So many words…so why can’t I find the one I need?

A post that celebrates the sharing of favourite authors and provoking reciprocal responses. Felicity has captured that special relationship and magic moment of shared pleasure – I too can’t find the perfect word!

A Google search (#ididtheresearch) tells me that there are somewhere between 750 thousand and one million words in the English language. Susie Dent (if you haven’t already, check our 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown) suggests we know forty thousand words, but only use about twenty thousand of them. With so many words, why can’t I find the one word that expresses the thrill and enjoyment I get when someone loves the same author I do? 

The two words Google gave me are compersion, the positive thoughts derived from knowing of another person’s gratifying experience; and freudenfreude (the opposite of schadenfreude) - the bliss we feel when someone else succeeds. But they aren’t the right words to describe my feeling.

Daughter of the Forest
by Juliet Marillier

I love books by New Zealand born and resident West Australian author, Juliet Marillier. This love started when my mother purchased the second book in the Sevenwaters series for my birthday many years ago…I read the first chapter and realised that a love affair was born, and that I needed to stop reading and buy the first book before I could continue reading my birthday present. My mum gave me the gift that keeps on giving.

Sevenwaters series by Juliet Marillier

I purchased some of Juliet Marillier’s books for my workplace. They were not borrowed, so they have been withdrawn - based on our weeding policy - despite recommending them to many readers. I have mentioned them, ad nauseum, on any social media book related post. I may have even blogged about them in the past…and now, finally, I have two work colleagues hooked, and I am supplying their reading from my own library. And now I need a word to describe how happy this makes me feel. To have someone in my immediate sphere, other than my three children, love these books is a joy. As one book is returned, I pull another from the shelf and position it on my desk, ready to hand it over when the staff member walks past. This can go on giving me joy for months, as I have 25 Marillier titles on my bookshelf.

So, dear reader (#bridgerton) please come up with the word I need to describe my joy…we can’t all have the same forty thousand words in our lexicon…and I need that word. Surely it is sitting somewhere in the other 710 thousand words I don’t know! 

Please also post in the comments the name of your favourite author, so you too have the chance of experiencing this un-named feeling. I’m also happy for you to invent the word I need!

Felicity Sly is Teacher Librarian at Don College, Devonport and on the committee of CBCA Tasmania Branch.

Editor’s note: Thank you Felicity – you have provided the spark for me to return to one of my favourite authors who I have not visited for some time. I have series to complete – The Warrior’s Bard – here I come! Evidence that reciprocity is at work.

Warrior Bards trilogy by Juliet Marillier

Tyenna: Through My Eyes – Australian Disaster Zones

Julie Hunt, co-author of Tyenna, talks about the inspiration and key messaging in writing this first riveting title in a new segment of Allen & Unwin’s Through My Eyes series. Discover a unique wilderness in Tasmania through the eyes of Tyenna and be inspired to investigate this series further as future titles are published. 

Anxiety is the currency of our times; social media and endless news footage give us no respite from pressing contemporary issues: the global pandemic, climate-change-generated extreme weather events, civil unrest and war. How to help young people develop resilience, hope and agency is a question with which parents, educators and mental health practitioners grapple. Story offers one possibility. Stories of children facing and successfully navigating challenging events. 

Tyenna fits that brief as do all the Through My Eyes novels. The series was created by Lyn White with the idea of inspiring and informing young readers as they follow kids their own age into dangerous real-world situations. The first series looked at children in conflict zones and although I’m way beyond the target age group I can’t forget the main character in Emilio and everything I learned about crime in Mexico after his mother was kidnapped. The same goes for Shaozhen, a book from the next series which is about natural disasters. I could picture that village in China at the moment when the well ran dry, and feel what the character felt as he realised the implications. The stories are real, immediate and all too believable. 

Tyenna (2022) by Julie Hunt &
Terry Whitebeach.
Allen & Unwin

Our book is the first in a new series set in Australia. The story takes place in the summer of 2019 when a series of dry lightning strikes started fires all over Tasmania. No human life was lost and only a few buildings were destroyed but over 200,000 hectares of bush was burned, much of it in world heritage areas. 

Thirteen-year-old Tyenna loves pencil pines, bushwalking and hanging out with her best friend Lily. She arrives from Melbourne to stay with her grandparents in the Central Highlands of Tasmania expecting a fun summer holiday but the threat of fire changes everything and when she discovers a runaway boy hiding out and promises to keep quiet about his presence she finds herself facing a life and death dilemma. 

Floods, fires, droughts, cyclones – as the planet gets warmer what were once one-off events are becoming alarmingly frequent. Add Covid to the mix and we seem to be lurching from one disaster to the next. We are certainly in a climate crisis and this week floods on the eastern seaboard were declared a national emergency. The future is uncertain and it’s a difficult time to be growing up. How to allay fear and give young people hope?

