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Sally Murphy, Australian author

Happenings at the Backyard Bookfair

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It’s always fun to get out and meet – and speak to – young readers. It’s an added bonus when I get to do with other authors and illustrators, which is just what happened on Saturday when I was part of the Backyard Bookfair at the State Library of WA.  Have a look at the program to see just how deep the talent pool was:

The theater was home to a series of shenanigans presentations, where we each had ten minutes to talk, present an activity, read, or whatever else took our fancy.

I had promised a craft activity, a promise that was made some time ago. And, although I did indeed deliver on this (see right for evidence of the wonderful threading of stars which took place), I also decided that what I do best  is words. SO, as well as the star activity, I wrote and performed a Christmas rap.  I had the audience participate in the chorus and it was a lot of fun.

So, if you’ve never heard me speak, or if you’ve ever wondered what I might sound like trying to rap, here’s the snippet my friend James Foley captured for me.

As well as rapping, I got to hang out with friends like Teena Raffa-Mulligan

and Frane Lessac:

I also met lots of young people and their parents, signed copies of Looking Up, and, of course, watched the other presenters.

Oh, and there were cupcakes!

What a wonderful day.  

PS

There are still 19 sleeps till Christmas. Plenty of time if you’d like to buy a book for the young reader in your life. If you’d like one of mine, signed and posted to you, contact me here. 

Teacher Tuesday: Do Not Forget Australia for Year 5 Classrooms

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Welcome to the second edition of Teacher Tuesday, where I match one of my books to a year level, and offer some activities for sharing the book in the classroom.

This week I’m focusing on one of my picture books: Do Not Forget Australia, With the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux to be marked on ANZAC Day 2018, this is a good time to connect with this book if you haven’t yet, or to revisit it if you have.

Using Do Not Forget Australia in a Year Five Classroom

Do Not Forget Australia, text by Sally Murphy, illustrations Sonia Kretschmar  Do Not Forget Australia

Published by Walker Books, 2012
ISBN: 9781921529863 (Hardcover)/ 9781922077097 (Paperback)
Format 32 page Picturebook, RRP $29.99 (Hardcover)/$16.99 (Papaerback)

Available from good bookstores or here.

Blurb: Henri lives in the French village of Villers-Bretonneux. Billy lives in Melbourne, Australia. These two little boys, who live thousands of miles away from each other, share one story that unites Villers-Bretonneux and Melbourne in history.

Sample Pages HERE
Publisher’s Teacher Notes HERE
Sally’s Recommended Grade Levels: Year 1-10, but these suggestions focus on Year5

Themes/Topics:

  • War
  • ANZAC Day
  • Friendship
  • Family
  • France
  • Australia
  • Victoria
  • Compassion
  • Mail

Curriculum Links:

Year 5 English

  1. Identify aspects of literary texts that convey details or information about particular social, cultural and historical contexts (ACELT1608)
  • Before Reading: Make predictions on time period and setting of the book based on title and front over.
  • During and After Reading: Focus on aspects of text and illustrations which show that the book is set in 1918 – including colour palette, clothing, transport, communication methods.
  • Questions: Why can’t the two boys meet in person?
    What is the connection between Henri and Billy?
  • Use internet sources (such as The Schoolhouse Museum) to compare school life today with that of 1918. Create a table which compares aspects including  classroom setup, size of classes, subjects taught, school attire, school rules, stationery used and more.
  • Writing: Rewrite your existing class rules as if it was 1918
  1. Recognise that ideas in literary texts can be conveyed from different viewpoints, which can lead to different kinds of interpretations and responses (ACELT1610)
  • During Reading (and on rereading): Discuss the changes in viewpoint – from Henri to Billy and back again. What visual cues are there for these shifts?  For example, examine the colour palette used in the illustrations
  • After Reading: Discuss why the author might have chosen to use two viewpoints rather than one?  Why use third person voice rather than first person? Why tell a war story from the viewpoint of children rather than from, say, a soldier, or adult from the village.?
  • In Groups: Each group to work through the text, focussing on how we learn what the adults are feeling. – half the groups to focus on Billy’s Dad, the other groups on Henri’s Mum.  Report back and discuss.
  • Writing: Tell the story from the point of view of one of the adult characters OR in the first person voice of one of the children.
  • Write the postcard that Billy receives from his father. There is a printable stencil for this activity HERE.
  1. Use comprehension strategies to analyse information, integrating and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources (ACELY1703)
  2. Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing textstructures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)
  • Recap: From reading the story, what do students know about the battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the rebuilding of the school?
  • Give students a blank table, or have them create one, with three columns: Story, Back of Book Notes, Video.  Provide some subheadings: Dates, Key Events etc. Have them note what they know about the key events of 1918 from the fictional story. Then read the back of book notes, with students using the second column to note any new facts. In groups, students can then examine the back of book notes themselves and add any facts they may have missed. Lastly, have them watch a video about the events – there are several on Youtube, including this one  , which is made by a young researcher.  Again, have students complete the table.
  • Discuss: Which source provided the most information? Which was the most entertaining? Which one helped them to connect with the people involved?
  • Writing Ideas: Write a recount of the events of  the battle of Viilers-Bretonneux, OR the destruction and rebuilding of the school, using notes.
  • Write two news reports which Billy might have read: One reporting on the Battle, and the other reporting on the reopening of the School

