Mann Meets World (or what Maureen did in Canada) ...

I am lucky enough to have spent several weeks this year overseas, including Canada visiting my daughter and grandson. While travelling I tend to read easily-accessed adult books, such as mysteries and detective fiction – I haven’t yet joined the ebook reading brigade. Of course, as many book lovers do, I try to spend time in bookshops wherever I go: to see what’s there, especially in the children’s/young adult area, and which Australian authors have managed to get international rights. Sometimes in non-English speaking countries, the range of English language titles isn’t very wide, and that’s to be expected. But there’s always the exception to this statement and it’s always a wonderful surprise too. And I find it really encouraging when the English-language titles are not just the classics, but reflect in a small way what’s being published.

Moncton

Our daughter lives in Moncton, a town similar in size to Launceston, on the east coast of Canada. There, I had the opportunity to chat with the manager of the children’s/young adult section of the national chain bookshop. It is now essentially the only bookstore in the city. Of course, there are other places which sell books but they tend not to specialise and stock relatively little for children. The children’s section is vibrant and interesting to look at. There is a huge stock across all sections, books are arranged in clear categories but there is no allowance for picture books for older readers. For example, Lemony Snicket’s brilliant 13 Words is shelved in the 3-5 section but it has so much to offer readers older than this age range, and therefore might be missed.

One of the answers gave confirmation of my impression that almost everything in North America is first published in hardback format and the paperback comes later. It has always surprised me that publishers of young adult, and to a lesser extent titles for younger readers, still present books in hard covers. I know from my years as a teacher librarian that most Australian (and can I therefore extrapolate North American?) YA readers prefer paperbacks. Her comments lead me to believe it’s because adults prefer hardback books, assuming that they are going to be long-lasting titles. And what publisher doesn’t believe/hope that this will happen to each one of their publications? What do you think?

So what did I see interesting on the shelves? Colleen Houck’s Tiger’s Curse has a great cover. Emerald Atlas (John Stephens) is a well-developed and hefty 417 paged fantasy novel for younger readers. Loved the cover, which reflects the emerald theme. Tim Wynne-Jones’ new YA urban thriller is Blink & Caution: another title which attracted me by its cover. It may challenge readers with its use of second and third person narrative but I am going to have to get myself a copy. I found a new James Rollins Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx so that’s gone onto my must-read list too. Blood Red Road (Moira Young) is a gripping fantasy with a great story line and which will challenge the reader because of the narrator’s vernacular voice, with its lack of accepted grammar rules.

Picture books are my favourite genre so I always spend lots of time in this section. Frank Viva’s Along a Long Road was a delightful cycle journey, using a very limited colour palette of black, pale blue, a dash of red and cream with the road in gloss yellow. I was a little bothered by the lack of commas or full stops though! I thoroughly enjoyed Cats’ Night Out (author Caroline Stutson, illustrator Jon Klassen) which won the 2010 Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award for illustration in an English language book. I’m not sure how the reader (and judges) can separate words and pictures in a good picture book but this award only goes to the illustrator, not the joint production. The book has wonderful digital illustrations of pairs of cats sashaying in alleys and across rooftops as well as unexpected details, complemented by Stutson’s sophisticated rhyming text which introduces the reader to many forms of dance and music: blues, hip hop, rock and more. It’s a firm favourite of mine, although it remains in Canada. Rob Scotton’s mischievous cat Splat is one of my favourites so I enjoyed his new title, Splish, Splash, Splat. Splat joins Spike at the pool and is not happy about getting into the water but discovers that he and Spike may have more in common than he thought. Slightly Invisible returns Charlie and Lola to our shelves with Lauren Child’s trademark format of varied fonts and page design.

There were a few Australian authors to be found in the children’s/YA sections too. Several titles from the following authors: Mem Fox, Graeme Base, Markus Zusak, Garth Nix (including his new adventure title Trouble Twisters, written with Sean Williams which Kate reviewed last week), Emily Rodda, Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier, John Marsden’s Hamlet and Ophelia, (Hamlet, A Novel in Australia). Nicholas Bland was in both the English and French section. One of my favourite illustrators, David Mackintosh, now living in UK, has a new picture book: Marshall Armstrong Is New To Our School which is about settling in to a new school.

