sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Nine New Reviews

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I have just added nine new books to Aussiereviews – that makes a grand total of 43 new reviews this moth. I think that is the most ever in one month. The new nine were all reviewed by me, but there have also been reviews this month from other reviewers, which is why the total is so high.

My favourite in this new batch is Killer Mackenzie, by Eve Martin, a young adult novel set in the Outback. It’s a funny read, best suited to teenage girls. Here’s a taste for you:
We drove along Sturt Creek’s main street, Main Street. (No joke!) If that was the main street, I hated to think what the other streets were like – if there were any other streets. I saw a Swimming Pool sign, so that was something. Sturts Creek seemed to have only one of anything: one chemist, one bank, one doctor, one supermarket, one milk bar…Definitely not somewhere you’d ever come for a holiday, so what was I doing there?
If you want to read the review, you can do so here.

My review pile doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller – they arrive as quickly as I can review them – quicker sometimes. But lucky me! I never run out of good reading material.

Pemberthy in Busselton

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‘Granma‘ left a comment to let me know that Pemberthy is a much loved resident at her house in Busselton. Wonderful news. Busselton is a nice beach-side town in the the South-West, a place I visit often.

The map now looks like this, with the new dot the orange one on the South West coast.

Have you seen my beautiful picture book, Pemberthy Bear? I’m tracking his progress around the country – you can see my original post here. As you can see from the map, Pemberthy is a well-travelled bear.

Poetic Pemberthy

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Pemberthy, the singing, blogging bear has written another poem. This time he’s been quite adventurous and written a triolet. This is a French poetic form with eight lines, and the challenge of repeating lines, but Pemberthy likes challenges. You can read his new composition here.

Youtube Funnies

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A writer friend sent me a link to a You-tube video today, which had me laughing more than I’d done in ages. It has some rude words in it, so I’m not going to post it here because this is a kid-friendly blog, but if you’re old enough and have ever had problems with proofreading, then click here to see why I’m laughing.

The guy’s name is Taylor Mali and he’s an American teacher, poet and comedian. I enjoyed the first one so much I watched two other clips featuring him, and the one titled What a Teacher Makes is probably my favourite, being a teacher myself, though I don’t profess to be as wonderful a teacher as he sounds.

If you’ve enjoyed those two, there’s a third one here, which is also very good – and very true.

Enjoy!

Sometimes a good laugh keeps you going.

Pemberthy Sightings

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With no new Pemberthy sightings for a while, I’ve done some more online digging and found him at more libraries. I love thinking of Pemberthy being available at libraries, where kids can discover him and take him home for a week or two. Anyway, Pemberthy can be found at the Woolgoola and Coff’s Harbour libraries (though the latter is on loan) – these are the burgundy and lime green maps in the north of NSW. In Melbourne, the Bentleigh and Caulfield libraries each have one copy whilst the Carnegie Library has two. These four dots have been added to Melbourne, which is getting nearly as dotty as Brisbane!

And, for the first time, I’ve found Pemberthy in the Northern Territory. In Darwin, he’s in the Casuarina and City libraries, and he’s also in the Palmerston and Katherine libraries. Those are the four new dots in the Northern Territory – that’s the state in the middle of the map in the north.

So, with the ten new dots added, the map now looks like this:

I’d love to see more and more dots showing where Pemberthy can be found, so if YOU have seen Pemberthy – in your home, your local library or in a bookstore, be sure to let me know and I’ll add a dot!

Aussiereviews Update

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Have just added 11 new reviews to Aussiereviews, again all children’s and young adult titles. Though I didn’t review it, one of my favourites in this batch is Night of the Fifth Moon, a new fantasy title by Anna Ciddor. I didn’t review it for Aussiereveiws because I’ve recently done so for Reading Time magazine. Anyway, this is a wonderful fantasy offering.

For younger readers my favourite from the batch is The Aussie A to Z, a fun picture book by Heath McKenzie. There are so many Aussie icons on every page. I see something new every time I read it to Murphlet 6, who loves it, too.

Anyway, enjoy!