Touch of Power- Maria Snyder

Touch of Power is the brand new book from bestselling author Maria Snyder.

What's the cost of a deal with the devil when you have the powers of a god? When Avry was growing up, Kazan was a prosperous land, rich in resources and served by a respected tribe of healers. Until the plague came. Developed by the poor territories to the north and west, the terrifying disease ravaged the people of Kazan and drove Avry's family away. Four years later, imprisoned for using her powers, Avry's beginning to lose hope, when a band of strange men break into her cell and steal her away. They need her special magic to save their prince. The Prince who ordered the plague s first release. Avry's freedom now rests on using her healing touch to save the very man who took away everything she loved...

We've got 50 proof copies available for reading groups.If you would like copies for your reading groups email Elise.Windmill@hqnuk.co.uk with your details and how many copies you'd like.

Continue reading Touch of Power- Maria Snyder

The Bliss Bakery trilogy - Book 1

"It was the summer Rosemary Bliss turned ten that she saw her mother fold a lightning bolt into a bowl of batter and learned - beyond the shadow of a doubt - that her parents made magic in the Bliss Bakery." - A delicious new novel for girls, the first in a trilogy.
For reading group proofs, email Rosi on rosi.crawley@harpercollins.co.uk

Continue reading The Bliss Bakery trilogy - Book 1

Gwas y Neidr

Cardiff Central Library presents
FREE LIVE MUSIC with
Gwas y Neidr

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Coventry Book Festival ( title tbc)

11-16 June 2012

Coventry's first book festival will inspire reading and creative writing in the whole community. Events for adults, teenagers and children will be held in schools and community venues throughout the week culminating in large celebration event on Saturday 16th June. The Inspiration Book Awards ceremony will be on June 13th so there is an opportunity for winning authors (winners announced on Feb 15th) attending that to do other events while in Coventry. Please note that the date coincides with Birmingham Young Reader's festival schools week and so there is the opportunity for authors to do both festivals in one trip to the West Midlands! Please contact me as soon as possible with your suggestions to ensure you do not miss this cost effective opportunity

Continue reading Coventry Book Festival ( title tbc)

Charlie Fletcher - Far Rockaway

Charlie Fletcher, author of the Stoneheart Trilogy, is available for school and library events to promote his latest book, Far Rockaway, in the West Country.

Cat Manno and her grandfather Victor made a pact that one day, just for the hell of it, they'd take the subway and stay on the A-train until the very end of the line where the last narrow spit of land runs out into the ocean at Far Rockaway. This isn't that day.

On the first page Cat is knocked down by a speeding fire truck whilst crossing 55th St and 3rd Ave in Central Manhattan. She wakes up in a world made from all the books her grandfather used to read to her, peopled by some of the most memorable heroes of classic adventure fiction, brought vividly back to life. Cat must earn their friendship and help as she begins an odyssey and epic quest to find the mythic Castle at the World's End. And the name of that distant, mythic, wave-tumbled fastness? It is, of course, the castle of Far Rockaway ...

If you enjoy reading good books - swashbuckling adventures with sword fights and pirates - then Far Rockaway is the book for you. Join Cat as she embarks on the journey of a lifetime!

To set up an event, please contact Corinne Gotch at corinne.gotch@hachettechildrens.co.uk

Continue reading Charlie Fletcher - Far Rockaway

The Phoenix Files: Arrival

Luke is having a rough year. When his parents split up, his mum drags him to Phoenix, a brand-new town in the middle of nowhere. Luke is fairly unimpressed, until he uncovers a plot to wipe out the human race! 100 days remain until the end of the world ... not something Luke thought would ever be HIS problem.

Phoenix Files: Arrival is the first in an action packed new series for ages 9+ and perfect for fans of Joe Craig and Charlie Higson's Young Bond series. Scholastic have 20 copies of

The Phoenix Files to give away. Email Catherine Alport (calport@scholastic.co.uk) if you are interested in copies for your reading group.

