Welcome to the blog of the Tasmanian branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia!

Friday, 15 November 2024

Have you ever found a fossil?

Tasmanian author and illustrator, Fiona Levings, also has a PhD in Geology. Although no longer working in that field Fiona has expertly harnessed her experiences and knowledge to craft an informative and captivating picture  book to tell, in lyrical prose and amazingly detailed illustrations, the story of the mountain that embraces Hobart in its foothills. Fiona shares some of the challenges, planning, book design and illustrative techniques undertaken to capture a millennia of geological change in Before the Mountain had a Name.

Cover image of Before the Mountain had a Name

If you live in Tasmania, the chances are that you have. Three hundred million years ago our little state sat wedged between mainland Australia and Antarctica, part of the long coastline of the supercontinent Pangaea. At that time, Tassie lay within the southern polar circle and a large portion of it was covered by a cold, shallow sea that was teeming with life. Reefs of brachiopods and bryozoans competed for space with clams and mussels, sponges, corals and hungry snails. The fossilised remains of these critters are preserved in abundance in rock formations across the state, many of which are exposed in cliffs and platforms lining the modern shoreline. 

Permian-aged fossils including Brachiopod shells and Bryozoan colonies
are commonplace in rocks found across large parts of Tasmania © F Levings

The moment in time that is captured within these rocks is just one episode in the multi-billion-year history of this part of the world. Every bit of the Earth is the way it is today as a result of geological processes that have operated continuously at all scales – from continents colliding to slow drips of water – for the entire life of the planet. The complexity of this system is breathtaking and beautiful - even more so when you add in the biosphere and all of the things that grow, rustle, scurry, crawl and fly around the surface. It’s a lot to take in but understanding how our world formed is important, not least because it gives us perspective on our own species and the role we play within it. The trick, then, is to communicate the beauty of geology whilst dodging its overwhelm.

Page spread depicting The Permian Sea - how the mountain may have
appeared 300 million ago © F Levings

I am a geologist who is lucky enough to write and illustrate books for kids. For years I’ve wanted to ‘do one on rocks’ but couldn’t figure out how. The sense of wonder and curiosity that kids have regarding our world is such fertile ground - the more we can augment it with real understanding, the better. Geology is most commonly communicated to kids using fact books and these are super useful as they teach the language and concepts that underpin the science. There are also books that focus on periods in time (dinosaurs are pretty reliable) or specific processes (volcanoes, anyone?) and certainly lots and lots of books on fossils. However, what I wanted to do was to bring these concepts together and tell the story as a whole which, as we’ve seen, is a terrible idea because it’s huge and even if I could write it, who would ever read it?


Two things came to my rescue. The first was kunanyi, our beautiful mountain, which presented itself as a subject. To focus on just the mountain, a single piece of the earth, reduced the scale of the task enormously. The second was a discovery I’d made with my previous book Now and Then that a detailed illustration really is worth a thousand words.  And so, Before the Mountain had a Name, a picture book where each page spread is one moment in the history of one mountain, came into being. The story of the mountain gives us a glimpse into deep time and the many processes that combine to make our world the way it is - as well as a little bit of context for those wonderful fossils we find so often in its foothills. And whilst the book can be read as ‘just a story’, like all good geology adventures, the more you dig into these pictures, the more you will find. 

Hobart's beautiful kunanyi/Mt Wellington © F Levings

Fiona Levings

To learn more about Before the Mountain had a Name and access resources, activities and references for the book go to fionalevings.com.au 



Friday, 8 November 2024

Lost in a Good Book

When was the last time you were so immersed in a book that the world passed you by? Maureen Mann considers some possible criteria to bring on such a state of absorption and shares some titles have engrossed her. Can you think of others?


How often do you find yourself getting lost in a good book? For me, not nearly as often as I did as a child when I seem to remember spending all day engrossed in a story. Is it that stories are not as good? Or, more likely, I am aware of all the other things which need to be done. And I must admit that I can’t stay that still for such a long time anymore. But I can still get lost in a book. Or should it be the pages of a good book (L.R. Knost)? 


