Read Alert

Before the Bookgig today with Tristan Bancks, I was talking to Kathy from Readings about funny books. Why is it that some authors, who are massively popular in some territories can’t be given away elsewhere. She highly recommends Nanny Piggins by Australian writer RA Spratt. Kathy says they are for younger readers (middle to upper [...]

Juliet O’Conor, the Children’s Literature Collection manager at the State Library of Victoria and auther of the pretty wonderful Bottersnikes and other lost things, is part of a summer school intensive focused on 250 years of illustrated children’s books.

The Changing Image in Children’s Books
A specific literature for children emerged in England in the mid-18th century. [...]

Salem Brownstone is a deliciously moody graphic novel for teenagers and older. When Salem’s estranged father dies suddenly, his quiet life managing a laundromat is turned upside down and inside out. He pitched into a world of ghosts, wraiths and destructive spirits.

The purple cloth and spidery cover illustrations give you a taste of what is [...]

Bookings are now open for Patrick Ness and Isobelle Carmody – two writers imagining dark, dramatic and dangerous futures. Meet them in one special event for secondary students.
Contact Jess on 8664 7555 or learning@slv.vic.gov.au

Thursday 4 March, 2010

10.00am – 11.30 & 1.00pm – 2.00
$8 per student

Village Roadshow Theatrette

State Library [...]

Yesterday Australian poet Les Murray was spied in a Melbourne cafe. (He was reading and drinking a blood orange soft drink.) So I guessed he hadn’t won the Nobel Prize for Literature otherwise he would have been in Stockholm drinking champagne. It is Herta Muller who has won the Nobel Prize this year. Herta, who? [...]

This a is a shout out to Michael Pryor, author of the ‘Laws of Magic’ series. Time of Trial, the fourth book, has just landed in the shops. And sports a rather flattering dedication to the Centre for Youth Literature and its staff. So thanks, Michael, that’s the first time we have had a salute [...]

Phew. We’re just back from delivering the launch of the Almeida Children’s Poetry Collection for the Australian Poetry Centre. The selection of the books and audio can be sampled at Experimedia at the State Library of Victoria.
Rosemary McKenzie launched the collection, generously donated by Almeida Russell.The larger part of the collection will be housed at [...]

The wonderful Bookwitch has this excellent round-up from the Edinburgh Festival. Sadly no mention of CL’s Lili Wilkinson who is thereabouts, but Bookwitch did have a ringside seat to Anne Fine’s latest kerfuffle.

Michelle Griffin* in The Age sees Coraline, out soon sees Neil Gaiman’s Coraline , out now as an animated film, as a story for parents as much as for young people.
I don’t think anything will replace the experience of reading this haunting little novel. Which makes me wonder, when will cinema start doing its own [...]

Shakespeare: Raising the Bard (a panel discussion)
With Andy Griffiths, John Marsden, Tony Thompson and Jenny Lovell

Get to know Shakespeare old and new at this panel discussion featuring two of Australia’s leading writers for young people. Andy Griffiths has relased Just Macbeth, and John Marsden was inspired to write his own take on Hamlet. They will [...]