Writers Speak Out on This Year’s Caldecott and Newbery Medal Winners

Commentary Thrives Regarding ALA Youth Media Award Winners

In “Surprise! The Newbery Goes to a Popular Book,” writers Debra Lau Whelan and Rick Margolis delight in this year’s Newbery Medal winner. Whelan and Margolis state in School Library Journal, “The Newbery Medal ended its slump. The committee that awards the nation’s top prize for children’s literature chose Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, marking the first time in four years that the award went to a book that’s critically acclaimed by both librarians and kids.”

The complete article is available online, including comments from Neil Gaiman and reactions to the other winners, at School Library Journal.

Read what children's literature expert Maria Salvadore has to say about the Caldecott Medal and this year’s winner (Beth Krommes for her illustrations in The House in the Night) on her Reading Rockets blog about reading, Page by Page.

In addition to sharing her perspectives on reading and children’s literature on her Reading Rockets blog, Maria is also a prized contributor to the ourwhitehouse.org website, which supplements the NCBLA’s award-winning anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. Our White House was recognized as an ALA Notable Children's Book for All Ages this week.

In her annotated bibliography on ourwhitehouse.org titled “Presidents, the President’s House, and More: A Select List of Books (and a Few Web Sources) for Children and Young Adults,” Maria has compiled an extensive list of books and online resources that will not only enlighten, but also delight readers young and old as they seek to learn more about American history and the presidency.

Frankie and Benny's

So, off we went to Frankie & Benny’s new outlet in Cambridge Retail Park, Aylesbury. Now at this stage I need to explain myself, as after a visit to Frankie & Benny’s in some god forsaken retail park outside Coventry a couple of years ago I made a vow to myself of NEVER AGAIN!! And at the Sage’s great age he knows that NEVER is a very BIG word indeed. So, why was I off to sup at the forbidden trough? Well the Sagette had been nominated by her sister as a warm wonderful human being, or some such nonsense, and next thing you know there is a DJ from MIX 96 Radio (“MIX 96, The Voice of the Vale!”) at the door with a Frankie & Benny’s £40 plus a bottle of Champagne voucher with the Sagette’s gasping unbelieving tones broadcast live to the awe inspired denizens of Aylesbury Vale. Very nice too, and thank you to MIX 96 which is an excellent local radio station.







So rather than be a fully paid up member of the Grumpies I found myself in the company of the Sagette and her delectable sister going to have “Italian” food whilst being watched over by the pictures of dead Italians which line the walls of F & B. All this points to an American influence for if you look into the freezer displays at American supermarkets huge trays of frozen Lasagne with black and white pictures of at least one dead Italian on the front will alarmingly stare back at you. But as we approach this vision of Italy dreamt up by a marketing manager from Croydon the nagging thought occurred to me “Would FREE be too expensive a price at Frankie and Benny’s?”



This new branch of Frankie & Benny's New York Italian Restaurant and Bar is one in a chain of over 100 restaurants throughout the UK, run by the Restaurant Group PLC. The chain is styled as a fun 1950's American restaurant; it has a number of booths with red seats, old black and white photography and a bottle-lined bar in each restaurant. The food is marketed as authentic American / Italian cuisine. A story of the origins of the chain is given on its website: This outlines a 10 year old Sicilian boy Frankie Giuliani landing at Ellis Island, New York in 1924. They opened a restaurant and it prospered due to Mamma's home-style cooking. Frankie became lifetime friends with Benny and in 1953 Poppa retired. Frankie and Benny took over the business and the rest, as they say, is history. Well that’s just what it is; a made up story or the “Brand Story” as it is entitled on their website and it is as authentic as some of the stories I’ve read on made up Irish Whiskey, cider or Liquor brands, that is not true at all.







In fact, the first branch in Leicester was opened in 1995. There are also an additional three branches in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.



However, according to a report in the Daily Mirror on 5th June 2008 the benevolent, paternalistic Italian image is bogus in more ways than one;



“Staff at the Restaurant Group, owner of Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito, Garfunkel's and Blubeckers, are being ordered to encourage credit card rather than cash tips - or face the sack. Why? Because the group pays below the £5.52 adult minimum wage and uses credit card tips to top up salaries. It's legal thanks to a loophole in the minimum wage rules. But it's not moral.



Restaurant Group staff keep cash tips, but a notice recently circulated to them makes clear it would prefer customers to leave credit card tips. "It is essential that the customer is offered the opportunity to leave gratuity via chip-and-pin," says the notice. "Not offering this facility means you could be encouraging the customer to leave a cash tip." The notice goes on to state this could "contravene" company policy and "is likely to lead to disciplinary action and possible dismissal". The Restaurant Group made pre-tax profits of £43.5million last year with boss Andrew Page trousering more than a million.” The fact that staff don't actually get the tips left is a lose / lose for customers - why make an effort if all you are going to get is the minimum wage anyway?







The menu sounds great. Some classic Italian dishes and some classic New York dishes and then some funky twists added in here and there. You've got your typical pasta dishes, lasagne, Bolognese, Alfredo and there are the typical burgers and chips and Pizza / Calzones. There is also a brunch and a lunch menu for smaller meals. Prices aren't fast food cheap but they're not overly expensive at first glance either. Most main meals cost around £8.95 or £5.95 off a lunch menu. However if a family is going in for a 3 course meal plus drinks then you could end up spending a small fortune.



Some thought has gone into the setting although it is all very derivative - An old style American diner feel but with a self conscious “lay it on with a trowel” Italian overlay. The toilets are usually papered with old New York papers and they talk to you in Italian in them (apparently quite confusing if you've had too much to drink). You can see where the chefs are cooking as its an open style kitchen, as a consequence you do get a lot of the kitchen noise but the 50's music will drown this out. Lighting is always quite dim, even during the day as the furnishings are rather dark.







There is a good selection of alcoholic beverages, a good cocktail menu and a sophisticated looking bar. However a word of caution – many of the Cocktails use “pre-mix” concoctions and the Strawberry Daiquiri uses tinned strawberries so they taste very plastic, also the bar staff are not really up to speed or well trained. Drinks are uniformly expensive, particularly given the lack of quality in the contents of the cocktails. They do a children’s pack, with crayons and a colouring book for parents that would like a quiet chat that is free for every child. Some idea of the target C and D demographics of the customers they are aiming at can be gained from this advert from a local (horror of horrors!) stretch limo company.



“A Frankie & Benny's VIP Limo Party starts from £225 plus VAT (party of eight). Price includes a chauffeured limo transfer from school or home to the restaurant with a formal introduction to the restaurant manager. A two-course party tea (including drinks) is served at your decorated VIP party table. Finally, you enjoy the limo journey home again. Just watch the proud faces on mums and dads as their VIP's arrive home by limo.” Proud Chav faces indeed as they hand over £225 plus VAT to “entertain” the spoilt monsters!





Chav VIP's?



