I didn’t even realise the Australian Children’s Book Week awards were happening until I strolled into my library and ran face-to-face with the display. And better yet?! I’d read 5 out of 6 of the Young Adult short listed books! GO ME. (Clearly I’ve got monstrously good taste in books.) So obviously we need to have […]
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Blog: Perpetually Adolescent (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: Susanne Gervay's Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Michael Cathcart ABC Radio national, BEING JACK by Susanne gervay, Father John Therry Catholic School Balmain, Ferncourt Public School Marrickville, Sydney grammar Prep St Ives, News, I AM JACK, BOOK WEEK, I Am Jack by Susanne Gervay, Add a tag
It’s a book love-fest – by Australian authors & illustrators – going everywhere talking books
- special thankyou to schools, kids and teachers for embracing the I AM JACK series
- sooooo exciting that the final I AM JACK - Being JACK is to be released 1st September!!! yeah!!!
BOOK WEEK is such a fantastic times – thankyou to the brilliant librarians who dress up as book characters, invite authors and illustrators to their schools, have plays and celebrations.
Loved the interview with Michael Cathcart on ABC Radio National on the I AM JACK series.
Fantastic being part of it!
The post BOOK WEEK FANTASTIC-NESS! appeared first on Susanne Gervay's Blog.
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JacketFlap tags: Mr Chicken lands on London, picture book reveiws, Book News, children's picture books, Book Week, CBCA, New Frontier Publishing, Libby Hathorn, Little Hare, New Book Releases, Allen & Unwin, leigh hobbs, Old Tom, Dimity Powell, Book Reviews - Childrens and Young Adult, Sophie Norsa, Ritva Voutila, Add a tag
Today officially heralds the start of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book Week 2014. This year’s theme: Connect to Reading – Reading to Connect can be interpreted in many ways just as ones connection with art can take place on several levels. I have long purported that the humble picture book is one […]
Add a CommentBlog: Susanne Gervay's Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Sooooo much happening – August is when kids’ authors & illustrators are on the move – across Australia – speaking at schools, events and spreading the LOVE of books.
Monkey Baa Theatre is putting on a week of I AM JACK at Darling Quarter Theatre – nearly full houses, but this year I can’t do the post play Q & A as I’ll be speaking at schools. I love doing those Q & A’s with Tim McGarry.
There’s the Benefit for ROOM TO READ – reaching more than 9 millions kids in Asia and Africa. They won’t be all at the Benefit Sat 23 August – ha – but all funds go to building schools and literacy programmes and books.
Launch of my 4th and final BEING JACK – the 15 year journey creating the I AM JACK series.
Treat yourself and see the many amazing authors and illustrators in your schools and bookshops, libraries and events!
CELEBRATE BOOKS & READING!
MonkeyBaa Theatre – www.monkeybaa.com.au
Room to Read – www.roomtoread.org
BOOKINGS for 5 p.m. Sat 23 August. All funds go to Room to Read: monkeybaa.com.au/show/jack-room-read-fundraiser/
The post BOOK WEEK~ Monkey Baa Theatre’s I Am Jack~ Launch of BEING JACK at ROOM to READ BENEFIT appeared first on Susanne Gervay's Blog.
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JacketFlap tags: non-fiction, Book Week, CBCA, Jeremy, Book Reviews - Childrens and Young Adult, Book Reviews - Non-Fiction, Joy Lawn, Eve Pownall Award, Ice Wind Rock, Jandamarra, Meet ... Captain Cook, Welcome to My Country, Yoko's Diary, Book News, Add a tag
The CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) shortlist is Australia’s most important award for children’s and YA literature. These books are celebrated in Book Week.
The CBCA shortlist generates most sales of awarded books – for children’s books, although perhaps not for YA books – in Australia. The shortlist is used as a buying guide for parents, grandparents and community members. Schools (especially primary schools) use it extensively for the build-up and culmination of Book Week.
These awards are unusual because there is such a long lead-time between the announcement of the 30 shortlisted books (around April) and the announcement of the winning and honour books in Book Week in August – this year on August 15th. The shortlist is possibly even more important than the winners. http://cbca.org.au/ShortList-2014.htm
There are five categories of shortlisted books, each with six books. Four of the categories are fiction and judged by a panel of 8 judges, 1 from each state and territory, who have a two-year judging term. The fiction books are judged on literary merit.
So, what is the Eve Pownall Award? This is not the place to look into the background of the award but its purpose is to judge non-fiction – Information Books. A panel of judges from the one state, as distinct from the fiction judging panel, selects the Eve Pownall shortlist.