Co-authors of Tyenna, Terry Whitebeach and Julie Hunt
© Image: Daniela Brozek

With Tyenna we tried to create a courageous and resourceful character who is torn between keeping her word and remaining loyal to her stalwart grandparents, a tense situation at any time but worse in the midst of an emergency. We hope the story will raise questions in the classroom and beyond, and will encourage creative thinking, both about immediate fire safety and in response to the pressing issue of climate change. We’re in the Pyrocene now, Tye reads in a text from her friend. To quote from the book: 

‘The Earth hurtling into a new geological epoch. So much change in just a few decades – time speeding up. It’s certainly sped up for Tye and whirled her into a brand-new life... It’s only a year since Greta Thunberg first protested outside the Swedish parliament, and now teenagers the world over are organising school climate strikes. Hope lies only in action – that’s the Swedish girl’s message. Tye agrees.’

We gave our character agency through engagement. She helps with the community response during the fires despite her own private crisis, and she works to repair the damage afterwards. 

The story has an upbeat ending. Tye plants a tiny pencil pine seedling, hoping it will not just survive but thrive. She has found her place in the world, working for the future and the challenges that lie ahead.

Julie Hunt

Tasmania children’s author

W: http://www.juliehunt.com.au/

Editor's note: Watch a brief but informative introduction to the book by the authors and read a review of Tyenna.

On tour with Ella and the Ocean

Author visits have been in hiatus over the last year or so and it is great to read of a successful visit to central NSW by Tasmanian author Lian Tanner and the terrific reception Lian and the award winning  Ella and the Ocean received.

In February this year, the State Library of New South Wales sent me to Dubbo, Forbes and Orange, to talk to preschoolers about my picture book Ella and the Ocean, illustrated by Jonathan Bentley and winner of the 2020 Patricia Wrightson Award for Children's Literature.

© Lian Tanner. At the Forbes library

© Lian Tanner

I had never presented to preschoolers before this. I’d spoken to several K-2 classes about Ella, with the help of some home-made finger puppets, but I wasn't particularly happy with my talk, and I suspected that holding the attention of preschoolers would be quite a bit more challenging. So I set out to do some research.

I watched Playschool for tips. I watched YouTube videos of storytellers and puppeteers. I worked out how to use my finger puppets as if they were asking and answering questions. Then I started looking for songs. Songs about rain. Songs about swimming. I couldn't find any I liked, so I made them up on my morning walks, singing them into my phone so I wouldn't forget them.

The tour itself was wonderful. For a start, it was wildly exciting to leave Tasmania after nearly a year of closed borders. And I love the sort of country towns where people say hello to complete strangers in the street. But these towns were special, having suffered terribly from lack of rain over the last few years. In each place, when my little Ella puppet wanted to know if there had ever been a drought there, all the adults said a heartfelt, 'Yes!' 

© Lian Tanner with the Forbes librarian,
Bronwyn Clar

The hospitality was outstanding, and the librarians in each town made me feel as if I was doing them a favour, rather than the other way round. But the kids were the highlight. I learned that preschoolers have no filter. Me: ‘Would you like to sing this song with me?’ Little boy: ‘No.’  

I learned the signs that meant they had had enough, and I needed to wind up the session. I learned that this age group was much more fun than I had expected. 

And the finger puppets were a winner. Halfway through my talk in Forbes, a little girl called Rosie raised her hand and said, ‘Can I tell Ella a secret?’ ‘Of course,’ I said. She came up to the front, put her face close to my little puppet, and whispered to her. I have no idea what she said. But when she sat down again, beaming with satisfaction, every adult heart in the room melted. 

Lian Tanner is the best-selling author of three fantasy trilogies for children, The Keepers trilogy, The Hidden/Icebreaker series and The Rogues trilogy. Her latest book, A Clue for Clara, is a detective story starring a very determined chook. A companion book, Rita’s Revenge, will be published in July 2022. Lian’s books have been translated into eleven languages and have won two Aurealis Awards for Best Australian Children's Fantasy.

Editor's note: Find out more about Lian and her wonderful books on her website at https://liantanner.com.au/. I am waiting with bated breath for Rita's Revenge - I am sure it will be dastardly! :-)

Vision Boarding for Writers

Keeping it in the family with the
100th anniversary edition. 

If you have had the pleasure of listening to Tristan Bancks speak about his writing you will know how committed and enthusiastic he is on connecting children and youth to the art of writing. This week, Tristan shares this passion with some insights into his writing techniques. Tristan Bancks tells stories for the page and screen. His books for kids and teens include Two Wolves, The Fall, Detention, the Tom Weekly series and Nit Boy. His books have won and been shortlisted for many awards, including a Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour Book, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, ABIA, YABBA, KOALA, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Queensland Literary Awards. His new release for 2021 is Ginger Meggs, a 100th anniversary book of brand new short stories based on characters created by his great-great uncle, Jimmy Bancks, in 1921.