Happy reading to you all!

- Maureen

Is 2011 The Year of Awesome Bookness?

Jeepers this year has been a big, big year for awesome books! Anybody who reads my blog will know I went a bit loopy over the heartbreakingly beautiful Black Painted Fingernails and the glorious Dangerously Placed, but they are just two of the many incredible books I've been lucky enough to have taken into my home, my life and my heart in this fabulous year for reading!

I use the social networking website Goodreads to keep track of what I've read. It's a wonderful platform for discussing, reviewing and recording your reading life. I love looking back at the end of a year at all the books I've read and how many stars I've given them. This year, my "read" list is already crammed with four and five star reads. My five star reads include A Pocketful of Eyes by Lili Wilkinson - a wickedly funny mystery set in the taxidermy lab of a natural history museum in Melbourne; Burn Bright, a dark, unsettling, sensual fantasy novel by Marianne de Pierres; Withering Tights, a helter skelter madcap romp of a story by Louise Rennison; and Angel, a refreshing, disturbing, innovative addition to the canon of paranormal novels featuring angels.

And today I finished another five star book. It's called Troubletwisters and it's a truly delicious, odd and sparklingly magical novel by the always marvellous Garth Nix and a writer I can't wait to read more of, Sean Williams. The story centres on twins, Jaide and Jack, who are sent to live with their mysterious Grandma X following a bizarre storm at their house, and the disappearance of their strange, wonderful father. Upon arriving at Grandma X's house, the twins discover both their grandmother and her house are magical, mysterious and possibly dangerous. They discover that they themselves have talents and gifts that are at the same time exciting and terrifying. They discover talking cats, secret doorways, crocodile skulls with a taste for human fingers, hypnotic hot chocolate, possessed weather vanes and, most frightening of all, eerie, white-eyed creatures who can speak inside their minds. The creatures and Grandma X call the twins "troubletwisters". But what is a "troubletwister"? And why are Jack and Jaide so important to Grandma X, to the creatures, and to the fate of the planet?

This was a completely gorgeous read - dark and mysterious; funny (often blackly so, particularly where the cats and the snapping crocodile skull are involved), quirky and innovative. I would expect nothing less from Nix, a writer who has compelled me since I was the age of Jack and Jaide. So many books have come out in recent years with an obvious sole goal of becoming the "Next Harry Potter". This book deserves that title, yet (thankfully) doesn't seem to strive for it. With the Harry Potter film franchise wrapping up, it would be wonderful if this series (the second novel is previewed at the back of this book), could be a successor. I hope it catches on. It deserves to.

It's such an exciting time in children's and young adult literature right now. I think, in years to come, we will look back on this time as a "golden age" of the genre. Sometimes I wish I was a teenager again, so I could read all of these incredible books with teenage eyes. Mostly though, I'm glad that these books are around for me to read an an adult. They prevent me from ever having to grow up. Thank heavens for that. Wouldn't growing up be a horrible thing to have to do?

There's only one trouble with all of this. Now I've finished Troubletwisters, which of the many, many books on the pile beside my bed do I read next? Whichever I pick, though, I'm sure if it's a 2011 publication it's going to be something pretty special. Because jeepers this is one heck of a year!

- Kate Gordon

Notes From The President

Life Inside "The FAYZ" (Gone series - Michael Grant, Egmont, 2009)

Lana :

Lana read a lot now. There were still plenty of books in the FAYZ. Almost no music, no TV or movies. Plenty of books. She read everything from fun chick lit to heavy, boring books.

Astrid :

It wasn’t a book she’d ever have read back in the old days. She wouldn’t have been caught dead reading some silly teen romance. Back then she’d have read a classic, or some work of great literary merit. Or history.

Now she needed escape. Now she needed not to be in this world, this terrible world of the FAYZ. Books were the only way out.

