SELF ESTEEM

It takes a whole heap of self-esteem to be a really effective villain.

In the 1970s, a dreadful myth was perpetrated by the likes of Roy Baumeister*. He maintained the worst thing that parents can inflict on a child is low self-esteem. Luckily, authors have never been led astray. They, like me, have recognised that the true villains of the world have excessive self-esteem.

Sometimes it manifests itself as truly despicable villains in the mould of Lemony Snicket's Count Olaf. I include Lian Tanner’s Flugleman in this group. In fictitious schools, the villain is often the beautiful bullying queen bee or her male counterpart, the jock, who delight in making it hard for our sensitive/bookish/nerdy/lunch-in- the-library protagonists. Think of pushy manipulative Holly in Fiona Wood’s Wildlife. These villains never seem to suffer self-doubt.

Of course modern psychology has moved on. It is now known bullies do not have low self-esteem. It is now known that there is no relationship between the view that individuals hold of themselves and their peers’ evaluations. It also cannot be presumed that those with low literacy skills have low self-esteem but we do know those who enjoy reading understand themselves and the world better whether they aim to or not.

Our heroes are all the more heroic because they do show humility and our villains more hateful because they do not. And is not it much more enjoyable when villains get their comeuppance?

*http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/25/opinion/oe-baumeister25

Richard Pickup

WANDERING IN ITALIAN BOOKSHOPS

Browsing Italian bookshops for children’s books and, in particular, a book for my 13 month old grandson, was a huge disappointment.  In La Feltrinelli (Italy’s biggest bookshop chain with over 100 bookshops across the nation, http://www.lafeltrinelli.it/) the children’s area was overflowing with Peppa Pig books and toys. While Peppa contributes greatly to my salary, (Fullers Bookshop Launceston has just won the 2013 ABC Centre of the Year), I wanted something ‘authentically’ Italian for young Nicholas.

Books for 0-3 year olds were mainly didactic with themes such as sharing, being polite, taking turns etc. Many books were character based chunky board books.  Where is Commercial Free Childhood (http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/) when you need it?

Books for 3-6 year olds included many colouring and sticker books and some books in translation – mainly from Australia and UK with names changed to “protect the innocent”.  Freya Blackwood’s Ivy loves to give is available as a hardback. Ivy has been renamed Lulu.  The few paperbacks were reminiscent of the design style of the 1980’s.

Older readers had many books in translation with a strong emphasis on classic titles such as Treasure Island, The Little Prince, etc.  Thankfully there were also the books by Geronimo Stilton (one of the few Italian authors I could find) as well as Rick Riordan and other best selling US and UK authors.

Mandragora (http://mandragora.it/) in Florence and La Toletta Librerie in Venice were free of character based books but had nothing for a very young child.

 

So what will Nicholas be reading?  Not Italian authors.

Favole di Espopo illustrated by Fulvio Testa (Einaudi Ragazzi)

64 page book but only sadly 51 pages of introduction and fables.

Dante’s Journey, An Infernal Adventure (Mandragora) by Virgina Jewiss illustrated by Aline Cantono di Ceva.  Jewiss is a lecturer in the humanities at Yale University and director of the Yale Humanities in Rome program.   I’ve never seen a picture book version of Inferno. 

Guido’s Gondola by Renee Riva illustrated by Steve Bjorkman (Waterbrook Press)

Another cautionary tale about consumerism and a young Italian gondolier rat named Guido.  Before anyone thinks I’m driven by moralistic aims, the real reason I bought the book – I liked the blue cover and Nicholas’s great grandfather is named Guido.

Nella Pickup

MORE EVACUEES

Having read Penny’s August blog about, among other titles, Vinnie’s war by David McRobbie (published 2011), I was inspired to read it myself.  And yes, I found it very rewarding.

 

I was brought to consider, yet again, how fertile a source of inspiration human conflict has been for writers over the centuries.  It is an enormous irony that death, displacement, injury, can provide such inspiration for literature.

And that, and Vinnie’s story, reminded me of Michelle Magorian and her novels set in the Britain of World War II and immediately after.  So I looked for my copies of Goodnight Mister Tom and Back home (I had to borrow a library copy of one of them, as I couldn’t find mine….).

Goodnight Mister Tom is Michelle’s first publication (1981), and it won the Guardian Award and the International Reading Association Award; a good start for a writer!  Back home came out in 1985 and is rather more polished, with the occasional sentimentality of Goodnight Mister Tom having been weeded out.

Both books deal with child evacuees and the culture shock they experience through their removal from their families and their lives as evacuees.  Willie is a child from the London slums, with none of the family support and love which was able to ameliorate the deprived conditions in which such children lived.  His new home is in a country village, where physical conditions are just as bleak, but the care and affection he experiences in the community enable him to turn his life around.  So for him, separation from his mother through forced evacuation to the country is a life-changing opportunity and advantage.

