If you know anything about me, you probably know that I love poetry, and that I super really especially love verse novels. SO it was really lovely yesterday to attend the launch of a wonderful new resource focussed on Australian verse novels.
The Australian Verse Novel Resource was put together by staff and volunteers of the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature – and I was one of the volunteers, as was my friend and fellow verse novelist Kat Apel. Over the past two years our small group of four read every Australian verse novel ever published for children or young adults (including many which were published during the project – they just kept coming!) and we created a resource which doesn’t just list these books but offers a deep dive into them – including a brief summary of each, listing of awards, links to teacher’s notes, reviews and other resources, curriculum links and key topics covered.
Who is the resource for? YOU! It’s for:
- readers
- teachers
- librarians
- researchers
- children’s literature lovers
- poetry fans
- and people who have no idea what a verse novel is but want to find out.
Broken into two sections – one for novels for younger readers and one for older, you will find the resource here at this link.
Back to the launch – it was amazing to gather (albeit virtually) with other verse novelists, including Kat, Steven Herrick and Lorraine Marwood, and children’s literature enthusiasts, to hear Jackie French OAM speak so passionately about poetry and verse novels, and the difference they can make.
Jackie read from some of my favourite verse novels, including work by Steven Herrick, Pip Harry and Charmaine Papertalk Green. This to me is one my favourite things about verse novels – they are really are designed to be read aloud because, as Jackie says, one thing verse novels have in common is the way the voice speaks directly to the reader.
So, for my own little celebration of the launch, here is a video of me reading from Pearl Verses the World
Happy Poetry Friday! I’m off to check out the other poetry goodness around the blogosphere. Ruth will be hosting the roundup, so you can come along for the ride.
Loved your reading Sally, and Pearl’s attitude coming through in your voice! And… many congrats on the collaboration and launching of “The Australian Verse Novel Resource, what a marvelous resource you’ve all created, thanks!
Congratulations on this wonderful resource.
Thank you Jone – and thanks for dropping by.
Sally, congratulations on the great resource your Aussie team created. I loved listening to your recording of an excerpt of your book with Pearl. Your intonation and delivery made for an interesting read aloud.
Thank you Carol. I have been reading that passage aloud for more than 10 years and still love doing it.
Saw you and Kat among the zoomers the other night, Sally. Congratulations to everyone involved in the lengthy project of putting all these verse novels into a single resource. A work of love and persistence. Now to share its existence both loud and long. Thank you for taking me back into Pearl’s world- ‘my poems don’t rhyme, and neither do I.’
Yes I saw you there Alan. Nice to see friendly faces there. Thanks for dropping by here, too.
Hooray for verse novels! Hooray for Pearl!
Hooray for blog visitors too 🙂
Now, out into the world, hoping in the US, too, more marvelous books to find & love, especially verse novels, Sally! When you read, you had me at “Group of one”. Love hearing about this new resource that you have helped happen.
Thanks Linda. Yes, Pearl’s story is pretty much summed up in that one line 🙂
Sally, this is a wonderful resource for writers! Well done and easy to navigate, letting me know about books I would have not heard of otherwise. Loved your reading, and the excerpt, that so quickly gets to the heart of this engaging character and conflict.
Thank you Janice. One of the volunteers put all our annotations into something called Sway, which digitised it all. It’s visually wonderful, and a great way to share all these books.
Hooray! I’m thinking that this very much worth a ticket to Australia (well, as soon as things open up). What a work of love to pull this resource together. And, as verse novels become more and more popular, difficult to keep up with. Thank you for the little video of you reading. Great post!
Yes, come South, Linda. Would love to see you in my part of the world. Thanks for dropping by virtually for now 🙂
Is that the first real-time, visual meet we’ve shared, Sally? It was so lovely to see you! And to hear you reading from Pearl, which is a treasure of a book. I am so glad that the project is finished – and that it has far exceeded any expectations I had. Now to keep dropping links into socials, so that people use it – over and over again!
I think our first face to face for a long time! And yes, glad the project is done (took longer than we thought, but worth the time). Long live verse novels!