When we arrived the Sagette announced to the waiter that we had booked (to let them know we were the special MIX 96 people!) but that didn’t register with the Polish waiter who showed us to an unsuitable table considering one of the party was walking with crutches after an operation. Where he then showed us to was equally unsuitable as it was a tight booth but we sat down rather than bring him over again. We were left with menus and it took 15 minutes for him to come back to take our order and a further 15 minutes for the champagne to be served and 35 minutes for the starter to arrive. This left plenty of time to look at the workings of the 2 chef kitchen whose inhabitants seem to have signed up here because they could express their creative flair better than at Little Chef!



They seemed to spend most of their time arguing with the waiters who obviously had meals going out incomplete, in the wrong order or too slowly. In fact kitchen is a bit of a misnomer for while steaks, burgers, fish etc; are cooked on a charcoal grill the food offer obviously comes in pre-prepared and is mostly heated in ovens or kept in bains Marie. So for instance, if you didn’t want mushrooms with your pasta sauce this wasn’t possible as “that’s the way it comes.” So we played safe and ordered the “Sharing Platter” and then respectively a Rack of Ribs, a burger and “herby potatoes” and a Quarter Chicken on Mash.





The sharing platter



The sharing platter is described on the menu (for £11.95) as “a giant feast of our house favourites; chicken strips, BBQ chicken wings, fully loaded potato skins, spicy onion rings, bread sticks and garlic ciabatta. Served with a selection of delicious dips and crunchy celery sticks. Four of everything, ideal for families!” Well it is as described but everything on it could have been bought in the freezer section of Tesco’s except for the 4 grissini and the small celery sticks. It comes with 4 small cardboard tubs of sauces. These tubs are popular because my rack of ribs came with coleslaw in one of these small tubs. It is served with fries and half a corn cob but didn’t come with the butter for the corn and the extra barbeque sauce shown on the menu. For £12.95 I kept imagining the “chef” taking the plastic vacuum packing off it shortly beforehand, it certainly didn’t have the fresh taste you get in America. The herby fries with the somewhat overdone burger covered most of the plate and once again were pure Tesco freezer cabinet. The chicken was dry with that strange colour you get when they paint it with food colour to give that corn fed / nicely roasted look but of course this hadn’t been anywhere near a rotisserie. Cucina Italiano it wasn’t and indeed at £10.95 the chicken worked out at twice what a similar (but tastier) dish would cost in Nando’s.







It took some time for the pleasant but overworked and linguistically challenged Polish waiter to come back to clear, drop down the desert menu and then take our order. I asked for an espresso macchiato (spotted with milk) and was amused when he said that couldn’t be done as all around on a frieze on the walls there are key Italian foodie words and the word “Macchiato” was behind his head. The manager worked out how to do it on the machine which looks like a proper espresso machine but is in fact an automatic machine with pre-sets. The coffee was just OK as they normally taste out of a machine. One of the party ordered (for old time’s sake) a Knickerbocker Glory which was standard enough except it was awkward to eat as the chunks of fruit were too large. The best part of the meal was the perfectly acceptable bottle of Mercier champagne which was very drinkable at £20 a bottle, but was just put on the table without an ice bucket.



For the shared starter, 3 mains, one desert and coffee and the champagne the bill came to £72 against which we offset £60.00 on our voucher. Now it may seem ill tempered to complain about a free meal but the truth is the indifferent service, delays and the fact that the food was supermarket freezer quality and the ambience of Frankie & Benny's very plastic "Little Italy" impersonation did not make for a sense of occasion or an enjoyable evening and if I had paid the full price I would have resented it. But there is more for the next day all three of us were very “gastrically challenged!” So when it comes to Frankie & Benny's there are times when FREE is still too expensive and when NEVER is not too big a word. Ciao and Arrivederci Frankie and Benny for your “Brand Story” is going to continue without me!



If you are in Aylesbury Town and want to check out honest, simple Italian fare then check out Buon' Amici. It is full of noisy live Italians who strangely don’t feel the need to add lustre to their offer by putting pictures of dead Italians on the walls. It also serves the best coffee - La Passione Del Caffe as they say themselves!



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/buon-amici.html





The Antidote

Frankie and Benny's

So, off we went to Frankie & Benny’s new outlet in Cambridge Retail Park, Aylesbury. Now at this stage I need to explain myself, as after a visit to Frankie & Benny’s in some god forsaken retail park outside Coventry a couple of years ago I made a vow to myself of NEVER AGAIN!! And at the Sage’s great age he knows that NEVER is a very BIG word indeed. So, why was I off to sup at the forbidden trough? Well the Sagette had been nominated by her sister as a warm wonderful human being, or some such nonsense, and next thing you know there is a DJ from MIX 96 Radio (“MIX 96, The Voice of the Vale!”) at the door with a Frankie & Benny’s £40 plus a bottle of Champagne voucher with the Sagette’s gasping unbelieving tones broadcast live to the awe inspired denizens of Aylesbury Vale. Very nice too, and thank you to MIX 96 which is an excellent local radio station.







So rather than be a fully paid up member of the Grumpies I found myself in the company of the Sagette and her delectable sister going to have “Italian” food whilst being watched over by the pictures of dead Italians which line the walls of F & B. All this points to an American influence for if you look into the freezer displays at American supermarkets huge trays of frozen Lasagne with black and white pictures of at least one dead Italian on the front will alarmingly stare back at you. But as we approach this vision of Italy dreamt up by a marketing manager from Croydon the nagging thought occurred to me “Would FREE be too expensive a price at Frankie and Benny’s?”



This new branch of Frankie & Benny's New York Italian Restaurant and Bar is one in a chain of over 100 restaurants throughout the UK, run by the Restaurant Group PLC. The chain is styled as a fun 1950's American restaurant; it has a number of booths with red seats, old black and white photography and a bottle-lined bar in each restaurant. The food is marketed as authentic American / Italian cuisine. A story of the origins of the chain is given on its website: This outlines a 10 year old Sicilian boy Frankie Giuliani landing at Ellis Island, New York in 1924. They opened a restaurant and it prospered due to Mamma's home-style cooking. Frankie became lifetime friends with Benny and in 1953 Poppa retired. Frankie and Benny took over the business and the rest, as they say, is history. Well that’s just what it is; a made up story or the “Brand Story” as it is entitled on their website and it is as authentic as some of the stories I’ve read on made up Irish Whiskey, cider or Liquor brands, that is not true at all.







In fact, the first branch in Leicester was opened in 1995. There are also an additional three branches in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.



However, according to a report in the Daily Mirror on 5th June 2008 the benevolent, paternalistic Italian image is bogus in more ways than one;



“Staff at the Restaurant Group, owner of Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito, Garfunkel's and Blubeckers, are being ordered to encourage credit card rather than cash tips - or face the sack. Why? Because the group pays below the £5.52 adult minimum wage and uses credit card tips to top up salaries. It's legal thanks to a loophole in the minimum wage rules. But it's not moral.



