AustLit NewsChildren's & YA Literature

Boundless Festival Celebrates Australian Children’s Literature

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:04:07 GMT

The University of Canberra, in partnership with the Lu Rees Archives, Libraries ACT, the ACT Writers’ Centre, the National Library of Australia and the Children’s Book Council of Australia ACT Branch, is hosting Boundless: The Festival of Australian Children’s Literature in Canberra.

One aspect of the festival will be six exhibitions mounted at public libraries across Canberra. The Civic Library will host the exhibition featuring Bob Graham’s original artwork for A Bus Called Heaven. This book was the winner of the 2012 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Award and has been endorsed by Amnesty International for its support of human rights. The exhibition runs for the full length of the Boundless Festival, 3 October to 17 November.

Further details of Boundless exhibitions, author sessions and children’s activities are available on the festival website.

The Lu Rees Archives is a foundation AustLit partner. From 2001 to 2006, the Archives, under the direction of Professor Belle Alderman, took the principal responsibility for recording the data that forms AustLit’s Australian Children's Literature research community.

Top Fifty

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:54:37 GMT

Stuck for something to read? With fifty recommendations up its sleeve, Get Reading! can suggest a book a week for you for the forthcoming year - with two weeks off to give your eyes a rest.

Get Reading! is a nationwide campaign aimed at encouraging more Australians to read. The campaign will run right through September. Tied in with the 50 Books You Can’t Put Down Guide, available at bookshops and libraries, will be a range of events featuring writers included in the list. The Events page lists what's on, starting with Kathryn Fox, author of Cold Grave, in Cairns on 1 September, followed by Gabrielle Lord in Lesmurdie, WA, on 3 September.

The Guide, which includes fiction and non-fiction, as well as books for children and young adults, is freely available free online or as a PDF download.

It’s National Literacy and Numeracy Week

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:01:25 GMT

This week is National Literacy and Numeracy Week (NLNW), an initiative of the Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. NLNW highlights ‘the importance of literacy and numeracy skills for all children and young people, with a focus on school-aged children’. Children’s writers Aaron Blabey and Libby Gleeson are supporting the initiative in the role of Literacy Ambassadors.

As part of NLNW, school students across Australia are being encouraged to share Aaron Blabey’s Pearl Barley & Charlie Parsley at 2.00pm (AEST) on Wednesday, 29 August. Blabey’s book, about ‘best friends who are different in many ways’, won the 2008 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year: Early Childhood Award and was included in the Smithsonian Institution's Notable Books for Children list in the USA.

While many teachers will read the story to their classes, a video version of Pearl Barley & Charlie Parsley is available on the Literary and Numeracy website. The site also features additional student activities, teachers’ notes and competition news.

Champions Read

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 01:26:43 GMT

'Champions Read' is the (possibly Olympics-inspired) theme of this year's Children's Book Week, which ends this Friday, 24 August. Created by the Children's Book Council of Australia, and now in its 66th year, Book Week is the longest-running children's festival in Australia. The official 'week' began on 18 August.

During Book Week, many Australian schools and public libraries celebrate not only books, but also Australian authors and illustrators. The Council recently recognised the work of a number of authors in its 2012 awards.

Alison Lester and Boori Monty Pryor share the Australian Children's Laureate Award for 2012-13. More details of the other winners can be found here. The Council is already looking ahead to 2013. Next year's information can be found here.

Graham on a Winning Ticket with ‘A Bus Called Heaven’

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 04:55:15 GMT

Bob Graham is the 2012 winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Picture Book of the Year Award. Graham’s award, for A Bus Called Heaven, brings his CBCA-winning tally to six. He first won in 1988 with Crusher Is Coming and, most recently, in 2009 for How to Heal a Broken Wing.
Other 2012 winners are:

Older Readers: Scot Gardner (The Dead I Know)
Younger Readers: Kate Constable (Crow Country)
Early Childhood: Nick Bland and Freya Blackwood (The Runaway Hug)
Eve Pownall Award for Information Books: Alison Lester and Coral Tulloch (One Small Island)

AustLit will bring you more CBCA award news soon. In the meantime, details of all the 2012 winners, honour books and shortlisted titles can be found on the Council’s website.

Gillian Mears First Past the Post

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 05:41:02 GMT

The winners of the 2012 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have been announced. Gillian Mears scooped up the Fiction Prize (and pocketed $80,000) for her novel, Foal's Bread, which recently won the ALS Gold Medal. The judges praised the book, saying it was 'written in transfixing prose and with an, at times, aching affinity for the harsh landscape the book describes'.

Mears beat a strong field to take out the prize. The others on the shortlist were Anna Funder, Kate Grenville, Alex Miller and Janette Turner Hospital.

Interferon Psalms by Luke Davies won the Poetry Prize, awarded this year for the first time. The judges singled out Davies's work for its 'tragicomic vision which is by turns dramatic, alarming and luminous in its formal expression'.

In the non-fiction category, Mark McKenna won for An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark. The runners-up were Geoffrey Blainey, A. J. Brown, Adrian Hyland and Anthony Macris. The Prize for Australian History was won by Bill Gammage's The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia. The judges said Gammage 'demonstrates a rare capacity to open a fresh horizon, capturing both history and his reader'.

When We Were Two by Robert Newton took out the Young Adult Fiction category, and the Children’s Fiction prize was won by Goodnight, Mice!, written by Frances Watts and illustrated by Judy Watson. The judges praised it an 'an almost perfect bedtime book'.

