Open Book

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Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics

BBC Radio 4 LW

Manny Jefferson

Open Book: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, plus Judith Kerr's centenary with Nicolette Jones and Oliver Jeffers

28/09/2023

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, plus Judith Kerr's centenary with Nicolette Jones and Oliver Jeffers

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, plus Judith Kerr's centenary with Nicolette Jones and Oliver Jeffers

Johny Pitts talks to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about her new book for children.

Johny Pitts talks to the author behind Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about her new book for children. Plus Nicolette Jones and Oliver Jeffers discuss Judith Kerr.

Johny Pitts talks to the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about her new book for children. The globally famous author behind Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus and Americanah explains how she was inspired to write something for a young generation by both her daughter and her late parents, whom she honours with the pseudonym Nwa Grace-James.

The illustrator and writer Judith Kerr would have been 100 this year. To mark her centenary, Oliver Jeffers and Nicolette Jones discuss her indisputable contribution to the world of children's books, her subtle ability to weave the playful with the profound, and legacy amongst writers today exploring issues such as displacement and living as a refugee.

Plus Molly Crawford of Simon & Schuster chose a poetic and powerful new novel from Jesmyn Ward as her Editor's Pick.

Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Book list 
Mama’s Sleeping Scarf by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie (as Nwa Grace-James)
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Bombs on Aunt Dainty and A Small Person Far Away (Out of the Hitler Time trilogy) by Judith Kerr
The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr
My Henry by Judith Kerr
You Don’t Know What War Is by Yeva Skalietska 
In The Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda 
Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers 
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell 
The Swallow’s Flight, part 2 of the Skylark’s War Series by Hilary McKay 
Boy, Everywhere by AM Dassu 
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf
Hidden by Miriam Halahmy 
Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird 
The Crossing by Manjeet Mann 
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
Begin Again by Oliver Jeffers
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

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Open Book

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, plus Judith Kerr's centenary with Nicolette Jones and Oliver Jeffers

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