Restaurant Group staff keep cash tips, but a notice recently circulated to them makes clear it would prefer customers to leave credit card tips. "It is essential that the customer is offered the opportunity to leave gratuity via chip-and-pin," says the notice. "Not offering this facility means you could be encouraging the customer to leave a cash tip." The notice goes on to state this could "contravene" company policy and "is likely to lead to disciplinary action and possible dismissal". The Restaurant Group made pre-tax profits of £43.5million last year with boss Andrew Page trousering more than a million.” The fact that staff don't actually get the tips left is a lose / lose for customers - why make an effort if all you are going to get is the minimum wage anyway?







The menu sounds great. Some classic Italian dishes and some classic New York dishes and then some funky twists added in here and there. You've got your typical pasta dishes, lasagne, Bolognese, Alfredo and there are the typical burgers and chips and Pizza / Calzones. There is also a brunch and a lunch menu for smaller meals. Prices aren't fast food cheap but they're not overly expensive at first glance either. Most main meals cost around £8.95 or £5.95 off a lunch menu. However if a family is going in for a 3 course meal plus drinks then you could end up spending a small fortune.



Some thought has gone into the setting although it is all very derivative - An old style American diner feel but with a self conscious “lay it on with a trowel” Italian overlay. The toilets are usually papered with old New York papers and they talk to you in Italian in them (apparently quite confusing if you've had too much to drink). You can see where the chefs are cooking as its an open style kitchen, as a consequence you do get a lot of the kitchen noise but the 50's music will drown this out. Lighting is always quite dim, even during the day as the furnishings are rather dark.







There is a good selection of alcoholic beverages, a good cocktail menu and a sophisticated looking bar. However a word of caution – many of the Cocktails use “pre-mix” concoctions and the Strawberry Daiquiri uses tinned strawberries so they taste very plastic, also the bar staff are not really up to speed or well trained. Drinks are uniformly expensive, particularly given the lack of quality in the contents of the cocktails. They do a children’s pack, with crayons and a colouring book for parents that would like a quiet chat that is free for every child. Some idea of the target C and D demographics of the customers they are aiming at can be gained from this advert from a local (horror of horrors!) stretch limo company.



“A Frankie & Benny's VIP Limo Party starts from £225 plus VAT (party of eight). Price includes a chauffeured limo transfer from school or home to the restaurant with a formal introduction to the restaurant manager. A two-course party tea (including drinks) is served at your decorated VIP party table. Finally, you enjoy the limo journey home again. Just watch the proud faces on mums and dads as their VIP's arrive home by limo.” Proud Chav faces indeed as they hand over £225 plus VAT to “entertain” the spoilt monsters!





Chav VIP's?



When we arrived the Sagette announced to the waiter that we had booked (to let them know we were the special MIX 96 people!) but that didn’t register with the Polish waiter who showed us to an unsuitable table considering one of the party was walking with crutches after an operation. Where he then showed us to was equally unsuitable as it was a tight booth but we sat down rather than bring him over again. We were left with menus and it took 15 minutes for him to come back to take our order and a further 15 minutes for the champagne to be served and 35 minutes for the starter to arrive. This left plenty of time to look at the workings of the 2 chef kitchen whose inhabitants seem to have signed up here because they could express their creative flair better than at Little Chef!



They seemed to spend most of their time arguing with the waiters who obviously had meals going out incomplete, in the wrong order or too slowly. In fact kitchen is a bit of a misnomer for while steaks, burgers, fish etc; are cooked on a charcoal grill the food offer obviously comes in pre-prepared and is mostly heated in ovens or kept in bains Marie. So for instance, if you didn’t want mushrooms with your pasta sauce this wasn’t possible as “that’s the way it comes.” So we played safe and ordered the “Sharing Platter” and then respectively a Rack of Ribs, a burger and “herby potatoes” and a Quarter Chicken on Mash.





The sharing platter



The sharing platter is described on the menu (for £11.95) as “a giant feast of our house favourites; chicken strips, BBQ chicken wings, fully loaded potato skins, spicy onion rings, bread sticks and garlic ciabatta. Served with a selection of delicious dips and crunchy celery sticks. Four of everything, ideal for families!” Well it is as described but everything on it could have been bought in the freezer section of Tesco’s except for the 4 grissini and the small celery sticks. It comes with 4 small cardboard tubs of sauces. These tubs are popular because my rack of ribs came with coleslaw in one of these small tubs. It is served with fries and half a corn cob but didn’t come with the butter for the corn and the extra barbeque sauce shown on the menu. For £12.95 I kept imagining the “chef” taking the plastic vacuum packing off it shortly beforehand, it certainly didn’t have the fresh taste you get in America. The herby fries with the somewhat overdone burger covered most of the plate and once again were pure Tesco freezer cabinet. The chicken was dry with that strange colour you get when they paint it with food colour to give that corn fed / nicely roasted look but of course this hadn’t been anywhere near a rotisserie. Cucina Italiano it wasn’t and indeed at £10.95 the chicken worked out at twice what a similar (but tastier) dish would cost in Nando’s.







It took some time for the pleasant but overworked and linguistically challenged Polish waiter to come back to clear, drop down the desert menu and then take our order. I asked for an espresso macchiato (spotted with milk) and was amused when he said that couldn’t be done as all around on a frieze on the walls there are key Italian foodie words and the word “Macchiato” was behind his head. The manager worked out how to do it on the machine which looks like a proper espresso machine but is in fact an automatic machine with pre-sets. The coffee was just OK as they normally taste out of a machine. One of the party ordered (for old time’s sake) a Knickerbocker Glory which was standard enough except it was awkward to eat as the chunks of fruit were too large. The best part of the meal was the perfectly acceptable bottle of Mercier champagne which was very drinkable at £20 a bottle, but was just put on the table without an ice bucket.



For the shared starter, 3 mains, one desert and coffee and the champagne the bill came to £72 against which we offset £60.00 on our voucher. Now it may seem ill tempered to complain about a free meal but the truth is the indifferent service, delays and the fact that the food was supermarket freezer quality and the ambience of Frankie & Benny's very plastic "Little Italy" impersonation did not make for a sense of occasion or an enjoyable evening and if I had paid the full price I would have resented it. But there is more for the next day all three of us were very “gastrically challenged!” So when it comes to Frankie & Benny's there are times when FREE is still too expensive and when NEVER is not too big a word. Ciao and Arrivederci Frankie and Benny for your “Brand Story” is going to continue without me!



If you are in Aylesbury Town and want to check out honest, simple Italian fare then check out Buon' Amici. It is full of noisy live Italians who strangely don’t feel the need to add lustre to their offer by putting pictures of dead Italians on the walls. It also serves the best coffee - La Passione Del Caffe as they say themselves!



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/buon-amici.html





The Antidote

American Library Association Announces 2009 Notable Children's Books

Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out Named an ALA Notable Children’s Book!



The ALA has announced its list of 2009 Notable Children’s Books! Only books that the selection committee determine to be “worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, and outstanding” are designated as an ALA Notable Children’s Book. The ALA website explains its Notable criteria regarding children's books: “Notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children's interests in exemplary ways.”



