What I Read in November 2023

December 4, 2023 by Sally

Time for my second last reading roundup for the year. November was a busy month but I still managed to read 16 books – a total helped by the fact that lots of them were picture books. Here’s what I read:

Books for Children

1. Friendly Bee and Friends: Woe is for Worm!, by Sean E. Avery (Walker Books, 2023).The second book featuring Friendly Bee and her friends – this time featuring Bee, Angry Wasp, Enormous Hairy Spider – and Pessimistic Earthworm. Lots of fun. Sean Avery is a genius.
2. Raised by Moths, by Charlie Archbold & Michelle Conn (Midnight Sun, 2023).I was lucky enough to attend the launch for this while on my recent trip to Adelaide. Whimsical but also with a lovely exploration of belonging and childhood. The illustrations are divine.
3. The Wheelbarrow Express (Walker Books, 2023). My copy is signed by the author – because she came for a sleepover on her recent trip to WA. How lucky am I that Sue Whiting is my friend? So I know I am a little biased, but this book is just wonderful, with a tale of a boy and his grandfather, with wheelbarrow rides, tender connections and love. Again, the illustrations are perfect.
4. Madame Cholet’s Picnic Party, by Elisabeth Beresford, illustrated by Margaret Gordon (Ernest Benn, 1976). I picked this one up in an op shop some time ago, and then read it late one evening when I wanted something light. I loved the Wombles when I was a child, and enjoyed a little glimpse back into their world.
5. Mr Clownfish, Miss Anemone and the Hermit Crab, by Sean E. Avery (Walker Books, 2023). I adore Sean Avery – and his quirky books. This delightful picture book is about friendship, bravery and under water fun.
6. Pog, by Lyn Lee, illustrated by Kim Gamble (Omnibus, 2000). Another bargain opshop rescue,. What a delight to rediscover this brave little monster who is, like the other monsters, scared of one thing – children.
7. Nikki Hind: Dressed for Success, by John Dickson & Chantel de Sousa (Vision Australia, 2023). One of my reading delights this month was reading this one, and the two others (see below) that make up the Big Visions pack. This one tells the story of fashion designer Nikki Hind, who lives with a vision impairment and has a successful fashion label.
8. Craig Shanahan: Cooking up a Storm (Big Visions), by John Dickson and Claudia Frittitta (Vision Australia, 2023). Also part of the Big Visions imprint, this one is the biography of chef Craig Shanahan, aka ‘the blind chef’.
9. Matt Formston: Surfing in the Dark, by John Dickson and Philip Bunting (Vision Australia, 2023). The third title in the Big Visions pack, which I was sent by Vision Australia. This one tells the story of Matt Formston, world champion surfer and cycling Paralympian. I love that these three books can work together or individually, in biographies that share amazing stories of people living wi9th vision impairment. Each includes the details of that impairment, and its progress but this is just part of each person’s story, with achievements and everyday life being a key part of each story. With the stories told in good sized bold font, as well as in braille, the books will be accessible to readers with any level of vision and this makes such a wonderful aid both for school and home use. It would be excellent to see these books in mainstream libraries making the stories, and their amazing subjects, accessible to all young readers.
10. City of Light, by Julia Lawrinson, illustrated by Heather Potter & Mark Jackson (Wild Dog, 2023). I was really happy to see this book come into the world, because it’s a topic I have long thought would make an excellent picture book. It’s the story of Perth’s label as the City of Light, after the people of Perth turned on their lights so that John Glenn could see them from space. Also, one of the illustrators, heather Potter, also illustrated my Pearl Verses the World which led, indirectly, to me needing to write a story about a cat.
11. The Lucky Shack, by Apsara Baldovino & Jennifer Falkner (Working Title Press, 2023). I bought this after hearing the illustrator speak at the State Library of WA’s Young Reader’s Day Out recently. When she showed the images I sighed at their perfection and knew I had to own the book. So lovely.

