Betty Birney’s Blog

Tonight’s the night – I’m flying to London for World Book Day, an annual event which celebrates books!  Children in the U.K. get a 1 pound token which they can use to purchase a special WBD 1 pound book OR they can apply it toward any book in a bookstore.  In 2008, I was one of nine authors selected to write a WBD book, which was a small version of Adventure According to Humphrey. It was later expanded and published in the U.S. under the original title and in the U.K. as More Adventures According to Humphrey.

I was so surprised to be selected again for this year’s event. My British publisher, Faber & Faber, is launching a new illustrated series for younger readers called Humphrey’s Tiny Tales.  My WBD book this year is a Tiny Tale: My Treasure Hunt Trouble. On the same date, they are releasing My Pet Show Panic, so I’ll be promoting them both. An added bonus, the WBD books are now flip books (2 books in 1) and Humphrey will be paired with Winnie the Pooh (the classic version, not the Disney version). As someone who wrote 90 Winnie the Pooh TV episodes and three series of Pooh books, that’s a special delight.

There are WBD events all over the U.K. with authors, storytellers, children dressing up as their favorite book characters.

The highlight of my week will be on World Book Day, which is Thursday. I’ll be speaking at the Wimbledon Bookfest Young Writer’s competition and appearing with the Duchess of Cornwall (Prince Charles’ wife for those of you in the U.S.).

My thanks to all the wonderful people at Faber who are bringing me over and making this happen, especially Laura Smythe. Here’s my schedule for the week:

Monday 28 February

St. Luke’s C of E Primary School, London

William Patten Primary School, London

Tuesday 1 March

Beehive Lane Community Primary School, Chelmsford

Melbourne Park Primary School, Chelmsford

Tea and interview, Write Away

4 PM Public book signing, Just Imagine bookstore, Chelmsford

Wednesday 2 March

Calverton Primary School, London

Marner Primary School, London

Thursday, 3 March

Wimbledon Chase Primary School – Wimbledon Bookfest Young Writers’ competition with the Duchess of Cornwall

Waterstone’s Piccadilly

Friday 4 March

Corpus Christi School

Lunch with Faber & Faber children’s team

So many exciting U.K. developments for Humphrey happening all at once.

  Yesterday, on Chinese New Year, SCHOOL ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY was released. This is the seventh ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY book.  It will be released in the U.S. this summer under the title SCHOOL DAYS ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY. I just finished the first draft of book 8 – eeek!

I’ll be heading to London on February 25th, arriving on the 26th for World Book Day events February 28-March 4. I don’t have my schedule yet but will share it as soon as I can.

If you don’t live in the U.K. and don’t know what WBD is, check it out. Every child in the U.K. gets a token for a free book. This year, in the younger reader category, we’re rolling out the new HUMPHREY’S TINY TALES series of illustrated Humphrey books for younger readers – which is paired in a flip book with Winnie the Pooh. (Since I’ve written 90 Winnie the Pooh TV episodes and three series of Pooh books, this is a pretty amazing coincidence.)

They will be putting up videos the end of the month – usually they have the author read from the book but since I’m here and they’re there they had to go with an actor – thank goodness! They got Ramona Marquez, the sensational young actress from the U.K. hit sitcom, OUTNUMBERED, who won the BAFTA for most outstanding new performer and the show also won the best cast award for comedy. Ramona and the entire cast are amazing for their improvisation. She is also Princess Margaret in The King’s Speech, one of my favorite films of all time. And on the WBD home page, you can see Ramona – holding my book! http://www.worldbookday.com/ I encourage you to check out OUTNUMBERED clips on YouTube – there are many of them there – and check out any clip that references “Karen.” I predict you’ll be amazed.

 On March 3 (WORLD BOOK DAY), my U.K. publisher, Faber & Faber, also releases the second in the Tiny Tales series: MY PET SHOW PANIC. I just got my sample copies today with fabulous illustrations by Penny Dann. The third book, MY SUMMER FAIR SURPRISE,comes out in June.

You can find out more about all of these developments on  Faber’s newly designed Humphrey website: www.funwithhumphrey.com. There’s even a new Humphrey game – and you can still play the previous game as well. The pet pictures are fabulous!

I am so looking forward to seeing all my U.K. friends – young and old – in March. Cheers!

I’m back to blogging about children’s books but I can’t quite let go of Scotland yet … so I found a Caldecott Honor Book from 1938 with a Scottish theme from those wonderful guys who brought you Ferdinand, Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson. I do remember checking this out from the library when I was a child. Here’s a quote from a New York Times review: “The pictures of the Lowland farms and the craggy Highlands of Scotland have sufficient beauty to make anyone who comes from that lovely country homesick for its hills and heather. ”

Wee Gillis has it all: the Highlands, the Lowlands, kilts and bagpipes. You do see the occasional man in a kilt on the street in Scotland and certainly for formal events. I love all the accessories that go with it … and guys, you do get to wear a man-bag (a sporran) with your kilt. I saw plenty of kilts and heard plenty of bagpipes on our recent trip especially at the extravagant military tattoo at Edinburgh Castle (75th anniversary).

I took a lot more video than photos (and of course I lost the light) so my stills aren’t very good. I loved singing Auld Lang Syne and God Save the Queen with the crowd … the massed Highland dancers … and the bands from other countries – the dramatic Jordanians, some on horseback … the crowd-pleasing antics of the New Zealanders… the Citadel band from the U.S…. the Polish band with alpen horns (Ricola, anyone?). And the fireworks over Edinburgh Castle.

The dramatic beauty of the heather on the Rannoch moors, taken from the train.

I’m going to take a detour away from blogging about my favorite children’s books – and I apologize for my absence!

I was invited to speak at the Edinburgh BookFest, which is part of the famed Edinburgh Festival. Who could pass that up? So my husband and I spent 2 1/2 weeks in Scotland. The BookFest was AMAZING and I’m grateful to my enthusiastic Scottish fans who showed up for my events.  Among the authors who were there the two days I was there were: Antonia Fraser, Frederick Forsythe, Joyce Carol Oates and a very charming Alexander McCall Smith. Oh, and Humphrey, too.

Then Frank and I went on a 10 day trip through the Scottish Highlands by rail (okay taxis and a ferry,too). It was beyond perfection, especially since the weather and the famed midges (little biting insects like gnats) behaved perfectly. Sunshine every day except the first and last (an unprecedented run of sun) and no midges. What can I say? The scenery was unparalleled. The hospitality at each stop was the warmest. The beauty – indescribable.

Briefly, we traveled from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Glasgow to Spean Bridge, where we stayed at Old Pines, a lovely spot with a great view of Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in UK – not that high but beautiful). We took a very long ramble followed by one of the best meals of my life in their all-organic restaurant. The next morning, after a “ham and haddie” breakfast, we went to Fort William where we boarded the famed Jacobite Steam Train, still in operation.

This is the train used in the Harry Potter films. It was quite an event, as crowds gathered to see the train and take photos. Before the trip, the crew was so friendly – inviting us to come in and watch them shovel coal into the fire. They very showily – and loudly – blew off steam. We were in first class, which meant we had a table with brocade upholstered chairs and a little lamp, and were served tea in china cups and scones. All along the route, people were lined up to take photos of the train and wave. Lovely memory: a young mother and her toddler in arms, standing in the doorway of their house, waving. It’s another world.

An amazing landscape – green grass, tons of sheep and the Rannoch moors – forbidding, desolate, beautiful. We ended up at Mallaich, a charming little port city, where we had lunch and boarded the ferry for the Isle of Skye. A little more about Scotland and then I’ll be back with children’s books.

Just saying Isle of Skye makes me relax!

 I should take this excellent advice from England!

March madness: I’m not talking about basketball … I’m talking about living life like a hamster spinning on a hamster wheel!

What have I been doing lately?

1) answering fan mail
2) writing and rewriting Humphrey book 7
3)answering fan mail
4) writing and rewriting the first of the younger Humphrey books, aimed at kids 5-7
5)answering fan mail
6)negotiating with agents and lawyers on two potential TV series (one Humphrey, one not)
7)dealing with ridiculous time-devouring tech problems with my Blackberry (finally healed) and printer (finally healed)
8)neglecting everything else, like fun, friends and family

I’m HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY that Humphrey makes so many people HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY. But I still haven’t found that balance.

I miss my travels to schools throughout the country, but I traveled so much over the past few years that I’m only now getting used to the fact that it’s Sunday and I don’t have to catch a plane! I recently drove a friend to Burbank airport on a Sunday afternoon and I was amazed to think that I wasn’t the one getting on a plane. However, I will be traveling to the UK in August/September and next March and that makes me unsqueakably happy.

Okay, so I have nothing to complain about. I need to mind my head!