"A heroine with spunk and spirit offers an inspiring lesson in perseverance and hope. First-rate."
"Connor has created a winning and positive father-figure/daughter relationship."
Read more ... or .... buy it from Amazon
The University of St Andrews has a fair number of successful writers on its staff: poets, academics, novelists. But strolling the streets of the town, risking conversations with eccentric bird men, you’ll find Foz Meadows, an Australian-born young adult writer and author of Solace and Grief, the first of a trilogy, published in 2010. In March, Foz, gave an engaging talk to the University’s Literary Society about why Young Adult (YA) fiction matters. I talked to her about the genre of YA and her life as a writer. => http://bit.ly/lzbBb7
On the heels of earning an Oscar nom for co-writing "The Kids Are All Right," Lisa Cholodenko is in negotiations to direct a live-action adaptation of the children's picturebook "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" for 20th Century Fox. => http://bit.ly/lI7QCN
The work of Shaun Tan, the Australian children’s book illustrator, recalls Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton, but with a mature sad-humored control. It’s a tone that pervades The Lost Thing, an animated adaptation of Tan’s 1999 book of the same name, which won an Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. It’s the tale of a young man in a post-industrial landscape who discovers a neglected many-tentacled playful cyborg on a beach. This month, that and two of his other older children’s books, The Red Tree (2001), a meditation on loneliness, and the John Marsden-authored The Rabbits (1998), an allegory for the plight of the Aborigine, are enjoying a wide release in America in a one-book compendium Lost and Found: Three by Shaun Tan. These are the kinds of children’s books over which you obsess over the details of the pages’ margins.
Tan, who lives in Melbourne, answered some questions by email. => http://bit.ly/mL2dXc
We know a great deal about Anonymous but less about its sibling Pseudonymous. As a book authored under a disguised name makes the Orwell shortlist for the first time, we look at why authors hide their identity – and ask for your favourites => http://bit.ly/k2IvUU
IN BETWEEN red carpet premieres, presidential readings, prime-time television interviews and promotional balloon flights, Jeff Kinney, the creator of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is trying to lead a normal life.
He holds a 9-to-5 job, and makes his family a priority by spending time with his two young boys in Plainville, a small town 48km southwest of Boston.
He is even the local scout master.
However, after-hours he indulges in his passion of drawing cartoon pictures to illustrate funny and honest journal entries by his nemesis, school student Greg Hefley - now a world-famous "wimpy kid". => http://bit.ly/jYkVOw
The Going to Bed Book
(Board book)
By Sandra Boynton
And for a little one who is reluctant to go to bed, sometimes a silly book is just the ticket. And when it comes to silly books, Sandra Boynton is the undisputed queen. In The Going to Bed Book, an ark full of animals watches the sun go down and then prepares for bed.
Go to http://bit.ly/kMErxi for more about the book and to watch the trailer.
Publisher Simon & Schuster Australia has published a translation of Ted Prior’s Grug Learns to Read in Karrawa, an indigenous language from Australia’s Top End. The book – Grug Milidimba Nunga Read Imbigunji – has been translated by Ngingina. It’s been published with assistance from the Indigenous Literacy Project. The ILP will distribute the book among remote indigenous communities like Robinson (see image) and the nearby Borroloola on the McArthur River, where Karrawa is one of several languages spoken. Borroloola, a community of about 780, of which about 200 are not indigenous, is home to the Yanyuwa people. => http://bit.ly/eb8EIY
Puffin Books today announced plans to publish a major new series by Eoin Colfer, the bestselling author of Artemis Fowl. WARP, an acronym for Witness Anonymous Relocation Program, used by the FBI to hide important witnesses in the past, is a high concept series described by the author as 'Oliver Twist meets The Matrix'.
The first book features a Victorian boy, Riley, who goes on the run in 21st century London pursued by a ruthless assassin from his own time. Riley must rely on his wits and the help of a young FBI agent if he is to survive.
http://bit.ly/eDwCet
World's richest children's literature award goes to Australian author-illustrator, described as a 'masterly visual storyteller'
The Australian author-illustrator Shaun Tan is the winner of this year's Astrid Lindgren prize – the richest children's literature prize in the world, with a purse of 5m kroner (£490,000).
Tan is the second Australian to be awarded the prize in its nine-year history, following Sonya Hartnett's win in 2008. => http://bit.ly/hZd3ON
