Graphic Novelisations - from Tehani Wessely

As a teacher librarian, one of the things I’ve done in all my schools has been to build up the graphic novel section of the collection. I’ve read comics since I was a kid, though never on a serious fan level; I would read a cereal box rather than nothing, so anything with words that told a story was a bonus for this kid from the country.

I loved Teen Titans, Wonder Woman and Batman and the Outsiders, X-Men and Firestorm and Dial ‘H’ for Hero and Archie and Garfield and anything else I came across, really! Back then, I was a fairly scattershot reader, mainly because I read so much I was always searching for new material. I’m a little more discerning now (no, really!) but I still like comics (though I generally read trade editions now) and I’m a big fan of the graphic novelisation.
 

While there are many excellent original graphic novels, and hundreds of trade compilations of comic issues every year, the graphic novelisation of popular books particularly appeals to me because it can be a gateway for readers into the “real” books. I’ve had several successes with students reading the first few volumes of graphic novels and then moving onto the original books because they don’t want to wait for the next installment, or simply because they want more story. It’s excellent!

I’ve seen brilliant graphic versions of classic works, including multiple versions of Shakespearean plays, stories from Jane Austen, Dracula, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes, but easier sells to kids are adaptations of current popular books. I’ve read a number of great graphic versions that I can personally recommend (for the appropriate ages), such as:

Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz
Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (I’m not a huge Twilight fan, but the art in this is beautiful, and NOT inspired by the film, which I really liked!)
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore
Percy Jackson by Rick Riorden
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Daniel X: Alien Hunter by James Patterson
Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan (the Darren Shan saga)

Others I haven’t yet got my hands on that look really interesting include:

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Discworld graphic novels by Terry Pratchett
City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

One note of caution: by nature, graphic novels can be a bit more confronting in terms of violence and nudity than the source material, so it’s worth previewing books which may have questionable content. Sometimes it’s played down in the art, other times it is front and centre, so checking books out is essential.

 

Enjoy!

 

Tehani Wessely is the current Tasmanian Children's Book of the Year Judge.

Midwinter at Varuna

I am writing this blog on my last morning of a three week stay at Varuna – The Writers’ House in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. What a gift Varuna is! It’s a wonderful place to work; it’s both restful and intense and you feel you are being helped on every level. Writing is such a difficult business – there’s the excitement of endless possibilities at the beginning of a book, and the relief and satisfaction at the end, but the time in between – the two or three years that it takes to make a story – is rough going, so a place like Varuna is much appreciated.

It’s so important to get out and about, I find, both as a Tasmanian and as a children’s book writer, and although Varuna is a retreat, it’s a rich experience socially. Days are silent (except for the screech of cockatoos) but evenings are full of conversation in which you get to visit other genres and other worlds – Zhiling Gao’s memoir about growing up in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution; Kerri Melehan, the sleep scientist’s PhD on sleep and sex; Graham Nunn’s 70 love poems to Eleanor Dark; and much more – biography, romance, fiction, creative non-fiction. It’s a diverse mix. I’ve been the only children’s author here in the last three weeks and certainly the only person working on a comic book.

My writing desk and props and the view from my window at Varuna.

It’s strange the way the details of your environment creep into the story. In the outline of my book there was no mountain retreat, no mist and fog, no 999 steps into a ravine and no elderly women sitting in cane chairs taking the air as they look over a breathtaking escarpment, but they are all in there now.

The days are long ­– 12 working hours ­–  but I’ve had time off: a coffee with local illustrator, Beth Norling, who did the pictures for my Little Else books; and a trip to Sydney for a SCBWI meeting presided over by the ebullient (I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use that word) Susanne Gervay, who surely must have a parallel career as a standup comic. I went to the meeting to hear Margaret Hamilton speak of her journey through picture books from librarian to bookseller, publisher and writer, and a few days later visited Pinerolo Children’s Book Cottage at Blackheath. A summary of Margaret’s talk can be viewed at: http://scbwiaustralianz.com/national-blog.

So, all in all, a rich midwinter. Many thanks to Varuna and the Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship for the opportunity to spend time creating, exploring and expanding.

Julie Hunt

Please have your say!

Please have your say!

I am sure that you are all aware that the CBCA has a new management structure. Gone is the rotating 2-year National Executive term, which had its own strengths, but also many weaknesses. Instead, we now have a National Board, made up of one representative from each of the eight branches, the past National President, and a rep. from each of the following : Reading Time, the Awards Foundation, the Lu Rees Archives. The new structure may well have its weaknesses too but we are doing our best to minimise them. And hence this blog.