The NCBLA is thrilled that this year’s list of “Notable Children’s Books for All Ages” includes Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. Created by over 100 award-winning writers and illustrators as an exciting means to promote both literacy and historical literacy, Our White House is an expansive anthology of original poetry, historical fiction, nonfiction, and primary source materials about American history and thematically unified by the White House.



In addition to recognizing Our White House as a Notable Book for children of all ages, the ALA also honored three additional books in the same category: Wild Tracks: A guide to Nature’s Footprints by Jim Arnosky, published by Sterling; Frogs by Nic Bishop, published by Scholastic; and A is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet, written and illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson, published by Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman.



Review the complete list of 2009 Notable Children’s Books at the ala.org website.



Read and Learn More at OURWHITEHOUSE.ORG



To learn more about Our White House, take a look at its coordinating educational website, ourwhitehouse.org, which provides additional stories and essays, as well as pertinent activities and discussion questions related to book topics that adults can implement at home or in the classroom. On ourwhitehouse.org you can read Gregory Maguire’s expanded poetic metaphor "Looking In, Looking Out;" Nikki Grimes’ poignant poem, "Staking Claim," about a blind person’s visit to the White House; and Katherine Paterson’s profile of President Calvin Coolidge, "The Eloquence of ‘Silent Cal.’"



Enter the Letters from the White House Writing Contest!



Also on ourwhitehouse.org you can find all you need to know about participating in the national creative writing contest, Letters from the White House. Using Our White House and ourwhitehouse.org as inspirational passports into American history, young people enter the contest by writing letters and journal entries that explore the history of America as they imagine and write about the experience of living or working in the White House.

Letters from the White House is co-sponsored by the NCBLA, Reading Rockets, and AdLit.org. All entries are due by February 16, 2009, Presidents Day! Learn more about the contest on the ourwhitehouse.org website.

American Library Association Announces Literary Award Winners

ALA Announces 2009 Youth Media Awards

Yesterday the American Library Association announced the winners of its prestigious series of awards that honor books, videos, and audiobooks published for children and young adults in the previous year.

The John Newbery Medal, which recognizes the most distinguished contribution to children's literature, was awarded to Neil Gaiman, author of The Graveyard Book, illustrated by Dave McKean and published by HarperCollins Children's Books.

The ALA also named four Newbery Honor Books: The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by David Small, and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers; The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom, by Margarita Engle and published by Henry Holt and Company LLC; Savvy, by Ingrid Law and published by Dial Books for Young Readers; After Tupac & D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson and published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal, which honors the most distinguished American picture book for children, was awarded to Beth Krommes, illustrator of The House in the Night, written by Susan Marie Swanson and published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Three Caldecott Honor Books were named: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, written and illustrated by Marla Frazee and published by Harcourt, Inc.; How I Learned Geography, written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz and published by Farrar Straus Giroux; A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

The Michael L. Printz Award, which recognizes excellence in literature written for young adults, was awarded to Melina Marchetta, author of Jellicoe Road, published by HarperTeen.

Four Printz Honor Books were named: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson, published by Candlewick Press; The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart, published by Hyperion Books for Children; Nation, by Terry Pratchett, published by HarperCollins Children's Books; and Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan, published by Alfred A. Knopf.

In addition to the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, and Printz Awards, the ALA also announced the winners of the following awards: Alex Awards, Andrew Carnegie Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Awards, Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award, May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, Mildred L. Batchelder Award, Odyssey Award, Pura Belpré Awards, Schneider Family Book Award, Theodore Seuss Geisel Award, and William C. Morris Award.

View a complete list of the 2009 youth media award winners on the ALA's website: ala.org .

BURN'S NIGHT TALE - A NEW TWIST

Robert Burns

On 25 January 1759 poet Robert Burns was born so this year the 250th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated.

Scotland's National Bard entered the world in a clay biggan at Alloway. Although born into a poor family, Burns's father enrolled him at a local school and the poet's love of language was born. John Murdoch taught Burns and his brother Gilbert in a school founded by their father and neighbours. Murdoch introduced Burns to the works of Alexander Pope, schooling him in English, French and Latin. In 1774, Burns wrote his first song, ‘Handsome Nell’, for Nellie Kilpatrick.

Burns wrote in a light “Scots” dialect which is not Gaelic but an English dialect spoken in the Scottish Borders and Lowlands. The Scots language (the Scots leid) refers to Anglic varieties derived from early northern Middle English spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Scotland it is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Islands. Scots is also spoken in parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans.

In honour of his Celtic compatriots the Sage publishes this New Twist for Burns Night. The Burns Supper is an institution of Scottish life: a night to celebrate the life and works of the national Bard. Suppers can range from an informal gathering of friends to a huge, formal dinner full of pomp and circumstance. The highlight of the entertainment on Burns Night is the “Address To a Haggis” which is quoted below.

Guests should normally stand to welcome the star attraction, The Haggis, which should be delivered on a silver platter by a procession comprising the chef, the piper and the person who will address the Haggis. A whisky-bearer should also arrive to ensure the toasts are well lubricated. During the procession, guests clap in time to the music until the Haggis reaches its destination at the table. The music stops and everyone is seated in anticipation of the address To a Haggis.


Piping in The Haggis

So for the New Twist;

Boris Johnson is visiting an Edinburgh hospital. He enters a ward full of
patients with no obvious sign of injury and greets one.

The patient replies:

"Fair fa your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the pudding race,
Aboon them o' you take your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm,
As langs my airm."

Boris is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient.

The patient responds:

" Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit."

Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the Mayor moves on to the next patient, who immediately begins to chant:

"We sleekit, cowerin, timorous beastie,
Thou needna start awa sae hastie,
Wi bickerin brattle."

Now seriously troubled, Boris turns to the accompanying doctor and asks

"What kind of facility is this? A mental ward?"

"Och, nooooo……" replies the doctor.

"This is the serious Burns unit."



Burns Cottage Alloway

BURN'S NIGHT TALE - A NEW TWIST

Robert Burns

On 25 January 1759 poet Robert Burns was born so this year the 250th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated.

Scotland's National Bard entered the world in a clay biggan at Alloway. Although born into a poor family, Burns's father enrolled him at a local school and the poet's love of language was born. John Murdoch taught Burns and his brother Gilbert in a school founded by their father and neighbours. Murdoch introduced Burns to the works of Alexander Pope, schooling him in English, French and Latin. In 1774, Burns wrote his first song, ‘Handsome Nell’, for Nellie Kilpatrick.

Burns wrote in a light “Scots” dialect which is not Gaelic but an English dialect spoken in the Scottish Borders and Lowlands. The Scots language (the Scots leid) refers to Anglic varieties derived from early northern Middle English spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Scotland it is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Islands. Scots is also spoken in parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans.

In honour of his Celtic compatriots the Sage publishes this New Twist for Burns Night. The Burns Supper is an institution of Scottish life: a night to celebrate the life and works of the national Bard. Suppers can range from an informal gathering of friends to a huge, formal dinner full of pomp and circumstance. The highlight of the entertainment on Burns Night is the “Address To a Haggis” which is quoted below.

