Conferences provide participants with varied and engaging experiences. Join Chris as she shares some of the literature related presentations that she experienced at the recent Australian School Library Association Conference.
I recently attended a two-day conference teacher librarian conference held at The Shore School on Sydney’s North Shore, with wonderful views over Sydney Harbour. The school was a wonderful venue, even during the school holidays busy with many other activities. These two days were packed with opportunities for everyone interested in all aspects of library services and management including books and reading, these being the main focus of this post. Even so, it will be difficult to do any of these real justice, all I can do is to make the attempt offering links to promote further reading.
The afternoon keynote on day 1 was given by Paul Macdonald, teacher and owner of the Children’s Bookshop Beecroft, focusing on ‘Challenges and Changes in text/literature’. His address was peppered with titles listed below to illustrate his points and he claims that today there is an increasingly politicised focus on social issues, such as refugees. There is also a strong trend for dysfunctional parents to be represented in fiction - these are books people tend to either love or hate...- Emma Donoghue The Lotterys Plus One, also Room;
In 2011 trends were all about the paranormal, today’s popular books are more about social networking, and books as bibliotherapy. The following titles elicit strong responses in readers and cover many topics that can be deemed controversial…Universe;
- Amie Kaufman Illuminae, followed by Gemina with (Obsidio coming in 2018);
- Tristan Bancks Two Wolves and The Fall;
- Fiona Roberton Tale of Two Beasts;
- Zanni Louise & David Mackintosh Archie and the Bear;
- Bernardo Carvalho & Isabel Martins Don’t Cross the Line.
See Visual Editions to for a glimpse of changing publishing techniques,- Will Storr Selfie: how we became so self-obsessed and what it’s doing to us;
- Matt Stanton Funny kid for president;
- Tim Harris Exploding Endings 1- 4 (collections of short punchy stories that attract kids);
- Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology – stories by Amie Kaufman, Melissa Keil, Will Kostakis, Ellie Marney and Jaclyn Moriarty among others.
- ‘The Power of Influence’ by Tim Harris, whose blog extends his work in other creative directions, such as book trailers and pairing books with music, including Matt Stanton’s Funny Kid for President and Wendy Orr’s Dragon Song.
- ‘Challenge to represent’ by Will Kostakis whose books include Loathing Lola, (out of print though LINC has a copy), The First Third (shortlisted in the Older Readers’ section in 2014) and an entry in Begin, End, Begin (see above). Will’s latest YA title Sidekicks was longlisted for the INKY awards and has been bought for an American edition by Barnes & Noble.
- ‘Imagine: A world-renowned National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature’ - Dr Belle Alderman is a passionate leader for this body which started in 1974 as the Lu Rees Archive. Housed in the University of Canberra, it would like a home of its own, and is asking for our support to save our childhood stories.
We will be hearing from Dr Belle in another blog post later this year.
This was a fantastic conference with many inspiring speakers to enthuse me. I have come away with a very long list of 'must reads'.
Chris Donnelly
Teacher librarian and avid reader.
Editor's note: One picture book that Chris has not mentioned here but shared with me is Mopoke by Philip Bunting. Brilliant!
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