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.

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.

Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant recently won the Red House Children’s Book Award - the longest running children’s choice award in the world. The popularity of this charming, although skeletal, detective and his adventures with Stephanie Edgley is as great in Australia and the United States as it is in Landy’s native Ireland.

Now, the second book, Playing with Fire, is out, and to celebrate , the dedicated website has the audio of Book 1 available online for free listening (but not downloading) for a limited time. The narration by Rupert Degas retains the Irishness of the tale and he is able to inject just the right amount of dark humour.

Skulduggery’s many fans should take advantage of the offer while it lasts.

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.

Boys and books have been on the reading agenda for a while now. James Roy is one who has been an articulate advocate of the cause. Here are some blogs dedicated to boys and books, well worth you and the boys in your school keeping an eye on:

• Boys, Blokes, Books, from the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria
• Guys Lit Wire, a new YA blog from the US
• Boys Blogging Books, a blog for boys by boys
• Books and Boys, another US site

And then there’s Guys Read, the site of US Ambassador for Children’s Literature, Jon Scieszka.

If you are aware of any others, let us know.

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.

The papertigers site is currently celebrating Asian Pacific Heritage Month and has a terrific collection of authors talking about what it means to be a writer with what Laurence Yep calls an ‘ethnic qualifier’.

An interview with Linda Sue Park, author of the Newbery-winning A Single Shard, essays on topics such as breaking down the assumptions about books by ‘hyphenated Americans’ and book reviews make for some thoughtful reading, albeit with a distinct American focus. The pages will be up until the end of June.

And if you haven’t yet caught up with American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang’s award-winning graphic novel, make the celebration of this month the catalyst to do so.

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.