Daily checklist: Dacks of track on and slightly soiled? Check. Face devoid of makeup? Check. Hair lank and unloved? Check. Clearly it’s a writing day. And just as I happily tap in the 44,999th word of the w-i-p, the call comes in. Could you do a 15-minute interview on bookish matters on 612 ABC Drive [...]
Archive for the ‘Reading’ Category
Just when you think it’s safe to have a bad hair day …
Posted: May 15, 2012 in Media, ReadingTags: ABC 612 I rate the book, Bad Hair Day, Jane Eyre, Melina Marchetta, The Piper's Son, This Writing Life
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Strike me pink, it’s TODAY
Posted: April 3, 2012 in Children's fiction, Reading, YA FictionTags: CBCA 2012 Shortlist
So, I’m at the beach playing Masters and Slaves with my kids. We’re having fun (as we like to remind ourselves, there’s no winners and losers in this family…..just losers). But eventually I need a break from loserdom and check facebook … and nearly topple off my perch. Egad, it’s today! The day that has [...]
My Clayton’s Shortlist for 2012
Posted: March 26, 2012 in Reading, YA FictionTags: Andrew McGahan The Coming of the Whirlpool, Bill Condon A Straight Line to my Heart, CBCA Qld Claytons Shortlist 2012, Em Bailey Shift, JC Burke Pig Boy, Melina Marchetta Froi of the Exiles, Robert Newton When We Were Two, This reading life
Finally, here it is – my 2012 Clayton’s Shortlist for Older Readers. No doubt my Six Pick will be different to the CBCA judges’ Shortlist (out on 3 April), and, no doubt, different to yours – and so it should be. We all clasp books to our hearts for different reasons – what speaks to [...]
Mum, there’s a little thing I need you to do….
Posted: February 16, 2012 in Children's fiction, Dust, Henry Hoey Hobson, Reading, YA FictionTags: Book Links Qld, Making a list with David Malouf, Nick Earls, The Big Read, Vote for your favourite Queensland book, wildest dreams
You know that old cliche “Never in my wildest dreams”? Well, I never say that. Because as we all know, good writers avoid cliches like the plague…and in my wildest dreams, I’m usually fighting a one-woman guerrilla war against Columbian drug lords, or facing down a serial killer threatening a library full of school children [...]
Books for Xmas (Part One)
Posted: December 5, 2011 in YA Fiction, Reading, Children's fictionTags: Alison Goodman, Michael Gerard Bauer, Melina Marchetta, Karen Brooks, Em Bailey Shift, Froi of the Exiles, Katherine Battersby, Squish Rabbit, Books for Xmas, Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel, James Moloney, Silvermay, Eona, Votive
If, like me, you plan to end the year skidding in sideways with a book in each hand, then read on for this year’s hot Xmas pressie ideas for family and friends… For the Teen Miss, it would be hard to go past Shift by Em Bailey. A genre-busting, riveting gallop of a read that [...]
And the winner is…..
Posted: August 19, 2011 in Reading, YA FictionTags: Anna Branford, Cath Crowley, CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2011, Graffit Moon, Isobelle Carmody, Just a Dog, Michael Gerard Bauer, Sonya Hartnett, The Midnight Zoo, The Red Wind, Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot
The third Friday in August is a red-letter day for every Aussie kids’ writer. It is the day the Children’s Book Council of Australia announces its Book of the Year Awards across five categories covering toddlers to teens. The CBCA awards are arguably the most prestigious children’s literature awards in this country. School libraries snap [...]
Making reading dangerous
Posted: May 23, 2011 in ReadingTags: Captain Underpants, Make reading dangerous, Reach for the Sky, Reluctant readers
When parents ask me how to get reluctant readers into books, I tell them to stop making it safe. Reading should take kids to places they’ve never been before. It should crack open the world and expose its heart. I still remember the thrill I felt as a child when reading books that were beyond [...]
My Clayton’s Shortlist
Posted: April 12, 2011 in Events, Henry Hoey Hobson, Reading, YA FictionTags: AJ Betts Wavelength, Anthony Eaton Daywards, Cassandra Golds The Three Loves of Persimmon, Cath Crowley Graffiti Moon, Fiona Wood Six Impossible Things, Melina Marchetta The Piper's Son, Qld Clayton's Shortlist
I take my hat off to the real judges of the CBCA Book of the Year Awards. Not just because they short-listed my Henry Hoey Hobson For Book of the Year for Younger Readers (though, let’s be honest, I LOVE them for that), but because they do such a difficult job, for little pay or [...]
My Clayton’s Notable Books (Older Readers) for 2011
Posted: April 12, 2011 in Events, Reading, YA FictionTags: AJ Betts Wavelength, Anthony Eaton Daywards, Belinda Jeffrey Big River Little Fish, Cassandra Golds The Three Loves of Persimmon, Cath Crowley Graffiti Moon, Clayton's Notables 2011, Fiona Wood Six Impossible Things, Foz Meadows Solace and Grief, Jackie French A Waltz for Matilda, James Roy Anonymity Jones, Joanne Horniman About a Girl, Karen Tayleur Six, Kathryn Lomer What Now Tilda B?, Kirsty Eagar Saltwater Vampires, Kirsty Murray India Dark, Laura Buzo Good Oil, Leanne Hall This is Shyness, Melina Marchetta The Piper's Son, Michael Pryor Laws of Magic 5 Moment of Truth, Nette Hilton The Innocents, Nicole Pluss Scout, Richard Yaxley Drink the Air, Sonya Hartnett The Midnight Zoo, Steven Herrick Slice, Tim Pegler Five Parts Dead
The CBCA 2011 Notable Books have been released (click here for the full list), so it’s now safe for me to publish my own Clayton’s Notables for Older Readers. AJ Betts – Wavelength A must-read for stressed out Year Twelve students Laura Buzo – Good Oil Ahhh, first love, don’t we all remember that? Cath [...]