But what does this phrase mean? How does it happen? Where does it happen? 


Do you become absorbed by the quality of language and allow it to wash over you?


Do you create mental images of the landscape and characters, with the author allowing you to imagine yourself within the narrative?


Can you ignore the outside world – phones, TV, outdoor noises?


Do you have a secluded comfortable place to retreat to?


Does it happen if you read a book quickly? I think you have to read at your own pace without any pressure to get it finished or to complete a set number of pages. 


What sort of story works for you? We all have preferences which is why there is such a wonderful range of stories to read. 


For my adult reading, I love historical fiction, but it has to be accurate without anachronisms, and not told in the first person. I find myself becoming more and more critical, often because the author imposes 21st century values and expectations on the characters.

Can you get lost in a picture book? If the length of the story is a criterion, then no. But I think a picture book which one keeps thinking about, for whatever reason, has that power. Oliver Jeffers’ Begin Again works that way for me. Think Kelly Canby’s Timeless or A Leaf Called Greaf. Or Bernie Thinks in Boxes by Jess Horn.

Here are a few YR and OR novels which have come close to letting me lose myself.

Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan. It needs quite a lot of Irish history background for impact of the story to resonate fully. 


Puppet by David Almond. Puppet, the Pinocchio-like creature links Silvester with Fleur and Antonia allowing the 7-10 year old reader to explore life and death issues. 

Magicalia: Race of Wonders by Jennifer Bell. The first of a fantasy series: strong fantasy structure with some wonderfully imaginative magicores. 


My Brother Finch by Kate Gordon.  The setting, the Coal Mines near Port Arthur, are a character in themselves. Grief-stricken Wren has to learn to be whole and be friends again. 


Another Gary Crew Classic? In the Secret Place, Ben learns to cope with his disability and find strength, resilience and friendship. Another book where the location is a character.


We’d love to hear about books where you have recently been lost.

 

Maureen Mann
Retired teacher librarian and avid reader


Friday, 1 November 2024

Discovering Digger Digs Down

This week we welcome author Johanna Bell and illustrator Huni Melissa Bollinger to talk about their publication, Digger Digs Down published by University of Queensland Press. Recently settling in Tasmania, this dynamic duo have produced a delightful and exuberant story about how a dog, left alone for the day, entertains himself by … digging!

 

 

“Digger digs deep, deep into the ground. Down, down, down goes Digger until …”

(Digger Digs Down)


Jennie Bales speaks with Johanna Bell and Huni Bolliger

 

Johanna, how did the idea for this book come about?

 

When my daughter, Amara, was little, we used to make up stories and poems to pass the time. One morning she said ‘Digger digs’ and when I asked ‘Where does Digger digs?’ she said ‘Digger digs Down. Digger digs deep, deep into the ground.’ I loved the alliteration and the rhyming so I wrote it down on the back of a receipt and stuck it to the fridge. It was quickly covered by bills and school newsletters and forgotten. It was only when the fridge broke, five years later, that I rediscovered her words. I remember thinking ‘This would make a great picture book’ and not long after, I was at the computer finishing off the story. In short, this book wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t imagined the first lines. 

 

How has place influenced this book and how has your time in Tassie shaped the story? 

 

We both lived on Larrakia country (Darwin) before moving to Tasmania. Darwin is built on porcelanite, a sedimentary stone that has layers of pinks, purples, oranges and whites. Living somewhere where the rocks are so multicoloured certainly made it easier to dream up a colourful underground world. And Darwin, like other places, has a lot of bored dogs who are left in backyards while they’re owners are at school or work so there was no shortage of real life scenes to draw on. 

 

Some of the illustrations were done after moving to nipaluna / Hobart and this is where the inspiration for the rainbow came from. There’s so many rainbows in Hobart! 

 

Can you tell us about the relationship between Digger and his human?

