Hub Magazine

And here it is… :-) 

 Click here to download: PDF, Mobi Pocket Reader

 Issue 52 has been sent out, but not yet uploaded to the website. This will be done later today.

 Click here to download: PDF, Mobi Pocket Reader

 Click here to download: PDF, Mobi Pocket Reader

 Click here to download: PDF, Mobi Pocket Reader

Tomorrow is World Book Day. It was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The origins of the day we now celebrate in the UK and Ireland come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 80 years ago.World Book Day is a partnership of publishers, booksellers, authors and interested parties who work together to promote books and reading for the personal enrichment and enjoyment of all.A main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.Thanks to the generosity of National Book Tokens Ltd and numerous participating booksellers, school children are entitled to receive a World Book Day £1 Book Token (or equivalent €1.50 Book Token in Ireland). The Book Token can be exchanged for one of nine specially published World Book Day £1 Books, or is redeemable against any book or audiobook of their choice at a participating bookshop.

The nine specially published books have been generously donated by their authors. Nobody makes any profit from this activity – not the booksellers, the authors, nor the publishers. Yet if the project is successful in its aim of getting people reading (who otherwise would not) then everyone wins – the authors, booksellers and publishers (through new orders from new readers), but most importantly, the readers themselves.

There is a decent selection of £1 books from which to choose, aimed at different ages and different demographics. The most interesting from Hub’s viewpoint is Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman.Odd is an infuriating child. He walks with a limp since accidentally crushing the bones in his leg with his late father’s gigantic axe, and he smiles. A lot. It’s the smile that annoys people – not least of whom is his stepfather who has little time for him. When his homeland suffers the worst winter in memory (a winter which, for the first time, stubbornly refuses to budge for spring) Odd decides to leave home and seek his fortune elsewhere.He travels first to his father’s old woodcutting hut where he chances upon a fox who seemingly wants to be followed. Having little better to do, Odd obliges, and begins an adventure that encompasses Gods and giants, and where he discovers the magic of persuasion, and that fact that families are the same whether you’re a human, a god, an animal or a giant.Odd and the Frost Giants is written in a somewhat mythical style, the simplicity of which should help to engage readers who have so far resisted the lure of the written word. Though simplistic in style, the themes and plot are strong enough to allow the story to be enjoyed by more the more demanding audience.Whether or not the book is able to satisfy more mature readers is largely immaterial, though, as World Book Day hasn’t been created for them. Thankfully, though, Gaiman is a master of crafting a multi-layered tale, capable of being enjoyed by readers of all ages.

If you choose to buy this book (and at only £1 I recommend that you do), don’t leave the book on your shelf. That defeats the whole purpose of the project. Give the book to a young person you know, or donate it to your local school. If you really must keep it, buy another and donate that, instead.

We at Hub will be doing our bit, too. We regularly receive donations to help support us in our endeavours to publish free weekly fiction. In order to support World Book Day, any donations that Hub receives between now and the end of March will be converted into £1 books, and distributed to their target audiences – young potential readers – through schools and clubs.

Visit www.worldbookday.com for more information on the project.

Click here to download: PDF, Mobi Pocket Reader