Hazel Edwards at RMIT University Library, Bundoora

The Library and the School of Education have organised their annual children’s author visit for quite a few years now. It is generally organised to coordinate with one the School courses but is open to all RMIT staff and students who are interested. In past years we have had Doug MacLeod, Morris Gleitzman, Leigh Hobbs, Carole Wilkinson and Shaun Tan.  Last year we were enthralled by Shaun Tan’s unusual illustrative talents and the students were genuinely motivated and interested in hearing his writing story.

This year we welcome a very different, but no less acclaimed and accomplished author.  Hazel Edwards may be best known for ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’ (and a recent official Australian government gift to the Danish Princess), but she also writes for older children and adults. Her latest works about to be released is a picture book about 13, a platypus who is a part-time plumber with a tool kit for fixing grumpy people and she will be releasing a new Hippopotamus book in 2010 to celebrate the series 30th Anniversary.

In 2001 as the Australian Antarctic Division writer, Hazel Edwards was part of a resupply expedition to Casey Station, and researched her subsequent Antarctic writing. Since she writes for children and adults, her cross-media Antarctic stories have unique perspectives ranging from the e-mail links to keep expeditioner families in touch during remote winters, to vehicles, icebergs and wildlife. Her stories are animated, illustrated, photographed, in Braille and even Auslan signed DVDs for hearing impaired.

“Being an author means the opportunity to live more intensively by participant observation in places like Antarctic expeditions, but also by using imagination and asking ‘What if?’ as in the creation of the cake-eating hippo. Sometimes books travel even further than the author, into the minds and actions of readers”.

We are delighted to announce that Hazel Edwards will speak to students at:

RMIT University Library,  Bundoora 
 level one
on Friday 14th August
9.30 – 10.30am
Morning tea provided.  All welcome!
For more details contact June Frost on 99256576 or email: june.frost@rmit.edu.au

“Once upon a time there was a block of wood.”

The New York Review of Books podcast page has an interview with author Tim Parks on a new translation of Pinnochio:

Novelist Tim Parks speaks with Andrew Palmer about Geoffrey Brock’s new English translation of Carlo Collodi’s children’s classic Pinocchio, and the book’s origins in the political and cultural tumult of 1880s Italy.

The editor of NYRB Classics observes that

Pinocchio, a book as mysteriously matter-of-fact as an early morning dream, is a brilliant evocation of the promise and precariousness of childhood, when the world is both new and immemorial and everything is possible and yet, because one is a child, nothing is.

I will place an order for Bundoora Library.

Children’s Book of the Year 2009 shortlist announced

The Children’s Book Council of Australia have just announced its shortlist for 2009. It includes titles such as

• Tales from outer suburbia, by Sean Tan
• Perry Angel’s suitcase, by Glenda Millar
• The wizard of Rondo, by Emila Rodda
• How to heal a broken wing, by Bob Graham
• The big little book of happy sadness, Colin Thompson
• The word spy, by Ursula Dubosarsky
• Simpson and his donkey, by Mark Greenwood

It’s very pleasing to see Sean Tan listed, who was our invited speaker at last year’s children’s author talk. We will be ordering items on the shortlist not held currently.

Good reads for children

Allen and Unwin have just published some of their list of top titles for schools. Some of those held by the library are below with links from their covers to the catalogue entry. I will also place orders for items we don’t currently hold. If you look at the information about each of the books on the publisher’s site also has links to information about the author as well as teacher notes and reviews.

Children’s Book Week, August 16th-22nd

This week is the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Week, August 16th-22nd. See their website for a list of winners and honourable mentions. See also our children’s literature subject guide for catalogue links to the shortlist and winners.

Shaun Tan talk at Bundoora Library

Last Friday we had the fifth annual author visit put on by the Library and the School of Education. We were very privileged to have Shaun Tan this year. Shaun’s books and their wonderful stories and images will be known to many. His work has included books like The Lost Thing, The Red Tree and The Arrival. He is also the recipient of many awards, including Children’s Book Council of Australia awards, various premiers literary awards and so on.

Shaun’s book The Arrival traces without words, but through vivid images, a story of immigration and refuge to a land familiar enough to be recognisable but which is also strange and unnerving. It is a remarkable achievement that has us as readers follow the main character in sifting through the signs and wonders to find understanding and connection.

His latest work Tales from Outer Suburbia continues that vein of his work that makes the familiar seem decidedly odd, the common sensical seem deeply mysterious. Like the best and most original works Shaun’s work is hard to categorise and pigeon hole and speaks to people of all ages. You suspect that it connects profoundly to the child’s point of view but also reminds us older folk to think and above all to “see” anew.

Shaun spoke for about an hour, showing and speaking to some of the images within his work. It was clear to everyone that these images were anything but mere decoration; they evoked meaning and associations that added new layers and texture to stories and narratives. Shaun took questions from an engrossed audience and then signed books and chatted, drawing individual pictures in the front of books. We had about 140 people in attendance (a record), including RMIT staff and students, teachers, librarians and members of the public.

See also this other impression of the event.

Shaun Tan speaking at RMIT Bundoora Library

The Library and the School of Education have organised an annual children’s author visit for quite a few years now. It is generally organised to coordinate with one the School courses but is open to all RMIT staff and students who are interested. In past years we have had Doug MacLeod, Morris Gleitzman, Leigh Hobbs and Carole Wilkinson.

We are delighted to announce that Shaun Tan will speak to students in 2008. As the Scholastic website tells us:

Shaun Tan Shaun began drawing and painting images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines as a teenager, and has since then, received numerous awards for his picture books, including the CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Picture Book of the Year Award for The Rabbits with John Marsden. … One of his latest projects is The Arrival, a wordless graphic novel that tells its story through the use of mesmerizing images.

You can find more information about Shaun Tan and his works on the AustLit database or from his website.

Shaun Tan will speak to School of Education students on aspects of visual literacy. This will take place at:

RMIT Bundoora Library, level one
Friday 8th August
11.30am-12.30pm

All welcome!

Download poster

Children’s literature libguide

Another day, another libguide: this time for children’s literature. And see the page for the Children’s Book Council of Australia 2008 Book of the Year shortlist.

 

Children’s Book Council of Australia 2008 shortlist

It’s just been announced and we will be ordering in all titles for the Bundoora library children’s collection,  but here’s some that we already have:

Dragon Moon by Carole Wilkinson

Ziba Came on a Boat by Liz Lofthouse and Robert Ingpen

Kokoda Track: 101 Days by Peter Macinnis

Sonya Hartnett wins richest children’s book award

… says the Guardian headline reporting on Hartnett’s win of the Atstrid Lindgren award worth AUS $880, 000. There is also coverage locally in The Age. See our catalogue entry for library holdings of Hartnett’s work. You can also look her up in resources like The Source and Austlit.