 

The bond between a child and their dog is incomparable and we wanted to be able to show this early in the book. Together with our publisher, Cathy Vallance, we made a decision to use the title page to show Digger’s sadness at the departure of his human. We both have dogs and we know this moment when you head off to work and leave the dog in the backyard. The sad puppy eyes! Later in the book, when Digger hears his owner calling him from the surface, we see his entire disposition change. Even though he’s in the middle of an adventure, he lifts his ear and turns towards his owner’s voice. It’s almost as if he’s smiling. From that moment on, Digger is unstoppable. He’s set on finding his way back up to where he knows his human is waiting for him. He’s in such a rush he almost looks like a little orange whirlwind barrelling up and down, round and round. And when they’re reunited there’s such energy and joy and of course, a mutual love of digging. 

 

Johanna, how do you you’re your work? And were you influenced or inspired by other authors?

 

When I first started writing picture books, I made the mistake that lots of new writers make: I tried to tell the reader everything that was happening. I hadn’t yet realised that the illustrations would do most of the showing and telling. Now I trust the illustrator and their work which means I don’t need to use so many words. Digger Digs Down was a longer manuscript initially but when we laid it out with the illustrations we agreed that some of the lines could go. It felt as if we were telling the reader what to think rather than allowing them to come to their own conclusions. That’s a classic red flag for me. If you get any whiff that you’re being didactic, it’s got to go! 

 

I read a lot of poetry and I tend to gravitate towards poets and authors that use language sparingly. A couple who spring to mind (although they’re not children’s authors) are Max Porter, Ilya Kaminsky and Ellen van Neerven. Their writing inspires me in lots of ways. My greatest picture book hero is Margaret Wild because she writes across such a broad range of styles and forms. Her quiet, contemplative stories are just as engaging as her funny, playful work. When I grow up, I want to be just like her :) 

 

Huni, how would you describe your illustrative style in Digger Digs Down? What media and process have you used?

 

I think I would describe my illustrative style as ‘painterly’. I have used an Apple pencil with Procreate software on my iPad Pro to create all the illustrations. Because I come from more of a traditional art practice of painting and drawing, I tend to use digital tools in the same way that I would use real paint and pencils. Firstly, in Procreate I sketch the image with a digital led pencil, and then I use the various digital paint brushes and smudge tools to layer paints on top of each other to create the colours and textures. One of the delights of using digital tools instead of traditional materials, is the ability to create different lighting effects. I’m a big fan of using blend modes in Procreate to layer up different coloured lights to reflect the mood of the story.

 

One of the remarkable things about this book is the sense of motion. Huni, how have you created movement in the illustrations?

 

Animation is all about creating movement through incremental changes in images from one frame to the next, so I suppose I’ve spent many years studying the way things move in order to learn how to animate them. My own dog, Rufus, is quite a frantic digger, and a joyful playful dog with lots of golden fluffy hair. I watch him everyday as he gambols his way through life and at first I tried to break down his movements in my sketches to create the character of Digger. I found this very difficult and through the process I came to realise that a puppy is mostly a blur of flying hair and swinging ears and floppy tongue. When I stopped trying to be accurate in my drawings and just focus on the feeling and energy of a puppy, I was able to channel Rufus’s movement through frantic line work and messy paint.

 

Huni, the book is set largely underground but it’s actually very bright. How have you used light to achieve this? 

 

Light and colour are very important themes throughout the book, especially because Digger is following a rainbow. I wanted the illustrations to reflect the sort of luminescence and magical feeling that a rainbow emits. One challenge of illustrating a book that is predominantly set underground, is how to make it colourful and light. The idea that Digger is following a rainbow really helped me with this. It gave me the freedom to use my imagination and think about how the light and colours of the rainbow would look if they were funneled into a tunnel and mixed up underground. Suddenly the rocks don’t have to be brown, they can be multicoloured like a rainbow. I was also able to use the natural daylight streaming through a fissure in the rock to allude to the idea that Digger’s owner has come home and is calling him back to the surface. 

 

Huni, this is your first picture book. How did you arrive here?

 

I was always a mad keen artist as a child, constantly drawing and painting after school and on the weekends. What started as a hobby, then grew into a profession as I went on to study Fine Arts at university and then become a secondary school art teacher. I then went on to study multimedia and eventually complete a Masters of Film Television and Animation. 

