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Adele from Persnickety Snark is compiling a list of the Top 100 YA Novels of All Time. I've just agonised over my own personal Top 10 to add to the list. It was HARD, and I'm sure I've forgotten some. But here they are:
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
Ready or Not by Meg Cabot
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Mandragora by David McRobbie
Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
Skellig by David Almond
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
Abyssinia by Ursula Dubosarsky
I actually started with a list of 20, and getting it down to 10 felt a bit like murder. So here're the runners-up, all of which I also adore:
Del Del by Victor Kelleher So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan Looking for Alaska by John Green Forever by Judy Blume The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander Space Demons by Gillian Rubenstein Doing It by Melvin Burgess 48 Shades of Brown by Nick Earls Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
What are yours?
3 Comments on Best YA titles, last added: 3/23/2010
Now I'm going to go and look for Mandragora, which I've never read. Thanks for that. Can't argue much with your choices, except that I'd probably include Lirael by Garth Nix and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley somewhere in there.
There does seem to be a spring thing in the air as far as lists and voting go. I have top 2 children's book heroes being voted for at the moment at http://scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com/2010/03/top-2-heroes-poll-and-book-competition.html Really hope there isn't a tie at the top (there is currently!).
I wasn't going to write this post, after reading everyone else's 2009 wrap-ups, but people convinced me.
A lot of people I care about had a crappy 2009. I didn't.
2009 started well, surrounded by my friends in Philip Island. Then Michael came into my life and made everything just that little bit more awesome. I've never felt so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful, inspirational, supportive people.
It's also been a bloody good year for writing. I was a guest at the Edinburgh Book Festival and did about a zillion school visits which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had two books published, Angel Fish and Pink. I'm especially proud of Pink because it's the first book I've written that I wasn't commissioned to write, it was all me. It's been so exciting to see it do well, and I can't wait for it to come out in the US next year and see what they make of it. This year I've also sold books to the UK, Italy, China and Turkey, and I saw my first international editions (the UK and German versions of Scatterheart).
I did NaNoWriMo, which nearly killed me but felt like a pretty awesome achievement. I baked Christmassy things. I learnt how to use a sewing machine. My cat that I'd had since grade 5 died. I visited my senile grandmother and was pretty sure she had no idea who I was. I helped deliver another successful Reading Matters. I turned 28. I fell in love. I joined a writers' group. I walked along Hadrian's Wall for three days. I learnt the six steps of drinking whisky. I read lots of books. I finally started watching Battlestar Galactica.
I've watched people I love be sad this year, and struggle, and make hard decisions. And sometimes I feel guilty, because my life is pretty damn awesome. But guilt is a useless emotion, so my New Year's Resolution is to feel lucky instead of guilty. And take the awesome while it's here, and acknowledge that I've worked damn hard for it.
I'm really looking forward to 2010. I'm looking forward to writing a lot, and getting better at it as I do. I'm looking forward to reading exciting new things. I'm looking forward to all the adventures that life presents (except for the complicated provisional tax thingy the ATO wants me to do). And most of all I'm looking forward to spending time with the people I love, and doing everything I can to make their 2010 as awesome as my 2009 was.
Lili, you have inspired to feel lucky too! A lot of my friends had bad 2008's and 2009's and I kind of sat on the sidelines going "My life is so good ... it's not fair!" I guess life's not fair, but you have to appreciate what you've got and be there for the people who need you. :D Happy New Year!!
Also ... Old Battlestar Galactica = Win New Battlestar Galactica = EPIC FAIL
It starts with philosophy, and then moves through feminism, politics, graveyards, literature, monsters real and imagined, syphilis and ends up with, of all things, the humble computer. And it’s ALL TRUE.
So there was this guy, right? William Godwin. He was a political philosopher and novelist in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He wrote a book called Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams, which is said to be the first mystery novel.
William married a lady called Mary. Mary Wollstonecraft, to be precise. You may have heard of her. She is one of the pioneers of modern feminism, and wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, where she argues that women aren’t inferior to men at all, they are just not as well educated. And wouldn’t it be nice, if everyone were treated as rational people and our social order was founded on reason.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary had a few children (some illegitimately), but we’re going to focus on her namesake, Mary Godwin. Mary Wollstonecraft died when baby Mary was only ten days old, so little Mary was brought up by her father and given a somewhat eccentric education. The story goes that William Godwin taught her to read by tracing her little pudgy fingers over the letters on her mother’s tombstone. He said, of Mary:
“She is singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind. Her desire of knowledge is great, and her perseverance in everything she undertakes almost invincible.”