Guests should normally stand to welcome the star attraction, The Haggis, which should be delivered on a silver platter by a procession comprising the chef, the piper and the person who will address the Haggis. A whisky-bearer should also arrive to ensure the toasts are well lubricated. During the procession, guests clap in time to the music until the Haggis reaches its destination at the table. The music stops and everyone is seated in anticipation of the address To a Haggis.


Piping in The Haggis

So for the New Twist;

Boris Johnson is visiting an Edinburgh hospital. He enters a ward full of
patients with no obvious sign of injury and greets one.

The patient replies:

"Fair fa your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the pudding race,
Aboon them o' you take your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm,
As langs my airm."

Boris is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient.

The patient responds:

" Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit."

Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the Mayor moves on to the next patient, who immediately begins to chant:

"We sleekit, cowerin, timorous beastie,
Thou needna start awa sae hastie,
Wi bickerin brattle."

Now seriously troubled, Boris turns to the accompanying doctor and asks

"What kind of facility is this? A mental ward?"

"Och, nooooo……" replies the doctor.

"This is the serious Burns unit."



Burns Cottage Alloway

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

There may be more wonderful actresses than Audrey Tautou but the Sage humbly submits that there is none more wondrous! However the follow up to the charming Oscar-nominated hit “Amèlie” was always going to be subject to much scrutiny. Wisely, she's decided to sidestep the fairytale image of that film, instead going for a much darker role in Laetitia Colombani's “He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not”.

In He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not the adorable Audrey Tautou from Amèlie plays the central role in a deceptive story of a rather unusual romance. He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not (“A la folie...pas du tout” in the original French) offers a surprisingly dramatic romance with a twist which keeps the audience guessing until the end.

It would spoil the film's clever design to reveal what happens halfway through, so let's just say that Tautou is cast as a winsome girl in the sunny town of Bordeaux whose relationship with a married doctor has more layers than first it seems. Samuel LeBihan, from Brotherhood of the Wolf, plays the doctor, but it's the casting of cutie-pie Tautou that sets up the movie's gradually sinister undertow. He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not, in the true form of French films, is not quite what it seems at first glance. Angélique, played by bright-eyed actress Audrey Tautou is a young woman working in a café to support her studies as an art student. Although having just been selected for a generous scholarship, Angélique’s heart is elsewhere, focused upon her love affair with cardiologist Loïc Le Garrec (Samuel Le Bihan). Her love knows no limits and she sends thoughtful anonymous gifts to the doctor, who cannot guess who they are from, but who accepts them as appreciative gestures from patients whom he has cured.



We see her follow him furtively at a party; we see him smiling fondly over her gift of a single rose; we see all sort of besotted trysts. But then, a good way into the movie, everything is rewound and we see everything again from his point of view. It becomes clear that she is a stalker, an "erotomaniac" obsessed with a man who hardly knows she's alive. Audrey Tautou plays an art student who is deeply in love with this married man. She is attentive and caring, doing all she can to make this man happy. However his unwillingness to leave his wife begins to change Audrey as she becomes increasingly distressed and her character transforms beyond recognition and it is not until later on in the film that you discover the cause behind these changes. Audrey is thoroughly convincing and a truly remarkable actress, bringing you into the story straight away and not leaving you a shadow of a doubt that her words are true.

Director Laetitia Colombani's inventive structure plays a satisfyingly tricky game with the audience, and may have some viewers going back to the beginning to make sure they saw what they thought they saw. Just don't go in expecting Amèlie, Deuxième Partie and you should find this an ingenious little number. For those of us who thought Audrey Tautou's character in Amèlie was a bit creepy and psychotic, this film makes an interesting, if faintly challenging companion piece, directed by 26-year-old first-timer Laetitia Columbani. Tautou does her gamine act once again in a film that blends Amèlie with Fatal Attraction and a touch of The Sixth Sense.


Audrey Tautou

The film combines comedic moments with serious drama beautifully as the story twists and turns. You will feel yourself swept into this film due to the brilliant acting, beautiful directing and outstanding script. The film is thoroughly moving, making you laugh, cry as well as think. Not only was the story thought provoking but it was also a very enjoyable cinematic experience.

Angélique's world of soft focus romanticism is full of reds and warmth while Loïc lives and works in a colder, more blue-toned space. Tautou shines as Angélique, looking as fresh and as dewy as a freshly picked flower herself in the florist’s scenes but convincingly descending into madness as the film progresses.

First time writer and director Colombani doesn't quite manage to pull the whole thing off but there's enough in “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” to show promise for the future. An interesting experiment and almost a precocious masterpiece, I’m sure Hitchcock wasn’t directing anything as accomplished at the age of 26.

I recommend this film to everyone especially those who love beautifully created scenes, a great story and a film with real depth of emotion. People who feel they do not like "arty" films or subtitled films are missing out on the real challenging journey which this movie brings you on.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

There may be more wonderful actresses than Audrey Tautou but the Sage humbly submits that there is none more wondrous! However the follow up to the charming Oscar-nominated hit “Amèlie” was always going to be subject to much scrutiny. Wisely, she's decided to sidestep the fairytale image of that film, instead going for a much darker role in Laetitia Colombani's “He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not”.

In He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not the adorable Audrey Tautou from Amèlie plays the central role in a deceptive story of a rather unusual romance. He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not (“A la folie...pas du tout” in the original French) offers a surprisingly dramatic romance with a twist which keeps the audience guessing until the end.

It would spoil the film's clever design to reveal what happens halfway through, so let's just say that Tautou is cast as a winsome girl in the sunny town of Bordeaux whose relationship with a married doctor has more layers than first it seems. Samuel LeBihan, from Brotherhood of the Wolf, plays the doctor, but it's the casting of cutie-pie Tautou that sets up the movie's gradually sinister undertow. He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not, in the true form of French films, is not quite what it seems at first glance. Angélique, played by bright-eyed actress Audrey Tautou is a young woman working in a café to support her studies as an art student. Although having just been selected for a generous scholarship, Angélique’s heart is elsewhere, focused upon her love affair with cardiologist Loïc Le Garrec (Samuel Le Bihan). Her love knows no limits and she sends thoughtful anonymous gifts to the doctor, who cannot guess who they are from, but who accepts them as appreciative gestures from patients whom he has cured.



We see her follow him furtively at a party; we see him smiling fondly over her gift of a single rose; we see all sort of besotted trysts. But then, a good way into the movie, everything is rewound and we see everything again from his point of view. It becomes clear that she is a stalker, an "erotomaniac" obsessed with a man who hardly knows she's alive. Audrey Tautou plays an art student who is deeply in love with this married man. She is attentive and caring, doing all she can to make this man happy. However his unwillingness to leave his wife begins to change Audrey as she becomes increasingly distressed and her character transforms beyond recognition and it is not until later on in the film that you discover the cause behind these changes. Audrey is thoroughly convincing and a truly remarkable actress, bringing you into the story straight away and not leaving you a shadow of a doubt that her words are true.

