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 interactivewebiste 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 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.
With Tales from Outer Suburbia, Shaun Tan has proven what we have long suspected: that his talent is not confined to illustration. He is as adept with words as he is with images.
Shaun Tan has developed an international reputation as an outstanding and original illustrator. He was born in Fremantle in 1974 and currently lives and works in Melbourne. As a child Shaun enjoyed reading; writing and illustrating poems and stories; and spent a lot of time drawing dinosaurs, robots and space ships. He participated in a special art program at secondary school but since then he has largely taught himself the art of book illustration. At the University of WA he completed an honours degree in English literature and art history, theory and criticism.
In 1992 Shaun won the International Illustrators of the Future Contest, the first Australian to achieve this award. He has been illustrating young adult fiction and picture books since 1996.
Since winning the 2002 NSW Premier’s Prize for Children’s Books with The Red Tree Shaun Tan has been featured on the 7:30 Report on the ABC and in the Weekend Australian Magazine (June 22-23, 2002), rare publicity for a children’s illustrator or author. From CMIS Author page.
The title Tales from Outer Suburbia appears to be a homage to a much-loved Western Australian collection of short stories, Tom Hungerford’s Stories from Suburban Road.Certainly many of the images in the book are familiar to those who know Perth’s suburbs.
HSC Online – Shaun Tan reveals how he became an illustrator, describes his process and influences and reflects on the distinction between commercial and fine art.
The Viewer, written by Gary Crew, 1997 – Winner, Crichton Award, 1998; Notable Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 1998
The Rabbits, written by John Marsden, 1998 – Aurealis Conveners’ Award for Excellence, 1999; Winner, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 1999; Spectrum Gold Award for Book Illustration, 1999
Memorial, written by Gary Crew, 1999; Honour Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 2000
Picture Books written and illustrated by Shaun Tan
The Lost Thing, 1999 – Honour Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 2000; Shortlisted, Young Adult, WA Premier’s Book Awards, 1999
The Red Tree, 2001 – Winner, Patricia Wrightson Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards; Honour Book, CBCA Picture Book of the Year, 2002; Shortlisted, Children’s Books, WA Premier’s Book Awards, 2001
The Arrival, 2006 – multiple awards including Winner, Golden Aurealis Award for Best Short Story, 2006; Winner, Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Short Story, 2006
The Lost Thing is being adapted as an animated short film by Passion Pictures (UK).
Sydney band Lo-Tel was inspired by the artwork from The Lost Thing to record an album of the same name, incorporating the art into the cover design.
The Lost Thing has also been adapted as a play by the Jigsaw Theatre Company, in Canberra as the main event for the National Gallery of Australia’s Children Festival in 2004. It also inspired the theme for Chookahs! Kids Festival in Melbourne in 2006, where it was performed, and during the festival children participated in many different activities based on concepts from the book.
The Arrival was adapted by WA’s Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in July 2006 (before publication of the book) , using digital animation, puppetry and acting.
Not so much an adaptation as a collaboration, the book of the exhibition Odditoreum at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.
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
You know we are on Twitter, right? Although checking in on the blog regularly and RSS are two ways of keeping up to date, both are slow get the news out. Our tweets not only alert you to what has been posted, when it is posted, but also other interesting book-related tidbits and retweets that we don’t blog. Come on, join the band of @cmisevalff followers. With tools such as twhirl or tweetdeck let us come to you.
Get Graphic: The World in Words and Pictures is a community-wide two year project designed to introduce teens, parents, librarians and teachers to the exciting and extremely popular literary format of graphic novels.
The Teachers and Librarians pages include resources and extensive links to online materials to support units of work on graphic novels.
Check out the rss feed page for available feeds and information about how to subscribe using rss readers.
Useful links to online resources are availabe at our CMIS delicious account – Graphic_Novels. [These sites were tagged during September 2008 to provide links to resources to support teachers, teacher librarians and library staff involved in the selection and integration of graphic novels in classroom programs and school library collections.]
Nothing beats having the real thing in your hand as you read, but if you haven’t read Coraline yet, make a start at the HarperCollins Browse Inside site before the film is released.
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.
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Posted by judij
What are some of the things we have tweeted (or retweeted) about recently? If you don’t follow us, you might not have heard about:
