Child Lit Folks Go to Seven Stories!

Last week, several of the Child Lit MAs and PhDs hopped the train to Newcastle Upon Tyne to visit Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children's Books. Parked outside, you may recall from the last time I visited Seven Stories with author Susan Gates and her hubbie, is the pea green boat from The Owl and the Pussycat - Sea Song Sang (thanks to Mengying for reminding me of the name). We went down to listen to quick lectures by students of the children's lit program at the University of Newcastle. Aishwarya Subramanian talked about The Matter of Britain: Island Imaginings and Post-imperialism in British Children's Fantasy, which was fascinating. Yiyan Jacqueline Ho talked about Hong Kong in Children's and Young Adult literature in British People's Eyes. And Jamie ___? discussed Science Fiction. They were all wonderful. I loved hearing perspectives from a different program! And, of course, we wandered the seven stories, which are like a never-ending candy store for folks like us! I mean, look at all these picture books - this is just one room's worth! The store was a temptation most of us could not avoid.We shared our purchases on the train all the way back. What picture book geeks we are - how FUN!!!