Justin D’Ath

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

Ian Irvine

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 | Comments

Scot Gardner

Today’s Guest Blogger is Scot Gardner. Scot is a much loved and much lauded writer for young people. His many books since include ‘Burning Eddy’, which was short-listed for both the CBCA and NSW Premier’s Literary awards.

As a kid, I read about the world. I memorised the Latin names of Australia’s deadliest snakes and could name all the birds that frequented our neighbourhood. I loved Cayley’s ‘What Bird is That?’ but I’d never read it from cover to cover, just flicked until I could pick a raptor in flight. I still have my coverless and dog-eared copy, but the first book I truly read—that hooked me and took me away—was a novel by an obscure American writer. The librarian at school handed me the copy—the one with the hand-drawn boy wearing the falconry glove and the Peregrine falcon in stoop. ‘My Side of the Mountain’ by Jean Craighead George. The librarian had handed me books before, but this was the first story. I took it home, lost myself and found myself between the pages. It’s a story about a boy who runs away from home and shelters in a hollow tree, lives off berries and nuts and has a falcon who hunts rabbits for him.  Autonomy. A glorified Northern hemisphere reflection of my antipodean summers. I was seventeen. I never had a falcon. From that moment on, when I spotted one in the sky, I’d hold up my wrist and whistle … just in case.

Scot’s latest book is ‘The Dead I Know’, from Allen and Unwin. For more, visit Scot’s website.

Hazel Edwards

Today’s Guest Post has Hazel Edwards remembering a particular, and mysterious, form of narrative transport. Hazel is one of Australia’s best-loved writers. She thrives on writing for all ages and has published over 200 books across a range of subjects and genres.

Hazel Edwards

Animal Farm

Aged 14, I lived in a country general store, and caught the school bus into the high school. For a readaholic, that was 45 minutes reading either way.

I loved mysteries or espionage (spies) because the stories had a twist. But I also liked biographies about writers, because I wanted to be an author, and I didn’t know any. I wanted to know how they could fit in adventures, travel , work ,family and friends and still have time to write. So I read about French writers like Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus  and others whose names I wasn’t sure how to pronounce. I appreciated English writer Virginia Woolf’s  need for a room of one’s own and an income if you wanted to write. I read about Australian writer Ruth Park (not knowing that in the future, her twin daughters  would illustrate my picture books. Deborah Niland illustrated  ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’  and Kilmeny Niland illustrated  my picture book ‘Feymouse’).  I also liked reading Chinese history about the female ruler whose name I couldn’t pronounce either.  That was often a problem from my reading, I’d mispronounce names because I’d only seen the words and never heard them spoken.

Then I read about Antarctic explorers. And decided I wanted to be an adventurous writer who would have an excuse for travelling to interesting places, because writing about them was considered work. Later I went on an Antarctic expedition and trekked in Nepal and went outback. A few years ago, I wrote ‘Outback Ferals’ which is set in Darwin in the Northern Territory with choppers and crocodiles, so sometimes your early reading influences you in ways you can’t predict.

A very different book was George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’  which was the first political satire I’d read. The animals acted like people. Orwell researched by ‘doing’ and having new experiences, in order to write realistically, and that  really appealed to me.

I’m often asked my favourite book but my honest answer is usually the one I’m reading at the time. Because if you are inside the head of the author for the length of that book, or the length of the school bus ride, you are transported into another world.

Hazel’s most recent books are the junior mystery, easy reading  series ‘Project Spy Kids’ and ‘Frequent Flyer Twins’  illustrated by Jane Connory, are downloadable e-books,  http://www.hazeledwards.com/shop/category/literacy-mysteries and even have stickers and merchandise. For more information, visit Hazel’s website.

Richard Harland

Richard Harland

Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit

Today’s Guest Post has Richard Harland reminiscing about his cherished book from childhood. Richard is one of Australia’s most popular YA Fantasy writers.

The first books I truly loved when I was old enough to read for myself were two books of Brer Rabbit stories.  I know Joel Chandler Harris collected and wrote out the original stories, and I’ve tried to read them as an adult, but the dialect was too heavy and I wasn’t interested in the Uncle Remus framing narrative. These books were the stories re-told in more modern English—I wouldn’t have a clue who did the re-telling or who drew the illustrations. Still, it wasn’t fully modern English, because the flavour of the original was still there in phrases like ‘licketty-split’ and ‘Brer Fox sez, sez he’. I remember the animal characters were always ‘sauntering along’ and being ‘’cute’ (i.e. acute, smart). Read More | Comments