Roger and out: a rant.

England's premier Children's literature award, The Carnegie Medal, has been won by Tanya Landman's book Buffalo Soldier.

I haven't read the book, so I can't tell you what it's like. Tanya herself seems to be lovely, and many congratulations to her. 

Luckily, we do have some information from someone who has read it - or who should have done, anyway. This piece by Emily Drabble appeared in the Guardian newspaper on 22 June 2015:

The book exploring the brutality of this dark period of American history, including rape, racist atrocities, hanging and genocide - think Mulan meets Cormac McCarthy.

I've written before of my ridiculous nostalgia for a Carnegie Meal winner that might be suitable to be read by, well, children, but how about this: just three days after this piece was published it's been reported that in the BBC's new version of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons the character Titty is going to be renamed Tatty.

They are leaving Roger as he is.

Oh dear. I just hope that everyone else isn't quite as confused as I am, that's all.

Especially the children...

...but then what do they matter?

Word To Use Today: genocide. This is a word from the 1900s. It comes from the Greek word genos, which means race.