Continue reading The Phoenix Files: Arrival

Lynn Shepherd author of Tom-All-Alone's

Lynn Shepherd is the author of the captivating Tom-All-Alone's, a reimagining of Dickens masterpiece and first English detective story- Bleak House. With the bicentenary of Dickens birth on the 7 February, Lynn is available for talks, workshops, reading group sessions and readers' days.

Tom-All-Alone's aims to craft something that would not only be a compelling 'literary murder mystery' in its own right, but also a creative response to the events and themes of Dickens' text. Tom-All-Alone's was actually the original title of Dickens Bleak House.

The story of Tom-All-Alone's runs parallel to Dickens, and his characters populate her own literary landscape, whether as principal protagonists, like the lawyer Tulkinghorn and Inspector Bucket, or mere bystanders seen or overheard in London's crowded dining-houses, pubs, and omnibuses. Through the eyes of her young detective, Charles Maddox, we see these familiar episodes and characters from a new angle, and find answers to questions that Bleak House left unanswered.

if you would like Lynn to visit your library please contact Emily Burns: emily@constablerobinson.com.

Continue reading Lynn Shepherd author of Tom-All-Alone's

Free Samplers - The Language of Flowers

Free samplers of the global bestseller that everyone is talking about.

Now published in 33 countries, The Language of Flowers is a Top Ten bestseller in the UK. It's a heartbreaking but uplifting novel about the meaning of flowers, the meaning of family and the meaning of love.

For full synopsis, extract and book trailer visit www.whatsyourmessage.co.uk

Continue reading Free Samplers - The Language of Flowers

Capital Reads: A Festival of Words

Capital Reads: A Festival of Words
Saturday 22nd October, 9.45am - 5.00pm
Cardiff Central Library, The Hayes, 029 2038 2116

Drop by and join in our events including:

• Meet the author: award-winning adult, children, and teenage authors throughout the day, including Kristina Taylor, Shelagh Weeks, Maggie Harris, Richard Gwyn, Clare Potter, Damian Harvey, and Lucy Christopher
• Reading Groups - be a fly on the wall!
• Creative writing
• Poetry and prose performances in English, Welsh, Arabic, Urdu and Punjabi
• Activities for children including stories and a make your own comic workshop
• eBook demonstrations

For more information including a detailed timetable of activities, please visit
www.cardiff.gov.uk/libraryevents

In partnership with: Cardiff Libraries, Welsh Government, St. David's Hall, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Short Books, Macmillan Children's Books, Bookgroup.info, and BVSNW (Black Voluntary Sector Network Wales).

Continue reading Capital Reads: A Festival of Words

Author Available: Trilby Kent, Smoke Portrait

Trilby Kent is available for library events, reading groups sessions and readers' days. Children aged 10+. Trilby would also be happy to talk to classes of students.

To set up an event, please contact eminervini@almabooks.com and for more info about the book, please visit http://www.almabooks.com/stones-for-my-father-p-384-book.html

Stones for My Father deals with the second Boer war, and gives quite an uncompromisingly critical appraisal of the English repression of the Boers at the beginning of the twentieth century. It's the story of a young girl and of his family, and their trials as they are pushed away from their farm and imprisoned in a concentration camp.
The author is a descendant of the Boer war hero Danie Theron.

Continue reading Author Available: Trilby Kent, Smoke Portrait

History Day, Cardiff Central Library

Celebrating our local history at Cardiff Central Library.

A programme of free local history talks and information stands.

Enter our history competition - full information can be found on the Library blog - page 35 at http://cardifflibraries.blogspot.com to win a great prize.

For more information, contact: centrallibrary@cardiff.gov.uk or call 029 2038 2116.

Continue reading History Day, Cardiff Central Library

Misha Glenny

3rd October 2011

Misha Glenny
Hammersmith Library, Shepherds Bush Rd, W6 7AT
Monday- Oct 3rd
7 - 8 pm (doors open 6.30pm)

Misha Glenny talks about his new book Dark Market - Cyber Thieves, CyberCops and You (published 15th September, Bodley Head). Misha Glenny is a journalist and historian, and the author of the Sunday Times bestseller McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime. He is regularly consulted by the US and European governments on major policy issues.

