CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

Isn’t it great to see how much success some of our YA authors are enjoying? We have already acknowledged Sonya Hartnett’s outstanding achievement earlier this month in winning the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, but some of our other stars are being published in Europe and North America to considerable acclaim.

Markus Zusak has created an international buzz with The Book Thief, which was a Printz Honor Book in 2006 and winner of a prestigious prize in South Africa last year.

This weekend, Markus featured in the regular ‘Why I write‘ column of the Guardian newspaper. Determined to become a writer from the age of 16, Markus offers insights which are worth sharing with any young aspiring writers you know.

Here at Fiction Focus, reviewing is what we are all about. Not only do we read many book reviews in order to select titles for our journal, we depend on our wonderful network of reviewers to comment on the books we send out. We are told that Fiction Focus is held in high regard because all reviewers have experience as teachers or teacher-librarians, so the classroom-cred has been established. Our reviewers are not paid and without them, Fiction Focus would not be the journal it is. Our volunteers are great and the rest of this entry does not pertain to them in any way!

With reviewing so much on our mind, particularly as we are in the final stages of editing Issue 1 for the year, this article on a New York Times blog caught our eye. ‘Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing’ has unleashed a flurry of comments from peeved readers of reviews. The 227 comments (so far) are just as entertaining as the original blog entry. If you have a pet-hate overworked book review word or phrase, we’d love to hear it.

Anne Frank is still speaking to British teens, more than fifty years after her diary was first published. A survey published today by Britain’s Guardian newspaper puts Anne sixth on a list of most loved reads (just after Harry Potter). And there are only five books-as-we-know-them on the list. Top of the pops are two magazines, Heat and Bliss, with online cheat-sheets for games, film scripts and blogs all coming in ahead of conventional novels. Anthony Horowitz, C.S. Lewis and Louise Rennison all make the cut.

And what do they loathe? Well, Shakespeare is up there, as are books over 100 pages, assigned reading and … Harry Potter. Yes, although Harry came in fifth on the loved reads, he also came in eighth on the loathed, so as they say, you either love him or hate him. Surprisingly, Facebook is also on the loathed list.

I wonder what an Australian survey would reveal? Any guesses?

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2008 goes to the Australian author Sonya Hartnett.

The jury said about her:
“Sonya Hartnett (Australia) is one of the major forces for renewal in modern young adult fiction. With psychological depth and a concealed yet palpable anger, she depicts the circumstances of young people without avoiding the darker sides of life. She does so with linguistic virtuosity and a brilliant narrative technique; her works are a source of strength.” More

For reviews of Sonya’s books and the awards she has won, check the Author entry on our website.

Judi, our regular Fiction Focus blogger has not been able to post recently. (Hurry up and get better Judi - we all miss you)

As guest blogger this week I’m going to share a website that was very popular with students at the school where I last taught.

Literature Map - the tourist map of literature

This simple to use website allows users to search for a favourite author and then suggests other writers who may appeal to the reader. The closer two writers are, the more likely someone will like both of them.

The CMIS website also has lots of useful information for teachers and students looking for something new to read. Check out the Focus on Fiction pages and the In the Classroom section of the website for links to:

• Author Studies
• Genre/Theme Studies
• Specific Titles & Series
• Teaching & Learning Strategies
• General Teacher Resources

The CMIS Resource Bank has a searchable database of over 5,000 fiction resources!