Comic-loving Swiss-Italian Davide Cali is one of our favourite kids’ authors.
We like him so much, we’ve published 11 of his books, the most recent of which is the wonderful My Father the Great Pirate.
Here’s his characteristically quirky end-of-year message.
Illustration from ‘The Hole’
Reviewer Joy Lawn has elected Oyvind Torseter’s The Hole as one of her four children’s books of the year in the December issue of Australian Book Review.
She writes:
In The Hole by Oyvind Torseter (Wilkins Farago), recently translated from Norwegian into English, a man moves into an apartment and finds a hole. There is a literal hole on every page of this sophisticated picture book. The precise line drawings tell the fascinating story.
‘Kampung Boy will put a smile on the face of everyone who reads it.’ The Age
Kampung Boy, Lat’s wonderful cartoon memoir about growing up in a Malaysian village, is featured in the latest edition of the New South Wales Department of Education English ebulletin for grades 7 to 12.
The ebulletin features great information on how this classic can be used in the classroom. Here’s a summary:
A brilliant autobiographical graphic novel, it is a fabulous book for Stage 4. It would work brilliantly for representing the self, narrative voice, representation and intercultural understanding.
Kids just love Kampung Boy. Our book trailer for it has now passed a monstrous 166,000 views on YouTube!
NSW teachers and students need their DEC User ID and password to access the newsletter.
One hundred years ago this month, World War One—’the Great War’—began. Lest we forget.
Pamela Gordon, Janet Frame’s literary executor, has been reminded of this on her excellent blog, Slightly Framous.
The great New Zealand writer’s parents married three weeks before Janet’s father, George Samuel Frame, went off to the war with the New Zealand engineers.
When he returned from the war, her parents set up house with the assistance of a £25 ‘rehabilitation loan’ from His Majesty, the King (those being the days of the British Empire).
This modest loan inspired Frame’s memorable story, ‘Between My Father and the King’, the title story of our recently-published collection of new and uncollected Frame short stories, Between My Father and the King.
Like most of the stories in the collection, ‘Between My Father and the King’ was not published while Janet Frame was alive. Pamela Gordon explains why:
Almost one hundred years after the events of WW1, the story ‘Between My Father and the King’ was identified by the Manchester Review as ‘a controversial account of the Great War’, so it’s easy to see why Frame never submitted the story for publication during her lifetime.
The story, notes the Manchester Review, ‘resists the piety and national feelings stoked up by some more recent commemorations’.
You can judge the story for yourself here.
Better still, why not buy the wonderful book it comes from? Between My Father and the King is available from good bookstores now, and online at Readings, Booktopia and many others.
Today is National Bookshop Day in Australia. Bookshops around the country and putting on special activities and promotions to remind us all that they serve a vital role in our communities.
Just as books are more than just products, so too a bookshop is a lot more than just another retail outlet.
In a world where we are increasingly isolated from each other, a bookshop can serve as a social hub: a place where different ideas and ways of seeing the world are discovered and shared.
Bookshops have long been the major avenue through which our writers reach out to audiences.
And a bookshop is not only where you can find that next great book, but it’s a place to take children for guidance of what to read next, or even where to start reading.
For all their bells and whistles, there is plenty of research that shows book websites simply can’t replicate the discovery experience bookshops offer us, just as ebooks offer a pale imitation of the joys of owning a printed book.
In short, we can’t do without bookshops and they should be celebrated.
The best way—the only way—to celebrate them is to visit one. Today, on National Bookshop Day.
So, shut down your web browser, grab and friend and get down to your local bookshop—there’s still no better place to discover books.
’10 Little Insects’ is a hilarious tribute to Agatha Christie.
The worldwide interest in 10 Little Insects, Davide Cali and Vincent Pianina’s hilarious graphic novel/comic book has been tremendous.
The interest in the United States has been particularly strong, driven by positive reviews such as this one in the influential School Library Journal:
This graphic-novel homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None finds 10 bugs drawn to a mysterious weekend getaway on a remote island. As the hours tick by, the members of the motley crew meet untimely deaths in a variety of macabre ways: poison, freezing, electrocution, being eaten by a fish, and getting beheaded amid secret passages. The title is filled with Victorian spookiness, until only a detective and his assistant sail away with their lives. The boldly colored art in the cartoon panels, while simple, holds some hilarious details that will have readers chuckling. The size and format may turn off potential readers who see a picture book rather than a gruesome murder mystery but reluctant readers will find more than enough to engage and amuse them.—Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library
The reviewer, Marge Loch-Wouters, hosts Tiny Tips for Library Fun, a lively and creative blog for children’s librarians, which is well worth a visit.
