Here’s another terrific free resource from the UK. Everyone’s Reading Plus is a 108-page PDF document listing titles suitable for readers of both genders aged between 11 and 18. A few Australian authors are included.
The titles on the Everyone’s Reading list can also be browsed online in a searchable database on the dedicated website. UK schools can select 15 titles from the list as part of a gifting program.
Everyone’s Reading has recently started on twitter.
The author describes it as ‘Gladiator meets Project Runway’: the dystopian reality-TV spectacle that is the premise of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, along with its sequel Catching Fire. Book Three, The Victors, is due to be published towards the end of 2010.
Australian and UK cover. Copyright rests with the publisher, Scholastic
Dystopia and Science Fiction : Blade Runner, Brazil and Beyond (or, Who’s Dystopia Is It?) (or, Dystopia is in the Eyes of the (frightened) Beholder). Notes from the Digital Cultures Project (University of California, Santa Barbara) with a definition, comments on the cultural and political sources of dystopian fiction and what we can learn from reading it.
With the film of Mao’s Last Dancer attracting audiences around the world, and the books continuing to do so well, interest in China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) is high.
A free 146-page study guide addressing this period in history has been developed by the Facing History website. Although based around Red Scarf Girl (Ji-Li Jiang), much of the content is relevant to any narrative of the period, including Mao’s Last Dancer.
Included is:
An historical background essay by China scholar Professor William Joseph, Wellesley University
19 historical documents, some in full color, including propaganda posters, photographs, government documents, poems, newspaper articles and more
Suggested activities designed for literature and history classrooms
Timelines of the Cultural Revolution, a history of modern China and a map of China
Suggested teaching strategies to strengthen students’ skills as readers, writers, listeners and critical thinkers
The Facing History website encourages students to think about their role in the world and the moral and ethical decisions that must be made as global citizens. It’s a site that warrants some exploration.
Although not an occasion widely celebrated in Australia, Hallowe’en later this week does give the opportunity for the telling of spooky tales. And what spookier, yet what more literary than The Graveyard Book? Since its publication just over a year ago, it has garnered many awards, and Neil Gaiman has become the must-have author at any literary event. Fortunately for us, Australian readers caught him before Gaiman-fever really took off, with Neil being a guest at the 2008 Children’s Book Council of Australia National Conference in Melbourne, All the Wild Wonders. Once seen, once heard, never forgotten. He will be appearing at the Singapore Writers Festival on November 1, talking about graphic novels and fantasy.
Lockhart’s speech, in which she discusses the influences that shaped the novel, can be viewed here. And as we can’t bring you a local review, here’s one from the New York Times. Sounds good – any Australian publishers interested? For all we know it might already be in the pipeline.
There will be another Printz speech soon – the only ones remaining are the vision of speeches by Margo and Melina. We’ll let you know – about a fortnight to wait for the first of these, we’re guessing.
The Guardian newspaper has been running a nice little series on fairytales in recent days. As well as discussing aspects of the tradition, some well-known and not so well-known stories have been retold or newly translated. Here are the links:
With the arrival in cinemas this month of Li Cunxin’s story of peasant to international ballet star, TrailerTuesday this week focuses on Mao’s Last Dancer – the books, the picture book and the film.
The Exquisite Corpse is named after that old game where someone starts a story on a sheet of paper, folds it over and hands it to the next person to write the next bit. You never quite know what the result will be.
In the week that Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan finally hit the shelves both here and in the US, it seems timely to take a look at steampunk. It’s certainly a nice change from vampires.
In case you are not one of the 75,000 or so people who have seen the Leviathan trailer on YouTube, it’s here (and also in our VodPod collection).
When James Roy gave a paper on the concept at the 2003 CBCA / ASLA conference in Hobart, steampunk was a new idea to many. James was about to publish his Ichabod Hart series, but it seems that the genre had been around for a good ten to fifteen years already.
At the core of steampunk is the notion of altered history (often Victorian, and London Victorian at that) combined with technology that is historically impossible, and therefore all the more intriguing.
In YA writing, many look to Philip Reeve as the master of steampunk, not only for the Mortal Engines quartet but also for the rousing fun of Larklight and its sequels Starcross and Mothstorm. (You’ll have to follow the links to get the full titles of these three books – they go on for lines.)
Steampunk has quite a followinghere in Australia – check blogs here, here and here. And the blog of literary journal Meanjin looks at how the idea is influencing other fiction, films and fashion.
Michael Pryor’s Laws of Magic series and Richard Harland’s new title Worldshaker are both excellent examples of steampunk written by Australian authors.
If your students get hooked on steampunkery through Scott Westerfeld, point them in these other directions too. They won’t look back.
Where the Streets had a Name (Randel Abdel-Fattah)
Jarvis 24 (David Metzenthen)
Worldshaker (Richard Harland)
Everything Beautiful (Simmone Howell)
And vying for the Silver Inky are:
Exposure (Mal Peet)
Skim (Mariko and Jillian Tamaki)
Paper Towns (John Green)
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
If you would like to recall the longlist that these ten titles survived, we blogged it here.
The only rules: Voters must be aged under 20 and they can only vote once. But they can live anywhere in the world. Don’t forget the shelftalkers to get your students started.
Looking forward to the next round of the twitter wars between the survivor @realjohngreen and the vanquished @maureenjohnson although John just might accept victory gracefully.
The Fiction Focus Blog is published by Curriculum Materials Information Services (CMIS), Department of Education and Training, Western Australia. It is designed to provide news about current events, resources and research to assist teachers and teacher librarians engage teenagers with books and reading.
Here’s another terrific free resource from the UK. Everyone’s Reading Plus is a 108-page PDF document listing titles suitable for readers of both genders aged between 11 and 18. A few Australian authors are included.
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Posted by judij
With the film of 
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Here they are, the final ten titles – five Australian, five not.