Mary Shelley
Mary, it seemed, was destined for great things. And here’s where it gets interesting.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was estranged from his aristocratic family and his pregnant wife, because of his interest in radicalism. He was drawn to William Godwin’s political theory, and offered to pay off Godwin’s debts. Then he met Mary, who was seventeen at the time (Shelley was 22). They began secretly seeing each other. When William Godwin found out, he was mightily annoyed (especially since the debt-paying-off never eventuated), and Mary and Percy ran away together to live in sin.
A few years and a miscarriage later, Mary and Percy found themselves in Geneva with their friend Lord Byron, who was having an affair with Mary’s stepsister, Claire.
They rented the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, and basically just hung out writing, boating and talking late into the night. Also there was John William Polidori, a romantic novelist.
One particularly wet and rainy afternoon, Byron suggested they all write a supernatural story to entertain each other. Polidori wrote a short story that is basically the reason why teenage girls go weak at the knees at the mention of Edward Cullen – the story, Vampyre, is acknowledged to be the beginning of the vampire genre.
Mary also started what she thought would be a short story, but ended up being Frankenstein.
We’re going to follow this story on a slightly different path now, for the final chapter. Lord Byron had two daughters. The second was with Claire Clairmont, Mary Shelley’s stepsister. This illegitimate daughter, Allegra, died aged 5.
The other daughter was Ada, also known as The Hon. Augusta Ada Byron, or, later, Ada, Countess of Lovelace, or, now, Ada Lovelace.
Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace is perhaps best known as being the first computer programmer. Well, sort of. She worked with Charles Babbage on a sort of theoretical predecessor to the modern computer. She also recongised that computers were capable of much more than just calculating numbers, which was something that no one (including Babbage) had ever considered.
Ada’s mother was very worried that her daughter might succumb to the madness of her father (you know, the syphilis, incest, sexual promiscuity that Byron is famed for), so she had Ada privately tutored in science and mathematics for a young age (the best way to stave off madness, as I’m sure you all know, is quadratic equations).
She was good mates with Charles Dickens, and also with Babbage, who said this about her:
Forget this world and all its troubles and if
possible its multitudinous Charlatans — every thing
in short but the Enchantress of Numbers.
So here we are, at the end of our story. Or the beginning. Today is Ada Lovelace Day, and I have pledged to blog about women in science. Although I ended up blogging about women in political science and science fiction, as well as the ordinary kind of science.
I think perhaps one day I will write a novel about this strange dynasty of women. But in the meantime, if you want to hang out in Ada's world a little more, I can recommend Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine.
3 Comments on Ada Lovelace Day, last added: 4/6/2009
Andrew, it would probably be almost on a par with nursing. And as you know, both my careers thus far have been closely linked with nurses or librarians. To his dying day my grandfather bemoaned the fact the "Jim's never going to get a real job." Namely, one that isn't "being a wardsman" as he called me, and "telling stories to kids".
Remember when David Levithan came to Melbourne and made this speech, talking about killing the vampires for young (queer) teens?
Here is a machinima version of the original Die, Vampire, Die! song from [title of show]. Highly recommended for anyone who ever feels the pain of creativity.
On Sunday, 50 young people, six authors and other assorted interested/ing individuals gathered at the State Library, to hear two additional authors talk about stuff, and eat cake.
And it made me really happy, because it kind of felt like coming home. I’ve been working at the Centre for Youth Literature for nearly six years now*, but I’ve been involved for a lot longer.
The first CYL event I went to, a Bookgig at St Martin’s Youth Arts Theatre. It was 1993. I was 12. The author was Isobelle Carmody, the book was The Gathering. I went to a whole lot of Bookgigs as a kid, and loved them all. Talking about books with other young people and Real Live Authors seemed to be pretty much the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and I’m pleased to say that it still is.
Here’s a photo of that first Bookgig. See if you can find Tiny Lili**.
*ZOMG.
**Clue: Jeans too short. White socks. Otherwise, I haven't really changed.
Oooh! How did I miss this post?! WHY AM I NOT IN THE DAMN PHOTOGRAPH! I was there, I'm sure I was!