In his talk, Misha investigates the dangers of living online and explores the question 'have we become complacent about our personal security?'
Foyles at Westfield are pleased to be the bookseller for this event and will be offering £3 off the RRP of the book on the evening.

Free admission/refreshments

For more information and to book tickets contact elin.jones@lbhf.gov.uk telephone 0208 753 3812/3823

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Off the Page Stirling Book Festival

10t - 17 September 2011

Sixth off the page Stirling Book Festival with a range of authors and events.Christopher Brookmyre, Mark Billingham, Nicola Morgan, stuart MacBride and some of the adult authors with Barry Hutchison, Cathy Cassidy and Catherine Forde for the Young People.

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Daniel Polansky, proofs available

August 2011

Welcome to Low Town.

Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found.

Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You'd struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his.

But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley.

And then another.

With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he's the only man with a hope of finding the killer.

If the killer doesn't find him first.

To get a free copy of this title email:

Continue reading Daniel Polansky, proofs available

Reader Development Day for all the family, Cardiff

22 October

We will be holding a Reader's Development day for adults and children alike in October. At the daytime event we will be offering advice on reading groups, Dads and lads (reading with your children), Ethnic and Welsh language titles, creative writing, author talks, reading group meetings, children's groups and many extra opportunities. In the evening event we will have quizzes and fun events plus a headliner author will talk. If you are interested in being involved, have any freebies to give away, books to promote or your talents to offer, please contact Susanna.

Continue reading Reader Development Day for all the family, Cardiff

Starcrossed

26 July 2011

Macmillan have a limited number of super proofs available for Josephine Angelini's teen paranormal romance debut Starcrossed.

Contact Amy Lines to request yours.

find out more here

Continue reading Starcrossed

Alyson Noel

To mark the final book in Alyson Noel's Immortals Series we have created an all in one chapter sampler/poster/Q&A /50% off voucher for Everlasting. Contact Amy Lines to request a quanitity.

Find out more about the series here: www.alysonnoel.co.uk

Continue reading Alyson Noel

Win a copy of Blood Red Road

The Telegraph called it "a splendid, stylish debut"

The Times said it was a "shot of pure adrenalin"

The Herald thinks it "grabs you in its claw on the first page and refuses to release you until the last"

Now it's your chance to read the book everyone is talking about - Blood Red Road. Scholastic Children's Books are giving you the chance to win a copy of this critically acclaimed debut novel from Moira Young. Saba lives in a broken world - her only joy comes from spending her days with her twin brother, Lugh. But when he's kidnapped, Saba sets out on a perilous rescue mission where death waits at every turn...

The first 20 people to email publicity@scholastic.co.uk will get their hands on a copy.

Continue reading Win a copy of Blood Red Road

The Magical Detectives and the Forbidden Spell

The second book in the thrilling Magical Detectives series is out this month. Author, Brian Keaney, is available for author events.

In a locked museum in the middle of the night a thief appears from nowhere, steals a priceless clay tablet from Ancient Babylon and then disappears. In the village of Harford a senior British diplomat is found strangled in his bed. And in the sleepy little town of Bridlington Chawley an internationally-famous hypnotist knocks on the door of Spinoza's Second-Hand Bookshop.

What is the connection between these three events? That's the mystery that the Magical Detectives have to solve.

The Magical Detectives and the Forbidden Spell is the second book in the Magical Detective Agency series. The first book has been chosen for the Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge

For more information, or to orgnise an event, please contact Sarah Bennett

Continue reading The Magical Detectives and the Forbidden Spell

Author wanted for Black history month october 2011

The brand new Woolwich Centre Library in the London borough of Greenwich will be dedicating the languages section to the late Cllr Kanta Patel during Black history month. We are looking for a gujerati author to give a talk.