I am the Tasmanian representative, chosen after our original delegate Angela Briant was elected President of the National Board. In that role, Angela is non-partisan so Tasmania needed another voice. We have been working hard since the CBCA AGM last November. The National Board meets regularly by teleconference as it’s far too expensive for us all to travel to one venue for a monthly meeting, but we have had one face-to-face meeting since the last AGM in November 2012, and another is planned for August before this year’s AGM in November.

A lot of the progress has been administrative: putting in place good governance and organisational strategies to take CBCA well into the 21^st century. I would like to acknowledge all the work done within the Governance and Constitution portfolios. But of course, the Book of the Year Awards process is well underway. The Australian young people’s book world is looking forward to the announcement of the CBCA winner and honour books in Canberra August 16. The next round of judging has started too, and the judges are into their demanding reading schedule.

The next major National Board task is a strategic planning day to be held at Pinerolo in the Blue Mountains at the end of July. Thanks to Margaret Hamilton for making her children’s book cottage available. For this, each board member is canvassing opinion from his or her branch membership and will be completing the same questionnaire. And so, if you would like to contribute, please do so. If you are not a CBCA member, your opinion will still be welcomed, but could you include this within your response, and please seriously consider joining CBCA and helping to promote all the organisation’s aims.  Please send your comments to maureen.mann@cbca.org.au by July 18. No names will be included so it will be completely anonymous, except the compiled report will show that it comes from Tasmania. After July 18, it will be too late to give me time to collate it and send it on.

There are 5 major areas, where I would like to hear your opinions. If you don’t have an opinion for one or more I’d still like to hear from you. Your response can be as informal or as formal as you would like. And your point of view does matter. Please try not to be one of the silent majority.

1.       What does the CBCA do?

List all the things you think the CBCA does or should do at the National level. List everything that comes to mind – no matter how insignificant. (This will help the planners determine what outside help we may need.)

2.       As an individual, what do you think ought to be the aims and objectives of the CBCA National Board?

3.       As an individual, what do you think should be the main priorities for the National Organisation for the next 3 to 5 years?

List the 5 (or less) most important goals that you consider need to be addressed.

4.       To assist with the process of a Risk Assessment, please list all risks that you perceive are facing the CBCA.

(Definition: A Risk can be broadly defined as any event that has an impact on the realisation of the CBCA’s stated objectives. Significant areas of risk include those that may reasonably present a risk to the CBCA's key assets: reputation, people, finances, infrastructure, and intellectual property.) 

5.       SWOT. This is made up of 4 subsections. The aim is to look at Strengths and Weaknesses as internal matters and Opportunities and Threats as external influences.

A.      Strengths

What does the CBCA nationally do well?

What unique resources can we draw on?

What do others (branches and other organisations) see as our strengths?

B.      Weaknesses

What could we improve?

Where do you consider we have fewer resources than others?

What are others likely to see as weaknesses?           

C.    Opportunities

What opportunities are open to us?

What trends could we take advantage of?

How can we turn our strengths into opportunities?

D.      Threats

Keeping your list of Risks in mind, please answer these questions:

What are our weaknesses?

What are other organisations in our market doing?

What threats do our weaknesses expose us to?

I realise that asking you to respond to all these points is a fairly daunting task and that some of the answers will contradict each other. Despite that, I really would appreciate hearing from as many people as possible. I’ll be happy to receive a single sentence answer but will also be delighted if anyone has the time to write several pages’ worth.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts. Many thanks to those who take the time to send me something.

Until next time, and thanks to http://www.freestockimages.org for some of the images

Maureen Mann

Mem Fox and memory

 

I have been reading Pieces of light: the new science of memory by Charles Fernyhough.  It is one of the oddities of life that I happened to be reading a book about something that subsequently became important.  My father is 96 and his short term memory is not what it was. When discussing something that occurred a year ago, he can remember it quite well; however, any explanation about the current status of that matter has to be repeated so many times we end up with sore throats.

If put on the spot and not given the chance to reflect, many people would describe memory as a sort of video recording. On reflection, this is nowhere near the truth.  I, probably like most people, can remember my first day at school. However, who can remember anything about the 7^th or 15^th or any of the hundreds of nondescript days of our schooling. To tell the truth, I do not remember the first day at school. I only really remember going home at lunchtime and the fuss I caused because I was supposed to have lunch at school.

