CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus » LiteraturePromotion http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:01:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Trailer Tuesday: One Whole and Perfect Day http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/12/01/trailer-tuesday-one-whole-and-perfect-day/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/12/01/trailer-tuesday-one-whole-and-perfect-day/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:34:24 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=2419 Is Judith Clarke the most reclusive of our Australian authors? She’s a multi-award winner and yet we don’t really know much about her. Nor is she known for appearing at conferences and other literary events. It’s rare to hear her talking about her work, so we are happy to have found her on YouTube telling us about One Whole and Perfect Day (2006), a gem of a novel that has been recognised in awards both here and overseas.

Having struggled to find much supporting material for either Judith Clarke or the book, we are starting to wonder if ‘under-appreciated’ is a relevant descriptor?

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Dig deeper

The author

The text

Reviews

Interviews and articles

  • None that we can locate – please let us know of anything you are aware of. Even Trove, a terrific new Australian search tool, failed us.

Awards (ah, that’s better)

* Information from publisher’s website

Read more

Judith Clarke and One Whole and Perfect Day have been on our Trailer Tuesday radar for a while, but the lack of supporting material kept it a low profile project. Having completed the task, however, it now appears that it’s precisely the lack of supporting material that makes it so important to have highlighted this book before it fades away.

This is the last Trailer Tuesday for the year. Next week, a recap.

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/12/01/trailer-tuesday-one-whole-and-perfect-day/feed/ 0 Trailer Tuesday: American Born Chinese http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/24/trailer-tuesday-american-born-chinese/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/24/trailer-tuesday-american-born-chinese/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:30:20 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=2349 American Born Chinese broke new ground when it became the first graphic novel be nominated for the US National Book Award and also the first to win the Michael L. Printz Award in 2007.

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.

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The creator

The text

Reviews

Interviews with Gene Yang

Awards

Read More

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/24/trailer-tuesday-american-born-chinese/feed/ 0 Trailer Tuesday: Bog Child http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/17/trailer-tuesday-bog-child/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/17/trailer-tuesday-bog-child/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:21:30 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=2153 Four books. Only four, yet all have been on the awards radar and some have received great honours indeed.  We can but speculate what else the late Siobhan Dowd might have written had her life been longer. But we can celebrate these four marvellous books and the richness that her writing has brought to young adult literature. The first Carnegie Medal to be awarded posthumously was for this week’s featured title, Bog Child (2007), which was finished three months before Siobhan Dowd’s death.

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The author

The text

Reviews

Articles and interviews

Awards for Bog Child

The other books and their awards

A Swift Pure Cry (2006)

The London Eye Mystery (2007)

Solace of the Road (2009)

Read more

In memory of Alison Lawrence: friend, colleague and valued Fiction Focus reviewer

11 November 2009

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/17/trailer-tuesday-bog-child/feed/ 0 Trailer Tuesday: Nation http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/10/trailer-tuesday-nation/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/10/trailer-tuesday-nation/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:16 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=2003 After ten years of Discworld, Terry Pratchett (Sir Terence Pratchett) has created a very different world in Nation (2008). Set in n a parallel universe rather like our 19th century South Pacific this is a multi-faceted disaster-survival / coming-of-age story that explores many themes.  There is no book trailer as such for this title, so here is Terry Pratchett talking about how Nation came to be  (the US cover is featured):

Dig deeper

The author

The text

Reviews

Articles and interviews

Awards

Read more disaster fiction

  • A list from the CMIS database
]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/10/trailer-tuesday-nation/feed/ 0 Trailer Tuesday: The Hunger Games http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/03/trailer-tuesday-the-hunger-games/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/03/trailer-tuesday-the-hunger-games/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:00:05 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=1881 The author describes it as ‘Gladiator meets Project Runway’: the dystopian reality-TV spectacle that is the premise of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, along with its sequel Catching Fire.  Book Three, The Victors,  is due to be published towards the end of 2010.

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Australian and UK cover. Copyright rests with the publisher, Scholastic

The author

The text

Reviews

Articles and Interviews

Awards

Dystopian fiction

The film

Read more dystopian fiction: a list from the CMIS database.

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/11/03/trailer-tuesday-the-hunger-games/feed/ 0 Trailer Tuesday: The Two Pearls of Wisdom http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/20/trailer-tuesday-the-two-pearls-of-wisdom/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/20/trailer-tuesday-the-two-pearls-of-wisdom/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:30:48 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=1657 9780732288006Singing the Dogstar Blues (1998) marked the debut of a writer to watch, as the awards it garnered testified.  Set in the near future, with more than a dash of humour, those of us who enjoyed that book have waited a long time for more. It took until 2008 for Alison Goodman to publish again – first an adult crime title, Killing the Rabbit, followed soon after by The Two Pearls of Wisdom. This latter book has other titles depending where you live, but more of that later. It’s been worth the wait.