This is one of the most powerful picture books I’ve read for some time.
‘One Red Shoe’ depicts life in a Middle East war zone
The superlatives keep flowing for Karin Gruss and Tobias Kreijschi’s new picture book for older readers, One Red Shoe.
In her review on ReadPlus (an excellent resource for children’s books), Barbara Braxton focuses on Tobias Kreijschi’s award-winning illustration:
Told in a minimalist style, almost like a photo essay would be, the imagery is so striking that the minds connects the dots without the need for superfluous words … From endpaper to endpaper there is nothing extraneous, but the astute eye will pick up tiny details that offer so much insight into who this man is, his thoughts and emotions.
She finishes with some comments that highlight the book’s enduring qualities:
This is a picture book for older students, right through to the senior years of secondary school. It has so many places in the Australian Curriculum and Ian McLean’s teachers’ notes offer many suggestions that demonstrate how it could be used across all levels from about Year 5 up. An exceptional book that has so much for so many.
You can read the full review here.
The book is available through all good booksellers or, in cases of difficulty, from the Wilkins Farago website.
Not only do we love reading books, but also like reading books about books—from literary biographies to books about book design, and those occasional gems: books by and about publishers.
Here’s a list of the books about books sitting our bookshelves. Feel free to share your own favourites in the comments section below!
A must-read if you want to understand the modern trade
The Business of Books: how the international conglomerates took over publishing and changed the way we read by André Schiffrin (Verso, 2001)
One of our favourites – the story of the Olympia Press, which published Nabokov’s Lolita and a lot of other ‘dirty books’ is a riot.
The Good Ship Venus: the erotic adventures of the Olympia Press by John de St Jorre (Pimlico, 1995)
Warburg was publisher of George Orwell’s greatest works.
An Occupation for Gentlemen by Fredric Warburg (Hutchinson & Co, 1959)
Sir Stanley Unwin’s memoir is one of the great publishing stories.
The Truth about a Publisher by Sir Stanley Unwin (George Allen & Unwin, 1960)
‘One Red Shoe’ depicts children’s lives in a Middle East war zone
A wonderful review for our new title, One Red Shoe from Joy Lawn in the July issue of Magpies magazine. Here’s an extract:
Wilkins Farago is a publisher who discovers exemplary picture books form around the world and publishes them in Australia. One Red Shoe, one of Germany’s five ‘Most Beautiful Children’s Books’ in 2103, equals the best of the their titles …
Told from an adult’s point of view, One Red Shoe is a sophisticated and powerful story for older readers … This picture book reveals a situation that we may not want to acknowledge, but one that should be faced ash grappled with.
One Red Shoe, written by Karin Gruss and illustrated by Tobias Krejtschi, is in bookstores now.
The July edition of Magpies magazine features reviews of two of our new books: Oyvind Torseter’s The Hole and Karis Gruss and Tobias Krejschi’s One Red Shoe (more of the latter review in a later post).
Poignantly, the review of The Hole was written by Jo Goodman, who died earlier this month.
A tireless champion of children’s literature for many, many years, Jo was one of our great enthusiasts and an astute judge of a book. To learn more about her life in kids’ books, read Dr Belle Alderman’s touching tribute. She will be missed.
Over the years, Jo reviewed several of our books and was a great supporter of our publishing. Her extensive interview with Davide Cali in Vol. 27 of Magpies magazine was a culmination of that interest.
I first met Jo around 20 years ago, when I was just starting out as a publisher. It’s moving to consider that one of her last reviews was for a Wilkins Farago book.
Of The Hole, she wrote:
This is a book to intrigue readers and to generate a wide variety of playful and philosophical responses and interpretations.
Thanks, Jo. Rest in peace.
—Andrew
One of Tobias Krejschi’s award-winning illustrations for ‘One Red Shoe’
How do you even start to explain to a child what’s happening in the Middle East?
In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen some dreadful reports from Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Do we turn off the TV and radio and hide the newspaper? I’ve been sorely tempted.