The 2014 shortlist is generally aimed at primary age children and has a focus on our Indigenous people:
Jandamarra is in picture book form. It is written by Mark Greenwood and illustrated by Terry Denton ((Allen & Unwin) and looks at the conflicted Aboriginal hero or villain, Jandamarra. Welcome to My Country is written by Laklak Burrarrwanga and family (A&U) and is aimed at upper primary and secondary students. We are given an insight into NE Arnhem Land, particularly into ‘Yothu Yindi’ – the relationship between mother and child, people and land, land and land… Meet … Captain Cook by Rae Murdie, illustrated by Chris Nixon (Random House) naturally touches on Australia’s first people. It is an outstanding book in this series for younger readers. The design and stylised illustrations are excellent and the writing is understated and enhanced with humour.
Jeremy, written by Christopher Faille, illustrated by Danny Snell (Working Title Press) is for the youngest readers here. In picture book format it shows what could happen to a baby kookaburra. Ice, Wind, Rock by Peter Gouldthorpe (Lothian) is an evocative picture book about our Antarctica hero, Douglas Mawson. And finally, Yoko’s Diary: The Life of a Young Girl in Hiroshima, edited by Paul Ham (ABC Books) is a heart-breaking first-hand account of Japan in WWII by a twelve-year-old girl.
Which Information Book do you think will win the Eve Pownall award on 15th August?
Add a CommentBlog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Nearly 40 tables, more than 40 authors and illustrators, more than 300 students and their Teacher Librarians from primary and high schools gathered to feast on stuffed chicken fillets with roast potatoes and vegetables (I thought it was quite delicious but some of those lunching with me did not like the green gooey stuff oozing from the chicken) or a vegetarina pasta if you prefered; to listen to a spectacular Q&A session with a panel of authors - and they told all manner of crazy shenanigans; to listen to John Heffernan and Jacqueline Harvey tell of their new titles ... and of course to meet all the authors and illustrators. Our fathering was MC'd by the magnaplurious Duncan Ball. The creative types in attendance was a roll call of Sydney folk with a few extras like Andy Griffths thrown in. We, the creative type, had barely a chance to chit chat but I did get to exchange words with Anna Fienberg, Sarah Davis, Jacqueline Harvey, Peter Macinnis, Oliver Phommavanh, Lesley Vamos, Sue Whiting, John Heffernan and Belinda Murrell - and I did wave to a bunch more too across a very crowded room!
Events like this are glorious celebrations. They are wonderful fun and it is a thrill to spend time with the kids. A big hello to the kids who shared lunch with me from Lansvale and Clempton Park. T'was rather nice feasting with you all!
Q&A panel |
Lesley Vamos signing |
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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The librarians have done a splendid Sounds Spooky investigation in the primary grades - in fact throughout most of the school - so it was wonderful to be able to chit chat to the students about the inspiration behind the book ... some of the students even knew the house that was solidly in my brain when I wrote the text. Thankfully, there was no one who now lives in the Sounds Spooky house althrough there was one student who does live very close to my old house, and also to the Sounds Spooky inspiration house!
And I realised this afternoon too that I don't have a picture of the house so straight after school it was a quick drive and here is the house that was clearly in my head when I wrote Sounds Spooky. It still looks a little like the house that I remember - complete with creaking squeaking gate (left hand corner of photo) although the trees are taller and bushier.
Straight on to Year 5 and more Sounds Spooky, and a discussion on historical fction too ... but then the real task - writing narratives. Like most folks there were quite a few stumbles as I told them to write about anything they would like to write about. The need for inspiration and ideas was discussed and then the writing continued. I was rather intrigued about a car - the name of which was new to me and which I could not pronounce ... but for one student it was an easy writing task. He knew absolutely everything about the car (which caused much laughter when I called it a gazzoomby umby car)! A chat about descriptions and details and plotting and planning and then we were already at lunch break time (love the lunch time before midday). After lunch it was the turn for year 6 with a session much the same as year 5.
My school day done it was a few minutes drive to my old stomping ground for photos and time to sit in my car and remember!
Today was definitely a day of memories of growing up, of my early years in Haberfield, of vines and creapers, of gmaes and schools, or walking home, of playing in a tree house that I built, of the old house and those spooky sounds.
Thanks Barbara for organsing a lovely day.
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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- Three amazing boys dressed up as the Three Aunties from Nick Bland's hilarious Aunties Three,
- There were many Terrys and Andys from Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton's 13 Storey Tree House - and from the same book there was also one creative student who came dressed as the pillow room with numerous pillows strapped to his body. Ingenious.
