Have you read it yet? No? Really, you must.

Here’s our Trailer Tuesday feature from a few weeks ago. Add the Booktrust to the list of awards. As The Guardian says, Gaiman is now buried under awards.

And while we are on things Gaiman, here’s two-for-the price-of one, with Terry Pratchett thrown in for good measure. Alas the free audio download is not for us down under, but the interviews with the voices behind the Gaiman / Pratchett audio readings give us a different perspective on their work.

The publishers have tagged this one ‘adult’ so it hasn’t been marketed to teens, although it has lots of YA-relevant themes. Here is the Fiction Focus review, too.

Dig deeper

The author

• The Siobhan Dowd Trust
• Background on Siobhan Dowd, from the CILIP Carnegie Medal website
• Wikipedia article, with further work required, especially the verification of citations
• Timeline including published works, from NY State Literary Tree
• Obituary – The Guardian
• Obituary – The Independent
• Obituary – The Telegraph

The text

• Extract – Chapter One
• Book Talk (mp3) from Nancy Keane’s Book Talks Quick and Simple blog
• Teacher’s pack (57 pages) by Claire Austin-Macrae, from Oxford University Press. [Word Document]
• Reading notes from Children’s Books Ireland
• Summary and ideas for the classroom from Bright Hub
• Wikipedia entry for Bog Child

Reviews

• Fiction Focus
• The Guardian
• Times Online
• Booktrust UK
• Scottish Book Trust

Articles and interviews

• Guardian article on winning the Carnegie Medal posthumously for Bog Child
• Interview with Siobhan Dowd after winning the Branford Boase award for A Swift Pure Cry (WriteAway)
• Booktrust interview (also after winning Branford Boase award)
• A 1991 interview in which Siobhan Dowd talks about her work with PEN, the writer’s organisation that speaks out for human rights

Awards for Bog Child

• Winner CILIP Carnegie Medal 2009 (UK). Acceptance speech by Siobhan Dowd’s sisters and publisher David Fickling (video)
• Winner CBI Bisto Book of the Year 2009 (Ireland)
• Nominee – Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best YA Novel 2008 (Mystery Writers of America)
• Kirkus Review Best YA Books List 2008
• Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Books of the Year list 2008
• Shortlist Guardian Children’s Fiction Book of the Year 2008
• Longlist Manchester Book Award 2008

The other books and their awards

A Swift Pure Cry (2006)

• Winner Eilís Dillon Award for first-time children’s author 2006/2007
• Winner Branford Boase Award 2007
• Shortlist Carnegie Medal 2007
• Shortlist Booktrust Teenage Prize 2006
• Shortlist Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize 2007
• Longlist Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2006

The London Eye Mystery (2007)

• Winner NASEN/TES Special Educational Needs Children’s Book Award 2007
• Winner CBI Bisto Book of the Year 2008
• Longlist Carnegie Medal 2008
• Shortlist Red House Children’s Book Award 2008
• Shortlist Sheffield Children’s Book Award 2008

Solace of the Road (2009)

• Shortlist Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2009

Read more

• The Troubles : Timeline from History on the Net
• Hunger Strikes. 25 years after the events, the BBC reviews the issues, the people and the Maze Prison
• The diary of Bobby Sands
• Bodies of the Bogs (from the Archaeological Society of America)

In memory of Alison Lawrence: friend, colleague and valued Fiction Focus reviewer

11 November 2009

Here is Laurie Halse Anderson’s visual essay about the building of her writer’s cottage:

This fell into our lap via The Joys of Children’s Literature.

And if you keep the page open in another tab while you work away, the birds continue to sing and sing and sing. Lovely.

(Or, to put into context – Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels was a Printz Honor Book at the ALA Awards. Here is her acceptance speech. We seem to have been waiting forever to see it, even though we have been able to read it for a while.)

Dig deeper

The author

• Book website
• UK website
• Entry on Contemporary Writers site with bibliography and list of awards and prizes
• Biography (from L-Space web, an excellent Discworld resource)
• Wikipedia entry
• Terry Pratchett on twitter

The text

• Read an extract online (better for glimpsing the maps than reading the text, however)
• Read an extract – Chapter One
• Terry Pratchett reads from Nation (video)
• Terry Pratchett on the writing of Nation
• The US cover
• Nation book discussion wiki
• The Telegraph’s Book of the Month (October 2009) – summary and reading notes
• As part of a UK competition, readers are being asked to make a three-minute film for YouTube. Here, Terry Pratchett shares his favourite piece from the book as inspiration.
• Adaptation for the National Theatre
• Advice on adapations for the theatre from Michael Morpurgo and Philip Pullman
• Wikipedia entry – with an urgent plea from the editors to improve it!

Reviews

• Fiction Focus
• The Guardian
• Times Online
• The Independent
• The New York Times
• Washington Post
• Boing Boing
• SF Signal
• Read Plus

Articles and interviews

• Meeting Mr Pratchett – The Age (15 February 2007) in which he anticipates Nation
• Interview about Nation in School Library Journal (24/8/2009)
• Terry Pratchett and Mark Ravenhill on the stage adaptation Nation (video)
• Mark Ravenhill on why Nation is being adapted for the stage
• An interview with Terry Pratchett about Nation (video)
• Q & A with Terry Pratchett in Publishers Weekly (4/9/2008)
• Terry Pratchett speaks in The Times about living with Alzheimer’s Disease (25/1/2009)
• And in The Independent: Nation – the one that’s just come out – that’s a book for kids. And people will say: ‘Well it covers very adult subjects …’ Yeah, that’s why it’s a book for kids. Because you want kids to grow up to be adults, not just bigger kids.”