Rusty, the heroine of Back home, was evacuated to the USA at the beginning of the war – her family is upper middle-class and well-to-do.  However, her five years in America in the consumer society there insulate her from the conditions which those who stayed behind in Britain endured during the war years.  The drama of her story stems not only from the shock she experiences in returning to an England which is still enduring rationing, but also from the differences between her relaxed and loving family life in the US and the  stiff and narrow requirements of her own family to which she returns.  The adjustments required of her as a returning evacuee potentially result in an uncertain future.

Any teacher exploring the history of World War II would find these books of interest to a class of upper primary/lower secondary students, providing opportunities for enthusiastic discussion in many areas.

Patsy Jones

THE LIBRARY IN THE CLOUD

I have long held the opinion that e-books are here to stay. There is plenty of time still for wistful sighing over the smell of the printed page, or the way that books furnish a room with their testament to our good taste and cataloguing skills. Yes, paper books can be lent to our friends, and discovered on coffee tables by visitors. Yes, they don’t run out of batteries. Ever. I’m first in line to announce that when the zombies arrive to devour us all you’ll find me tucked in the nearest corner beneath a good old-fashioned bookshelf. But e-books are here to stay, and many of us with an eye to the budget of our addictions, the portability of our travel selections, and the ever-diminishing space on our shelves, are listening to anyone who promises to make getting hold of stories easier.

One of the first places we used to turn to for this sort of convenience was the library. Now our libraries are like us: navigating a new way of reading. This month I read an article in Locus by Cory Doctorow, (http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2013/09/cory-doctorow-libraries-and-e-books/), which discussed the difficult situation that libraries find themselves in. Doctorow reveals that libraries are paying premium prices for frontlist titles as e-books, and using expensive software such as Overdrive (used by our own state libraries here in Tasmania), in order to preserve restrictions from the publishers and prevent copyright infringement. This makes it even more difficult and sometimes impossible for libraries to do many of the things they have always done so well—interlibrary loaning, re-selling old stock as second-hands. Bizarrely, hold-waiting still remains, and books that could theoretically exist in almost infinite numbers are reduced to a single copy for which patrons find themselves in a queue. Most shockingly, Doctorow reveals that HarperCollins insists that libraries delete their e-books after they have been circulated 26 times – a projected parallel to how long a book might be expected to remain intact as a physical edition.

The concept of a “library in the cloud,” and a world of reading that can be accessed by any reader with an Internet connection, delights and fascinates me. But before that idea becomes a reality we first need to embrace the way that e-books can give new life to the landscape of reading—not ham-fistedly try to push the digital revolution into the world that already exists. There is great evidence to suggest that publishers would love us to embrace the e-volution of literature. But to convince us, they’ll need to start us off, and that means giving a better deal to libraries. After all, that’s where the readers are.

Ebook promotion

We’re moving into a world where ebooks are a common (and for some, preferred) format for reading. They’re convenient, portable, useful for those with vision problems, and often cheaper than their paper counterparts. I’m not going to go near the arguments over paper versus ebooks – there are positives and negatives for both, and personally I am happy to read either, although I do prefer one over the other in various contexts (ie: I prefer paper for children’s books and anthologies, happy to read novels on my reader or phone, etc). But whether we love them or loathe them, as a format ebooks are becoming a major force for readers. Libraries are grappling with how to deal with ebooks on a technical level, but we also need to think about not just how we get the into the “hands” of readers, but also how we even bring them to our patrons’ attention in the first place!

In a traditional library, staff showcase books, rotate them through face-out sections of shelves, create themed displays and use a myriad of other techniques to draw attention to books. We don’t have all of the same options with ebooks. There is no physical product to display, to thrust at patrons and gush over. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give ebooks the same push we do print.

So what are some ways we can promote our ebook collections? To start with, we can use some of the old methods, with just a little tweaking. Print off ebook cover art and blurbs in good-sized font and mix them into print book displays, with a logo that indicates the book can be borrowed from the ebook collection. Or showcase ebooks in a display of their own, to draw attention to the collection as a whole.

Moving on from the physical, use the library’s webpage, Facebook page or Twitter account to let followers know as new ebooks are added to the collection. Link to Goodreads reviews or have staff and patrons review them, on the digital library interfaces or in newsletters and other library publications. Make sure you select ebooks as well as print for your book clubs and reading groups. It could be worth creating genre-folders with covers and blurbs of ebooks, to raise interest and awareness in new ebook users – this will give you something to thrust at the eager readers and talk about with them.

Those are just a few ideas – would love to hear how others are promoting ebooks in their libraries!

Tehani Wessely 

A look at Icelandic sagas

It’s obviously the time for overseas travels. Penny’s blog last week told of her learning French and her use of children’s books to improve her fluency. I am focussing on Iceland.