We’re lucky in Australia that violence on such a scale is largely alien to us. It would be forgivable for kids here to think that such problems are ‘overseas problems’ with little relevance to their lives.
But, of course, we know that such ‘overseas problems’ have a history of finding their way to us sooner or later, often in ways we don’t expect—in the past century, Australia has not been immune to terrorism, refugees or war.
Earlier this year, we bought the rights to Karin Gruss and Tobias Kreijschi’s One Red Shoe, a picture book for older readers set in a place which could well be the Gaza Strip. It was published a month ago—before the tragic events of recent weeks.
It’s the challenging story of a photojournalist sent out to cover the bombing of a school bus by his newspaper. He encounters an injured child in hospital whose single red sneaker is identical to those in a pair he recently gave his far-away nephew.
The red sneaker reminds the photographer that, but for an accident of geography, the injured child could be his nephew.
With great sensitivity, One Red Shoe allows the reader to leave their own world of relative safety and comfort and enter a war zone. It encourages them to imagine what it might be like for the children who live there. What if that injured child were me, or one of my friends? What if it was me trying to play in those streets of rubble?
The book doesn’t attempt to pick sides or go into the complex background of the Middle East’s problems. It’s just a picture book, after all.
But it does encourage empathy in the reader—empathy for the suffering. From that empathy may spring a desire for greater understanding of situations around world where violence reigns.
The world is not a great place for many millions of children who are forced to grow up in harm’s way.
If One Red Shoe can encourage our children to feel more empathy for others’ circumstances, and to be a little more grateful for their own good fortune, then it may well have served its purpose.
‘One Red Shoe’ tells of children’s lives in a war zone through the eyes of a press photographer.
Picture books can be amazing teaching tools in the classroom. It’s one reason why we produce extensive teachers’ notes for all our books.
All our notes are written by qualified teachers with a good understanding of how to tie books into the education curriculum.
As a publisher, one of the best parts of the publishing process is the moment we get the teachers’ notes back from our educators and discover some of the ingenious tasks and projects they come up with to engage kids in the classroom.
Sydney teacher-librarian Ian McLean has written a fantastic set of notes for our new title One Red Shoe, Karin Gruss and Tobias Krejtschi’s powerful picture book set in a Middle East war zone.
Because of its subject matter, this is very much a picture book for the mid-to-late years of primary school.
Ian’s done a great job of drawing out many of the book’s educational possibilities. We were particularly taken with a thought-provoking project he did with some students around the symbolism of the colour red. You can view the results on Ian’s blog, which is well worth a visit.
A sensitive review of Janet Frame’s posthumous collection of short stories, Between My Father and the King by Sophia Barnes in the June/July issue of Australian Book Review.
Here’s a snippet:
There is more than enough here to demonstrate what made Frame such a vibrant, insightful, insistent, and distinctive writer. There is the sly and enchanting magic realism of ‘The Wind Brother’ and his snow mountain of undelivered letters; and the eerie underground shopping kingdom of ‘The Friday Night World’. ‘Gorse Is Not People’, famously denied publication on the basis of its bleak conclusion, is indeed heartbreaking – short, simple, and devastating. Its final publication … in this collection can only be celebrated.
With the main newspapers cutting back on literary reviews (alongside everything else), ABR is becoming more and more important for Australian publishing.
If a book is published and not reviewed, was it ever really published?
There are several Wilkins Farago titles on the 2014 New South Wales Premier’s Reading Challenge booklists.
The Challenge aims to encourage in students a love of reading for leisure and pleasure, and to enable students to experience quality literature.
To complete the challenge, kids must read at least 30 titles (Kindergarten to Grade 2) or 20 titles (older readers) by 29 August 2014. The majority must be from the recommended booklists provided, and you have plenty of Wilkins Farago titles to choose from:
3 Wishes for Pugman by Sebastian Meschenmoser
A Dad Who Measures Up by Davide Cali, illustrated Annalaura Cantone
Empty Fridge by Gaetan Doremus
Sam and his Dad by Serge Bloch
The Bear with the Sword by Davide Cali, illustrated by Gianluca Foli
The Little Eskimo by Davide Cali, illustrated by Maurizio A.C Quarello
Piano Piano by Davide Cali, illustrated by Eric Heliot
Santa’s Suit by Davide Cali, illustrated by Eric Heliot
What is this thing called Love? by Davide Cali, illustrated by Annalaura Cantone
10 Little Insects by Davide Cali, illustrated by Vincent Pianina
The Enemy by Davide Cali, illustrated by Serge Bloch
Kampung Boy by Lat
The Red Piano by Andre Leblanc, illustrated by Barroux
We’ve put together this little video to celebrate our brand new collection of previously unpublished and uncollected short stories by New Zealand’s late, great Janet Frame.
