CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

Imagine Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in the one room! This is as close as we are likely to get as Neil talks to Terry in this penetrating interview that honours the 25 years of Discworld and the 24-year friendship of the two. It does not shy away from talking about Terry’s recent diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease, nor would Terry Pratchett want it to - his advocacy has created enormous media interest in the condition, and therefore public awareness. The good news is that he still has books to write.

The July/August 2008 Horn Book magazine has been published and some of the articles are already available online. The profiles of Newbery and  Caldecott awards winners Brian Selznick and Laura Amy Schlitz will interest Australian readers.

Unlike Zoe in the previous post, this performance will be happening at the Sydney Opera House - on 20 July. And elsewhere in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, too, throughout the month.

Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree has been realised in performance at last. The Australian Chamber Orchestra and youth choir Gondwana Voices are on tour to those cities with this new production that also has the powerful combination of Shostakovich and The Arrival on the program.  Tour dates and venues here and you can also watch Richard Tognetti talk about the production and view stills from the book.

Shaun’s latest nominations for The Arrival are for two Hugo Awards: Best Related Book and Best Professional Artist. These Science Fiction awards will be presented in Denver, Colorado early next month.

Libby Gleeson talks about the story behind Mahtab’s Story, her latest work, in this Radio National podcast, which will be available for a week.

The dedicated Allen & Unwin site has teacher’s notes and additional information.

Neil Gaiman was the guest on the Radio National’s Book Show yesterday. In conversation with Michael Sherrifs, he talks about graphic novels, his two-decade-long collaboration with Dave McKean and classic YA literature.

It is for online listening only, but the transcript is also available.

Speaking of books of a bygone era, the Fine Lines blog revisits some loved titles of the ’70s and ’80s with a more critical eye. The latest post is about Paul Zindel’s The Pigman, now an astonishing 39 years old! This weekly blog is worth a nostalgic visit.

• Melina Marchetta is guest author on the OzProjects Beware of Books site next week. Students are invited to submit questions to Melina on the forum.
• House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones’s newest title set not long after the events in Howl’s Moving Castle, is due here in August. This interview with the author sets the scene.
• A discussion guide has been released for Life as We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer’s grim and scary tale of the consequences of a meteor hitting the moon. The sequel, the dead and the gone (the author’s preferred punctuation) has just arrived on our desk and will be reviewed shortly. It has been published here in paperback as The Dead and the Gone and the cover is not nearly as attractive as the American hardback. Pity.
• Literature teachers might like to follow this link from the Teaching Literature to Adolescents blog. Peter Smagorinsky, from the University of Georgia, is creating a growing list of titles to support conceptual themes such as Utopias and Dystopias, Conflict and  Justice. It’s a long list, and yes, the bias is American, but Smagorinsky is accepting suggestions for additions to the links, novels, poetry, drama, short stories, non-fiction titles, songs and films he is compiling for each theme.

Shaun Tan has hit the airwaves again, this time in conversation with Margaret Throsby on ABC Classic FM this morning. Listen or download the podcast here. The interview is punctuated with music selected by Shaun.

Tim Winton’s latest novel Breath will be reviewed in Issue 2 of Fiction Focus shortly. Published only a few weeks ago, Breath is already receiving critical acclaim world-wide.

His earlier title Cloudstreet is often described as Australia’s most-loved novel and is still widely studied in classrooms around the country. Teachers and senior students will be interested in an extended interview with Tim Winton on The Monthly magazine’s Slow TV site. In two parts, each of 23 minutes duration, Winton is in conversation with journalist and writer Martin Flanagan where he discusses his work and the influences on his writing.

How does Shaun Tan do it? With The Arrival still winning accolades around the world, his new title, Tales from Outer Suburbia is officially released in Australia and New Zealand this weekend.

Shaun gave a glimpse at the recent CBCA Conference, when he shared the story of Eric, the overseas exchange student.

This is no wordless picture book. Far from it. Shaun might surprise many people - he is as adept with words as he is with art. And just as quirky. The fifteen stories are funny, whimsical, poignant, moving and touch on contemporary themes in very strange Tan-like settings with homages to suburban Perth thrown in. It’s hard not to be just a tad parochial as we collectively rejoice in Shaun’s success.

Tales from Outer Suburbia is a treat. Publication in the US is scheduled for later in the year. No British date in sight at this stage.

Sonya Hartnett received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from Crown Princess Victoria in Stockholm on Wednesday night. You might be interested in this interview with her on Radio Sweden, given shortly before the presentation.

Her Australian-ness shines through.