One of my recent duties for my father has been to construct a time line. It is surprisingly difficult. Mostly it depended on events coinciding with other events with known dates e.g. niece’s weddings, did it happen in the old car or the new etc.

However, true remembering is best explained by Mem Fox in Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge (Scholastic). Memories are as Miss Mitchell explains “something that make you laugh, my darling” or Mr Tippet says “something that makes you cry, my boy” and to Mr Drysdale “are precious as gold”. 

Emotions are the handle by which you catch those memories time and time again. Photos and other memorabilia enable the memories to be reinforced (and sometimes invented).  When Dad looked at the photo of himself and me taken at least 60 years ago (my dad is the one on the right) he could tell me how important the hat was to me yet I have no recall at all. The sad thing to me is that though I read Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge to my children many times I did not really understand its message until now.

Richard Pickup

So you want to be a wizard?

A ten-year-old grandchild and I have been reading Sage Blackwood’s book Jinx the wizard’s apprentice, both of us with great enjoyment.  The cover indicates it’s a new series, and I look forward to the sequels.  It’s a story which references some of the well-known and not-so-well-known European myths – there’s a witch who travels by butter-churn (though her churn can’t possibly be the same as the one I had to use to help my mother make the butter – ours would not have bounced along leaving single indentations in the track, for one thing!), and a little girl who wears a red cloak and hood on her way to visit her grandmother…..

But it set me thinking about several books I’ve read in the last few years about wizards and their apprentices.  So I found my copy of Volume I of the Flaxfield Quartet, Dragonborn, by Toby Forward, and my copy of Hilari Bell’s The wizard test, and have spent some hours dipping into them to remind myself of their stories.  Actually, Toby’s final volume of the series is not yet out (look for it in September 2013), and it’s such a complex tale that I’ll have to read the others again (perhaps if I start with Dragonborn in late July?) to get myself ready for the final title.

If you’d like to be apprenticed to a wizard, it will help if you know how the

three heroes (yes, sorry, they’re all boys) Jinx, Dayven (The wizard test), and Sam (Flaxfield, of course) even got to be noticed as potential wizards.  Well, it seems to be a matter of luck.  Jinx was abandoned in the Urwald (a magical wood) by his uncaring guardians and rescued by a wizard (Simon) whom he met on the path; he recognised the ‘ripples of magic’ pouring off the man – that’s one way to be noticed.  Dayven’s community routinely tested all boys on their fourteenth birthday; and Sam was ‘adopted’ at the age of three by Flaxfield who recognised the magic he had inside him (but that’s all we’re told).

How does the initial recognition move to an apprenticeship?  For Sam, three years after his ‘adoption’ he was offered a contract to sign – as an apprentice, for twelve years he would learn everything Flaxfield knew, and could then go out and work for himself.  Dayven’s power was recognised during his test; he refused to be a wizard initially but after working with Reddick, his assigned tutor, and learning many things besides spells, he realised that being a wizard was his future.  And Jinx?  He was saved from the trolls by Simon, then accepted Simon’s offer of a home and employment – he didn’t have much choice, did he?

All three of these apprentices were fortunate in their masters and were treated with care and respect, with suitable tasks and teaching.  No doubt some stories tell of evil and sadistic masters   – and Sam and Jinx witnessed and experienced some examples of these at various times. Sam was particularly unfortunate, as kindly Flaxfield died halfway through his apprenticeship, and he had to seek a new master.

If you haven’t read any of these, do make a start – Jinx is particularly enjoyable and approachable for upper primary, lower secondary children who enjoy fantasy.  The Flaxfield books are complex – their chronology is not consecutive so they present a challenge to young readers.  Perhaps Volume 4, Starborn, will clarify the series.  And Hilari Bell has provided quite a short but nonetheless interesting story with The wizard test.

Jasmine’s comments on Jinx the wizard’s apprentice

I liked Jinx because it has lots of adventure, and it also is the type of book I enjoy.  I think it is a great book for people around my age, but it is good for all ages.  I also like it because it was about magic, wizards, and witches – they are the kind of things I like reading.

Patsy Jones

Appreciating picture books... and why adults should read them

As an adult without regular access to young children, I don't tend to read many picture books, even though I appreciate the amount of work that goes into them and the amazing talent of our authors and illustrators.

But over the past couple of years I've acquired several very different picture books which I have not only enjoyed, but which have stayed with me. No doubt many of you will have read them too, but I thought they were worth a reminder.

