January27th
Kate is the author of the much loved ‘The Chanters of Tremaris’ series.
There is a very particular thrill in discovering a book that seems to have been written just for you and nobody else in the world. When I first read Peter’s Room in my early teens, I felt a shock of recognition, and a secret delight so strong that it seemed almost wicked. Read More
January24th
16% of people think a placebo was a government official in ancient Sumer.
4% of ants are actually small sticks.
8% of people have no nail on their little toes.
14% of Renaissance painters were allergic to cheese.
28% of people have faces that cannot be caricatured by cartoonists.
71% of directions given by strangers are wrong in either direction or duration.
5% of Monopoly games are played strictly by the rules.
94% of clouds aren’t any shape at all, really.
12% of economists worship the Great White Sow.
77% of meetings are too long, 22% are pointless.
44% of cats can’t smile.
23% of politics makes no sense at all to anyone.
2% of traffic lights are telepathic and change to red just to spite you.
88% of items marked ‘Handwash only’ are thrown in the washing machine.
January19th
Justin is the author of over 30 books for children and young adults, including the hugely popular Extreme Adventures series.
I grew up in a house of books – well, three houses really, since the family moved twice as it grew larger; and the books went with us, of course. There’s a black and white photo of me, aged about 2, posing in front of our old blue Kombi during one of those moves. The rear of the Kombi is stacked with books.
Although you can’t see their covers, somewhere in that 1950s mobile library are the two Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling. I had the good luck, several years and one house-move later, to share a bedroom with my two elder brothers. Billy was a keen reader and an even keener story-teller, and often after lights-out he would recount to Philip and me a second-hand version of what he’d been reading that day. And this is how I first became acquainted with Mowgli’s wolf pack, with Shere Khan the tiger, with Baloo, Bagheera and Kaa; and with (always my favourite) that brave little mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.
When I was old enough to read the stories myself, I rediscovered the Jungle Books through Kipling’s own voice and those of his characters – and enjoyed them all over again. And I still do. I have a 1932 hardback copy of The Two Jungle Books , still with its slip jacket, that I found in a Sunday market 12 months ago and which I dip into from time to time. But in my heart, I still enjoy Billy’s version best.
Justin’s latest book is ‘Mission Fox, Horse Hijack’ from Puffin 2011. Find out more by visiting Justin’s website: www.justindath.com
January17th
I can finally divulge details of the top secret project I’ve been working on for some time. 10 Futures is a series of linked stories which explore humanity’s next hundred years. Ten story segments, ten possible futures, each with its own challenges and opportunities – overpopulation, worldwide financial collapse, medical miracles, the rise of artificial intelligence, virulent pandemics, global warming/climate change, greatly increased lifespans, religious fundamentalism and war.
What unites these stories is the presence of Tara and Sam, best friends forever, coping with the futures that we are setting up today. Every one of the story segments is based on a current trend or development – technological and sociological – with the assistance of a simple question: what happens if this continues?
I spent a great deal of time researching these trends, and every item I uncovered was balanced by my need to work with the human aspect of these changes. the How do you grow up in 2050? In 2080? In a world where water is rationed? In a world where freedom is unknown? In a world where your partner is chosen for you by your genetic suitability? Much will stay the same – people will still be people in 2100 – but some new ethical and moral dilemmas will be spawned. What are the rights of clones? What is the punishment for water theft in a world where everyone is thirsty?
I’m immensely proud of 10 Futures. Imagining the future is important. If we don’t think about it and talk about it in an informed and thoughtful way, we’re stumbling ahead blindfolded. Is that any way to proceed?
10 Futures comes with an extensive set of Teachers’ Notes aligned to the Australian Curriculum and will be available in April. For more, including ordering details, see the Random House Australia site.
January12th
Leanne Hall
Whenever I’m in a second-hand bookshop, the first thing I always do is go to the children’s shelves and look for a copy of Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler. But I’m not looking for just any copy; it has to have the original 1970s cover with illustrations by Fritz Wegner. Jacob Two-Two is still in print and can be ordered from the US, but only with very ugly modern covers.
Look at that! Isn’t that a magnificent cover? Doesn’t the Hooded Fang look ferocious? Aren’t you wondering why he’s wearing such a revealing dressing gown?
Jacob Two-Two is the youngest of five children, and feels so disregarded in his large rowdy family that he finds it necessary to say everything two times. This lands him in a pile of trouble when he offends a local grocer by asking for `two pounds of firm red tomatoes’ twice. Before Jacob Two-Two knows it, he has been tried before a very unsympathetic judge, and incarcerated in the dreary Slimer’s Isle prison that is ruled by the terminally cranky Hooded Fang. Luckily for Jacob, the intrepid Shapiro and O’Toole (who bear a suspicious resemblance to Jacob’s brother Noah and sister Emma) from child liberation organisation Child Power have a plan to spring all the children from the jail. But Jacob Two-Two also has an anonymous helper and friend within the bars of the prison… Read More
January5th
Today’s Guest Blogger is Ian Irvine, one of our foremost fantasy writers and the author of the best-selling ‘Three Worlds’ sequence.
We didn’t have TV until after I finished the HSC, in 1968, and my primary form of entertainment from the age of 4 was reading. I devoured books, thousands and thousands of them, indiscriminately, and the books I most enjoyed were tales of adventure and derring-do in exotic places.
Among them, many of my favourites were the Biggles stories from the Second World War. And of all of the Biggles books, the one that stands above all others is Biggles in the Baltic, first published in 1940. Read More
December31st
As is customary, here’s my round-up of professional whatnots in 2011:
I’m sure I’ve forgotten things, but I think that sums it up. Happy New Year to you all!
December22nd
Today’s Guest Blogger is Penni Russon, one of this country’s most admired writers for young people, with works as varied as the lyrical ‘Undine’ trilogy and Girlfriend Fiction.
I have just excised a 300-word introduction listing all the books I won’t be talking about – for to choose one favourite is to neglect several cherished friends from childhood. However, the novel I am actually going to write about is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graeme. As an adult I can raise all sorts of ideological issues with this book, probably the main one being the almost complete absence of female characters (apart from a laundress who furnishes a cross-dressing Toad with his getaway gear). This is a motherless world; it is a narrative of masculine encounters. These are English gentleman loafing about the countryside dressed up as toads and badgers and moles and water-rats and otters, with the lower classes lurking in the wild woods: weasels and rabbits and stoats. Read More
December15th
The first time I saw a Goosebumps book, I fell in love.
I was eight, and the fact that the title was written in blood-like lettering and contained the words ‘Dead House’ meant that it was instantly the coolest thing I had ever laid eyes on. And once I’d managed to get past the hypnotic front cover, I found the story was even better – haunted houses, monsters, and everything that was scary-but-not-too-scary-for-an-eight-year-old. I was in horror heaven. Read More
December13th
For the month of December, I’m Guest Blogging as Writer in Residence over at Inside a Dog, the website of the Centre for Youth Literature. Pop over and peruse my mindful meanderings.