I am in Canada, on our annual visit to our daughter and grandson, Gabriel, and it’s great to be sharing books in person with him, rather than doing it via Skype. Sharing via Skype is OK but there’s nothing like the close contact brought by snuggling together on the couch with a book.  He loves books and being read to. So much so, that now he’s started kindergarten (Canada’s equivalent to Prep) he says he doesn’t want to learn to read because that will mean people stop reading to him. Nothing we say is yet making him change his mind; we will continue to read aloud with him. It’s just the stories will become more complex and won’t be finished in a sitting. That is a hard concept for a five year old to grasp. Gabriel’s current obsession is with dinosaurs so those are the books, both fiction and non-fiction, we have to read and reread. Harry and the Dinosaurs at the Museum by Ian Whybrow is the one which he wants from all three of his adult readers – 8 to 10 times a day!

Most of my comments this time are about literature for adults which can be read by younger readers too. We travelled to Canada via Iceland and I spent some time re-reading English versions of the Icelandic sagas before we left home. However, they had far more meaning for me once I had an understanding of the landscape they were set in.  I am not a proponent of all young people having to reading myths and legends because I believe it’s only a certain kind of reader who will enjoy them. By and large I don’t enjoy them.  They are complex and fanciful, often with hard-to-remember names, though full of positive outcomes for the thoughtful reader.  But I would encourage people to have a go at the Icelandic sagas because they are such great family stories.

It’s thought that Iceland was settled by Vikings somewhere around the middle of the 9^th century AD. The new settlers came to a really harsh land with even shorter summers and longer winters than their original homeland, volcanoes and lava flows and geothermal activity. The sagas are family histories in prose format, describing events from the 10^th and 11^th centuries but written about two centuries later. They are wonderfully evocative and well-written stories, still very readable and relevant to our modern eyes.  One can imagine that most of the events happened as families struggled and fought to establish their new lives, with death and vengeance prominent themes. Unlike the Greek and Roman myths which can rarely be read literally, the Icelandic sagas show elements of truth and hardship. And most surprisingly many of the Middle Age manuscripts are still in existence.

There are many English language versions of the sagas. There’s a great website (which I used for my reading) devoted to the digital publication of the sagas: http://sagadb.org . This contains all the major extant sagas, many of which are translated into more than one language.  The Saganet website -- http://handrit.is  -- includes images of the original manuscripts.  Fascinating!

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/sagas/icelandic/index.html  has several of the more famous sagas available for free download.  If you would prefer to read the sagas in book form, there are many choices, translated over the past several hundreds of years. One of them, which I saw in Icelandic bookshops, was The Sagas of Icelanders. There are also smaller versions containing just one of the sagas, such as the one about Eric the Red or about Grettir the Strong.

Iceland has a very successful publishing industry. Have a look at these two articles if you want to know more about it. Baldur Bjarnason’s (an Icelandic expatriate blogger who lives in UK) opinion in 2011 can be found at www.thebookseller.com/feature/depth-icelands-book-market.html  and a 2013 interview with Alda Sigmundsdottir ( a writer and translator) at http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/investigating-icelandic-book-flood-qa-alda-sigmundsdottir#

Let me know what you think of the sagas.

Maureen Mann

Preparing for a holiday in France.....

We are about to embark upon the holiday of a lifetime which includes four weeks travelling around France. To this end, I have attended French classes for the past couple of years and although my French is still, at best, basic I am confident I can at least find my way around a menu or even a map.

My tutor uses a high school text in class but her advice was to find some French reading material; novels, newspapers, magazines, etc. which she said would help us with our translation and promote our knowledge of nouns. So, I acquired several books that I have gradually worked through over the months - but they're probably not quite what she had in mind...

I began with several beautifully illustrated children's picture books including the classic Blanche-Neige (Snow White). I then picked up a number of French fairytales including roule galette, a fabulous story about a rolling pie! Fortuitously and for me well-timed, our own Anne Morgan produced a French language version of her book The Sky Dreamer. The French title is Le bateau de reves, or The Boat of Dreams, and I have enjoyed reading Anne's wonderful picture book all over again, this time in a different language. And then finally I graduated to a novel - one we are all familiar with: Le magicien d'Oz (The Wizard of Oz).

I don't know why I thought it would be easier to read children's books, because it isn't. And I'm still struggling through the novel. But, I am learning so many new words and also discovering bits and pieces of the story I had long forgotten. Perhaps one day I'll graduate to adult novels in French, but for now, I'm just thrilled I have the excuse to read beloved children's stories once again.