Consolation prizes of $5,000 go to all shortlisted writers, while category winners each take home $80,000 tax-free.

Children’s Literature Community Farewells Gifted Creators

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:14:13 GMT

The children’s literature community in Australia has farewelled two members in recent weeks.

Jean Chapman ([1928]-2012) had a literary career extending across four decades. She wrote scripts for ABC radio broadcasts (including Kindergarten of the Air) and for ABC Television’s Playschool. Her many children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction, often drew on traditional stories from around the world or featured Australian native animals. Chapman compiled several anthologies of children’s stories including Cockatoo Soup (1987). Published to coincide with Australia’s Bicentenary, Cockatoo Soup celebrates the nation’s multicultural heritage.

Pamela Lofts (1949-2012) was well known as both an artist and a children’s book illustrator. A long-standing resident of Alice Springs, Lofts collaborated with Indigenous storytellers in bringing Aboriginal culture and dreaming stories to a wider audience. This is evidenced particularly in the An Aboriginal Story series, compiled by Lofts in the 1980s. More recently, Lofts provided the illustrations for Hunwick’s Egg (written by Mem Fox) and Snug as a Hug: An Australian Lullaby (written by Marcia Kay Vaughan).

The talents of both Chapman and Lofts endure in their books.

Literature and Mining Link Up

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 23:45:32 GMT

The Literature Centre, formerly the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre, has established a partnership with BHP Billiton. The mining giant will invest $600,000 in the Centre over the next three years.

The Centre’s founder and director, Lesley Reece, told the West Australian newspaper: ‘This is the first major corporate sponsorship for children's literature in this country and a great affirmation of the importance of our work’. ('BHP Boost for Kids Literature', 12 May 2012)

Located in the Old Fremantle Prison, The Literature Centre ‘offers a diverse range of student programmes in metropolitan, rural and regional areas of Western Australia’. More than 35,000 students per year join with authors, illustrators and education officers to experience ‘inspiring and interactive workshops, using a range of original manuscripts, preliminary drawings, and artwork’.

To read more about the work of The Literature Centre, visit the organisation’s website or its Facebook page.

Children's and Young Adult Contenders in PM's Literary Awards

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:22:13 GMT

Fiction for young adults and children will be recognised in the 2012 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Individual award categories for Children's and Young Adult fiction sit alongside fiction, poetry, non-fiction and Australian history. Winners in each category receive $80,000 tax-free. Consolation prizes of $5000 go to all shortlisted writers.

This year, the shortlisted authors for the Young Adult Fiction category are:

The Children's Fiction contenders are:

Evangeline, The Wish Keeper's Helper, Maggie Alderson
The Jewel Fish of Karnak, Graeme Base
Father's Day, Anne Brooksbank
Come Down, Cat!, written by Sonya Hartnett and illustrated by Lucia Masciullo
Goodnight, Mice!, written by Frances Watts and illustrated by Judy Watson

For those who want to follow the awards or add a comment, there is a Facebook page for the awards.

Celebrate National Simultaneous Storytime

Tue, 22 May 2012 21:57:57 GMT

Wednesday, 23 May is National Simultaneous Storytime Day. Now in its twelfth year, this event is organised by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) to ‘promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age appropriate themes and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Grades 1 to 6’.

This year’s selected title, to be read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, bookshops and other venues across the country, is Nick Bland’s The Very Cranky Bear.

Everyone is invited to join Zebra, Lion, Moose and Sheep as they attempt to placate the Very Cranky Bear. The nation-wide reading time is 11.00 AEST. To find out more, visit ALIA’s National Simultaneous Storytime website.

ASA Announces Picture Book Illustrators’ Grants

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:42:31 GMT

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced five recipients of Picture Book Illustrators’ Initiative Grants for 2012. The initiative ‘aims to establish a “best-practice” methodology for assessing applications from picture book illustrators for the Australia Council’s New Work funding category’.

The Assessment Panel considered over 100 applications from 92 illustrators and awarded grants in three categories – Emerging, Developing and Established. The Emerging Illustrator’s grant of $5,000 went to Trace Balla and further grant was awarded to Craig Phillips. In the Developing category, Caroline Magerl received $10,000 and Judy Watson, $5,000. The recipient of the $15,000 Established Illustrator’s grant is Narelle Oliver.

To see the full list of shortlisted illustrators, go to the Australian Society of Authors website. And to enjoy some of the emerging artists' work, see Trace Balla's photostream on Flickr and Craig Phillip's illustrations on his website.

2012 CBCA Awards Shortlists Announced

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:05:17 GMT

The shortlists for this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards were announced on 3 April. Thirty-five books have been nominated across six categories.

No Bears by Meg McKinley and Leila Rudge is the only title with two nominations. It is shortlisted in both the Early Childhood and Picture Book sections. No Bears, which uses fairytale conventions and characters, is narrated by Ruby who is determined to banish bears entirely from her tale. Leila Rudge’s illustrations cleverly ensure that Ruby's plan is subverted.

Other shortlistings include first-time illustrator Heidi Goh (for York’s Universe) and multiple CBCA winner Bob Graham (for A Bus Called Heaven).

The CBCA Award winners will be announced on 17 August, immediately preceding the beginning of Children’s Book Week. More information about this year’s CBCA Awards can be found here.