 

I wrote and animated my own short films for many years. A highlight for me was having one of my films selected for the Hiroshima International Animation Festival which is one of the top animation festivals in the world. I couldn’t believe it! I met so many of my animation heroes in Hiroshima and I was completely thrilled to win the Special Jury Prize. 

 

One of my career ambitions had always been to work on a cinema released feature film, so I was very excited by having the opportunity to make the artwork and 2D animation for an Australian/New Zealand feature anthology called We Are Still Here. This film opened the Sydney Film Festival in 2022. On opening night, I snuck onto the red carpet and did a little happy dance - another career highlight.

 

I’ve been working my way down the career bucket list and next thing was to illustrate a children’s book. I couldn’t think of anyone better to do this with than the very talented Johanna Bell!

 

Johanna, which of Huni’s illustrations best captures the essence of Digger for you?  Why? 

 

Oh gosh, that’s a really hard question to answer because I love all the Diggers! I’d have to say the spread that reads ‘Up, down, up, down, round and round until …’ because in it Huni has captured Digger’s goofy enthusiasm and dig-before-he-thinks personality. I love the big Digger on the right-hand side; the way his ears are flapping and his fair looks like it’s moving. I still have no idea how Huni managed to make Digger look as if he’s actually digging. It’s rare in picture books to have such a strong sense of motion. That’s one of my favourite things about the book - the feeling that Digger is actually moving! 

 

Spread from Digger Digs Down by Johanna Bell & Huni Melissa Bolliger © 

The text in your book is laid out all over the place and really helps to emphasise a sense of movement. Was that intentional?

 

We’re pleased to hear you say this because there was a LOT of to-ing and fro-ing when it came to text placement. It’s incredible how moving a word even a few millimeters can make a big difference. We wanted to create a sense of Digger digging deep, deep down and because this wasn’t possible using landscape spreads we decided to flip the book every now and again to create a skinny vertical panel. It was really important to both of us that the text be placed in a way so as to emphasise the actions in the book. One example of this is the spread where Digger runs into the wombat. In this illustration the words are stacked and descending to create a sense of descent. On the spread where the Octopus helps Digger reach the surface the text goes up, emphasising the lifting motion. It’s always a risk to interrupt the conventions of text but in this case, the meaning in the story helps the reader navigate the sometimes unusual text placement. 

 

One of my favourite spreads is the one with the Octopus. It’s such a surprise to end up in an aquatic space. How did you get there?

 

The first draft of the story featured an underwater lake. Digger accidentally dug through the wall of the lake creating a water spout that shot him back to the surface. Clair Hume, (who was the publisher at UQP when the book was signed), wasn’t sure about this and challenged us to think about other things that might draw Digger back to the surface. We did a lot of brainstorming and at some stage we thought an underground whale might swallow Digger and then eject him through his spout. Yes, things got silly. But through all the weird ideas, we kept coming back to water; the idea of an underground aquifer. It’s not unfeasible but also open to lots of imaginative play. Originally the Octopus was a danger that Digger only narrowly escaped but then our new publisher, Cathy Vallance, encouraged us to think about a friendlier creature who could help Digger return to the surface. And so Huni’s gorgeous Octopus was born. There’s something about the large bodies of water that’s similar to underground worlds. They’re both vast and home to hidden worlds and creatures. Perhaps that’s why we couldn’t let go of the idea of an underground body of water. 

 

Huni, you dedicated the book to your husband. Can you tell us about that?

 

My dedication is actually a little ironic and a bit of a gentle stir towards my husband. I have always been a huge ‘dog person’ but when I finally met my life partner, to my horror, he didn’t like dogs! He sort of hated them actually. When we got married, I had accepted that I would probably never own a dog again but as a joke I would often say to him “when we get a dog …” He would just roll his eyes at me and look uncomfortable. Then one Christmas, to my absolute surprise, he gave me a card with a tiny Cavoodle puppy on the front and inside it said “I love you darling, let’s get a dog”. Of course he fell instantly and deeply in love with our little puppy. He’s a changed man and now he loves dogs! 