- a spooky haunting of ghosts from Sounds Spooky and a gathering of kids who were exploring the haunted house too complete with teddy bears and torches and even cameras made from boxes! Yeah! I wonder why I liked these soooo much!
- prominent were the protesting students carrying placards, and fairy tale characters who were adorned with No Bears ... plus a few who wanted Bears!
- a wonderfully attired Grace from the Our Australian Girl books.
- The school was also extremely powerfully protected too for there were many ninjas silently and secretly patrolling the grounds from Moonshadow - the Wrath of Silverwolf.
Gemma's Library Monitor badge being pinned |
Gemma and Shauna with Miss Bini (one of the three aunties) and Me |
Now I will say that I adore this school but then I am a little biased, which might have something to do with the fact that I am married to the Teacher Librarian!
Thanks OLQP for hosting me at your school and for such a fun filled day!
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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There were some terrific questions asked but THE question of the day, actually I think it is the question of the year is most definitely a question that I have never had before ...
What would you do if there were no kids?
For me, that question is a real challenge for all the things that I like to do involve working with kids! There would be no need for Infants and Primary School Teachers (the second best job in the wrold) either. What a world that would be!
There were three sessions today, Kindergarten, first class and second class, and then after lunch (which is in the morning and a jolly sensible idea having a long lunch break early on), first the lower primary classes and then the upper primary classes.
Lots of chit chatting about story ideas; a creepy old house near where I grew up and the night-time noises that were the spark for Sounds Spooky; lots of looking at pictures to see exactly what Mark Jackson (illustrator) created for Python; and just a few tales that I love to share from my days working at the zoo with all sorts of animals - including the human ones!
And we had to talk too about saving the brain strain for teachers by students creating the best possible stories with numerous edits and sparkling imagery.
The excitement and smiles (with just a few grimaces too when I showed some of the picture from Python) were just marvelous.
Friday is done and Book Week is done but there are a few more schools left for me to appear in this year for Book Week!
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Merrylands East Primary School,
Parramatta West Primary School
and Giraween Primary School
Yes it's another Book Week event speaking to hundreds of kids in the open spaces at the beautiful Merrylands Library. They were well prepared for Book Week with great competitions and a wall display that tied in well with the olympics too! Champions!
Lots of great questions (including ones like:
Why don't you write books for older kids?
What's the worst book you have ever read? and
Which animal has the stronger smelling poo, a bilby or a northern quoll?
Now I know quite a bit about animals but it doesn't stretch to poo smelling!).
And I hope lots of listeners have returned to school with some fun writing ideas! My reading of Sounds Spooky scared a few kids - and the big kids sitting on the side too, and there were attentive listeners for some of the zoo stories. Python is a hit, especially Mark's illustrations of the open-jawed python attempting to catch a bird and then the constricting python in action! Lots more giggles and fun and laughing.
... and thanks to the children's librarian at Merrylands Library Kirsty Plumridge for organising me to come to the library.
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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It was a day of brainstorming and compiling writing ideas and developing stories and getting excited, and me trying to write neartly on the white board!
We created lists of ideas that would make great stories.
We compiled lists and mind maps of the happenings that would expand the initial ideas and then we created a collection of great sentence starts that would really hook the reader.
We talked about descriptions and detail - especially when we tried to describe some of the students - there are some eyes in some rather wierd places, and ears that were rather strangely attached to our heads!
We laughed and giggled and shared and we all wrote stories - or at least the ideas that will be our stories.
Some of the ideas that filled our white board:
dinosaurs, dancing leprechauns, more than a few zombies and nasty beasties, a few investigators, dragons, a fun filled talking breakfast (bacon for mouth, eggs for eyes, toast for the face and a whole lot more), a wide assortment of native and non native animals that did all manner of peculiar things, ghosts and spooks, rattling windows, flying pancakes, disappearing food, disappearing people - I wish that I could remember them all but I am a little too tired right now!
But what was really fun and what makes these days so thrilling for me is seeing and hearing these kids excited about being able to write a story idea that is their very own!
Thanks to Mrs Smith and Mrs Griffiths for organsing our fun!
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Right at the start of Book Week 2012 I want to give a huge, gigantic and exhillerating shout out for all those amazing teacher librarians, and not just because I am married to one. How critical and essential are our teacher librarians to the whole education of our students. In many schools it is the teacher librarian who teaches every child each week. They don't just manage the book collection or turn on the school computers. They share the joy of holding books and develop or continue a love of all things book. They teach research skills ... and they can usually find just the perfect book for each child to read. Just like Crys Mills.
in the library |
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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And they will love it!