‘Between My Father and the King: New and Uncollected Stories’ is in bookshops now.
Hope you like it!
If you’re looking to spend some quality time with your kids, one of the best things you can do is cuddle up with them and read a book.
In an increasingly digital world, where ebooks are now downloadable instantly, it’s worth noting that one of the few types of printed books that are still selling well are children’s picture books.
Why?
I believe it’s because they give children (and the adults too) experiences that are very hard to get from TV, the internet, games consoles and iPads.
This is because print still does things that digital can’t do. Here are just some of the reasons:
1. Picture books are real 3D objects a child can experience with all their senses.
As well as seeing the pictures and hearing the words when you read to them, kids can handle a book, smell the paper and even, in the case of very young kids, bite and taste it!
2. Stories enable a child to experience emotions in a way that is completely safe.
Human beings have always loved stories. They’ve been an essential part of what makes us human for thousands of years.
We use stories for all sorts of reasons.
Think how fables like The Boy Who Cried Wolf or The Hare and the Tortoise are used to teach children valuable life lessons.
But also think of scary stories like Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel (no, not the vampire hunters—the other ones!). Apart from teaching kids not to stray too far from home, they also expose kids to new emotions—ones they can try out for size in complete safety.
If you’ve spent any time with a two- or three-year-old, you’ll appreciate they are still very much learning to control their emotions. We are emotional animals.
Learning how our emotions work, how to control, express or understand them is something that takes a lifetime and it starts very early in childhood.
Books can help. Stories can make kids feel happy, sad, anxious, scared, in measured doses. And when the book is over and everything back where it should be, the memory of that emotion remains.
3. Stories enable kids to take a journey beyond their own work.
This can be a physical journey to another country. This is one passion of mine—many of the books I publish are set in other countries. Waiting for Mummy, a simple but moving tale of a little boy waiting for his mum to come home is set in Korea, for instance, while Lat’s delightful Kampung Boy is set in a Malaysian village. Serge Bloch’s Sam and His Dad is set in France.
Learning that there are other places beyond teaches children valuable lessons. One of the most important is that, while people may live in different places and look different to us, we have a lot in common with them. We all love our families, enjoy playing with friends, or miss Mum or Dad when they’re away.
4. Books can carry real knowledge and help kids discover passions and interests they otherwise wouldn’t be aware of.
While I was writing this, I asked my six year-old what he liked about books. His reply was slightly unexpected:
‘The best thing about books is that in science books you learn things about being a scientist when you grow up. I want to be a scientist. Most factual books have facts about science. Everything in this room is science—even that computer. And you, you’re science, Dad.’
I wasn’t expecting that. Kids are little sponges, absorbing so much. What lifelong interest might be awakened by ten minutes with the right book?
5. Lastly, reading picture books together give us all an excuse to do something few kids get enough of—cuddling up.
Sometimes, that’s all the reason you need.
We were thrilled to find a sophisticated review of Empty Fridge in the Wall Street Journal.
Here’s an extract …
It is not extreme weather but lack of food that presents the central problem in “Empty Fridge”… a picture book for younger children by French illustrator Gaetan Doremus. In the modern apartment building that M. Doremus depicts with delicate black lines and splashes of color, people have become so involved with their daily activities—chatting on the phone and “playing music non-stop”—that they have failed to provision for themselves. Come suppertime, Andrew has just three carrots, Nabil has two eggs and a bit of cheese, and Claire, on the third floor, has only some tomatoes.
As in the old folk tale “Stone Soup,” the solution lies in a kind of cheerful collectivism—voluntary, mind you—that brings neighbors together with their edible oddments to conjure a meal that will feed everyone. Given that the author-illustrator is a Frenchman, it is perhaps no surprise that the resulting fusion food is a colorful quiche. “Slices of quiche, slices of life,” we read, as the quiche fad spreads from the building across the whole city. “It’s such a pleasant and refreshing thing to do,” this sharing of food, that “people find themselves asking: ‘Why don’t we do this every day?’ “
- by Meghan Cox Gurdon. A version of this article appeared June 1, 2013, on page C6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Droughts And Squalls.
