a dash of Wereworld and finishing off with everyone’s favourite The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Read one new book a month – Here at Puffin we publish lots of books each month for children of all ages; from picture books like Happy Birthday in Dragon Wood to fantastic series like Spy Pups and books for teenagers like The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder. So it would be great to read a brand new book each month, who knows I might find a new favourite book!

What do you think, do any of these reading-related resolutions tickle your fancy or are you going to stick to more traditional New Year resolutions like eating better and playing more sports? Whatever resolution you choose, fingers crossed you have a reading-filled and absolutely splendiferous 2012.

Fiona Evans
Marketing Executive
Media and Entertainment and Puffin

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January 09, 2012

They say the art of letter-writing is lost in this age of emails and texts. But if you still like putting pen to paper then get ready for a most marvellous, a fantastical, a truly splendiferous sight:

 

Yes it's true - today the Royal Mail has launched these wonderful Roald Dahl stamps to adorn your envelopes. Aren't they delightful? Now Charlie Bucket, Fantastic Mr Fox, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Twits and The Witches will make your envelopes the best-looking envelopes in all the land.

And if you're wondering where that Big Friendly Giant is, then look no further:

 

This year is The BFG's 30th anniversary and he gets his very own sheet of four stamps featuring scenes from the book! Look out for lots more Big Friendly Giant fun coming this year, and don't miss your chance to give your letters the Roald Dahl stamp of approval.

Sarah Topping
Puffin Marketing

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January 04, 2012

The idea for Cinderella re-envisioned as a teenage cyborg, part-human and part-machine, came to me as I was drifting to sleep one night. Some elements of her cyborgness were there from the start: she always had a robotic hand. She always had a robotic foot that she’d long outgrown. She always had a
keen understanding of mechanics and robotics.

During the writing of the first draft, I also discovered net-connectivity in her brain, which she used to download user manuals and blueprints, but the information she could gather this way was rather limited.

Then, after I finished that first draft and (months later) sat down to read through it, I realized something. For having written a cyborg who had the potential to be awesome in all sorts of ways, I’d somehow managed to make her entirely lacklustre.

I had no intention of writing a superhero into the story, and I didn’t want Cinder to become so high-tech she wasn’t recognizable as a sympathetic human being anymore. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t have some more fun with her abilities. I talked to some sci-fi-geek friends of mine, and asked what skills they would want if they were a cyborg. I watched movies and read books that starred part-machine characters. I read scientific articles on all the cool things that scientists are doing right now that involve cybernetic organisms.

Over the next few drafts, Cinder’s cyborgness developed into something cooler than I’d ever imagined her to be.

I found a hidden compartment in her leg, useful for storing tools and other secret items. I discovered a retina display that could scan the things she was seeing and overlay images across her vision—whether it was connecting a prince’s features to the global database, or laying a blueprint of a car engine across her eyesight so she could figure out how it worked. Her net-connectivity became more complex, allowing her to dig up all sorts of useful information. She surprised me in a late revision of the story by suddenly having the ability to tell when people were lying.
And all the while her skill with mechanics became more impressive, until a girl who had started out doing small jobs around the house for her stepmother, eventually—inevitably—became the most renowned mechanic in the entire city.

As I revised, I felt like I was gradually uncovering Cinder’s character, or maybe that she was slowly letting me in on her secrets. And the weird part is — the less physically human she became, the more human she felt to me. The more real she became.

Marissa Meyer

This blog first appeared on www.thebookrat.com as part of the CINDER Official Blog Tour 2012

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