Books for Young Adults

New Patches for Old, by Christobel Mattingley (Puffin, 1977). Picked up second hand on my recent trip to Adelaide, along with other Mattingley titles, giving me a chance to get to know her work better. The story of a teen (Patricia) who is really unhappy about migrating from England to Australia – and the journey to rebuilding her life.
Ask No Questions, by Eva Collins (Puncher & Wattman, 2022). It was coincidence that I read this one and the Mattingley one sequentially, but both deal with the experiences of migrants to Australia. This one is an autobiographical verse novel about the a Polish family coming to Australia during the cold war. Excellent poetry, and a perspective I found enlightening.

Books for Adults

1. Things I Don’t Want to Know, by Deborah Levy (Penguin, 2013). I ordered this from my local bookshop after it was recommended on a podcast – but can’t for the life of me remember which podcast, or who recommended it. Still, I’m glad that past-Sally raced in and ordered it, and really adored this, billed as ‘living autobiography, and exploring writing, womanhood, and the way childhood experiences have shaped the author’s ‘now’. I am likely to order the two subsequent books, though it stands alone beautifully.

2. How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, edited by James Crews (Storey Publishing, 2021). What a beautiful beautiful anthology. From the format, with a cover to die for and hug, to the selection of poems to inspire, to reassure and to love, and little pauses for reflection throughout. I savoured this over about a month, reading a poem or two at a time.

3. The Red Witch: A Biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard, by Nathan Hobby (Miegunyah Press, 2022). This one took me a while to read – I actually started it in late August. That isn’t a reflection on its quality – but as it is quite dense, I put it aside a few times for lighter, quicker reads, finding I needed the head space to concentrate. A really thorough examination of the life, works and times of author Katharine Susannah Prichard.

That brings my total for the year to 119. Happy with that – and there’s still a month to go. What have you been reading?

Where Do Ideas Come From? The origins of Queen Narelle

September 13, 2023 by Sally

I’ve been sorting through old drafts and folders, and came across this poem, which I wrote some years ago as part of a Facebook challenge (the set topic was ‘blue’).

Not exactly a work of art, but today I took a photo of it and shared it on Instagram – and then was left thinking about how, sometimes, poems, and stories too, really do seem to just appear, and I know I have to write them down and share them. This led me to ponder how ideas really can come from just about anywhere.

Take Queen Narelle as an example. The idea from this book came from a fairly random sequence of events. In 2008 I wrote Pearl Verses the World (and THAT story came to me from a voice in my head that insisted I write her story). A year later, it was published, with gorgeous illustrations by Heather Potter. When I was busy promoting the book, a boy called Cassidy emailed some questions for me to answer from Pearl’s perspective. These were really perceptive questions – Cassidy was a very cluey nine year old. You can read the interview here.

So, Cassidy asked me/Pearl, ‘what is your cat’s name?’ and I have to admit this stumped me – because I had not given Pearl a cat. There is no mention of a cat in the story I wrote. BUT Cassidy had seen Pearl’s cat – there in several of Heather Potter’s gorgeous illustrations. So, if I was answering as Pearl, I couldn’t say I didn’t know the cat’s name. I thought fast, and gave the cat the name of a cat from my own childhood: Narelle.

The interview was published and I moved on. Except, I kept thinking about that cat. Because there is a humorous reason we called our cat Narelle. Narelle, you see, is the sound a cat makes. It doesn’t say miaow – it says Naarrellllllleee. And, having remembered that fact, I couldn’t stop thinking about a cat called Narelle. Eventually I decided that Narelle deserved a story of her own.

When I sat down to write, however, it wasn’t Pearl’s cat, or even my ‘real’ cat, that seemed to want to have their story told. It was a different cat. And she was determined to tell her story in her own voice. The first draft of Queen Narelle didn’t take long to write – and it was all from Narelle’s first person viewpoint.

Since 2009 that first draft has had many revisions and edits, including adding in a second narrator – Maddie, Narelle’s favourite human. Doing this made the story richer, more complete, but I have always loved writing in Narelle’s voice. It was lots of fun, even though there are tricky things happening in the book. Those things evolved from me trying to figure out what problems a cat might have, or witness, and how a cat might be involved in their resolution.

So, in this case, the idea came from a simple question about one cat, and a chain of thoughts about that cat, and a very demanding cat demanding to be written about.

Of course, other stories and poems have their origins in other places. I might write about some of my other story origins in coming posts.