Director Laetitia Colombani's inventive structure plays a satisfyingly tricky game with the audience, and may have some viewers going back to the beginning to make sure they saw what they thought they saw. Just don't go in expecting Amèlie, Deuxième Partie and you should find this an ingenious little number. For those of us who thought Audrey Tautou's character in Amèlie was a bit creepy and psychotic, this film makes an interesting, if faintly challenging companion piece, directed by 26-year-old first-timer Laetitia Columbani. Tautou does her gamine act once again in a film that blends Amèlie with Fatal Attraction and a touch of The Sixth Sense.


Audrey Tautou

The film combines comedic moments with serious drama beautifully as the story twists and turns. You will feel yourself swept into this film due to the brilliant acting, beautiful directing and outstanding script. The film is thoroughly moving, making you laugh, cry as well as think. Not only was the story thought provoking but it was also a very enjoyable cinematic experience.

Angélique's world of soft focus romanticism is full of reds and warmth while Loïc lives and works in a colder, more blue-toned space. Tautou shines as Angélique, looking as fresh and as dewy as a freshly picked flower herself in the florist’s scenes but convincingly descending into madness as the film progresses.

First time writer and director Colombani doesn't quite manage to pull the whole thing off but there's enough in “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” to show promise for the future. An interesting experiment and almost a precocious masterpiece, I’m sure Hitchcock wasn’t directing anything as accomplished at the age of 26.

I recommend this film to everyone especially those who love beautifully created scenes, a great story and a film with real depth of emotion. People who feel they do not like "arty" films or subtitled films are missing out on the real challenging journey which this movie brings you on.

Hard In The Paint (For Oscar Grant)

Tribute to Oscar Grant By Our Brother Ise Lyfe

Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out Honored by Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly Designates Our White House with Honorable Mention “Best Nonfiction Treatment of a Subject”

Each year Publishers Weekly awards its “Off the Cuff” awards (also known as “Cuffies”) to book retailers’ top picks in 25 various categories, ranging from “Favorite Picture Book” to “Book You Couldn’t Shut Up About.” Their recently announced list of 2008 winners includes Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out as the retailers’ Honorable Mention for “Best Nonfiction Treatment of a Subject.” The retailers' top choice for “Best Nonfiction Treatment of a Subject” was awarded to David Macaulay’s The Way We Work. Congratulations are due to all Our White House contributors, especially to Our White House cover illustrator David Macaulay!

View the entire distinguished list of “Cuffie” winners on the Publishers Weekly website at “The 2008 Cuffies.”

Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out overflows with fascinating essays, stories, letters, illustrations, comics, and more by over one hundred award-winning authors and illustrators. The anthology is supported by a companion educational website, ourwhitehouse.org, which expands the book content with additional stories and articles and also provides activities and discussion questions related to book topics. Students young and old may relish the behind-the-scenes look into David Macaulay’s creative genius by viewing images of his preliminary sketches for the Our White House cover in the online article “David Macaulay’s Preliminary Sketches: Creating the Our White House Book Cover Illustration.”

Also included on ourwhitehouse.org is an American history resource and civic education center, a guide to presidential field trip destinations, and an extensive young people’s bibliography. Discover basic facts and legacy summaries about all our presidents in the website’s Presidential Facts center. And learn about our first ladies in the website’s First Lady Facts center.

Both Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out and ourwhitehouse.org are projects created by the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance to not only promote literacy, but to also excite people of all ages about our nation’s rich history.

Learn more about how parents, teachers, and librarians can inspire young people using the Our White House resources in the online article "For Educators: Using Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out and in the Classroom."

Walking the Tube

Britain is in the grips of an obesity epidemic with health care professionals predicting life expectancy could even begin to fall particularly as a result of childhood obesity. One response is an anti-obesity pill will soon be available to buy at chemists without prescription. But is this the right way to deal with Britain's weight problem? An anti-obesity drug will soon be available without prescription over the counter – but only if the phar­macist thinks you are fat enough.

Orlistat, which is marketed under the name alli, will cost about £1.45 when it goes on sale after it was given final clearance by European regulators on Wednesday. The drug will be placed behind the counter in pharmacies so staff can question patients to make sure they are sufficiently overweight.

However there is a growing concern that the Drugs Industry is trying to create a drug dependency amongst people medicating for lifestyle issues (smoking, weight loss, type 2 diabetes) which would be better dealt with by changing lifestyles. In this vein health campaigners have urged commuters to walk between Underground stations instead of using them. Ministers and doctors trying to combat obesity are backing the drive.

A new map has been released detailing the number of steps that an adult walking at medium pace would take to travel between each central London station. It shows, for example, how alighting at St Paul's and walking 947 steps to Bank would burn almost 30 calories - equivalent of a double vodka.

The shortest walk is between Cannon Street and Monument, which takes 99 steps, while the longest is King's Cross to Farringdon, which takes 2,438 steps. People in search of a real workout could attempt the entire Circle line at 31,536 steps.

The map, compiled by insurance firm PruHealth, was calculated by volunteers using pedometers. Chief executive Shaun Matisonn said: "Taking 10,000 steps a day can help protect you against a wide range of diseases including strokes, diabetes and some types of cancer.


KEY: Numbers show how many steps were taken by PruHealth volunteers to walk between each Tube station. Walking 1,000 steps at a medium pace burned off about 30 calories. Walking 1,000 steps at a medium pace took about 7.5 minutes

Judy O'Sullivan, a cardiac nurse for the British Heart Foundation, said: "If you work near Covent Garden and catch the Piccadilly line then get off at Green Park and walk briskly for 15 minutes each way then that's half your daily physical activity requirement."

Walking up escalators is also important and Ms O'Sullivan said the health benefits of walking outweighed the risks of air pollution. Researchers calculated it took about 4.5 seconds to walk 10 steps at a rate of four miles per hour, while 1,000 steps took 7.5 minutes. At this rate, walkers burned about three calories per 100 steps, or one calorie every 15 seconds.

This would see travellers use nearly 100 calories by walking from Green Park to Covent Garden and back again, a journey which would take about 25 minutes. A Department of Health spokesman said: "In London we tend to rely on Tubes and buses to get around these days when we could be using our feet.

"Think about walking. If the journey is too far, you could always stop [your Tube or bus trip] a bit earlier, and walk the rest of the journey." Government figures show more than 21 per cent of London's 10- to 11-year-olds are obese, three per cent more than the national average. Almost 10 per cent of the adult population are obese in parts of the capital, including Barking and Dagenham and Bexley. In Enfield, Newham and Greenwich, eight per cent of adults are so overweight that their health is in danger.



And here are the calories to be burned off by walking;

Marble Arch to Chancery Lane (Central Line)
Quickest walk taking in all stations: 4,927 steps
Burns: up to 147 calories
Equivalent to: one doughnut.

Route: From Marble Arch walk straight along Oxford Street, past Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road Tube stations, down New Oxford Street taking in Holborn Tube and then walk along High Holborn.