As part of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library and Wilkins Farago’s project, Reading for Social Peace, Yarra Plenty have created this exciting series of events for their Marketplace of Ideas conference.
Can you imagine a world at peace? Come along to the three events in this Marketplace of Ideas series and challenge your thinking, share ideas and help create a plan for a peaceful future.
Same Sex Relationships – Do We Judge?
Ivanhoe Library
Monday 17 June
7.00pm – 9.00pm
Welcoming New Community
With Author Alice Garner
Thomastown Library
Thursday 20 June
10.00am – 12.00noon
Physical and Mental Disability – Are We Inclusive?
Eltham Library
Saturday 22 June
2.00pm – 4.30pm
Displays, showbags, giveaways, and more…
To find out more about the Reading for Social Peace Project and organise your own event, visit: http://readingforsocialpeace.wikispaces.com
This is not a politics blog, but I’m going to write something about the stated policy position of Australia’s Liberal Party on broadband.
In a nutshell, it’s an ill-considered, short-sighted and economically irresponsible position which will irrevocably stymy Australia’s business competitiveness for a generation.
Here’s why.
Australia is currently building a National Broadband Network (NBN). The stated goal of the NBN is to deliver superfast broadband to 93% of Australia’s homes, schools and businesses, with the remaining 7% (the most remote) being serviced by wireless and satellite services.
The NBN defines superfast speeds as 100 Mbps per second. Is that fast? You betcha. According to testmy.net, Australia’s current average download speed is 2.3 Mbps.
By any current measure, 100 Mbps is at least ten to twenty times faster than current speeds. What’s more, some sources suggest the potential for the NBN is speeds of a phenomenal 1000 Mbps per second.
What difference will such superfast speeds make? Well, I can tell you from our own experience.
Wilkins Farago has been enjoying speeds of 100 Mbps—what the NBN is promising by 2021—for about two years. We have a home office and Optus already offers a ‘superfast broadband’ service to residential customers (interestingly, it doesn’t offer a similar service to business customers). Our speeds are regularly around 100 Mbps.
So, what is business like at 100 Mbps?
Fantastic. It enables us to do things we couldn’t possibly have done before, to use technology in way that not only makes our business more efficient and robust, but—vitally—allows us to pursue business opportunities we otherwise wouldn’t be able to pursue.
Here’s just one example, and it shows exactly why superfast speeds can and will make a huge difference to businesses of all sizes.
On 7 May last year, a major customer rang us up to ask if we had a book that might be suitable for their customers. They had a gap in their offering for August and needed a quality kids book to fill it.
As it happened, while we didn’t have a booked scheduled, we did have a book we were keen to publish and proposed this book to the customer.
They said yes, please deliver by 7 July. So, we now had two months to produce the book.
However, there were quite a few challenges to overcome if we were to achieve this tight deadline:
In fact, we had the artwork for our English language edition to the printer in China on 11 May, just four days after taking the call from our customer.
In that time, we negotiated an agreement with the French publisher, paid an advance by EFT, received the large digital artwork by FTP, translated the book, typeset our edition and uploaded the artwork for our own edition via FTP to our printer in China.
Had we not had confidence in the speed of our broadband service, we wouldn’t have attempted such an exercise.
The production files alone were around 1.5 GB in size. At low download speeds, we knew from experience that transferring such large files via FTP was problematic. Dropouts are common, meaning you may have to start over again several times, and it would have taken hours and hours to transfer from France, and many, many hours more to transfer our production files to China.
Under such circumstances, it’s more reliable to use a costly international courier, but in this instance, that wasn’t an option.
As it was, moving these big files around the world was quick and easy. Our printer responded with a digital proof the very next day and the several thousand books were delivered on time (even in spite of a heart-stopping last minute shipping delay).
During the course of this production process, we used several technologies that are completely enabled by the internet:
All this is based on what we do now. Who knows what other cloud services will be developed that we can usefully use in the future? Judging by the cloud technology roadmaps of Apple, Microsoft, Google and Adobe, using local software on a PC may become a thing of the past entirely within just a few years. Everything will de done in the cloud.