I can’t make up my mind about this series – and I hear there are two more titles still to come! It’s definitely a ‘can’t-put-down’ story. But does the author have an overall plan, or does he just snatch ideas, each more horrible than the last, out of his imagination when things in the FAYZ might be approaching some sort of equilibrium? And I wonder if the series has been used in the classroom at all? A confident teacher might find it an interesting basis for philosophical or ethical or even economic discussion –but I don’t think I could!

Life Without Libraries?(Resurgence July / August 2011, Issue 267 and Philip Pullman)

I do some volunteer work at a little special library (see its catalogue at http://203.55.91.173/cgi-bin/koha/opac-main.pl) and was preparing the latest copy of this British journal for the shelves when I noticed it contained an article by Philip Pullman (remember His dark materials?).

There seem to be the same public service cuts scheduled in Britain as we are facing here – in Oxfordshire (Philip’s home area) the County Council has had the bright idea that libraries can stay open if they are staffed by volunteers, and their communities can bid against each other for the funds required to maintain the libraries. An interesting thought! Below are some of the paragraphs in his article which I found particularly noteworthy.

‘Does he [Keith Mitchell, leader of the County Council] think the job of a librarian is so simple that any old body can step up and do it for a nice thank you and a cup of tea? Does he think that all a librarian does is to tidy the shelves? And who are these volunteers? Who are all these people whose lives are so empty; whose time is so free, who have no families to look after, no paid jobs to do, no responsibilities and enough wealth that they can commit many hours of every week to working for nothing?’

and

…..’one of the few things that make life more bearable for the young mother…..is a weekly story session in the local library, the one just down the road.

She can go there with the toddler and the baby and sit in the warmth, in a place that’s clean and safe and friendly, a place that makes her and the children welcome. But does she or any of the other mothers or any of the older people who all enjoy and use the library have the social confidence, political connections, administrative experience or even the spare time and energy to enable them to become the volunteers that will keep the library open?’

Have a look at the complete article at http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article3417.html - you’ll find it well worth reading.

- Patsy Jones

Penny Reads Like An Egyptian ...

I'm just back from Melbourne, my prime motivation for being there to visit the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. You see I'm an Ancient Egypt tragic so this was one exhibition I wasn't going to miss. And what an extraordinary experience it was - to be able to stand before beautiful, priceless artifacts that are well over 3,000 years old!

 

In the weeks leading up to my visit a friend offered to lend me a children's novel set in Ancient Egypt and naturally I jumped at the chance. The Golden Goblet was written by American Eloise Jarvis McGraw back in 1964 and it is definitely a classic. Eloise's research was meticulous and her descriptive narrative had me completely immersed in the atmosphere and culture of that incredible era, right from page one. So enthralled was I that I have ordered my own copy and a copy of her 1953 book Mara, Daughter of the Nile, which I can't wait to read.

 

Of course we have our very own Aussie children's author who specialises in ancient civilisations. Geoffrey McSkimming has travelled all over the world to research his wonderfully entertaining series which features 'that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet' Cairo Jim. Books from the series have been translated into many languages and are sold all over the world. How could you not pick up a book entitled Cairo Jim and the Secret Sepulchre of the Sphinx or Cairo Jim and the Rorting of Ramses' Regalia or even Cairo Jim and the Sunken Sarcophagus? I've just finished reading Cairo Jim Amidst the Petticoats of Artemis, yet another rollicking adventure that had me grinning from start to finish.

 

But for those of us who like something a little more contemporary, I did read Caroline Graham's Murder at Madingley Grange from my Kindle at every opportunity whilst travelling to, from and around Melbourne. Here is an author who just has a way with characters, who gives them such personality, such vibrancy that by the end of her books I feel as if I've actually met them.

 

Aren't books a delight? Happy reading everyone! 

- Penny Garnsworthy

Not Enough Shades of Grey - Jenni Connor reviews Nineteen Minutes

When I’m travelling, I like to read something ‘escapist’; something I wouldn’t cry about if lost en route.