Other suggestions for using Do Not Forget Australia in your classroom include:

  • Explore transport and communication – comparing 1918 to 2017/18 – look at items including time to travel between Australia and France, modes of transport, forms of communication (telephone/email/mail/internet/television/telegram)
  • Life stories: research the story of one Australian soldier in WW1
  • Art:  Experiment with using different colour palette for different moods and time periods.
  • Writing: Tell the story of another historical event through the eyes of a fictional child character
  • Email the author (that’s me!) Your students can write to me through this website, and share their responses or ask questions.

Related Books

Mostly, I’d love to remind you that while I love to see my books used in classrooms, I also love to see kids just enjoying them. Reading a book should be pleasurable – whether it’s being used in the classroom or not.  So allow your students to enjoy reading Do Not Forget Australia.

If you find this useful, or have any suggestions or comments, do leave a comment. And, if there is a particular book or year level or topic that you would like covered in a future edition of Teacher Tuesday, let me know.

The Publication Process

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On Saturday my lovely friend Frane Lessac and I spoke about getting published as part of the Mundaring Arts Centre’s Heartlines Festival. here we are – with me in full flight explaining something and Frane looking on, waiting for her chance to say something clever.

 

Anyway, inspired by this, yesterday I blogged over at the Christchurch Kids blog about the steps involved in the publicaton of a book, and today I thought it might be worth reposting that post here.  So, here goes:

Yesterday I drove up to Mundaring, a little community just outside of Perth, where my friend, artist Frane Lessac, and I spoke to a group of people about how to get published. It was a really fun session, with Frane and me each sharing our journey to publication and then talking about the dos and don’ts of getting published.
When I sat down to blog today I thought it might interest YOU to know just how a book gets published. So, here goes.
First, long before a book is something  I can hold in my hands or tell the whole world about or even read, it is just an idea. My ideas come from all over the place – from things I see, things that have happened to me, things I read about, or silly ideas which just come to me.
When I get an idea and decide to write about it, the next thing I do is plan my story. Usually the plan happens in my head – I spend a lot of time thinking about who my main character will be, and what will happen to him/her, and I work out what the main conflict or problem will be, and how it will be resolved at the end.
Once I have a pretty fair idea of what is going to happen in my new story, I write the first draft. This might take only minutes, if it is a picture book or short piece, or days and months if it is longer, but I do try to get the whole  first draft written as quickly as possible before I get distracted by the next big idea.
Once that first draft is written, I put it away. I don’t reread it it, or share it with anyone for as long as I can stand. This creates distance between me and the story, and means that  when I get it back out a month or more later, I am able to see what needs to be fixed – as well as what works, of course. Then I rewrite and edit and rewrite and edit and tinker until the story is as perfect as I can make it. Sometimes this takes many many months, or even years until I am happy with a story.
But, eventually  my story is ready to submit and I send it off to a publisher. Sometimes, the story comes back to me with a letter saying it won’t be published (there are lots of reasons for this) but other times, thankfully, I get a phonecall or email from the publisher to say they will publish my book.
That’s when the hard works starts, because no matter how good I thought the story was when I submitted it, now I have to work with an editor to make it even better.  And sometimes this can take a lot of phonecalls, emails and, of course, writing sessions. – which can take months.
When the text is finalised, the  publisher chooses an illustrator, who then works on the illustration in consultation with the editor. I don’t tell the illustrator what to draw or how to draw it, though I do get shown initial sketches and have the opportunity to provide feedback.
When the illustrations are finished (which can again take months and months or oven years) , the publisher puts words and pictures together and the book is finally ready to be printed.
Then, at least a year after I had that first idea – but usually two or more years – the postman brings me a parcel, with copies of the new book for me to enjoy, and copies of the book are then available in bookstores and libraries for people to read.
It’s a long process –  Head Hog took six years to finally be published – but when I hold a new book in my hands for the first time I always feel  really proud.