Penguin Books. (2021, May 2). Ginger Megs by Tristan Bancks & Jason
Chatfield: Book trailer. [video] YouTube. https://youtu.be/AVimtYP2sNE

Writing fiction is a challenge for both kids and adults. Generating ideas, getting that first draft down, developing the plot, finding a satisfying ending. There are so many aspects to the process. And then the rewriting begins!

I began my career working in film and TV which introduced me to many tools that I now employ in the writing of my books like Two Wolves, Tom Weekly and Ginger Meggs. I’ve found that kids and teens also find these tools engaging and useful when approaching the creative process. 

© Tristan Bancks

As a children’s author, I have visited over a thousand schools in thirteen years, working with young writers. Over the past year, I have taken time to reflect more deeply on the creative process and I have broken down what I think are the most important aspects of writing and the best problem-solving tools for young writers. I share these teachings in Young Writers’ StorySchool, a 24x3-minute online video writing workshop for teachers to use in the classroom.

        Bancks, T. (n.d.). Young Writers' Story School. Tristan Bancks' StorySchool.  https://www.youngwritersstoryschool.com/ 

                        

One of the key tools I focus on in StorySchool is the Vision Board – a place to gather images, video, music, maps and other transmedia elements in order to develop setting, characters and tone for stories. The Vision Board has become a core part of my writing process and it’s also incredibly useful in motivating and inspiring young writers. It allows them to act on their own volition, to find images and other materials that resonate, personally, and it makes the writing process more active, visual and fun. 

Here is the Vision Board video from StorySchool which shows the board for my novel Two Wolves in action, then sets a writing challenge. 

© Tristan Bancks Vision Board Video 

The videos live over at www.youngwritersstoryschool.com but, for this post, I’m making it available to you via Drive. I hope it inspires you to vision board your own stories and to introduce the tool to kids and teens. Good luck!

Tristan is offering readers of this post 10% off his Young Writers’ StorySchool should you wish to subscribe with the discount code TB10 at checkout. www.youngwritersstoryschool.com

Tristan Bancks

Blog / Site:    www.tristanbancks.com
Twitter:      www.twitter.com/tristanbancks
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tristanbancksbooks
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/tristanbancks
eNewsletter: www.tristanbancks.com/newsletter
YouTube:    www.youtube.com/tristanbancks

CBCA 2019 Awards Acceptance speech - Daniel Gray-Barnett

I know I speak for many Tasmanians when I say how thrilled we are when our local residents are recognised for their talents. This week Daniel Gray-Barnett, recipient of the 2019 CBCA Award for New Illustration, shares his recent acceptance speech and a couple of lovely photos taken during the Awards presentation.

Daniel’s talents were recognised for the delightful Grandma Z – the sort of a grandmother that sings to the imaginative, dare devil and adventurous spirit hidden within every child. If you have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Grandma Z watch this preview courtesy of Storybox Library.

Now to Daniel’s acceptance speech…

Daniel Gray-Barnett with his award winning book and medallion

I’d like to thank the Children’s Book Council of Australia as well as the judges for this incredible honour.

A big thank you to my publisher, Miriam Rosenbloom and the team at Scribble Kids for their faith in my work and giving me the opportunity to bring Grandma Z to life. It’s probably fitting that this book didn’t start with a manuscript at all, but with some illustrations of the characters that I did just for fun. I posted them to my Instagram and thought that would be the end of it.

Miriam saw them and convinced me that these characters had a really good story to tell. So we did. I’m very grateful, Miri, for your vision - working on Grandma Z has opened up doors in my career.

My earliest memory of falling in love with books was in Grade 2, when my teacher Ms Wootton, was reading to us The BFG. Of course, there is no question that Roald Dahl’s stories are captivating, but for me, the thing that really hooked me onto this book thing, was Quentin Blake’s illustrations.

Something about his scratchy drawings of a big-eared giant sparked my imagination. It was magical and I was (and still am really) in love. It was a stepping stone to imagining the rest of that world for myself. So for me, and I imagine a lot of other kids, illustration was and is an equally powerful way of connecting with stories and growing a love of books.

To all the teachers, librarians and booksellers who champion illustration and visual literacy with their students and kids - thank you so much, what you do makes a difference.

Daniel Gray-Barnett with Bob Graham at the
2019 CBCA Awards event

I’d like to commend the other artists and their terrific work - what they each do is so unique, skilful and difficult - and it’s important work too. I’m very proud to be in such a talented group.

Lastly, I just want to thank my husband, without his support I would find it very hard to do what I do.

Thank you everyone.

Daniel Gray-Barnett
W: https://danielgraybarnett.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/dgraybarnett.illo
T: @dgraybarnett

Editor’s note: Daniel is the guest speaker at the CBCA Tasmania AGM at 11.00 am on the 2 November 2019 at Hadley’s Hotel. RSVP tas@cbca.org.au
Visit https://www.cbcatas.org/ for details.