CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

Our CMIS take on this year’s CBCA Notable Books (including the Shortlisted titles) is now available. The lists were announced on Tuesday and are just starting to arouse discussion.

The Notable Books are in effect a long list of the very best titles presented to the judges from all the books published in 2008, so are definitely worth considering for your library collections. Reviews of most titles on the Older Readers Notables list can be found on the CMIS Resource Bank.

Older Readers Shortlist 2009

• D.M. Cornish – Lamplighter (Monster Blood Tattoo Book Two)
• Anthony Eaton – Into White Silence
• Jackie French – A Rose for the ANZAC Boys
• Melina Marchetta – Finnikin of the Rock
• James Molony – Kill the Possum [available soon]
• Shaun Tan – Tales from Outer Suburbia

Home and Away the probably controversial Matt Ottley/John Marsden production is short-listed in the Picture Book of the Year category and a notable in the Older Readers category.

Announcement of the contenders for the Book of the Year Awards heralds the countdown to Book Week, which runs from 22-28 August 2009. This year’s theme is Book Safari. The CMIS webpage to support your Book Week celebrations has just been uploaded and will be expanded in the next few weeks. Bookmark it today!

What a good idea – a group of UK authors has come together to create a joint blog. New to the blogosphere, An Awfully Big Blog Adventure brings together fourteen writers from The Scattered Authors Society to share the blogging load.

Contributing YA authors are:

• Anne Cassidy
• Charles Butler
• Katherine Langrish
• Marie-Louise Jensen
• Nick Green
• N. M. Browne
• Sally Nicholls and
  
• Susan Price

as well as a few others who write for a younger readership.