Which brings me the Liberal Party’s policy on broadband. In order to save some money (maybe $7 billion) and complete the NBN two years earlier, the Liberals’ policy proposes minimum download speeds to 25 Mbps, against the NBN’s proposed 100 Mbps minimum.
Shadow Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull—an intelligent man who should (and probably does) know better—says:
25 megs will enable everybody in residential situations to do everything they want to do or need to do in terms of applications and services.
Rubbish. He couldn’t be more wrong, as I hope I’ve demonstrated.
If Wilkins Farago is already getting 100mbps, why do we care? Because only a fraction of lucky Australian small business can currently access these speeds.
If, as looks likely, Turnbull becomes Australia’s next Communications Minister in September, other small businesses across the nation will miss a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
If the Liberals thought for a moment of the benefits to small business, instead of scoffing at the thought it will just enable people to download movies faster, they couldn’t support such a short-sighted policy.
Better get writing to your local LNP candidate now, or miss the boat.
10 Little Insects gets another rave review in America from Kirkus Review. Here’s a snippet…
“A remote island and a weekend getaway, with murder on the menu.
Think Agatha Christie’s classic Ten Little Indians retold as a graphic novel, an inspiration that Cali’s characters freely reference in the story. These characters, guests on remote Tortoise Island, are various insects: a fly called McFly, who comes in on an airplane; green Mr. Krikkit, who plays a guitar; the tall, yellow, segmented Johnny Nail; and others. Each thinks he’s coming for a different reason: a medical conference, swim meet, etc. An ominous recorded voice upbraids all assembled for unspecified misdeeds and predicts their imminent deaths….
Secret tunnels, a mysterious lighthouse, a skull and a séance all figure into the twisty tongue-in-cheek plot. The storytelling is ably carried along by Cali’s punnish narrative and Pianina’s colorful cartoon panels, which run from five to 10 per page. The playful cover and book size falsely imply a story for young children, but it’s more for preteens and even teens.
Bright and altogether engaging; aspiring entomologists should find it extra amusing. (Graphic mystery. 10-15)”
Review Posted Online: March 27th, 2013. Read more about 10 Little Insects here.
This week, 10 Little Insects receives this positive review in Booklist.
Is this a parody of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (1939) or an homage? It’s probably a little bit of both. Ten insects, all with something to hide,
receive invitations to a weekend getaway on a mysterious island. The boat delivering them to the island has gone, the phones are dead, and none of the guests have any idea who their host is. As, one by one, the insects are found dead, the guests begin to turn on each other. Is there a killer among them? Or is this all just one big misunderstanding? The comic timing in this farce is perfect. The causes of death move from silly to sublime, pushing the envelope when it comes to suspension of disbelief. The artwork is simple but expressive. The insects flail their arms in anger and excitement, the colors are obvious and effective, and the ridiculous twist at the end is paced beautifully. Tweens and teens who have outgrown Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew will be tickled by this send-up of the genre. — Eva Volin
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages.
Eva Volin is the Supervising Children’s Services Librarian, at City of Alameda Library in California.
We are excited to announce our second Reading For Social Peace event as part of the State Library’s Storytime program; June 5th, World Environment Day. Emma Baker, the State Library Family Programs Officer, will be reading Cali and Foli’s powerful picture book The Bear with the Sword to up to 150 families.
Emma tells us the story about how this program became so successful…
Q1: Emma, what was the inspiration behind the Storytime Program at the State Library?
I think it’s never too early to start reading with your children! Our Baby Bounce and Storytime programs encourage parents to engage with their children through stories, songs and activities, making these a part of their everyday life. Our goal is to encourage literacy at a young age and create a lifelong love of books and reading.
Q2: How has it evolved since it first started?
Initially these programs were run once a month and we were lucky if ten people came. I think this began to change when the Library curated, Look! The Art of the Australian Picture Book, which displayed artworks by illustrators such as Shaun Tan, Graeme Base, and Alison Lester. It was an exhibition aimed at families and helped raise awareness of the Library as a place for children.
Three years on, our programs now run every week (in Experimedia) with 120-150 families joining us each session. It’s great to have built such close relationship with our families and to be able to watch as their child grow and learn through play.
Q3: What makes it so successful in your opinion? Why is it so important?