So, I took my copy of Nineteen Minutes with me recently to Cairns, Brisbane and Melbourne – don’t get the envies, I was travelling for work; though I did enjoy the warm weather at the beginning; Brisbane was really cold!


The novel, which echoes the Columbine High School ‘massacre’ in 1999, employs Picoult’s trademark, successful formula:

• Highlight an issue – access to guns and the impact of bullying
• Set the scene for a debate
• Introduce a set of characters who are likeable, but flawed
• Canvas their relationships and tensions
• Build to a courtroom drama finale

Why then, didn’t this title work for me?


Maybe the issue – of a teen high school killer who wipes out ten kids and wounds 16 more – did not have enough shades of grey. However bullied he might have been (and he was), nothing in the plot or characterisation quite justifies the slaughter he perpetrates.


Maybe the relationships between characters were too forced? And, maybe the characters overall, weren’t likeable enough?


Is it feasible that the judge and the midwife become firm friends and then, without further discussion, fall out over the issue of family gun policy? Is it stretching probability that the prosecuting detective ends up in bed with said judge?


Maybe the inevitable Picoult-style sting in the tail – when it turns out that more than one person had their hand on the trigger – is insufficiently explained?


So, does this mean I didn’t enjoy the book? No, engagement and detachment are two sides of the literary coin and experienced readers slip in and out of total absorption and critique quite comfortably; that’s the trick we want younger readers to acquire.


I might try something with a bit more weight next though, so I can linger in the engrossed phase longer.

Not Enough Shades of Grey - Jenni Connor reviews Nineteen Minutes

When I’m travelling, I like to read something ‘escapist’; something I wouldn’t cry about if lost en route.


So, I took my copy of Nineteen Minutes with me recently to Cairns, Brisbane and Melbourne – don’t get the envies, I was travelling for work; though I did enjoy the warm weather at the beginning; Brisbane was really cold!


The novel, which echoes the Columbine High School ‘massacre’ in 1999, employs Picoult’s trademark, successful formula:

• Highlight an issue – access to guns and the impact of bullying
• Set the scene for a debate
• Introduce a set of characters who are likeable, but flawed
• Canvas their relationships and tensions
• Build to a courtroom drama finale

Why then, didn’t this title work for me?


Maybe the issue – of a teen high school killer who wipes out ten kids and wounds 16 more – did not have enough shades of grey. However bullied he might have been (and he was), nothing in the plot or characterisation quite justifies the slaughter he perpetrates.


Maybe the relationships between characters were too forced? And, maybe the characters overall, weren’t likeable enough?


Is it feasible that the judge and the midwife become firm friends and then, without further discussion, fall out over the issue of family gun policy? Is it stretching probability that the prosecuting detective ends up in bed with said judge?


Maybe the inevitable Picoult-style sting in the tail – when it turns out that more than one person had their hand on the trigger – is insufficiently explained?


So, does this mean I didn’t enjoy the book? No, engagement and detachment are two sides of the literary coin and experienced readers slip in and out of total absorption and critique quite comfortably; that’s the trick we want younger readers to acquire.


I might try something with a bit more weight next though, so I can linger in the engrossed phase longer.

Doing the Rounds With Carol (Books to Keep Kids Reading)

Carol, Michelle O'Byrne and Nella at the launch of the booklet

What can be better than spending time chatting with people about books? Well if those people are as book crazy as you are then there is twice the pleasure. My mission for the next three months or more is to visit every group of parents, teachers, librarians, grandparents, aunts and uncles I can find and talk with them about tips for choosing books that will inspire, interest and certainly keep kids reading.

With the launch of this much applauded little booklet, I have been inundated with emails and phone calls from people wanting me to visit their playgroups, schools and P&F meetings. So far I have requests stretching from Yolla in the far North West to Dover and Tasman Peninsula in the South with just about everywhere else in between. Thank goodness it’s the school holidays and I have a little respite before business resumes in earnest.