 

Do you two have another project in the pipeline?

 

We do! It’s set somewhere very, very cold but that’s all we can say at the moment. 

Johanna, Huni and Digger (image © Karen Harvey)

 

Digger Digs Down can be ordered online or from your local bookshop.


Johanna Bell’s website

https://www.johannabell.com/

 

Johanna Bell on insta 

https://www.instagram.com/johannabell__/

 

Huni Melissa Bolliger’s website 

www.hunib.com

 

Thursday, 29 August 2024

Make for Joy

© Blake Nuto
Perseverance is evident as Blake Nuto shares his love of story creation from an early age and his self-doubts about his illustrative abilities. With maturity came purpose – and the joy of expression through art. This passion is beautifully portrayed in his recent title, When You’re a Boy, shortlisted for the New Illustrator award in the 2024 CBCA Book of the year nominations.

 

When I was a boy, I loved drawing, playing, making. My brother and I would sit side-by-side for hours, as he made his Headless Chookens series and I made my Solar Mancomic. Solar Man was always foiled by a passing cloud. These were no works of genius and I didn’t care. I knew I wasn’t the best at drawing, not even in my primary class. I just loved the process of making them and then filing them away, never to be looked at again. Making art led to well-being. 

 

Through high school the standards changed. Not being the best still didn’t bother me, but my art grades did. I didn’t enjoy investing a lot of hours into something to get back a mediocre grade. This just wasn’t motivating for me. Friends' competitive comments didn’t help either. Suddenly, making art started to feel like a graded performance and I more or less gave up, dropping the subject as soon as I could.

 

Fortunately, this turn from art led to a deeper investment in writing, particularly songwriting and poetry. I found these formats limitless and playful and would constantly write short snippets purely for my own enjoyment. All the while, I looked on at painters with envy, knowing how lovely it would feel to run a paint brush across a canvas.

 

I was 28 when I thought I might make some art again. What motivated me was joy. In my 28 year old brain I was now too old to ever conceive of making it as an artist and I might as well just get back to making for delight. This remains the motivation behind my work. When this focus shifts is usually when I stop making art for a while.

 

Making for joy has usually led to my best ideas. My first book Child of Galaxies was written while I was marshalling a Cross Country event. I wanted to write something to read to my kids at night, something about the world. Within half an hour I had finished it. I didn’t know I had just written my first book, that it would go on to be published in the UK and US or translated into multiple languages. I didn’t know it would receive a Yoto Carnegie nomination. But I did feel really happy after writing it because I knew I wanted to share it with my kids. 

 

My second book, A Day That’s Ours started as a short poem for a friend. I offered to write some free poems for the first 10 people who asked for them. One friend asked me to write about her daughter starting school. It was easy to write, because my son was about to start school at the same time. This is what I wrote:



© Blake Nuto


I gave it to my friend and didn't think much of it, until my editor asked for some drafts for my second book. Suddenly, I knew I had the start of an idea. I would call it One Last Monday. My editor loved it and the idea developed until it became A Day That’s Ours.



I sold the concept for my third book to Affirm Press. It was just a scrap idea I wrote down on the bus after work. I was basically writing a note to self: It’s okay not be hyper-masculine. That’s not what your son needs you to be. I wasn’t trying to write an award nominated picture book, I was trying to work out my thoughts. 

 

After Affirm bought the text they were searching for an illustrator. When I shared a concept sketch online for a poem I’d written, just for fun, my editor saw it and asked me to draw some concepts for When You’re a Boy. So, I did and I landed the chance to illustrate my own book. 

Image from When You're a Boy © Blake Nuto

All this to say... amidst the striving and ambition, remember to play. To enjoy the process. To make for enjoyment. At worst you’ll have a good time. 




Blake Nuto
is a children’s author and illustrator based in Southern Tasmania. His titles include  When You’re a Boy, shortlisted for CBCA 2024 New Illustrator and the Queensland Literary Awards.

Instagram: @blake_nuto

Website: https://www.blakenuto.com/