Blog: Hazel Mitchell (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Leo Landry
Monday May 7th
10:00—11:00
Hazel Mitchell
Monday May 7th
12:00—2:00
Jamie Hogan
Monday May 7th
2:00—4:00
David Biedrzycki
Tuesday May 8th
10:00—12:00
Anne Broyles
Tuesday May 8th
12:00—2:00
Stuart J. Murphy
Tuesday May 8th
2:00—4:00
David Hyde Costello
Wednesday May 9th
10:00—12:00
Wayne Geehan
Wednesday May 9th
12:00—2:00
David McPhail
Thursday May 10th
11:00—12:00
Michael J. Daley
Thursday May 10th
2:00—4:00
Jane Yolen
Friday May 11th
11:00—1:00
Deborah Kops
Friday May 11th
1:00—3:00
Leslie Evans
Saturday May 12
10:00—12:00
Sarah Brannen
Saturday May 12
2:00—3:00
Carolyn DeCristofano
Saturday May 12
3:00—5:00
Mary Corcoran
Sunday May 13
1200—2:00
Blog: Books for Little Hands (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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You don't have to charge it or insert batteries.
You can sit with it in a tree or under a tree is probably better.
It doesn't lose connection.
If the kids, cat, or dog jump on it, nobody screams, 'No!'
You can smell it and it actually has a smell.
It's not too precious to use.
You can dog ear it's pages.
You can even highlight the important bits.
It's a good size to tuck it in your handbag, balance on the couch, or sit on your bedside table.
It's easy on the eyes.
It's tactile and requires hand, fingers, and fingertip manipulation.
You can slip a bookmark between the pages.
You can build a coffee table, stable table, or pile them on top of each other.
It makes a noise when you close the back cover and say, 'The End.'
and lastly...
You can tell all of your friends and family to go and buy one to support the industry and the most wonderful thing ever created... A BOOK!!!!!
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To celebrate, I have invited children's authors from around Australia to let us in on their writing tips, published books, and what they are doing to celebrate book week. I am honoured to be interviewing some of our countries top children's authors including:
Libby Gleeson
Blog: Orca Book Publishers Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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This Spring, no fewer than FOUR Victoria authors have been selected for the TD Canadian Children’s Book Week tour that begins on April 30. In recognition of these authors’ achievements, Tall Tales Books will be hosting a special event where readers can meet the authors before they head out on tour to share their stories with the rest of Canada.
When: Saturday, April 16, 2011, 2:00pm
Where: Tall Tales Books, 795 Fort Street, Victoria, BC
Event Details: Authors Julie Lawson, Penny Draper, Michelle Mulder and Robin Stevenson will talk about their new books and what it’s like to be chosen to participate in Canada’s most important children’s book event. Refreshments will be served and there will be time to meet the authors and have books signed.
Learn more about the authors and their books!
See the full invitation from Tall Tales Books.
About Book Week: TD Canadian Children’s Book Week is the single most important national event celebrating Canadian children’s books and reading. Close to 35,000 children, teens and adults participate in activities held in every province and territory. Hundreds of schools, public libraries, bookstores and community centers host events as part of this major festival.
Learn more about TD Canadian Children’s Book Week.
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By: CHRISTOPHER CHENG,
on 8/22/2010
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: About Me, School Visit, Book Week, Add a tag
It's Book Week time and that means lots of (well for most years) tripping in to schools. This year my delightful friend Deb Abela organised a gathering (colletive noun anyone?) of afternoon teas around the inner west and I was one of the privileged folk to enjoy this time last Monday. Along with Susanne, Deb, Oliver and Jeni, I chit-chatted my way through 13 minutes (which I didn't adhere to) of stories and tales and fun!
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By: Sylvia Vardell,
on 11/9/2007
Blog: Poetry for Children (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: book poetry, Book Week, Book Week, book poetry, Add a tag
Coming up next?