Penny Garnsworthy

P.S.There are a couple of bookshops in Australia that sell French children's books (as well as adult books).

http://www.leforum.com.au/contents/en-us/d120.html

http://www.languagebooks.com.au/category/childrens-fiction-13000.do

Also, www.amazon.fr has a good collection of French children's books, particularly picture books

What’s in it (CBCA) for you? : why every parent, teacher, librarian and library aide should be a member of CBCA

Have you ever noticed how patchy our familiarity with trends becomes as we grow older?  Of course we are sentimentally attached to our own era of music, books and film; that is our own generational culture.  We remember that era in detail,  probably claiming that the current trends are rubbish and nowhere near as good as ‘when we were kids’!

If we have offspring we become quite well versed in that particular generation’s culture too, at least until the children become independent readers, thinkers and socialisers, then our knowledge goes into a black hole again.  This appalling sense of being out of touch is very apparent when you attend the Trivia evenings which seem so popular with fund raisers now and the vital question is to identify a song or a book you have never even heard of.

If you eventually become a grandparent the cycle begins again with a different set of trendy stories, songs, films and TV programs.  I was well versed in Noddy and Big Ears, Enid Blyton and ‘Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men’ from my own childhood. I learned to appreciate the Brambly Hedge series, Hairy MacClary, Bananas in Pyjamas and Narnia with my daughter and now have become an authority on Fireman Sam, all the Nick Bland books and the characters in Lightning McQueen and Despicable Me.

The point is, we all have these huge black holes in our cultural retinues because for most of us, unless we are full time students of youth culture, our busy lives don’t allow for more in depth or continuous knowledge.

As I repeatedly tried to emphasise to the trainee teachers in my lecture groups; one has to know and understand the ‘culture’ of the group of students with whom you are working if you truly want to relate to, bond with and therefore teach and inspire them. Now we all know that teachers are asked to do more and more within the curriculum every year, not to mention all the time taken up with testing and reporting against a million new criteria.  So unless a teacher is super human or can exist on very few hours sleep a day, when does the dedicated teacher keep up with what quality reading material is available for her/his pupils? Once upon a time, and I use the fairy tale cliché deliberately, a classroom teacher could rely on the good old school librarian whose job it was to survey, sample and stock the school library shelves with the best and most appropriate current literature.  The reality is that very few schools have the services of a full time school librarian now.  Library aides are doing a fantastic job of filling that huge gap in professional knowledge and expertise but very often those stalwarts are only employed part time so once again time to keep up with the trends is difficult.

Even more so if you are a parent and want to share and guide your child’s development. Parents need to keep up with the latest and best quality trends in their child’s world. However, the reality is that probably very few modern parents have the luxury of time to browse the library or bookshop shelves researching the latest and best literature.  How many of us abdicate the responsibility of guiding what our children read to their teachers, we hope, and as for viewing.... let’s hope the TV police keep things appropriate during peak kid’s viewing times!!

Well what does this have to do with being a member of CBCA?

If you are a teacher struggling to fit everything in and still have a personal life, or a school librarian/aide or a responsible parent wanting to give your children the best possible guidance and opportunity to develop, then this is where CBCA can assist.

It is CBCA’s objective to review, evaluate, advise and publicise information about quality children’s literature.  CBCA doesn’t just organise the annual Book of the Year Awards which showcase the very best of Australian children’s literature.

In Tasmania CBCA publishes a newsletter full of current information on publications, literary events, authors and illustrators and associated literary topics.

 For example if you live in Hobart:-

What are you doing for dinner on the Thursday 19^th of September?   Would you or your  children like to dine with Michael Gerard Bauer, author of Don’t call me Ishmael, The Running Man, Dinosaur Knights and many other books for young people, and hear him speak about his work? CBCA Tas is hosting a dinner for Michael Gerard Bauer at Rydges Hotel (Corner Lewis and Argyle Street in North Hobart) with room for 25. The dinner will be 6.30 for 7 PM. 

 RSVP to Jessie Mahjouri jessiemahjouri@gmail.com asap.

Besides publishing the free ‘Books to Keep Kids Reading’ booklet, CBCA Tas. has recently published a series of new pamphlets giving parents invaluable advice about the what and how of using books with children from babies to teenagers with IT and e books included.

CBCA National publishes ‘Reading Time’ which is full of reviews of current publications for children and young adults.  If you don’t have the time to read and evaluate the books, let CBCA do it for you. CBCA is neither a publishing house nor a book-seller therefore parents, librarians and teachers can rely on the integrity of the information being given. 

Through membership of CBCA, teachers and librarians have access to special publications of classroom materials, posters and promotional materials associated with the very best of the Book of the Year winners and notables.  CBCA not only reads, reviews and recommends quality literature but also constructs lesson materials, saving educators valuable time and effort.

Need I say more about how valuable CBCA membership can be to parents, teachers, librarians and library aides.  For more information go to the website www.cbcatas.org.au  and see that for a very small annual subscription you can fill in some of those black holes in your familiarity with youth culture, at least the literary part.

Carol Fuller

PS.  Teachers, encourage your Principal to sign up your school as an institutional member.