How cute is little [BOY] with his legs swinging from the seat. I loved that kid! Also I saw [SECOND FROM THE RIGHT] in the bakery today. WEIRD.
I don't remember the Carmody book gig specifically and I didn't know it was the first one. On the other hand, I remember almost every word that was said at the Garry Disher and Catherine Jinks ones. Odd.
Barbie is the kind of woman who says 'Hey, girls! You can be a surgeon or a sign language teacher or a UN Ambassador or an astronaught or a paleontologist. And wear a nice hat and pretty shoes.' Barbie had careers. Barbie ran for President in 2000, long before Hillary or Palin came on the political scene. Barbie was never defined by her male partners. And Barbie showed us that deformity can be beautiful too. We don't judge Barbie for her scary legs or her twisted pointy feet.
Barbie is equal opportunity. She has black and Hispanic friends, as well as a friend with cerebral palsy, who gets around in a pink wheelchair. She cares about the environment, and about children's rights.
In the current billion-dollar lawsuit of Barbie vs Bratz, I am 100% on Barbie's side.
And now, Barbie's latest campaign is for the smart girl. She's launched a web TV show with Amy Pohler (of SNL fame), called Smart Girls At The Party. It's basically a show that celebrates smart girls - girls who write, read, play music and think. I highly recommend.
0 Comments on Barbie + Amy Pohler + Smart Girls = Awesome as of 1/1/1900
amyj said, on 12/1/2008 3:13:00 AM
I think Barbie was advocating girls becoming astronauts if they so wished, not astronaughts!
I just hadn't seen the positive side of Barbie until now.
Anonymous said, on 12/7/2008 9:37:00 PM
and to think I was never allowed to have a Barbie because she "gave girls the wrong message" (my mother's 1970s feminist view) - I could have been an astronaut now and not a librarian!
You know the one age group of Californians who voted against Proposition 8?
CNN exit poll*
Vote by Age YesNo
18-2939 61
30-4455 45
45-6454 46
65+6139
Proposition 8, for those of you who might not know, was a proposed constitutional amendment that would make gay marriage illegal in California. It passed, being the one nasty small-minded smudge on what was otherwise a proud day for America.
But have a look at those numbers. The only group who voted No - voted against discrimination - was the young people.
Have a look at this map, sent to me by the wondrous Snazzy.
It's often easy to cry that the world is going to hell-in-the-proverbial, but sometimes it helps to take a step back. Yes, there is still sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, religious fanaticism, poverty, discrimination, global warming and racism in the world. But we're getting better. Overall, long-term, things are getting better. And from what I see in the world, and what the data above suggests, is that, over time, we are becoming more open-minded, more unprejudiced, more understanding**.
Here, also from Snazzy, is a letter written by an eight-year-old Filipino-American girl to Barack Obama with some advice about a dog, and a request that he make a law that requires everyone to recycle, and also ban unnecessary wars***.
In Obama's response, he writes, "I want you to look up the word 'empathy' in the dictionary. I believe we don't have enough empathy in our world today, and it is up to your generation to change that... I hope you will always be an active participant in the world around you, and that you will seize every opportunity to make the world better. Seeing young people like you who care about making things better inspires me and gives me great hope about the future of our country."
In today's New York Times Op-Ed, Al Gore proposes to make all of the US's electricity renewable within 10 years. The article is passionate and practical, and I highly recommend you read it (especially you, Mr Rudd). But here is the bit that made me cry:
Looking ahead, I have great hope that we will have the courage to embrace the changes necessary to save our economy, our planet and ultimately ourselves.
In an earlier transformative era in American history, President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon within 10 years. Eight years and two months later, Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface. The average age of the systems engineers cheering on Apollo 11 from the Houston control room that day was 26, which means that their average age when President Kennedy announced the challenge was 18.
This year similarly saw the rise of young Americans, whose enthusiasm electrified Barack Obama’s campaign. There is little doubt that this same group of energized youth will play an essential role in this project to secure our national future, once again turning seemingly impossible goals into inspiring success.
People often ask me why I write for teenagers. This is why.
**I was going to say "more tolerant", but I've made a personal pledge to stop using that word. The dictionary tells me that "tolarate" means "to accept or endure something unpleasant or disliked with forbearance". It's a horrible thing to say (I'm looking at YOU, Palin).
