Established | 2005 |
---|---|
Location | Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
Type | Children's literature and illustration from 1930s to the present day |
Director | Wendy Elliot |
Public transit access | Manors, Byker (Tyne and Wear Metro) |
Website | www |
Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books is a museum and visitor centre dedicated to children's literature and based in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne, close to the city's regenerated Quayside. The renovated Victorian mill in which it is housed has seven levels. [1] It is the first and only museum in the UK wholly devoted to the art of British children's books. [2] Their archive is housed in a separate building in Felling. [3]
Seven Stories opened in August 2005 after a £6.5 million conversion from a former granary building. [4]
In March 2006, the centre received the Centre Vision Award, the Civic Trust's national award for best practice in town centre regeneration. [5]
Seven Stories celebrated their fifth birthday in August 2010 with an exclusive golden ticket event with popular children's author Dame Jacqueline Wilson. [6]
In September 2010, Seven Stories purchased several original typescripts by Enid Blyton, making Seven Stories the largest public collector of Blyton material. The purchase was made possible by special funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and two private donations. [7]
In 2010, Seven Stories was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award, made for distinguished service to the world of British children's books. [8]
In 2012, Seven Stories became The National Centre for Children's Books, a registered charity. [9] [10]
The centre closed for refurbishment in April 2015. The refurbishment was intended to focus on improving the visitor experience, functionality for school groups and the energy efficiency of the building. [11] The centre re-opened on Sunday 19 July 2015. [12]
In October 2015, author Michael Morpurgo donated a collection of manuscripts, notebooks and letters to the museum. [13]
Seven Stories has a changing programme of exhibitions aimed at both children and adults. Seven Stories brings together original manuscripts and illustrations from some of the UK's best loved children's books, to excite visitors in an exploration of creativity, literature and art. Jacqueline Wilson, Terry Jones, Philip Pullman and Quentin Blake are among some of the centre's most distinguished patrons. [14]
Seven Stories curates its own exhibitions, many of which go on to tour nationally including Judith Kerr, Anthony Browne and Jacqueline Wilson. They also provide a range of workshops, visits and resources for schools and education professionals from pre-school to post graduates including the University of Newcastle upon Tyne with which it jointly hosts a number of PhD studentships funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. [15]
Many children's authors and illustrators visit the centre to run workshops and give talks, including David Almond, Catherine Rayner, Michael Foreman, Terry Deary, Judith Kerr, Julia Donaldson, Mick Manning, Brita Granström and Oliver Jeffers. [3] [16]
Activities include dressing-up and dramatic fun, creative writing and wordplay, illustration and craft. [17]
Enid Mary Blyton was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been translated into ninety languages. As at June 2019, Blyton held 4th place for the most translated author. She wrote on a wide range of topics, including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery, and biblical narratives. She is best remembered for her Noddy, Famous Five, Secret Seven, the Five Find-Outers, and Malory Towers books, although she also wrote many others, including; St. Clare's, The Naughtiest Girl, and The Faraway Tree series.
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located on the River Tyne's northern bank opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.
The Famous Five is a series of children's adventure novels and short stories written by English author Enid Blyton. The first book, Five on a Treasure Island, was published in 1942. The novels feature the adventures of a group of young children – Julian, Dick, Anne, George and their dog Timmy.
The Faraway Tree is a series of popular novels for children by British author Enid Blyton. The titles in the series are The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943), The Folk of the Faraway Tree (1946) and Up the Faraway Tree (1951).
Dame Jacqueline Wilson is an English novelist known for her popular children's literature. Her novels have been notable for tackling realistic topics such as adoption and divorce without alienating her large readership. Since her debut novel in 1969, Wilson has written over 100 books.
David Almond is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim.
Leila Berg was an English children's author, editor and play specialist. She was well known as a journalist and a writer on education and children's rights. Berg was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award.
Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytelling", for recurring themes such as the triumph of an outsider or survival, for characters' relationships with nature, and for vivid settings such as the Cornish coast or the trenches of the First World War. Morpurgo was the third Children's Laureate, from 2003 to 2005, and is President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity.
Go4It was a British children's magazine programme broadcast on Sunday evenings at 7.15pm on BBC Radio 4, and one of the few speech-based shows on British national radio aimed at younger listeners. It was broadcast between 2001 and 2009.
Winifred Shirley Hughes was an English author and illustrator. She wrote more than fifty books, which have sold more than 11.5 million copies, and illustrated more than two hundred.
This is a list of 762 books by Enid Blyton (1897–1968), an English children's writer who also wrote under the pseudonym of Mary Pollock. She was one of the most successful children's storytellers of the 20th century.
The Eleanor Farjeon Award is made for distinguished service to the world of British children's books and is given to someone whose commitment and contribution is deemed to be outstanding. Founded in 1966, it is presented annually in memory of the celebrated author Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965). The spirit of the award is to recognise the unsung heroes who contribute so much to every aspect of children's books. The award is administered by the Children's Book Circle and sponsored by the Eleanor Farjeon Trust.
The Famous Five is a British television series based on the children's books of the same name by Enid Blyton. It was broadcast on ITV over two series in 1978 and 1979. It was produced by Southern Television in 26 half-hour episodes.
Julia Eccleshare MBE is a British journalist and writer on the subject of children's books. She has been Children's Books editor for The Guardian newspaper for more than ten years, at least from 2000. She is also an editorial contributor and advisor for the website Love Reading 4 Kids. She is a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award.
Teachers World was a British publication of the first half of the 20th century which featured a range of teaching material, poems and short stories for children. It is most associated with Enid Blyton who contributed heavily to it in the 1920s and 1930s.
Paws and Whiskers is a 2014 fundraising anthology for the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, featuring children's stories about cats and dogs selected by Jacqueline Wilson, with illustrations by Nick Sharratt. Published 13 February 2014 by Doubleday Children's, the stories include new works and extracts from classics, such as The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith, and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is the only public arts organisation in the UK dedicated to illustration. It was founded by Quentin Blake in 2002 and is based in London, England. From 2014 to 2020, it was located at 2 Granary Square in the London Borough of Camden and called House of Illustration.
Patrice Lawrence MBE, FRSL is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. In 2021, she won the Jhalak Prize's inaugural children's and young adult category for her book Eight Pieces of Silva (2020).
Robin Lawrie is a Scottish-born artist and children's book illustrator. Throughout his career, he has illustrated books by C. S. Lewis, Prue Leith and Enid Blyton. He has written and illustrated several children's books of his own about building motorways, car mechanics, building kit cars, rally drivers, and mountain biking.
Rene Mable Neighbor Cloke was a British illustrator and watercolorist best known for her prolific output of artwork for children's books and greeting cards. Her work often displayed a whimsical quality, with frequent subjects being flora and fauna, pixies, fairies, sprites, and elves.