Monument to King's Cross (Circle Line)
Quickest walk: 7,888 steps
Burns: up to 236 calories
Equivalent to: one chicken tikka masala.

Route: From Monument walk along Eastcheap and Byward Street to Tower Hill, up Minories to Aldgate, along Houndsditch and Bishopsgate to Liverpool Street station, cut through Finsbury Circus to Moorgate. Walk through the Barbican estate to Barbican Tube, down Charterhouse Street for Farringdon, then Farringdon Road, King's Cross Road, Acton Street and Gray's Inn Road to King's Cross station.

South Kensington to Bayswater (Circle Line)
Quickest walk: 5,833 steps
Burns up to: 174 calories
Equivalent to: one Cadbury's Crème Egg.

Route: from South Kensington tube walk along Thurloe Street and Stanhope Gardens to Gloucester Road, then along Cromwell Road and Marloes Road to High Street Kensington station, along Kensington High Street, up Kensington Church Street, then Bayswater Road and Queensway to Bayswater.


Walk the Network

If after you try Tube Walking and find it is addictive how about emulating Neil Johan and walking 378 miles between ALL Tube stations!

http://www.londonphotoproject.co.uk/blog/

Walking the Tube

Britain is in the grips of an obesity epidemic with health care professionals predicting life expectancy could even begin to fall particularly as a result of childhood obesity. One response is an anti-obesity pill will soon be available to buy at chemists without prescription. But is this the right way to deal with Britain's weight problem? An anti-obesity drug will soon be available without prescription over the counter – but only if the phar­macist thinks you are fat enough.

Orlistat, which is marketed under the name alli, will cost about £1.45 when it goes on sale after it was given final clearance by European regulators on Wednesday. The drug will be placed behind the counter in pharmacies so staff can question patients to make sure they are sufficiently overweight.

However there is a growing concern that the Drugs Industry is trying to create a drug dependency amongst people medicating for lifestyle issues (smoking, weight loss, type 2 diabetes) which would be better dealt with by changing lifestyles. In this vein health campaigners have urged commuters to walk between Underground stations instead of using them. Ministers and doctors trying to combat obesity are backing the drive.

A new map has been released detailing the number of steps that an adult walking at medium pace would take to travel between each central London station. It shows, for example, how alighting at St Paul's and walking 947 steps to Bank would burn almost 30 calories - equivalent of a double vodka.

The shortest walk is between Cannon Street and Monument, which takes 99 steps, while the longest is King's Cross to Farringdon, which takes 2,438 steps. People in search of a real workout could attempt the entire Circle line at 31,536 steps.

The map, compiled by insurance firm PruHealth, was calculated by volunteers using pedometers. Chief executive Shaun Matisonn said: "Taking 10,000 steps a day can help protect you against a wide range of diseases including strokes, diabetes and some types of cancer.


KEY: Numbers show how many steps were taken by PruHealth volunteers to walk between each Tube station. Walking 1,000 steps at a medium pace burned off about 30 calories. Walking 1,000 steps at a medium pace took about 7.5 minutes

Judy O'Sullivan, a cardiac nurse for the British Heart Foundation, said: "If you work near Covent Garden and catch the Piccadilly line then get off at Green Park and walk briskly for 15 minutes each way then that's half your daily physical activity requirement."

Walking up escalators is also important and Ms O'Sullivan said the health benefits of walking outweighed the risks of air pollution. Researchers calculated it took about 4.5 seconds to walk 10 steps at a rate of four miles per hour, while 1,000 steps took 7.5 minutes. At this rate, walkers burned about three calories per 100 steps, or one calorie every 15 seconds.

This would see travellers use nearly 100 calories by walking from Green Park to Covent Garden and back again, a journey which would take about 25 minutes. A Department of Health spokesman said: "In London we tend to rely on Tubes and buses to get around these days when we could be using our feet.

"Think about walking. If the journey is too far, you could always stop [your Tube or bus trip] a bit earlier, and walk the rest of the journey." Government figures show more than 21 per cent of London's 10- to 11-year-olds are obese, three per cent more than the national average. Almost 10 per cent of the adult population are obese in parts of the capital, including Barking and Dagenham and Bexley. In Enfield, Newham and Greenwich, eight per cent of adults are so overweight that their health is in danger.



And here are the calories to be burned off by walking;

Marble Arch to Chancery Lane (Central Line)
Quickest walk taking in all stations: 4,927 steps
Burns: up to 147 calories
Equivalent to: one doughnut.

Route: From Marble Arch walk straight along Oxford Street, past Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road Tube stations, down New Oxford Street taking in Holborn Tube and then walk along High Holborn.

Monument to King's Cross (Circle Line)
Quickest walk: 7,888 steps
Burns: up to 236 calories
Equivalent to: one chicken tikka masala.

Route: From Monument walk along Eastcheap and Byward Street to Tower Hill, up Minories to Aldgate, along Houndsditch and Bishopsgate to Liverpool Street station, cut through Finsbury Circus to Moorgate. Walk through the Barbican estate to Barbican Tube, down Charterhouse Street for Farringdon, then Farringdon Road, King's Cross Road, Acton Street and Gray's Inn Road to King's Cross station.

South Kensington to Bayswater (Circle Line)
Quickest walk: 5,833 steps
Burns up to: 174 calories
Equivalent to: one Cadbury's Crème Egg.

Route: from South Kensington tube walk along Thurloe Street and Stanhope Gardens to Gloucester Road, then along Cromwell Road and Marloes Road to High Street Kensington station, along Kensington High Street, up Kensington Church Street, then Bayswater Road and Queensway to Bayswater.


Walk the Network

If after you try Tube Walking and find it is addictive how about emulating Neil Johan and walking 378 miles between ALL Tube stations!

http://www.londonphotoproject.co.uk/blog/

London Olympics 2012 – Stratford Station

Stratford Station today



On the 6th July 2005 at 12.49 pm BST, it was announced to the world that the hosts of the 2012 Olympic Games would be.... London! Beating off close competition from Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow, London had been awarded the largest event of its kind on earth. So in the first of an occasional series up to the Olympics this piece covers the regeneration of Stratford Station which along with Stratford International 400 metres away will form the lynchpin of the Olympic transport arrangements serving the Olympic Park and contributing to the regeneration of East London. More than this the hosting of the 2012 Olympics is a proud moment for London to display the diversity and dynamism it enjoys as a truly World City.







The Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games will take place on 27 July 2012 and the Closing Ceremony on the 12 Aug 2012. 18 days later, the Paralympic Games (the second largest event of its kind in the world) will stage its Opening Ceremony.



See Paralympic Games;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/paralympic-games.html





The scene in Trafalgar Square London on 6th July 2005



The challenge was set by the Beijing 2008 Olympics which were widely perceived as highly successful but closer examination reveals some transport problems and solutions which would not be portable to an open city like London and an open society in modern Britain. Firstly the Olympic Park in Beijing was a huge concreted area of 12 K m² (what / who was there before?) without merchandising and catering leading to much criticism that the Park was an atmosphere free wasteland outside of the stadia and venues.