***She is an Obama fan despite the fact that her parents are named John and Cindy. For serious.
4 Comments on The Kids are Alright, last added: 11/16/2008
It's embarassing how far ahead of us the states are in relations to putting Gay marriage on the agenda. The fact that the conservatives felt that they needed to propose this law at all shows how well the campaigners have done (and tust me you haven't seen anything till you've been face to face with anti-homosexual protesters in the US!).
Nice post, Lili. I absolutely agree re 'tolerant'. That word's always bothered me, because you're right - to say that you're tolerant of anything (gay people, ethnic minorities, cultural differences) is to infer that you don't like it, but you'll put up with it. Yesterday I was at a huge public high school in western Sydney. This school has a population of 1100 students, only 0.2% of which (yes, that's two students) are Anglo. The remaining 99.8% of the students are from Iraqi, Assyrian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, Lebanese, Sudanese, Philipino and other backgrounds. And it seemed to me that these kids were more than tolerant of each other. To suggest that they are tolerant is to suggest that they just get on because they have to. I didn't see that. I saw over a thousand kids of a multitude of languages, backgrounds, cultures, standing side by side during the Remembrance Day minute's silence with their heads bowed, some wiping away tears. Tolerant? No. I'd prefer accepting.
Yay for teenagers. It's why I teach :) I love getting to know how awesome they are, and how awesome the world they foresee is. I'm sure the worlds we believed in at 18 were pretty incredible too. The key is to make sure we're working towards them.
Jen thanks for the reminder - it's so easy to be despondent and critical over the passing of prop 8 in California when the fact that it's such a big issue at all is so different to Australia.
So I've been following the US election pretty... obsessively. Like, REALLY obsessively.
And there are a few people who have been eyerolling me whenever I mention it. Because, after all, it isn't MY country. I didn't vote. It isn't MY president. Why should I care?
This is, of course, ridiculous.
I'm sick of people saying "they're all the same". I'm sick of people saying "one vote never made a difference". This is nonsense. Every vote makes a difference. And they are not the same.
I've got a lot more to say on this particular issue, but I'm very tired, so for now I'll just say - today was a good day to be alive. I'm off to bed with the knowledge that when I wake up tomorrow morning, the world will be a little bit better than it was this morning.
6 Comments on Dear America: Yes You Did, last added: 11/19/2008
Obama and Sarah Palin are not the same. Everyone (including America) knows which is better. ^_^
I think everyone in Australia should care about who's elected President. Because America are a powerful country and they can tell Australia what to do cos Australia and America are friends and stuff.
Sounds like you were the same as me Lili. I couldn't get enough of the US election lead up. Fascinating, exciting, enormously confusing, bewildering (read Sarah Palin)and sort of like the best circus you ever saw. I was on a high on Wednesday. It really gives me hope for America who previously seemed to not know (or care) what was good for them.
i know this isn't exactly fun, but do you read quarterly essay? (it took 2 months for me to get to the most recent issue - i had too many kids bks to read) the upcoming issue is about the US election http://www.quarterlyessay.com/
the onion is a little more succinct http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/black_man_given_nations >The job comes with such intense >scrutiny and so certain a >guarantee of failure that only >one other person even bothered >applying for it.
Reading one of Margo Lanagan's short stories is like running across sizzling tarmac and then plunging into a deep pool of clear, cold water. It's an enormous shock to the system, but it's wonderful. Except by the time you've acclimatised to the cold, you have to haul yourself out of the pool and sprint across the tarmac again before you can jump in the next pool and start all over again. It's an amazing experience, reading a book like Black Juice or Red Spikes. But it takes work.
So I admit I was a little nervous about Tender Morsels. I thought it would be hard work. I knew it would be beautiful - it's Margo, after all, and she is one of the greatest writers in Australia. But I thought it would be one of those books you had to push yourself through.
I was wrong.
Tender Morsels sucked me in from the opening sentence*, and kept me held tight until it rather cruelly spat me out at the end. It is gripping and sad and beautiful. The language is breathtakingly stunning. The characters are real and wonderful. It takes old and tired elements of fantasy - magic, medieval villages, wolves, bears** - and reinvents them, new, glittering, fascinating.