My first visit was to Gagebrook Primary school where I found a library which already has many of our recommended books on its shelves and a small group of parents fairly jumping out of their skins to talk, look at and understand the characteristics of a good kid’s book. I hope all my contacts are as positive and enjoyable as this one.

I have also been to a Family Day at the Dover Street Community House in Launceston’s Northern Suburbs where Neighbourhood House employees, parents and local teachers and carers had a great time browsing through a selection of our recommended books. What a scream to witness an enthusiastic adult reading aloud with lots of expression from Nick Bland’s The Wrong Book to an equally enthusiastic group of fellow workers ‘on the mat’. Yes, my mission is ultimately to get these adults reading to kids but first they have to be inspired by the material. And they were!

My next assignment is at Norwood primary where I am talking with a group of parents of pre- school children. The variety of groups is challenging because different aspects of a book have more or less significance according to the age of the readers upon whom we are focusing. Well if nothing else my sessions won’t be repetitious or over rehearsed because each one will be unique.

Fitting all these visits into a schedule that doesn’t involved driving up and down the highways of Tasmania is going to be tricky but if we can help people understand the facets of a book that make it more attractive, or more suitable to a particular level, age group or type of child reader it will be worth it.

I am also trying to work into this time table some discussions with people who might be interested in serving as CBCA reading judges. It is a surprisingly complex task to read and assess 400 samples of children’s literature spanning from 0 to 18 years of age. Most people will have expertise in some but not all of the skills areas involved. For example when I was a judge I was fairly confident about Younger and Older readers but relatively uneducated about Early Childhood and Picture Books compared to some of the other judges. And then there’s the different forms of writing I discovered during the process. I don’t mean the author’s styles but the different types of writing I had to do. Writing up my first impressions of a book was quite different to writing the annotated notes which have to be written for every book that shows potential shortlist possibilities. That is different again to the writing style for the blurbs about the winners, honour books and notables that eventually are published in the official CBCA booklets each year.

But that is the great aspect of the position. One learns so much and grows tremendously as an informed reader over the period of office. It is one of the most interesting, beneficial and rewarding jobs I have ever experienced despite the huge time commitment and the stress of deadlines and decision making. Not to mention the several hundred or so new books to which I was introduced and which now reside on my friends’, my grandson’s and my own book shelf.


I am also accumulated a fascinating collection of Peter Rabbit publications which serve to illustrate some of the fundamental points about what to look for when choosing an appropriate book for children. If you want to know how Peter Rabbit can do this then you will just have to organize a group of interested people or friends and contact me on carol.fuller@bigpond.com to come and have a discussion about kid’s books. Looking forward to meeting you.
Cheers
CAF

- Carol Fuller

What are you reading this weekend?

Looks like it's going to be a pretty soggy weekend in Launceston!

Luckily, I'm just about to start reading a book I've been meaning to get into for ages.


It's called Loathing Lola and it was written by a then-nineteen-year-old (they make 'em so darn YOUNG these days. Ahem, Steph Bowe. Ahem Alexandra Adornetto), William Kostakis.


Funny, smart, silly and sweet, Loathing Lola documents the ups and downs of being Australia’s newest teenage reality TV star. Sixteen-year-old Courtney Marlow struggles with friends, fame, love, loss and... Lola.


It's funny thinking that, only three years after this book was written, reality TV has kind of fizzled out. Apart from cooking shows (and, to a lesser extent, talent-search shows, which seem to be fading slowly away, too), nobody seems to want to watch people just being their boring selves any more. This doesn't diminish my eagerness to read this novel. I read the first couple of pages before I bought it and laughed so hard I snorted. In the middle of a very quiet book shop. Embarrassing, but a good sign for a thoroughly enjoyable booky experience!


And, if the weather continues to be so gosh-darn repulsive, an enjoyable book experience (and many cups of tea), might be just about the highlight of this grey weekend!


What will you be reading as the rain buckets down and the wind threatens to tear your roof off? Or, if it's sunny where you are, well, I dislike you strongly and wish to throw things at you, but I still want to hear what you're reading!


- Kate G