Awards

• Boston Globe Horn Book Award 2009 – Fiction and Poetry.
• Terry Pratchett’s acceptance speech for winning the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, Part One and Part Two, read by his US editor Anne Hoppe (videos).
• Shortlist Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2009
• Honor Book Michael L. Printz Award 2009 (video acceptance speech here)
• Los Angeles Times Book Award 2008 – Young Adult Fiction
• School Library Journal Best Books of 2008 list
• Kirkus Review Best YA  Books 2008 List
• Publishers Weekly Best Books 2008 (Children’s Fiction) List
• Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of  2008 (Fiction)
• Bulletin Blue Ribbon – Best Books of 2008 (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

Read more disaster fiction

• A list from the CMIS database
  

A new Canadian television series, Empire of the Word, will be one to watch for on our screens.

Alberto Manguel will host the TVO series that is based on his History of Reading. The press release sounds enticing:

Empire of the Word explores how reading and writing were born; how we learn to read; who or what might prevent us from reading; and the future of reading. Eight years in the making and shot in 15 countries, the series journeys from prehistory to present day and beyond, illustrating how reading and writing are inextricably linked to human evolution and existence.

The fourth and final episode looks at the future of reading, with reference to the terrific interactive webiste Inanimate Alice.

Empire of the Word has an accompanying interactive mystery, Lehka’s Journey. The first two of eight episodes are already online along with some interactive word games.

The program airs in Canada at the end of this month. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long to see it here.

Manguel’s 2007 Massey lecture series, The City of Words, can be purchased from several sources as a CD, but does not seem to be available in mp3 format.

The New York Times obituary is here.

Best novel – Margo Lanagan (Tender Morsels) was in a dead heat with Jeffrey Ford for The Shadow Year.

Best artist – yes, you’ve guessed correctly – the inimitable Shaun Tan.

Congratulations to both.

All winners here.

The Outsiders

The Old Hospital at Fremantle Prison* has probably never been so full** as last night when Markus Zusak gave the annual Leslie Rees Memorial Lecture for Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre. Many celebrated authors and illustrators were among those who came to hear Markus speak about the transforming power of books and his journey as a writer.

At the age of 14, Markus realised for the first time, through the character of Ponyboy, that ‘aloneness’ was OK, that there were others who thought like him, who enjoyed the solitary pursuits of reading and watching films, and that it was possible to be transported to another place and totally believe in the magic of a novel. The Outsiders came into his hands via his school library.

A little later, an English teacher took the risk of exposing his students to great writing, knowing that they were not yet ready, but that some would be later. At 16, Markus was no way near ready for Catch 22, but a few years later he revisited Heller’s novel and saw its genius. He still turns to its brilliance and absurdity after a tough day. Markus paid tribute to teachers and teacher librarians who expose their charges to such excellence, in full knowledge that not all will appreciate it. If not exposed now, when?

Later again, a man as close to Markus as a brother gave him a copy of My Brother Jack, and it was this novel that crystallised for him that it was possible to be a writer. Never discouraged by his own parents, he was horrified that David, the narrator, could be thrown out of the house for bringing a typewriter into the family home, although like David, he was a secret scribbler and a loner.

Three stories. Three gifts.

The Book Thief has now been published in 30 countries. More gifts have been the stories of his own parents’ European childhood that gave him the impetus for the time and place at the core of this novel.  There’s been talk of a film, but nothing firm, and ever-philosophical Markus won’t even mind if it’s a bad one if it does get made. He figures people will say that ‘the book was better’ and therefore buy it, and if it’s a good film, they’ll still read the book. How can he lose?

But there’s a dark side to success. Pressure. Expectations. He’s finding the next novel tough going but if the first pages we were privileged to hear are indicative of what follows, there is another masterful piece of writing on its way.

One of our most personable young writers, Markus charmed the large audience last night with his humour and honesty. And at the end, there was yet another gift, as Jenni Woodruffe, Vice-President of IBBY Australia, presented Markus with his Ena Noel Award for Encouragement.

Markus has spent time this week around the state encouraging young writers as part of the Centre’s Youth Literature Day Programme. And he’ll be back at the Centre on Sunday as part of the Family Open Day, along with Narelle Oliver, Matt Ottley, Jan Ramage, Ellen Hickman and their artwork.

The Leslie Rees Lecture honours the WA writer who won the CBCA’s first award (and only category) in 1946. Deborah Lisson started the evening with a reading from Panic in the Cattle Country and Katy Watson-Kell followed with an extract from Quokka Island.

* The entire prison complex is now a heritage space, with the FCLC housed in the Old Prison Hospital. No ghosts, as the power of literature has created a warm and welcoming space for readers, writers and illustrators to share the joy of reading and writing.

** Too crowded and definitely not the right circumstances to tweet!