I think there are three key elements to the success of the program. Firstly, the staff involved are knowledgeable and passionate about working with children and families. We provide a fun and friendly environment, where parents learn how easy it is to continue the program at home.
Secondly, we have engaged parents who actively join in to enrich their child’s learning. It’s amazing when there are 150 children and families singing ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’, and it doesn’t matter if you can’t sing- I certainly can’t! By role modeling for your child, it gives them confidence and strengthens the bond you have with them.
Finally, our Storytimes would not be possible without the wonderful team of volunteers we have. Whether they’re welcoming families, doing the Hokey Pokey, or helping children make their very own Hungry Caterpillar, they assist with the smooth delivery of our programs.
Q4: Who are the events open to? Who is your biggest audience?
Our programs are for anyone with very young children and who after a fun, free and regular event. Baby Bounce focuses on the early introduction of lullabies and rhymes to newborns and children up two years, while Storytime focuses on those more active preschoolers who have energy to burn.
The programs are also incredibly multicultural – we have families of all backgrounds attending. In that way we provide a community ‘hub’ in a sense where everyone can build friendships and share their culture, as well as learn English along the way.
Q5: We loved what you did when reading out our picture book Empty Fridge at the Gusto Family Day, how will you work with Bear With the Sword for World Environment Day (Weds 5th June)?
Similar to Empty Fridge, we will be re-enacting Bear With the Sword for our younger audience at Storytime. I think it’s important for children to gain awareness about these particular environmental topics and when it’s presented using a method such as storytelling – it really engages them.
Emma Baker reading Empty Fridge as part of Social Inclusion Week 2012
Q6: What is your favourite children’s book?
There are so many to choose from, but I think it would have to be a tie between Christopher Milne’s Naughty Stories for Good Boys and Girls and The Runaway Hug by Nick Bland and Freya Blackwood. Growing up, I loved reading Milne’s hilarious short stories about cheeky children who got up to all kinds of mischief and wishing I could be just as daring! And The Runaway Hug is one of those books I would recommend every parent have as part of their children’s book collection. Bland’s story and Blackwood’s beautiful illustrations just take your breath away.
If you would like to join Emma Baker for World Environment Day’s Storytime head to the State Library of Victoria, Wednesday June 5th for a 11.30 start.
Venue: Experimedia, Main Entry, Swanston Street.
To celebrate Walk Safely to School Day here’s a sneak peek of Serge Bloch’s charming illustrations about Sam and his Dad.
And here’s the book trailer!
With Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday we wanted to share with you some of the beautiful images from Waiting for Mummy, by Tae-Jun Lee & Dong-Sung Kim.
Book of the Year in Korea, Waiting for Mummy is a deceptively simple story of a child’s patience rewarded. The little boy in the story waits for his mother at a tram-stop while trams come and go, people alight, yet her devoted son waits stoically and patiently, even as a snowstorm gathers.
Will Mummy ever return? The reader must be as patient as the child, as the story is subtly resolved—for those looking closely—in the final magical illustration. – Reading Upside Down Blog
A universal celebration of the love children feel for their Mum!
To find out more about the book or purchase a copy for someone special to you, click here.
A positive response from the children’s book blogging community about Davide Cali and Maurizio Quarello’s Little Eskimo and his companions. Here are some snippets to tempt you to read the articles in full!
This fable-like story is an homage to the child within us all – who looks to the future, brimming with questions and perhaps also fear about What Will Be. Author Cali has written a timeless, thoughtful and beautiful tale that reminds children the future is very much in their hands.
Maurizio Quarello’s striking illustrations of Arctic wilderness and its fauna has been lusciously-rendered, showcasing a darling main character and his animal friends in a way that will charm readers of all ages.
Simply gorgeous. – Tania McCartney, Kids Book Review
The Little Eskimo is a beautiful parable about identity and becoming in an exotic Arctic setting. - Angela Crocombe, Readings St Kilda
This is a book which is perfect for dreamers, thinkers and those who love to wander through the ‘what ifs’ within their imaginations. – My Book Corner Blog
This heart-warming allegorical tale, with folktales cadences, goes to the heart of what it is to be a child, with life’s wonderful possibilities laid out before you. - Stephanie Owen Reader Blog
This sounds like one to share with my children and the illustrations look very Leunigesque, which can only be a good thing.