Please contact sarah.davis@greenwich.gov.uk for details.

Continue reading Author wanted for Black history month october 2011

Guts, Glory and Adventure!

Get your reading group enthused with our fantastic Guts, Glory and Adventure sampler! It contains action-packed extracts from four brilliant books including the fantastic Pip and the Woodwitch Curse, How to Train Your Dragon, Undead Ed and Beast Quest!

Please email Sarah Mays with how many copies you would like for your reading group.

Continue reading Guts, Glory and Adventure!

Authors wanted for World Book Day week

We're looking for authors to come to Leicester on World Book Day week. We can afford to contribute to their fees and travelling.

We run very sucessful author programmes which have been nationally recognised. Take a look at our website www.leicester.gov.uk/libraries

Email chris.hodgson@leicester.gov.uk for details.

Continue reading Authors wanted for World Book Day week

Free copies of Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Hachette Children's Books have 250 copies of Catherine Fisher's Incerceron to give away. Named as The Times Children's Book of the Year, this dark, powerful and compelling read is not to be missed.

Incarceron - a futuristic prison, sealed from view, where the descendants of the original prisoners live in a dark world torn by rivalry and savagery. It is a terrifying mix of high technology - a living building which pervades the novel as an ever-watchful, ever-vengeful character, and a typical medieval torture chamber - chains, great halls, dungeons. A young prisoner, Finn, has haunting visions of an earlier life, and cannot believe he was born here and has always been here.

In the outer world, Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, is trapped in her own form of prison - a futuristic world constructed beautifully to look like a past era, an imminent marriage she dreads. She knows nothing of Incarceron, except that it exists. But there comes a moment when Finn, inside Incarceron, and Claudia, outside, simultaneously find a device - a crystal key, through which they can talk to each other. And so the plan for Finn's escape is born ...

"I loved the book. It's a crazy, cool, dark world ... it's a great story." -- Taylor Lautner, star of the Twilight movies

Please email Sarah Mays with how many copies you would like for your reading group.

Continue reading Free copies of Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Dragonese Day

To celebrate the release of the 9th title in the bestselling How to Train Your Dragon series; How to Steal a Dragon's Sword, Hodder Children's Books are launching Dragonese Day on 6th October 2011!

To mark this exciting national event, we have created a downloadable teacher's pack full of fun and educational activities. The activities included in this pack are suitable for cross-curricular teaching for children between the ages of 5 and 11, covering topics such as Vikings and Dragons and curriculum links including History, Geography, Drama, Art and Literacy.

The objectives and curriculum links for each resource are clearly laid out in each section and the pack is suitable to be used for a full half term of lessons!

Register for your pack here

Continue reading Dragonese Day

The Breakfast Club by Kate Costelloe

Hachette Children's Books have 250 copies of _The Breakfast Club_ to give away. It's a brand new book for 9+ girls filled with fashion, fun and friendship.

Billie, Lexie, Ella and Natalie are all 14 years old, living in the fashionable and hip Notting Hill Gate. They're as different to each other as all four of Sex and City friends, but that's what makes them such good friends. Lexie's the sporty, practical tomboy, Ella's ever-so-sligthly ditzy, but creative fashionista, with a heart of gold; Nat's the witty, self-depracting hopeless romantic and Billie's the resident musician and Lily Allen in the making. Each of them have their own set of issues - whether it's school, parents or boys... and support is there, every week at their weekly breakfast catch up in their favourite cafe. 

Continue reading The Breakfast Club by Kate Costelloe

Buttercup Mash facebook page and trailer

The glee-themed, laugh-out-loud new novel from best-selling Rachel Riley author Joanna Nadin has its own Facebook page: www.facebook.com/buttercupmash.

Buttercup has ISSUES. Her family's dysfunctional, her best friend's a drama queen and she doesn't know who her dad is! What's a girl to do?

