Read Alert

Breaking Dawn, the long awaited final of the Twilight quartet has at last arrived.

The frantic hysteria in the build up to the release has seen teenage girls across the world feverishly awaiting the latest development in the very twisted love story of Bella and Edward. The book has an initial print run of 3.7 million copies in the US alone.

Unfortunately for Stephenie Meyer, many fans have been scathing of Breaking Dawn. By all accounts the plot seems to be a string of nonsensical and ludicrous developments that seem absurd even in a vampire love story. Fans have been outraged and disappointed by the many perceived flaws in the novel and have not been shy about expressing it. Read their vitriol here.

Have you read Breaking Dawn? What are your thoughts on the book and the series?

Not sure who Stephanie Meyer is and what the fuss is about? Phillipa Hawker had this background in Saturday’s Age.

It’s time! It’s up!

It’s over there!

Here’s 2007 Silver Inky Award-winning Nerdfighter John Green:

What do you think of the longlist? Any thoughts for the judges? Any great ideas for the Creative Reading Prize?

It’s INKY WEEK!

Please join us for the launch of the 2008 Inky Awards.

Featuring:

• 2007 Golden Inky Winner Simmone Howell
• 2007 Silver Inky Winner John Green (via YouTube)
• the official 2008 Longlist Announcement
• the launch of the Inkys Creative Reading Prize
• really, really special cake.

Young people are welcome to stay for a free writing workshop after the launch.

Friday 1 August, 11am
Experimedia, State Library of Victoria

RSVP to 03 8664 7555 or here.

The Guardian has just posted a series of Top Ten lists, including

Jacqueline Wilson’s Top Ten Children’s Books

Julia Golding’s Top Ten Characters from Children’s Historical Fiction

David Almond’s Top Ten Children’s Books

Eoin Colfer’s Top Ten Children’s Books

Georgia Byng’s Top Ten Books To Feed the Imagination

Terry Deary’s Favourite History Books

What are your Top Ten Children’s Books?

Next Tuesday and Wednesday we’re thrilled to present Words+Music, bringing together three writers and three musicians whose work is in step with the books. Michael Gerard Bauer, Ursula Dubosarsky and newbie William Kostakis line up with rocker Kim Salmon, baritone Adrian Tamburini and Atlanta Townsend.

Big voice: Adrian Tamburini

We’re there to explore the connections between writing and music. It seems we’re not alone in our thinking. In England, the Latitude Festival held over the weekend has been doing just that. Slightly bigger budget but you get the idea.

You can sample Kim Salmon’s work here from his appearance on Rockwiz. He’ll be a little quieter at the library. Promise.

Words+Music was inspired by a character in Ursula Dubosarsky’s wonderful books The First Book of Samuel and Theodora’s Gift. The books include a rather wayward father, Elkana, who is an opera singer. His rather chaotic, misguided decisions lend an operatic feel to the books, and I thought it would be interesting to try to take that element out into the open.

There are limited spaces for the youth session, Wednesday 30July, 12.45 to 2.45 at the State Library of Victoria. The adult Booktalkers session Tuedsay 29 July form 6.30 (same venue) features the three writers and young singer Atlanta Townsend.

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At the moment, Australian booksellers aren’t allowed to import books from overseas if they are also published locally. But that might all change, and the publishers and authors of Australia are not happy.

Basically, parallel importing of books would mean that consumers would have to pay much less. With the US dollar nearing parity with ours, and the cheap price of books over there, the price of imported books could be significantly lower than locally published titles.

But that also means that, with people buying less Australian books, there will be less Australian books published. Australian writers will have to try their luck in the US market, and then receive a lower royalty. Also, we’d risk losing unique Australian language and stories.

Here’s Garth Nix’s take.

And Nick Earls.

And Justine Larbalestier. (and more here)

And pieces in The Australian here and here.

Confirmed dates for Reading Matters 2009 are: May 28 - 30. Thursday May 28 will be a youth program with the main conference on the Friday and Saturday.

Can’t say too much on invited guests at this stage, but can say that we are well into planning. But 2009 will mark the 18th year of the Centre for Youth Literature. CYL began life in 1991when Agnes Nieuwenhuizen founded the Youth Literature Project.

The venue will be Storey Hall and the State Library of Victoria.

Bookings will open in October. Stayed tuned.

We are thrilled to announce that Paula Kelly, the Centre for Youth Literature manager, has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship. Paula will travel to the United Kingdom and northern Europe in July and August of 2009 to visit national reader development organisations.

Paula’s research will help towards planning for a national organisation for Australia.

So Paula, brush up your Danish, Dutch and Italian!

What a joy it is to find in my letter box The DFC, David Fickling’s new weekly comic! I had subscribed a couple of weeks ago, just the one copy, to check it out. Prising the 36 page comic out of my daughter’s fingers, I settled down to see for myself.

(panel from The Spider Moon by Kate Brown)

The production values are high: you would expect nothing less from Fickling. Some comics are funny, some are silly, all of it is clever, beautifully drawn and edited. There is a great sense of energy, play and discovery.

Highlights are John Blake written by Philip Pullman and illustrated by John Aggs, a Pacific adventure about children lost at sea, ghost ships, fog and time warps. Monkey Nuts is an irrevent tale of monkeys, a robot and a talking coconut. (Sounds weird but it works.) The Spider Moon is like a modern Charles Kingsley story, all beautiful weightlessness underwater.

The sections for readers to do there own thing. The comic is also printed on good stock so the ink is not going to come off on your fingers. At this stage, subscription is direct via the UK; an extra $2.20 (1 UK pound) postage per issue is added for Australia.

There are a number of subscription offers. You can click here find out about subscriptions.

And here is David Fickling talking about The DFC to The Times.

For a taste of The DFC comic click here for the website.

So, back to waiting for the postman…

(from John Blake written by Philip Pullman)