It skilfully intertwines the legend of the Monkey King with a story of immigration and cultural heritage, and speaks to all who have struggled with identity and belonging with a relevance far beyond just the US experience. The contribution of colourist Lark Pien to the extrardinary look and feel of this book should not be overlooked.

Dig deeper

The creator

• Humble Comics, the website of Gene Luen Yang
• Gene Luen Yan’s blog
• Biography (Wikipedia)
• Author profile (by Dr Agatha Taomina, Northern Virginia Community College)

The text

• Some pages from the novel (FirstSecond website)
• Wikipedia article (like the others we have use for TrailerTuesday, this needs work)
• Gene Luen Yang and others talk about the novel (YouTube)

Reviews

• Fiction Focus
• Publishers Weekly (scroll right down to Comics)
• New York Times
• A collation of reviews from FirstSecond

Interviews with Gene Yang

• Origins of American Born Chinese (FirstSecond)
• School Library Journal
• Audio slideshow interview from National Public Radio (with images from the text)
• Asia Pacific Arts : The Second Life of Gene Yang
• Kartika
• The Trades
• The Daily Cross-Hatch interview, Part One and Part Two
• Speech and reading at Penn State University (February 2009) as part of the university’s Graphic Novelists series (YouTube)
• Sandbox
• Asian-American Graphic Novelist Turns Life into Comics (America.gov)

Awards

• Winner – Michael L. Printz Award 2007
• Winner – Best Graphic Album, Eisner Awards 2007
• Finalist – National Book Awards 2007
• Winner – Best Colorist to Lark Pien, Harvey Awards 2007
• American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults Top Ten List 2007
• YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens, Top Ten List 2007
• New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, 2007
• Winner – Graphic Novel. Cybils Awards 2006
• Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year: Graphic Novels 2006
• School Library Journal Best Books of the Year 2006

Read More

• Grappling with Graphic Novels. Special Feature, Fiction Focus Vol 19 (2), 2005
• Not Just for Kids, Not Just for Fun : Graphic Novel Update. Feature Article, Fiction Focus, vol. 22 (3), 2008
• An annotated list of graphic novels from the CMIS Resource Bank
• Enticing Teenagers into the Library (Clare Snowball’s PhD research project on graphic novels)
• Monkey Kingdom – Gene Yang’s dedication to the Monkey King
• Comics in Education – Gene Yang’s online version of his MEd proposal at California State University
• Scott McCloud’s blog, Good Morning, Comics
• Comics in the Classroom (University of North Carolina)

Sir William Blake Richmond: Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894. Oil on canvas, 1886

The works of Robert Louis Stevenson from collections in Edinburgh and the United States have been digitised and made available for all to read online.

A newly launched website uses turn-the-page technology to bring the famous titles such as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde to our screens, but there is much more besides, including lesser known novels and a lovely 1895 Art Nouveau edition of A Child’s Garden of Verses.

Everything you could possibly want to know about Stevenson’s life and works, including a gallery of never-before-seen images, is on the site, which has been developed by Edinburgh Napier University.

The Robert Louis Stevenson website went live yesterday to mark the 159th anniversary of Stevenson’s birth.

Image used under Creative Commons licence

A new Canadian television series, Empire of the Word, will be one to watch for on our screens.

Alberto Manguel will host the TVO series that is based on his History of Reading. The press release sounds enticing:

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 interactive webiste 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.

This online story started with the contribution by Jon Scieszka, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature (and is illustrated by Chris van Dusen) and now the next part is online – Katherine Paterson’s chapter, illustrated by James Ransome. KateDiCamillo and Calef Brown come next, with a new chapter every two weeks.

You can subscribe to the updates by RSS or email.

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.

Shaun talks about Tales from Outer Suburbia:

Dig Deeper

The author

Shaun Tan’s website

Interviews and speeches

• Interview on the ABC Articulate blog
• Interview – Australian Edge blog
• Panel Borders : The Art of Shaun Tan - Interview on Resonance FM, London
• Radio National Book Show – transcript only
  
• 2009 Colin Simpson Memorial Lecture
• 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 Text

• Extract (PDF)
• Slide show from New York Entertainment

Reviews

• CMIS
  
• The Guardian
• The Australian
• Sydney Morning Herald
• School Library Journal
• Teacher reviews from the Allen & Unwin website

Awards for Tales from Outer Suburbia

• Winner of the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel
• Winner of the 2009 Ditmar Award for Best Artwork
• Winner ABIA Illustrated Book of the Year 2009
• Winner 2009 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year – Older Readers
• Category Winner in the 2008 Indie Awards – Children’s Book
• Shortlisted for the 2008 Golden Inky Award
• Shortlisted for the 2009 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature

Awards and accolades for Shaun Tan

• Winner 1992 International Illustrators of the Future Contest
• Nominated 2010 Astrid Lindgren Award

Picture Books illustrated by Shaun Tan

• 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

Adaptations of Shaun Tan’s works

• The Red Tree, a play based on Tan’s book of the same name, was commissioned for the Out of the Box Festival of Early Childhood in 2004.
• The Australian Chamber Orchestra commissioned music in 2008 for The Red Tree, which was performed by Gondwana Voices. The site contains a podcast introduction and video.
• 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.

[Mostly From Fiction Focus Special Feature on The Arrival, Vol. 21 (1), 2007.]

Finally, the Lu Rees Archives in Canberra has a guide to research materials on Shaun Tan and his work.

One can only wonder what treat is coming our way next.

• 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.

What’s more, you have a choice of reading it online in 15 parts, or downloading a PDF for later enjoyment.

Ness hints that he has dropped a few clues about what might happen in Book 3 of the series, due to be published in 2010.

The story is one outcome of Ness’s residency on the Booktrust site, one that is dedicated to the promotion of reading.

From the GetGraphic site…

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.

A comprehensive List of Graphic Novel Titles is available.

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.]

The CMIS Resource Bank contains reviews of over 60 graphic novels

It is with much joy that we announce the arrival in our office of the first volume of Fiction Focus for 2009.

It should appear in your school next week.

. Our special thanks to all the Fiction Focus reviewers for their contributions and to our CMIS colleagues for their support.

Jean and Alison

Visit the CMIS Fiction Focus webpage to find out more about the project.

The CMIS Resource Bank contains digital copies of the reviews. ]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/05/07/first-issue-for-2009/feed/ 2