One Small Island by Alison Lester and Coral Tulloch details the history, environment, nature, issues and solutions for Macquarie Island and is complemented by a huge variety of factual and interesting illustrations. I learned so much.

Anne Morgan's book The Sky Dreamer deals with childhood loss in a sensitive and caring  way and Celine Eimann's illustrations enhance the ethereal quality of the story. Children or adults suffering from grief would benefit from reading this moving story. And for someone who has been learning French for several years, I appreciated the French translation as well. 

Wilbur, written by Phil Cummings and illustrated beautifully by Amanda Graham, is a very simple rhyming story about a little dog. But it is unique, because the text is provided in several different languages in each printing. My version is written in English, Dinka, Hindi, Khmer and Nuer - what a resource for adults to use with their children.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore was written and illustrated by

American author, illustrator and film maker William Joyce and inspired his Academy Award winning short film. It’s a wonderful yet simple story about books and acceptance and the illustrations are, well, fantastic. I have read this book again and again.

Picture books may primarily be the domain of children, but I for one will continue to read and enjoy them as an adult!

Penny Garnsworthy

Serendipity or maybe just coincidence

Lyndon’s blog last week spoke about the many dysfunctional parents in YA literature. While he was writing I was at Reading Matters listening to similar discussions. There are many bloggers who have written full and informative reports so I won’t try to reproduce those blogs. Instead, some random comments (in random order) sparked by the many wonderful and some not so wonderful discussions over the two days.  

 

First the not so wonderful:

• hearing more than one delegate complain that they haven’t had time to read “real books” – YA are real books  - often much better reading and better written than adult books

• hearing a Grade 12 creative writing student say she was no longer reading YA as she couldn’t cite it in her school work

• hearing about Keith Gray and Dianne Touchell being disinvited to speak at prearranged events as their books might offend parents

Among the wonderful:

• A reminder about Maureen Johnson’s blog on book covers that became larger than life: Maureen Johnson's Blog

• Listening to Gabrielle Williams describe her journey into the Melbourne drains (reminiscent of Cassandra Clare’s urban exploration and just as humourous)

• The 18 instructions on how to use a ladder

• Discovering new authors (new to me) Tim Sinclair and Keith Gray

• Seeing the YA team beat the emerging writers in the debate on Friday night – thanks to an excellent reading by Libba Bray 

• Realising I’d read half of the Inky’s longlist: Inky's Longlist

And now to read some the rest.

Nella Pickup

 

Mum? Dad? What's with all the dysfunctional parents?

I have been noting in my judge’s talks over the last couple of weeks the way that adults become increasingly fallible as you move up the age ranges of children’s literature. In early childhood offerings, parents are almost universally loving, authoritarian and righteous. As we move up the ranks they - and all adult figures of authority around them, including teachers – are increasingly quirky, useless and broken.

Firstly, I wonder if there is a connection between the buyer and the product here. After all, if I’m purchasing a picture book for my children (we’re dealing in the realm of the hypothetical here!) I’m unlikely to choose one called My Weird Lying Dad. Similarly, a good teen reader is probably not going to be hugely enthused by a novel in which a sweet old granny tells her granddaughter exactly what to do at every point and is immediately obeyed. But at the same time, what are the implications here?

It’s a repeated theme in literature to kill the parents off and let the orphaned children roam free. Parents are a drag; they have too many rules and too much control to come along on a real adventure in which the children are at the centre. But in modern YA it’s far more likely that the parents are present and are instead indifferent: they have demanding and consuming jobs, drinking problems, or they are out all the time.

One of the common criticisms that I’ve heard about the shortlisted Creepy & Maud by Dianne Touchell is the complete lack of a functional adult support network for the very damaged main characters. Is it – it has been asked – okay to represent this as common, or even normal? It’s a complicated issue, and I don’t pretend to have the answer. I think on one level a book is not a tool to give moral guidance. Certainly there are functional adults in the world, but the reader may not be one of those lucky enough to be surrounded by them, and there may be comfort in recognising that characters can find hope without them. At the same time, it is always nice to have at least one character that can be of genuine value to our protagonists. What a sad thing a world without a single worthy adult in it can be.

There is only one thing that I know for sure, it’s not over. YA readers aren’t stupid – they know that sometimes adults fail them, and fail them in terrible and damaging ways. The dysfunctional parents are here to stay. When they’re around, anyway.

Lyndon Riggall