CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

Thanks, Deb Robins from Trinity Beach School in Cairns. Smart idea to get a smart car into your library!

Deb tells us that as the Year 7 students are looking at alternative energy this fitted the Book Week theme perfectly.

Schools in the area are also having a ‘fuel protest’ during Book Week - for one hour nobody travels anywhere. Instead they read for the hour and fuel their minds rather than their cars.

What are other schools doing?

• Thanks to Mike Shuttleworth from the Centre for Youth Literature for drawing attention to this post from Aidan Chambers’s blog. Aidan asks the question about literary prizes. It would seem that his novel This is All : the Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn, was too good (read ‘difficult’) to receive a prize in the Netherlands! Aidan is unhappy about the assumptions behind the decision. His reflective post - not at all bitter - raises interesting questions, as do the ensuing comments.
• Morris Gleitzman spoke about his latest book Then on ABC Radio National yesterday. The podcast will be available for a week.
• Neil Gaiman has been on the Radio National Book Show speaking about graphic novels. Podcast available for a short time.
• Shaun Tan speaking about Tales from Outer Suburbia, also on the Book Show, with podcast almost due to expire.
• David Levithan’s plea Kill the Vampires, at last year’s Reading Matters conference, still resonates. A recent post in the US shows just how hard it still is for some young people to read stories about their lives.