Malorie Blackman announces campaign to support the
best of young adult fiction in the UK, including the country's first ever YA
Literature Convention at the London Film and Comic Con 2014.
Waterstone’s
Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman has announced a campaign to support
fiction for young adults in the UK during her two year term in the post. A
highlight of this will be the first ever YA Literature Convention, hosted at
the London Film and Comic Con in July 2014. Blackman will also be working with
Booktrust on a search for the rising stars in the UKYA community.
Blackman
was announced as the Children’s Laureate in June this year. As the first
Children’s Laureate best known for writing for a teenage audience, she is
ideally placed to act as a cheerleader for books for young people. From the
moment she was appointed, Blackman has passionately voiced her desire to get
“more people, reading more”: whether they choose a classic literary novel or
Twilight, the important thing is to get young people to pick up a book. The
statistics show there is still much work to be done in this area, with recent
research showing that only 3 in 10 young people read daily out of class and a fifth
of young people saying they would be embarrassed if a friend saw them reading
(NLT 2013).
Malorie
Blackman comments:
“We are
incredibly lucky to have such a wealth of fantastic children's authors and
illustrators in this country who create incredible stories for young adults to
enjoy. It's so important to encourage, sustain and where necessary instil
a love of reading in our teenagers. Reading opens doors and creates life
opportunities. That's why I want to do my utmost to promote YA books for all our
young (and older!) readers.”
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