Isn't it obvious? Join the school glee club, embarrass the hell out of yourself singing rock ballads and dancing like a demented giraffe on a sugar rush and write a diary for an internet shrink about your messed up life.

Visit the Facebook page for information about the book, news, reviews, a hilarious video trailer, and downloads.

Continue reading Buttercup Mash facebook page and trailer

Sweet Hearts Event

20 - 24 June 2011

Jo is author of the Sweet Hearts series and in June we will be doing a promotional tour to celebrate the publication of the third Sweet Hearts book, Sweet Hearts: Forget Me Not. Jo's event is a very humorous and lively presentation on how a book comes to be published. Most children (and even adults) don't really know what the publishing process involves. Jo goes through the whole process including pitching to publishers, editing and cover design, using the Sweet Hearts series as an example. Jo is a former teachers and actress and is very entertaining and normally has the kids giggling away.

If you would be interested in having Jo come to your school to do an event between 20 - 24 June (or at a later date), please email Louise Vallant. As this is a promotional tour, there will be no fee for the event.

Continue reading Sweet Hearts Event

Launch of Acorn Grow!

Acorn Grow is now LIVE!!!!! Our first digital product is alive and kicking. For further information please visit the Raintree website, or go directly to Acorn Grow and see what you think.

Continue reading Launch of Acorn Grow!

ORANGE INHERITANCE

10th - 31st March 2011

Six Orange Prize winners (Lionel Shriver, Rose Tremain, Anne Michaels, Ann Patchett, Helen Dunmore and Linda Grant) have selected the classic novel that they would like to pass on to the next generation. Vintage Classics will publish these selected novels with an introduction from the Orange Prize winners in April and would like you, the 'next generation', to review the books and give your feedback for a major press and online campaign. If you are under 21 and would like to receive a free copy of one of the six books* to review for us, please email Indira who can tell you the choices (*subject to availability)

Continue reading ORANGE INHERITANCE

Meet Ally Kennen at the launch of her new book, Quarry!

5 February

Drop in to Waterstone's in Taunton and meet local author Ally Kennen, and hear her talk about her brand new Teen Chiller, QUARRY!

Saturday 5th February
2pm to 4pm

Waterstone's Taunton
The County Hotel, East Street
Taunton TA1 3LU

For more information, please contact Catherine Alport

Continue reading Meet Ally Kennen at the launch of her new book, Quarry!

Events available with debut author Jenny Smith!

Diary of a Parent Trainer is Jenny Smith's brilliant debut novel about Katie Sutton and her dysfunctional extended family. Katie thinks she has discovered the key to getting the best out of your parent, and has even written a helpful guide, detailing her findings ... but Katie's methods don't always go to plan - with hilarious consequences!

In her events, Jenny will talk about Diary of a Parent Trainer, how she got into writing and the inspiration behind her work. Jenny is happy to talk to reading groups, or audiences of up to 40. Perfect for audiences aged 10+. Jenny is based in Oxfordshire.

If interested, please contact Catherine Alport at Scholastic.

Continue reading Events available with debut author Jenny Smith!

Matt Lynn

Thursday 24 March 2011

Matt Lynn, whose new book "Shadow Force" has just been published, will be giving at talk at Bishopbriggs Library, 170 Kirkintilloch Road, Bishopbriggs G64 2LX
on
Thursday 24th March
2.30pm.
The event is free but ticketed.

For more information, contact David Kenvyn

Continue reading Matt Lynn

The Memory Cage

Alex's beloved grandfather is sick. His memory is failing, and Alex's parents want to put him in a home. Alex has promised Grandad that he won't let that happen. But Alex has broken promises before. When he was growing up in the Bosnian War, he swore that he would protect his brother. It was a promise that he couldn't keep. Alex can't fail again. But the only way to save Grandad could shatter the family ... and it may also tear Alex apart.

This is a brilliant debut from Ruth Eastham and perfect for reading and discussion groups of 10+.