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The author

Interviews

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.

Reviews and articles

Awards

Teacher’s Notes

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.

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/20/trailer-tuesday-the-two-pearls-of-wisdom/feed/ 0 TrailerTuesday: Mao’s Last Dancer http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/13/trailertuesday-maos-last-dancer/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/13/trailertuesday-maos-last-dancer/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:01:56 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=1474 With the arrival in cinemas this month of Li Cunxin’s story of peasant to international ballet star,  TrailerTuesday this week focuses on Mao’s Last Dancer – the books, the picture book and the film.

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The man

  • Li Cunxin’s website
  • Biography (from the website)
  • Interview (ABC RN’s Life matters – podcast, 2007 )
  • Interview (Radio New Zealand National – podcast 2007)
  • Interview (Ballet Magazine UK, 2003)
  • Interview with Peter Thompson, Part 1 (Talking Heads 2006, ABC TV) Transcript only
  • Interview with Peter Thompson, Part 2 (Talking Heads 2006, ABC TV) Transcript only
  • Article – Dance of the peasant prince (SMH 2003)

The texts

Adult edition (2003)

9780670040247

Awards

Young readers edition (2005)

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Awards

The Peasant Prince, with Anne Spudvilas (2007)

9780670070541

Published in US as Dancing to Freedom (2008)

Awards

The film

The history

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/13/trailertuesday-maos-last-dancer/feed/ 3 Inkys shortlist http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/09/inkys-shortlist/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/09/inkys-shortlist/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:32:09 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=1444 inkys_for_webHere they are, the final ten titles – five Australian, five not.

Voting couldn’t be simpler. Head off here.

And the titles? Well in the Gold corner:

  • Broken Glass (Adrian Stirling)
  • Where the Streets had a Name (Randel Abdel-Fattah)
  • Jarvis 24 (David Metzenthen)
  • Worldshaker (Richard Harland)
  • Everything Beautiful (Simmone Howell)

And vying for the Silver Inky are:

  • Exposure (Mal Peet)
  • Skim (Mariko and Jillian Tamaki)
  • Paper Towns (John Green)
  • Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)
  • The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

If you would like to recall the longlist that these ten titles survived, we blogged it here.

The only rules: Voters must be aged under 20 and they can only vote once. But they can live anywhere in the world. Don’t forget the shelftalkers to get your students started.

Looking forward to the next round of the  twitter wars between the survivor @realjohngreen and the vanquished @maureenjohnson although John just might accept victory gracefully.

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/09/inkys-shortlist/feed/ 0 Trailer Tuesday: How I Live Now http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/06/trailer-tuesday-how-i-live-now/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/06/trailer-tuesday-how-i-live-now/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:30:27 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=1303 9780141319926Many Australian readers first met Meg Rosoff in person at the 2007 Reading Matters Conference, where her self-deprecating wit was very much in tune with the our own sense of humour. How I Live Now was her first novel and although she was a latecomer to YA writing, each of her subsequent novels are also gems, attested by the number of awards they have collectively garnered. For a debut novel to win or be shortlisted as many awards as it has is remarkable. See the list at the end of this post.

The book trailer featured was a winner of the 2006 Teen Book Video Award hosted by Expanded Books. The world is hungry for YA book trailers. Why not ask your students to try their hand and share the results? Here are some tips.

Dig Deeper

About the Author

The text

Reviews of How I Live Now

Teachers Notes for How I Live Now

Awards for How I Live Now

Interviews with Meg Rosoff

Articles written by Meg Rosoff

Other YA titles by Meg Rosoff

Don’t let this, or indeed any of Meg Rosoff’s books, slip under your radar. If you haven’t read her yet, you are in for a treat.

]]> http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/10/06/trailer-tuesday-how-i-live-now/feed/ 0 Trailer Tuesday: Tales from Outer Suburbia http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/09/29/trailer-tuesday-tales-from-outer-suburbia/ http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/2009/09/29/trailer-tuesday-tales-from-outer-suburbia/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:30:57 +0000 judij http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/?p=1180 resized_9781741149173_224_297_FitSquare

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

The Text

Reviews

Awards for Tales from Outer Suburbia

Awards and accolades for Shaun Tan

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.



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