I cannot recommend it highly enough, even if (especially if) you are one of those frankly unenlightened people who thinks they don't like fantasy.
It's published here as an adult novel, in the US and UK as YA. I think it's both. It's crossover. There are... controversial bits.
Read more in this interview with Margo, which includes a lolsome fictional grilling from Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert. Here's a sample:
Well, after Jon/Stephen had mentioned all Tender Morsels' sexual content and general weirdness and darkness, and waved the book around and asked "What is in the WATER down there in Australia, that your young people read this sort of story?," I would say:
"This book sits right on the upper edge of the YA category, and in fact in Australia it's fallen right off the fence and is published as an adult book. But, categories-schmategories, Jon/Stephen - this is just a story. I'm going for a sense of story that may be hardwired into us, or at least is laid down when we're very young, and never goes away. If you've ever enjoyed being creeped out by a campfire story, or enchanted by a fairy tale - or in fact if you've ever had an imaginary refuge that you go to in your head, a mountain cave or a sunlit forest glade - you'll like Tender Morsels. This story is the kind that pushes everyday life out of your head completely."
JON/STEPHEN: And replaces it with fornicating bears?
MARGO: Well, bears have gotta do what they gotta do, no? And I have it on good authority, from one grown-up female reader, that some of these bears are dead sexy. There's a lot of bad sex in this story, but the bears get some of the good stuff.
She's right. The bears are totally hot.
_____________________________
*For those of you who have read the book: yeah, that pun was intentional.
**The BEARS. Oh, Margo! The BEARS. I loved them so very much.
3 Comments on Tender Morsels, last added: 11/10/2008
I've just started it. First thirty-five pages: gripping but gruelling. Really terrific language though. Looking forward to the bears (in fact, I just finished Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman's tiny book about the meeting of Iorek Byrnison and Lee Scoresby, so I'm primed for some bear-on-bear action).
Hey Lili, this is Mai and Sarah but can you call us Emerald and Saphire, yeah! we're the fanfiction nerds that you met at the MLC thingy. and WE CANT FIND THE NAMES OF THE FANFICS THAT YOU SAID YOU SUGGESTED HELP!!!
So it's a year since Harry Potter mania peaked and then disappeared. We all got over it. We read the epilogue and said "ORLY, JK? Albus Severus? For cereal?". And now a year on most of us look back on those years with a slight nostalgic confusion - what were we thinking?
I am more obsessed with Harry Potter than I ever was when HP mania was around. I'm sure you all remember my snarky comments about plotholes and adverbs. I read the books, I enjoyed the books, then I enjoyed criticising the books. It was my Thing.
It is a hundred squillion times better than anything JK ever wrote. She understands the characters better than JK does. And she certainly understands romance better than JK does.
Anyway. The end of the most recent chapter made me squee like a fangirl. I WANT MORE.
Scary in the way that 1984 is but times a million, because 1984 is about a future that never happened, but Little Brother is about right now.
Basically, it's about what happens after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Marcus, a relatively normal 17 year old with a penchant for minor hackery, gets arrested by the Department of Homeland Security for being found near the attack site without a good excuse. He is taken to a secret offshore prison, tortured, and then forced to sign a document stating that he was held voluntarily.
Outside, the DHS is taking over. Civil liberties are being stripped from citizens who happily allow it because it's making them safer. A general air of terror and paranoia lies over everything. And Marcus can't help wondering - who are the real terrorists, here?
It's an extraordinary novel that every teenager should read. Every adult should read it too, but it's young people who really need to read it. I think it'll really speak to the new generation of technology and news-savvy kids who are growing up in a world where fear and secrecy are considered to be the same thing as security*.
The world is a scary place, and it's easy to believe that there's nothing you can do - especially if you belong to one of the most politically disenfranchised groups of people in the world - young people. Hopefully Little Brother will encourage them to take a little turf back.
You can buy the book here, or download the whole thing for free in just about any format you can imagine here.
___________________________
*Plus, there's sex!
1 Comments on Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, last added: 7/17/2008
0 Comments on When Craft and Song Collide... as of 4/19/2008 1:48:00 PM
Pat said, on 4/29/2008 3:46:00 AM
Hey Lili - completely unrelated to the post, but two links you may find interesting, if you've not already come across them. First is a talk by Dave Eggers at TED (about writers passionate about making a difference), and the second is Pangea Day, coming up on the 10th of May (well, 11th by our timezone), which looks like a very cool mini film festival.
