Witches, murder, ghosts and babies ripped from their mother’s womb, let us be careful what we teach our children! Oh yeah - that’s Macbeth (“Red blood sell”, TES Magazine, June 18).
Young people’s literature is not what it was. Of course the beloved father from The Railway Children - “Daddy, my Daddy!” - was a convicted criminal.
No one is suggesting that Darren Shan or Charlie Higson books are taught as great literature or are likely to win the Cilip Carnegie Medal. As with adult reading there is good writing and there is popular writing - Dan Brown is never going to win the Man Booker Prize.
As to the current Carnegie shortlist, and its winner, read the books and then judge - I have.
Caroline Downie, Librarian and previous Cilip Carnegie and Greenaway Medal judge.
