• The 20 most annoying reviewer cliches (I think we have seen this before, but the repeat is every bit as entertaining)
• Favourite children’s books we should never have loved
• That The Snow Goose needs to be rediscovered
• The NY Times Children’s Book special edition
• A new review of Tales from Outer Suburbia
• A startling story about the late Esther Hautzig and why Newbery honours never came her way
• A video interview with Garth Nix
• The Inkys are drawing to a close and apparently it’s neck and neck for the Gold. Voting closes next week.
• The Roald Dahl Funny Prize
• The writing tips for NaNoWriMo from Justine Larbalestier. Here’s Number 10
• Flickr images for Remembrance Day
• Susan Cooper’s contribution to the Exquisite Corpse project
• Fairytales for our cybersafety-conscious times
• An interview with SciFi writer Kim Stanley (on time travel, Galileo and why SF writers aren’t prophets anymore)
• Siegfried Sassoon’s manuscripts now online
• The Melbourne Prize for Literature
• Enid Blyton, as played by Helena Bonham Carter
• What Will I Read Next? A rather nifty website that will suggest titles (and also that you visit your libary)

That’ll do. Just a few. Just this week. Take one, take them all, but better still follow us and don’t miss a thing!

And while we are here, can we say (in modestly small print) how chuffed we all were to read this blog post this week. Thanks Tania

Singing the Dogstar Blues

Dig deeper

The author

• Alison Goodman’s website
• Brief biography from Wikipedia and entry from the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Interviews

• Video interview (SciFiLondon)
• Podcast (BFK Books)
• Blog interview (Neth Space)
• Blog interview (ChickLish)
• Blog interview (Matilda)
• YouTube interview after French launch (20 question format; questions in French with subtitles, responses en anglais)

The text

Published in Australia as The Two Pearls of Wisdom, this title has been released in the UK as Eon: Rise of the Dragoneye and in the USA Eon: Dragoneye Reborn. Don’t be fooled, they are exactly the same book, despite cover and name change, but the dedicated websites are certainly worth a visit.

• Browse inside the book
  
• Alison Goodman reads from the text (video clip)

Reviews and articles

• Fiction Focus review
• Review – Specusphere
• Review – LA Times
• Review – The Book Bag (UK)
• Review – SFF World
  
• Article in Brisbane Courier Mail (July 18, 2008)
• Article – Alison Goodman on turning Japanese (sic) – scroll down – The SF Site
• Alison Goodman’s Newsletter in which she talks about translations and US state award nominations

Awards

• Winner – 2008 Aurealis Award, Best Fantasy Novel
• Honour Book – 2008 James Tiptree Jr. Award
• Notable Book – 2009 CBCA Awards
• Shortlisted – 2009 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature
• Shortlisted – 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Prize for Young Adult Literature
  
• Longlisted – 2009 Gold Inky Awards, Centre for Youth Literature

Teacher’s Notes

• Including an interview with the author (notes by Dr Pam Macintyre)
• Same notes, slightly different form, for the Eon editions

The sequel, Necklace of the Gods, is due to be published in 2010. While you are waiting, there is more Eastern fantasy to be had from another Australian author -  Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori series -  or you can bone up on the history of Feng Shui.

Good news too that Singing the Dogstar Blues has been reissued ten years on.

• Anthony Horowitz and Charlie Higson on their inner children and literary lives
• Call for nominations for Nan Chauncy Award – for outstanding contribution to Australian children’s literature
• Why Australian picture books are the next big thing
• Bookbird, IBBY’s journal of international children’s literature, is seeking articles on graphic novels and poetry
• The revamped Guys Read website (with links to audiobook suggestions)
• Eoin Colfer’s favourite sci-fi titles
• An article on the elusive concept of style in award-winning books from SLJ
• Photos from the Man Booker Awards
• The Cybil YA nominations to date
• The problem with Harry Potter
• Another Shaun Tan interview
• And one with Judy Blume
• A link to an academic article on the portrayal of gender in the CBCA Awards 1981-1993
• Scott Westerfeld speaks on the Leviathan art
• Oh, and we’ve been following the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival, wishing we could be there, but Twitter is the next best thing.
  

Enough. We could go on. That’s just this week. Come and join us soon. Look right and click.

• An interview with former Children’s Laureate, Jacqueline Wilson
• Or an interview with Kirsty Murray
• Neil Gaiman on vampires
• The new reading site from the Library of Congress
• A review of Richard Flanagan’s latest, Wanting, from the Guardian. Winner of the Queensland Premier’s Award for Fiction, this is a  slice of Tasmanian history with a rich cast of characters
• The tribute Where the Wild Things Are exhibition
• The news story about South African schoolchildren marching for libraries
• Questions about why the Man Booker Prize shuns SF
• The 25 most influential books in world literature. Arguably

All in the last few days. Come and join us.

The blog of two Michigan public librarians, Awful Library Books, brings the old, the ugly, the politically incorrect into the spotlight. All are real examples of books found in today’s collections. They are both cringeworthy and hilarous.

The yalsa people are talking about their own ‘treasures’ on list. One gem: I’m glad I’m a boy! I’m glad I’m a girl! a 1970 number by Whitney Darrow. Embarrassed to find it on her shelves, the librarian concerned was even more astonished to learn that it was exactly what the patron was seeking for their child.

Turns out this was published as a satire – a detail that has been lost over the decades. Salutory. Off to your collections and see what you find. And let us know.

A new book from US academic Ruth Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales: A New History sort of agrees and disputes the long-held oral history theory, claiming ‘folk invention and transmission of fairy tales has no basis in verifiable fact…’

Bottigeimer is particularly interested in the rags-to-riches tradition, exemplified by Cinderella, which she calls the ‘rise’ tale, tracing this type of story back to mid-16th century Venice.

That the fairytale remains such a powerful force in literary tradition is a fascinating concept to explore and as this article in the Guardian concludes:

George Macdonald, author of At the Back of the North Wind and The Princess and the Goblin, perhaps still puts it best, over 100 years on. “Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale; then read this and that as well, and you will see what is a fairytale. Were I further begged to describe the fairytale, or define what it is, I would make answer, that I should as soon think of describing the abstract human face, or stating what must go to constitute a human being. A fairytale is just a fairytale, as a face is just a face; and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful.”

Image of The Brothers Grimm courtesy of The British Library

Anyone heading to Korea shortly should make a point of attending the Voyage to the World of Illustration exhibition being held at the Seoul Arts Center until 23 June. Here’s the Papertigers report. Additional photos and links to English titles about Korea and the Korean diaspora are worth following up.

Rather than plunge the Children’s Book Council of Australia into debt, the decision has been made sooner rather than later.

National President of the CBCA, Marj Kirkland, has issued a short statement on the website.

CBCA Conferences are much-anticipated events for authors, illustrators and participants and the decision to cancel must have been an extremely painful one for people who have already expended many hours of personal time on planning.

We look forward to another major celebration of children’s literature when economic times are brighter.

The estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has authorised a series of books detailing the life of the teenage Sherlock Holmes, which will see the budding detective falling in love for the first time, learning the deductive skills that serve him so well in his adult life, and making the acquaintance of a certain Dr Watson.

If it’s good enough for Young Bond …