Pat said, on 4/29/2008 3:49:00 AM
And I didn't get that last link quite right - try http://www.pangeaday.org/
Over at insideadog, Maureen Johnson is putting to the test the theory that all books are made better with a zombie.
And you're invited! Transform a work of existing literature by adding a zombie. You might even win a prize...
Here's examples from Maureen, Justine and Scott. And here's mine, with apologies to Walt Whitman:
O ZOMBIE! my Zombie! our fearful trip is done;
Our bodies weather'd every whack, the brains we sought are nom nom nom;
Our lunch is near, the bells I hear, the people all screaming,
While follow eyes the zombie reel, our onslaught grim and daring:
But O brains! brains! brains!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my dinner lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
0 Comments on ZOMBIE IDOL as of 1/1/1900
Anonymous said, on 2/13/2008 1:00:00 PM
Funny! Is make Whitman even gooder.
If only one could make a living putting zombies in everything . . .
Justine
limeywesty said, on 2/14/2008 11:42:00 PM
I think that's ingenious Lili
Jellyfish said, on 2/15/2008 11:55:00 PM
Hah! This is genious, Lilliputian, even better than 'In My Pants.'
(Ps - why does zombie me have to be such a damn overactor? Although at least Zombie Jelly does not look as bad as Gymkhana Jelly. PAH.)
James Roy said, on 2/17/2008 6:25:00 PM
Maureen's zombie competition is over, so I thought I'd put my entry here. It cannibalises Lord of the Flies and makes the zombie a passive character, which I think is softer, and exposes the vulnerable side of the undead...
The rock struck the zombie with a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. The zombie, saying nothing, with no time even for a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as it went. The rock bounced twice and was lost in the forest. The zombie flew forty feet and landed on its back across the square red rock in the sea. Its head opened up and stuff came out and turned red. The zombie's arms and legs twitched a bit, like pig's after it had been killed. Then the sea breathed again a long,slow sigh, the water boiled white and pink over the rock; and when it went sucking back again, the body of the zombie was gone.
Sean said, on 2/21/2008 11:55:00 PM
(...and because I can't find your email to tell you about this, here's a comment off-topic):
Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
There is a multitude of unique stories about how people became involved in the children’s book industry; some knew they wanted to write or illustrate books from the time they were young, others studied the industry and their art form for years, and still others taught themselves and worked hard to break in to the industry.
On this edition of Just One More Book!, Mark speaks with illustrator Ben Hodson about his versatile illustration style, the role of illustrations in social justice and how hard he worked to establish himself as a children’s book illustrator.
I’ve heard Mark on Quirky Nomads from time to time, but I’ve never managed to check out the podcast until now. I am so excited about finding your show! My husband and I are avid readers and book hoarders, but our collections are definitely for adults. We’re expecting our first child at the end of August, and we had been thinking we needed to start our children’s book library soon. Thank you SO MUCH for this excellent resource!
Just One More Book!! said, on 5/22/2007 1:39:00 PM
Welcome Susan!
Thanks for stopping in for a listen and for your enthusiasm.
Congratulations on your upcoming addition. We hope you have fun discovering many wonderful children’s books to read together.
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There is a multitude of unique stories about how people became involved in the children’s book industry; some knew they wanted to write or illustrate books from the time they were young, others studied the industry and their art form for years, and still others taught themselves and worked hard to break in to the industry.
Top 10 YA titles seems to be the theme of the moment! Mine are here:
http://annaryanpunch.blogspot.com/2010/03/10-ya-books-you-must-read.html
Skellig and Space Demons were two that fell off my list.
You should email yours to Viewpoint too :)
Now I'm going to go and look for Mandragora, which I've never read. Thanks for that. Can't argue much with your choices, except that I'd probably include Lirael by Garth Nix and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley somewhere in there.
There does seem to be a spring thing in the air as far as lists and voting go. I have top 2 children's book heroes being voted for at the moment at http://scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com/2010/03/top-2-heroes-poll-and-book-competition.html Really hope there isn't a tie at the top (there is currently!).
Lucy Coats
space demons! what a brilliant book, that i had forgotten about...
i'm working on my list...but it's quite painful.