Beijing Metro with Line 8 serving Olympic venues



In addition the Olympic Park was served by Metro Line 8, a 3 station line which had only opened 18 days before the opening ceremony and whose uneven track wear revealed unacknowledged teething problems. Because the security arrangements were changed shortly before the games (due to bombings in Western China) all passengers had to disembark at the interchange station of Beitucheng, go through security and then re-enter the system leading to long delays. This meant many people didn’t get to the venues on time. One of the 3 stations on Line 8 was outside the Security Zone and could not be used and the final huge Olympic Sports Centre Stadium was distant from the venues in the Olympic Park and was lightly used. Also much of the inward crowd control was achieved by using lines of soldiers to form human corridors and that is not an option for London 2012.





Stratford Regional Upgrade



It is expected that during the Olympic Games, more than 7.7 million tickets will be sold during the 16 days of competition. This will allow spectators to watch nearly 11,000 athletes from over 200 nations compete in 26 sports at 300 different venues across the United Kingdom. In London, these venues fall into 3 zones:



• The Olympic Park - this includes the main stadium and several smaller venues for the hockey, swimming, cycling etc



• The River Zone - this includes the ExCel Centre, O2 Arena and Greenwich Park



• The Central Zone - which includes Hyde Park, Regents Park and Horse Guards Parade



The Olympic Transport plan calls for 100% of ticketed spectators to travel to the 2012 Games by Public Transport or by walking or cycling. The vision for Olympic Transport in 2012 is for existing public transport services in London to be improved and enhanced in the years before 2012 and additional services will operate during the Games to meet the extra demand. It is estimated that these enhancements will mean a train arriving at the main Olympic Park every 15 seconds. Services due for improvement include:









2012 Stadium



• Docklands Light Railway - through the addition of an extra carriage (from 2 to 3 cars) on the entire fleet, which will also be increased, track extension to Woolwich Arsenal and service enhancements.



• North London Line - will become part of "London Overground" which will see new rolling stock as well as new terminating platforms at Stratford and an increase in services. In addition the extended East London Line will reopen in 2010.



See East London Line



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/east-london-line.html



• Stratford International Station - the introduction of the "Javelin" service which will run from St Pancras International, through Stratford International, to Ebbsfleet - with a train arriving every 7 mins.



See St. Pancras Reborn;



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-pancras-reborn.html



• LU initiatives - West Ham Station Upgrade, Stratford Regional Upgrade and 2012 Service Plan



• Olympic Route Network - As well as the transport enhancements undertaken, an Olympic Route Network (ORN) will be implemented, which will comprise a network of roads linking all competition and key non-competition venues to enable the Olympic Family members to travel quickly and securely between accommodation, competition venues, airports etc.





Stratford Station signage reflects the multi operator environment



Stratford Regional Station is a major public transport interchange that enables passengers from east of London to travel to Canary Wharf without travelling into central London. It also provides interchange opportunities for passengers using Underground services to or from central London. Stratford Regional Station has been identified as a gateway station for the Olympic Park.











Olympic Park - Model and Map of the site



Stratford Regional Station currently experiences occasional periods of passenger congestion. As well as the Games there are other sources of additional future demand at Stratford Regional Station. These include the underlying significant increase in demand to 2016 which was forecast in the Mayor's London Plan and the Stratford City Development (SCD) adjacent to the station. Stratford City is a project to create a major new mixed use urban centre in East London on the site of a former railway goods yard at Stratford. The project will cost £4 billion funded from both public and private sources. The site lies to the north of the existing Stratford town centre around Temple Mills. The development totals 13.5 million ft² (1,300,000 m²), including 5 million ft² (460,000 m²) of offices, 1.6 million ft² (150,000 m²) of retail and 4,850 new homes. The retail element will be anchored by three department stores and it is hoped that it will become the third most important retail centre in London after the West End and Knightsbridge shopping districts in the city centre. There will be a cluster of tall buildings including towers of 50 and 30 storeys designed by Richard Rogers.





Stratford City



A package of improvements to Stratford Regional Station is being implemented. These improvements will provide a long-term legacy benefit before the Games, as well as additional temporary measures to meet the specific needs of the Games. This package is part of a larger scheme which includes works related to the Stratford City Development and the proposed Docklands Light Railway extension to Stratford International Station.







The programme of works being developed includes the following elements:



• re-opening the eastern subway with new stairs to platforms 3/5 (westbound Central line and westbound mainline) and 6/8 (eastbound Central and eastbound mainline);

• an additional westbound platform for the Central Line;

• widening the eastern end of platforms 6/8,

• platform extensions and associated network works for platforms 10a, 11 and 12 (mainline);

• improved accessibility and connectivity to, and between, platforms through the provision of additional lifts and staircases;

• a new mezzanine structure to link the Jubilee Line with the proposed Town Centre Link bridge;

• upgraded station domestic power supplies, and increased station command and control facilities;

• de-cluttering of platforms 3/5 and 6/8; and

• a temporary footbridge on platform 6/8, if required.



In addition there are other planned or proposed works being developed by other parties:



Docklands Light Railway will construct two new platforms (12a and 12b) for use by the North London Line. The platforms will be connected to all subways, which will be extended. There will also be a connection between the central and eastern subways;





Stratford Regional - view from Stratford City side



Docklands Light Railway will convert the existing North London Line platforms (1 and 2) for use by the Docklands Light Railway on the Canning Town to Stratford International Station route;



Docklands Light Railway has also upgraded the existing mezzanine level platform to two terminating platforms (4a and 4b) for services to Poplar; and as part of the Stratford City Development a new Northern Ticket Hall will be constructed along with the Town Centre Link Bridge, (also known as the 'Living Bridge'), which will link Stratford town centre with the new Stratford City Development.



The planned works will increase the peak capacity of Stratford Regional Station for existing and new services. The infrastructure works will provide much needed additional capacity, but it will also be essential to develop robust operational plans for each of the modes in order to deliver these essential works.





Stratford Platforms



The transport arrangements for London 2012 will succeed or fail based on the success of the arrangements at Stratford Regional and Stratford International. By 2012 London Underground is expected to be supporting 4M daily passenger journeys (up from 3.3M at present) but during the Olympic period this will increase to 5M passenger journeys a day driven by the Olympic venues, workforce and the Olympic Events each day in Hyde and Victoria Parks which are expected to attract around 65,000 people each day. For Stratford it means handling 120,000 passengers during the 3 hour morning peak, up from 37,000 today. Of these 3 to 4% are expected to be mobility impaired and larger wider lifts will be designed to make access easier.



The London 2012 Olympic Challenge is a huge undertaking but for both the spectators and residents of London the first measure of success will be how well transport arrangements cope with the exceptional demand both of “normal life” and the Olympics, the all night running on the days of the opening and closing ceremonies and the late running to 2.30 am on other nights. How London copes with this exceptional demand whilst maintaining safety and security will be largely gauged from how well the crucial Stratford Hub works.





Aquatic Centre