Book Birthdays – and a Giveaway!

May 1, 2022 by Sally

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday tooo you!

Happy birthday dear Worse Things

Happy birthday to yoooooooooooouuuu!

That’s right, today is a special day because it is Worse Things‘ second birthday. Hard to believe that it has been out in the world for two whole years.

In that time it has been read and (hopefully) loved by readers all around Australia. And I am forever grateful that Walker Books published it and that the absolutely amazing and awesome illustrator Sarah Davis illustrated it.

But wait – there’s more because (drumroll please) …..

it’s ALSO Pearl Verses the World‘s birthday.

Happy birthday to you! Pearl Verses the World

Happy birthday tooo you!

Happy birthday dear Pearl

Happy birthday to yoooooooooooouuuu!

Now, if you read this book when it first came out then you might be amazed to realise how very quickly time has flown because Pearl Verses the World is not two years old, and not even three years old. In fact (I CAN NOT believe this) Pearl Verses the World is 13 years old today!

13 years since this little book was published (again by the amazing team at Walker Books, and illustrated by the equally as amazing Heather Potter) and changed my writing world.

So happy birthday little book babies. I am inordinately proud of you and of the fact you both remain in print. Long may you remain out there filling hearts and minds with your tales.

And to you, amazing readers – a massive thankyou! Stories work because readers pick them up, digest them and make them their own.

Note: if you have not read one or both of these books, this thank you is still for you – because I am sure you have read other, equally loved books by other amazing authors. And that’s fine. But if you’d like a sneak peak of Worse Things, here’s me reading the opening, filmed during lockdown when the book was released:

And here’s me reading the opening of Pearl Verses the World during the same lockdown.

And, because it’s a double birthday, I have a present to give away. Comment on this post and let me know which of these two books you would like to win. I will randomly choose one lucky winner on Thursday night (my time) and announce the winner here on my blog. Get to it! (nb If you win I will contact you for your postal address).

Readalong Post #3: Covering Covers

April 12, 2020 by Sally

Welcome back to my Readalong. Today I’m thinking about covers. There’s an old saying ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’. But while I agree with the spirit of that adage, those who work in publishing and bookselling probably know that good covers do make books sell, while, shall I say, less good covers can harm a book’s chances. Because, rightly or wrongly, buyers, and borrowers too, do judge books on their first appearances, choosing which books to pick up and browse, often based on what they look like.

So, to the cover of Pearl Verses the World:

Pearl Verses the World

I loved it the first time I saw it, and have loved it ever since. I love that Heather Potter brought the character of Pearl to life with such a deft, tender touch, and perching her on the world was genius. I also love the font choice, and the colour palette too. Heather’s illustrations and the design team at Walker Books Australia together creating something that I think is pretty special. I feel like it’s okay to be a bit biased about my own book, because I had absolutely nothing to do with this brilliant design.

However, when Pearl was published in the UK, the team at Walker UK felt that the cover was not quite right for their market. Not only that, they didn’t like my title, which they felt was a bit too ‘clever’ with its play on words. So, they shortened the title, used a different illustration and muted the colours down to very subtle stripes:

Pearl

And what did I think? Apart from feeling sad about the title change, I loved this cover too. I think the tag line and the illustration gave a strong sense of the book’s essence.

Over in the United States, however, Candlewick Press seemed to prefer the original title and cover – their change was to produce it as a hardcover book, which was pretty special.

Back to my point about judging books by covers. If I can judge the covers by how many of each version sold, then it would seem the original cover was the best one. But that ignores the fact that in my home country my publisher and I were able to promote more directly and more widely and, when it was shortlisted or won a variety of awards (more about those in another post), that also boosted sales.

For me, I prefer the original cover because it was the first I saw, and it’s the one that settled in my heart, but I like the others too – and if someone is reading my book and spending time with Pearl, then any of the covers has done its job.

Which do you like?

Readalong Post #2: The Writing of Pearl Verses the World

April 11, 2020 by Sally

Welcome to Day 2 of my readalong. Thanks to everyone who has dropped in on my first post, and left comments here or on social media. As I continue to reflect on Pearl Verses the World, today I thought I might chat a bit about how (and why!) I wrote the book and why I chose to write a verse novel. However, this post comes with a spoiler alert: if you haven’t read the book, and plan to read it, you might want to stop reading now and come back to this post after you have.