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Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: history, God, religion, oxford, Walker, American, A-Featured, A-Editor's Picks, christ, oupblog, adventists, Daniel, Howe, What, Hath, Wrought, Add a tag
The Oxford History of The United States series has won two Pulitzer Prizes, a Bancroft and a Parkman Prize. The newest addition, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, by Daniel Walker Howe, looks at the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War. Howe’s narrative history shows how drastically America changed in thirty years. Below Howe, Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus, Oxford University and Professor of History Emeritus, University of California, looks at how October 22nd resonated throughout America. On October 22, 1844, somewhere between twenty-five and fifty thousand people gathered in groups all over the United States to watch the sky. They stayed up until after midnight, straining to see Jesus Christ coming out of the heavens. A Vermont farmer named William Miller, undeterred by his lack of knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, had applied his naive ingenuity to biblical study. Calculations based on prophecies in the Book of Daniel had convinced him and his disciples that the long-awaited Second Coming of Christ would occur on this day. (more…)
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Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags: life, History, Film, UK, Religion, A-Featured, Leisure, christian, Western Religion, christ, monty, python, brian, blasphemy, Add a tag
By Kirsty OUP-UK
One of the most frequently asked questions about blasphemy is why do people do it, since it sometimes seems such a victimless crime. The Roman Emperor Tiberius suggested that if God was offended by an individual’s behaviour he was capable of exacting his own retribution, so why should man concern himself with such issues. Since medieval times, however, we have tended to automatically think that states and individuals have been progressing away from policing the opinions of others substituting religious tolerance for persecution. The motives of blasphemers became the subject of some debate in the medieval world. Whether people were misled by the actions of devils or demons, or had spoken blasphemy when scared, or whilst drunk, it was deemed clear that an incidence of blasphemous speech had occurred as some form of accident. In the modern world things have become more complex and the motives of those who blaspheme become linked to issues of personal rights. Our modern western world has empowered freedom of expression but has equally begun in recent years to consider the rights and feelings of those who might be offended by the ideas and words of others. Thus in our modern world artists and writers have been those who have caused most lasting and high profile offence. If these people can cause offence we perhaps should ask why they are prepared to do so. Perhaps it is most pertinent to ask this question of the film ‘Monty Python’s ‘ Life of Brian.’ This film is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, was recently voted Britain’s best comedy film of all time by a BBC Radio Times poll, and remains the best known attempt to lampoon the history of religion in Britain and America. More importantly it could never claim that its motives were ‘serious’ in the manner that Mel Gibson could with ‘Passion of the Christ’ or Martin Scorsese could with ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’. So what did the Python team think they were doing? Did they set out to undermine and topple the leading religious ideology of the Western World? Certainly it looked like it; the nativity scene was reworked with fiercely comic content, the Sermon on the Mount focussed upon the stupidity of those at the back who couldn’t hear properly, the crucifixion, moreover was turned into a sing-along comment on the potential miseries afflicting this life rather than paradise in the next. Taken as a whole the film seems unashamedly intent upon offending people – so were these the motives that persuaded the Monty Python team to make ‘Life of Brian’ and stir up the biggest controversy around blasphemy in the Christian World during the twentieth century? We know much about its development through television documentaries, newspaper clippings, and not least through Michael Palin’s recently published diaries. These suggest that ‘Brian’ emerged in the same way that other Python material did. Members of the team wrote separately and sometimes in teams in pursuit of situations that they primarily found funny. The initial idea was to show the life of an individual, ‘St Brian’, who was too late on the scene for all of Christ’s miracles, a situation that was clearly funny without being blasphemous. When the material was eventually put together its sum was greater than the parts and resembled the life story of an inadequate prophet, made inadequate through the shortcomings of the religion and religious people of his day. Thus the Python team began to focus upon the fact that they had produced a send–up of organised religion. Once again their judgement of what was funny, worked well on celluloid, or adequately expressed their intentions made them cut material from the film. For example, the character of Otto, a Jewish fascist, never made the final version of the film because his presence diluted the power of other scenes. The Pythons could also censor themselves when it was required and this character would have made distribution in America potentially more difficult than it need have been. So Monty Python wanted to make money, be funny and please its audience, and it succeeded in all of these. It was Python’s opponents who turned ‘Life of Brian’ into a threat to Christianity. It was these attitudes that made the Monty Python team, if only for a moment, become serious about what their film had done and made them strident proponents of freedom of expression. The Bishop of Southwark may have said to them that ‘Life of Brian’ would not have been made if the character of Christ had not existed. John Cleese and Michael Palin might equally have replied that ‘Brian’ would not have been made if the pretensions of people like the Bishop of Southwark had not existed.
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Books are wonderful creations. I love the changes in technology, but I still love to crack open a book. I love it that my son enjoys picture books too.
Hi Stacy,
I love technology too! Progress is inevitable.
I love also that you can lay back and read a good book. I still read picture books with my nine year old daughter every night. It's a time for us to be together, relax and imagine.
Thanks Stacy, for visiting my blog and following. It's great to see you :)