By: Susanne Gervay,
on 10/26/2012
I’m thinking I may be a country person after all. My father was a farmer.
I just love the bush, the villages, the ‘ships in the field’ and cows.
Also love the beautiful birds and our kangaroos.
The kids of Cundletown Public School live in beautiful countryside.
It was great talking as an ambassador for the National Year of Reading to the kids.
Also shared NO to School Bullying with I AM JACK.
We’ve all just got to keep schools safe – so that kids can be all they can be.
They LOVE Jack.
By: Aline Pereira,
on 12/10/2010
Australian author Susanne Gervay (visit her website and blog) has had a very busy year this year and social justice has been high on her agenda. She is one of the contributors to Fear Factor: Terror Incognito, an anthology of short stories featuring ten Australian and ten Indian writers, edited by Meenakshi Bharat and Sharon Rundle (Macmillan Australia/ Picador India, 2010). She has been writing about her travels to India and Kiribati, a “Pacific atoll nation drowning under climate change”. She has just launched Always Jack, the third book about Jack, following on from her wonderful I Am Jack and Super Jack. Most recently, Susanne was in South Korea for the Nambook-010 Fesival, the 5th Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival. She was there because she was taking part in Peace Story, a very special project. We are very grateful to Susanne for telling us all about it here. For those of us who couldn’t be there in person, Susanne’s description and photographs are definitely the next best thing!
In these troubled times with North Korea’s military attack on South Korea, the international publication of Peace Story is poignant and important. Twenty-two children’s authors and twenty-two illustrators from twenty-two countries engaged in an international cooperative to create a unique anthology, Peace Story, for young people. Respected academic author on Irish children’s literature Valerie Coghlan and Irish Laureate for children’s literature Siobhán Parkinson were the co-editors of Peace Story.
‘Peace Story’ was part of the Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival, South Korea which was first held in 2005 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. It is a six-week bi-annual festival of children’s books, the environment and peace, featuring outstanding exhibitions of children’s books and illustrations from all over the world. Much loved Korean illustrator Kang Woo-hyon, President of the Nambook-010 International Committee headed the ‘Peace Story’ project with the support of the Nami Island Minn family who published and translated some of the stories, and hosted the authors and illustrators on Nami Island. It was supported by National YMCA Korea, UNICEF and UNESCO Korea, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, and Nami Island the official sponsor of the IBBY Hans Christian Anderson Awards.
My Australian story ‘To East Timor with Love Australia’, illustrated by the award-winning Frané Lessac, opens the anthology Peace Story. Frané Lessac’s vibrant colours of bright pink bougainvillea and yel
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By: Susanne Gervay,
on 12/30/2009
Some of my ‘babies’ promoting STORY as a way to reach the world for 2010 are:-
International Conference in GOA India – January 2010
SCBWI International Conference at The Hughenden 17-19th September 2010
The Kids & YA Literature Festival at the NSW Writers Centre Rozelle 3rd July 2010
My new book ALWAYS JACK comes out for Breast Cancer Awareness month October 2010
I AM JACK in the USA published by Tricycle (Random House USA)
PEACE for Kids – 5th Nami Island Children’s Book Festival, South Korea – IBBY (IBBY), UNICEF, UNESCO - November 2010 
Storytellers, Partners in Crime, Sydney Writers & Illustrators Network, Launch of ‘Fear Factor – Terror Incognito Picador – at The Hughenden 2010 www.thehughenden.com.au
More News coming … let’s make 2010 an amazing year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! 
By: Susanne Gervay,
on 10/22/2009
I Am Jack, Super Jack and now - Always Jack
Kids ALWAYS know when a parent goes out at night for their ‘adult’ functions that they’ll be run-over, have an accident, not come home …. so they ring heaps of times, fall asleep waiting at the window, wait and wait … they are afraid.
When I got breast cancer and my kids were 6 and 9 years old, they were afraid. AlWAYS JACK is the book I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write for my kids and all those other kids waiting for their parents to come home.
It’s about giving kids a voice when your Mum gets sick. Working out what happens with cancer and that the world will be safe.
Just finished the manuscript. Cathy Wilcox will illustrate it. It’ll be published for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October 2010 and be part of the National Breast Cancer Foundation campaign. www.nbcf.org.au
Remember to Buy a Pink Ribbon for our kids.