I must admit that I didn’t so much choose the verse novel form as it chose me. Long before I met Pearl, I started a review site called Aussiereviews, and started reviewing Australian books. In 2002 I opened a novel from my review pile – and was surprised to see it was written in verse. I had never heard the term verse novel, let alone seen one, but as I started to read that book (Margaret Wild’s Jinx), I fell in love with the form. I knew that I would like to write like that and, as I started to find and read other verse novels, I knew that one day I would try to write one of my own. But I thought that first I would learn HOW to write a verse novel – a book, or a course, or something to guide me through the process. That didn’t happen.

Instead, Pearl Verses the World came like a bolt from the blue, insisting it be written, and be written in verse. One night as I got into into bed, a few lines of poetry came into my head, and I had to get up, find a piece of paper, and write them down. Each time I tried to turn the light off and get some rest, a few more lines came to me, and I had to jump out of bed and write them down. I still own that piece of paper and those early lines.

Finally, my beloved started to get restless with all the late-night poetry making, and I had to give it a rest. That poem, though, didn’t let me rest, and over the coming days I drafted more poems – until I realised that there was a story being told and that the voice, who was Pearl, was not going to leave me be until I wrote her tale.

Pearl’s story was easy to write in many ways. It was almost as if Pearl was channeling through me – she told me her tale, and whenever I felt that I didn’t know what was going to happen next, I stopped writing and waited for it to come to me. And come to me it did; often when I was in the shower, or lying in bed, or doing something totally removed from writing. I gradually worked out why Pearl was sad, and why she felt lonely. She was watching her beloved grandmother fade away, and her grief had forced her apart from her classmates.

Having said that, Pearl’s story was in other ways terribly hard to write. When I wrote the scenes dealing with Granny’s death I experienced grief. A grief so real that I had to stop writing, curl into a ball and howl. Even long into the editing process I still cried. I also had to consider whether the book was too sad for child readers. Did I want children to cry as I had cried? The eventual answer was yes, I did need to share this story with children. They may cry when they read it – but hopefully they will also smile and even, perhaps, laugh out loud. Above all, I hope they will see that although they may experience loss or grief in their lives, life does go on and there is always hope. I also hope they will know it is okay to grieve, in their own way and in their own time. I have blogged before about sad books and why I write them here and here.

The other thing that happened when I wrote was that although I cried, I also smiled, And laughed. And, when I’d finished writing, I realised I was done crying. It was quite a cathartic process – one that I hope is echoed for readers, who, once they finish the book, should also be done crying.

Back to the writing process. I said earlier that I thought I would learn to write verse novels before I tried to write one. Instead, I kind of just winged it. I just wrote the story, in verse, as it came to me. But, looking back, those other verse novels I’d read, and my many years of writing poetry, stood me in good stead. It’s advice I give to anyone who asks me about being a writer: writers need to read. A lot. That reading builds an understanding of how story, and different writing forms, work, in ways that writing courses can’t on their own (of course writing courses, books on writing and so on are amazing too!).

So I wrote a verse novel, not really knowing what I was doing – and it worked. Amazingly, a year later, Pearl Verses the World was published by Walker Books, with amazing illustrations by Heather Potter, and the rest, as they say, is history.

DO you have questions? I’d love to answer them. Comment below. Or post them on my social media – Twitter, Facebook or Instagram (#pearlvworld or #readwithsally) , and I’ll answer them there. Thanks again for being part of my Readalong.

What I Read in September

September 30, 2017 by Sally

Another month has flown by, and lots more reading has been done. This month I got through 25 books, everything from gorgeous new picture books (I only count ones which I have read AND reviewed for this monthly list) to an book called The 5 Second Rule, from Mel Robbins, a leading motivational speaker in the United States (and internationally). I can see why her book and her presentations – on Youtube and in-person are so popular. She has inspired me to get out of bed earlier and get stuff done this month. So thanks Mel – after reading the book, I even visited the dentist, which I’d put off for years.

Anyway, here’s what I read this month.