Random House Children's Books Blogger Brunch

On Saturday I was very lucky to be invited to Random House Children's Books Blogger Brunch at their offices in Ealing Broadway.  I've never been to a publishers offices before so I was very excited and we had a fantastic morning! 

I had an early start to the day having to get to Charing Cross to meet Sammee (I Want To Read That) at 9:15am and we managed to navigate the underground to make our way to Ealing Broadway where we met up with Becky (The Bookette) & Caroline (Portrait of a Woman).  Much excited chatting about books ensued as we made our way to the RHCB offices.  We were met by Lauren and Kelly who took us downstairs to the boardroom and introduced us to the rest of the publicity team Clare, Corinne & Rosi.

The publicity department had laid out a lovely spread of food for us all and while we were busy munching they started telling us about all the fab new books they have coming out over the next few months & we even got some hints about things to come next year.  Corinne was very excited about The Necromancer, the newest book in the Nicolas Flamel series by Michael Scott.  I've not actually read any of this series yet but after hearing Corinne talk about it I know it is one I need to start reading.

When Clare started talking about Terry Pratchett's new book I Shall Wear Midnight there was a lot of excited squealing going around the room - especially from me!  This is the 4th book in the Tiffany Aching series & I can't wait to read it, I love the Nac Mac Feegles from these books :o)

We got to see different cover ideas for Malorie Blackman's next book Boys Don't Cry, they had already chosen the final cover but it was really interesting to see some of the different ideas that they had come up with.  Luckily the one they had chosen was the one that most of us liked best.  It sounds like a really interesting read - a story about teen fathers which is different from anything else I've read before.

We were all given a great selection of ARCs for upcoming releases I can hardly decide which one I want to read first as they all look so good!  I've not read the first book in the Dark Touch series yet but The Hunt looks so good that I'm going to have to get hold of a copy soon so I can read them both.  I loved Fallen so am really excited about Torment & of course I already mentioned I Shall Wear Midnight & The Necromancer (again I need to get hold of the first 3 books before I read this one).  I've not read anything by Jonathan Stroud before but Ring of Solomon looks really good too.

The lovely RHCB publicity team - Rosi, Clare, Kelly, Corinne & Lauren

After telling us about all the new upcoming releases we all got given a tour of the publicity department offices.  I was impressed at how tidy everything was and loved seeing all the book cover posters and of course the massive bookshelves everywhere.  This was where we ended up getting really excited - we were literally told to help ourselves to any books we saw that we wanted to read!!  It reminded me a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate factory except we were all walking around with arms full of books rather than sweets!  In the end most of us had to ask for extra bags so we could carry everything. 

My loot (now I really don't know what to read next!)

It was such a fun event and I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone at Random House Children's Books for organising it for us and for being so generous.  I enjoyed every minute of it :o)

Back Row: Carly, Lauren, Kaz, Liz, Caroline, Me, Lynsey

Front Row: Becky, Sammee, Nayu

If you'd like to check out the blogs of all the other fab UK bloggers who attended the event here is a list of everyone's links:

Sammee - I Want To Read That

Lynsey - Narratively Speaking

Becky - The Bookette - Becky's Event Report

Caroline - Portrait of a Woman

Lauren - I Was A Teenage Book Geek

Nayu - Nayu's Reading Corner - Nayu's Event Report

Carly - Writing From The Tub

Liz - My Favorite Books - Liz's Event Report
Kaz - Karen Mahoney

After the blogger brunch ended a few of us had planned to go book shopping but as it was we had almost more books than we could carry so Sammee, Lynsey, Becky, Caroline, Lauren & I ended up deciding to go for a pub lunch.  We found a nice pub not far from the RHCB offices and ended up spending about 4 hours there chatting about books of course and life in general.  It was a lovely relaxing afternoon but I decided to head home when the others had worked up the energy to hit Waterstones in Picadilly.  I really couldn't justify buying any more books lol.  I didn't get home until 7pm but it was a brilliant day & I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go.