Continue reading The Memory Cage

Goldseekers

In 17th century Cornwall, Jude's mother was called a witch. Now her son is a 'finder', born with a rare and strange power. Jude can sense the presence of gold wherever it is hidden. But this is a talent as dangerous as it is precious - especially when he leaves his childhood home after his parents' sudden deaths. Captured by a sinister one-eyed sea-captain, he is plunged into terrifying magical adventures on the magnificent, mysterious Cornish coast.

Proofs for this fantastic new novel from Jane Johnson are available for reading groups and libraries. Email Catherine Alport to request copies.

Continue reading Goldseekers

Diary of a Parent Trainer

Katie Sutton is an undiscovered genius. She has mastered the art of controlling and operating the strange species of grown-up. But when her mum starts dating AWFUL Stuart, Katie isn't sure of what to do ... her mum is behaving completely out of character, and Katie's tried and tested methods are no longer working. Katie needs to take drastic action to gain control over her grown-up again ... and fast!

Proofs for this fantastic debut novel are available for reading groups and libraries. Email Catherine Alport to request copies.

Continue reading Diary of a Parent Trainer

TRASH Readers Notes

Download readers notes for Trash by Andy Mulligan, one of the best books of 2010.
'Outstanding...an exceptionally satisfying plot.' The Times
'Fast paced and brilliant, this is a book about a country fighting corruption and making right a terrible wrong. Mulligan has written something great. You simply must read it!'
Askews Library Service
'Harrowing, exhilarating, humbling and quite brilliant' The Bookseller

Please download HERE.

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Mo-Bot High creator Neill Cameron available for events

October 2010 onwards

Neill Cameron, creator of the Giant Robot Action Schoolgirl Comedy epic Mo-Bot High, is available for events with children aged 7-12 for a HOW TO MAKE (AWESOME) COMICS WORKSHOP (max 30) and for an ILLUSTRATED TALK for larger audiences of ages 12+

Mo-Bot High is published by David Fickling Books as part of the brilliant Comic Book Library.

To set up an event with Neill please contact neill@neillcameron.com and for more info on him and Mo-Bot High please visit: http://www.neillcameron.com

Continue reading Mo-Bot High creator Neill Cameron available for events

Free samplers: Simon Pulse - Teen Paranormal Romance

Introducing the SIMON PULSE list from Simon & Schuster - books to get your pulse racing.

From demons to fallen angels, werewolves to zombies, these are thrilling, scary, spine tingling and romantic books for teenagers and young adults. Launch titles include the bestselling debut from Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush and new editions of the mother of vampire novels - Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

For FREE multiple copies of a sampler with extracts from 6 Simon Pulse books - please send an email to childrensbooks@simonandschuster.co.uk - with title PULSE SAMPLER, no. required and contact details.

Continue reading Free samplers: Simon Pulse - Teen Paranormal Romance

Finding Sky postcards available

Finding Sky is the fantastic new teen read from Oxford University Press.

When English girl Sky catches a glimpse of bad boy Zed in her new American high school, she can't get him out of her head. He talks to her with his thoughts. He reads her mind. He is the boy she will love for ever.

In this story, there are no vampires, no angels - but soulfinders.

"When a soulfinder speaks telepathically to her partner, it's like all the lights coming on in a building. You lit me up like Vegas."

Discovering your soulmate has never been so dangerous.

Oxford University Press have Finding Sky postcards to give away.

Please contact tradepublicity.uk@oup.com

Continue reading Finding Sky postcards available

New library opening in North Yorkshire - authors, illustrators etc wanted

From January 2011 onwards

North Yorkshire County Council is opening a new library in the small community of Starbeck in partnership with day services to adults with learning disabilities. We will be celebrating the new library from January 2011 onwards and are looking for authors, illustrators or publishers who will support us with events, goody bags, or anything else! For more information about the development, please visit our website (www.northyorks.gov.uk/starbeck), our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/starbeckhub), or contact Karen Thornton (karen.thornton@northyorks.gov.uk)

Continue reading New library opening in North Yorkshire - authors, illustrators etc wanted