5 Cool Things About Poetry
2. It can say a lot. In just a few words, or a line or two, a poem can capture an emotion, a look, a feeling. I read my classes the opening page of Pearl Verses the World yesterday – and the students could quickly connect with Pearl’s isolation.
3. It leaves you thinking. The best poems don’t tell you how to think or feel. They evoke feelings, certainly, and present ideas and images, but then leave you to form your own response.
Puzzles and Stuff
Have just spent a fun half an hour doing virtual jigsaw puzzles of the covers of Toppling and Pearl Verses the World, after fellow shortlisted author, Chris Bongers pointed out that Mrs B has a great interactive website which has puzzles and other activities for shortlisted titles in the CBCA Childrens Book of the Year Awards for the past three years. How very cool.
The Toppling page has links to teacher’s notes, a cloze passage, a domino topple and a domino game, while the Pearl Verses the World page has teacher’s notes, a cloze passage and poetry activities. And, of course, both pages have a 20 piece jigsaw of the book covers. There are similar pages for all the other shortlisted books in the Picture Book, Younger Readers and Early Childhood categories of the awards.
What a fun way to get kids interested in the shortlisted titles – and a great help for teachers and librarians wanting to focus on the awards! Well done Mrs B for putting so much work into creating this resource – and thanks for challenging me with the Cloze passage. Was very relieved to get 100%
Foreign Editions
My beloved brought home some mail from our other house on the weekend, and I was delighted that one of the packages contained author copies of Snowy’s Christmas – in Korean. It’s my first ever foreign language edition – though there have been UK and US versions of some of my books – so it was a novel expereince seeing my story in a form I can’t actually read – in spite of looking almost the same as the Aussie version.
Here’s the Korean cover:
And here’s the Australian one:
You can see there’s only minor differences. The gold star on the Korean version says ‘World picture book’ in English – with some Korean text which I presume says the same thing. And the publisher’s logo is on the top corner. Apart from that there’s a tiny difference in the shade of green used. Internally, it’s hard to spot the differences, but I would love to know how the translated version reads.
It’s interesting to see how overseas editions are altered for different markets. Pearl Verses the World is coming out in the USA later this year, published there by Candlewick, and the cover seems the same. However, the UK version not only has a different cover, but also a different title. Here’s the Aussie version:
I absolutely adored the first cover, but love the second one too – in fact, I think, equally.
What do you think?
Why I Write Sad Stories
I was asked recently why I only write sad books. I was quite taken aback by this question, because I don’t think of myself as someone who writes sad books. But at the same time I knew where the asker was coming from. After all, this person may have read some of my more lighthearted stories in the past, but most recently she had read both Pearl Verses the World and Toppling, both of which deal with some pretty weighty issues.
While perhaps this person’s question stopped me in my tracks a little bit, it really isn’t unusual for me to be asked why I write stories that make people cry. Whenever I visit a school and talk about Pearl or Toppling, a child will ask a similar question – especially if they have not actually read the books. And there’s the crunch for me. If you haven’t read the books, you could well hear about them and think they are going to be overwhelmingly sad. After all, Pearl Verses the World deals with issues of dementia, death, and loneliness, whilst Toppling focuses on childhood cancer. These are not light topics, and when I wrote both of these stories I was really confronted with my own emotions surrounding these issues.
But I hope, I really hope, that when young readers read these books the overarching feeling they are left with by the end of each story is not one of sorrow or helplessness, but one of hope. Without giving too much of either story away (I do try hard to avoid spoilers to my books), both stories focus not on easy solutions to these problems, but on young characters finding hope, finding ways to deal with the tough stuff that arises in their lives.
I really strongly believe that kids need books that allow them to cry (if they feel the need to), that allow them to relate to harsh life experiences, to empathise or sympathise with characters of their own age as they go through tough stuff. But I also believe that they need to see that no matter how hard life is, there is always some glimmer of hope.
Does every book need to be sad/serious? No. Whilst I’m really proud of these two books, I am equally proud of my books about frogs that float and bears that sing, and kangaroos that pull Santa’s sleigh. Kids need all kinds of stories, and I’m grateful that I’m able to write them.
Awards, Speeches and Thankyous
Phew. I’m home, and have a little time to sit down and blog. My apologies to regular followers for my recent silence – my life has been a whirl!
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to fly to Brisbane for the announcement of the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Awards. Pearl Verses the World was shortlisted and, to my delight was named an Honour Book. I travelled to and from Brisbane with the lovely Rebecca Cool, illustrator of the picture book, Isabella’s Garden, also published by Walker Books, and also named an Honour Book.
As well as attending the Book of the Year announcements, held at Brisbane’s Custom’s House, I also attended the Queensland Branch’s Bookweek dinner. Both events were fun, and exciting and even a little overwhelming. This was my first ever trip to Brisbane, and I must say the Brisbane hospitality, and the sunshine, and the award, made it a wonderful place to visit.
Back home only briefly, I then headed to Perth for Bookweek, visiting the Altona Park library and Guildford Grammar Preparatory school. I love speaking to kids about my books, and about the writing life and about reading in general. I always come away more inspired than the kids, I think.
Home again home again for another catch up with my family, and two days at my day job before I headed off again – back to Brisbane. This time I was attending the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. To my delight, Toppling won the Mary Ryan’s Award for the best children’s book. What an honour!
Another flight and I was back in Perth in time to attend the WA Premier’s Book Awards where Pearl Verses the World was shortlisted, though not the winner. I was happy just to be on such an outstanding list, with Margaret Wild and Freya Blackwood the deserving winners for Harry and Hopper.
Now I’m back at home, with loads of inspiration to keep doing what I do.Pprobably the best part about all these recent successes has been all the lovely feedback from so many different people. Family, friends, writing colleagues, industry people, teachers, librarians, locals, complete strangers – all have been so wonderfully happy for me and with me. At times I have been quite teary by such demonstrations of all round niceness. So, to those who have shared in my happiness – a huge thankyou.
And, if you are interested, here is what I said in accepting the Mary Ryan Award (except, because I spoke without notes, this is a slightly tidier version than the real thing).
Premier, Ladies and Gentlemen
Wow. I’m delighted. I’ve been writing and submitting for about twenty years and, like most writers I know, it’s been a tough journey to get my writing to publishable standard and to actually get published. But suddenly, in the past couple of years, it all seems to have come together. Only 20 years to become an overnight success!
So I’d like to say to everyone else trying to balance day jobs with writing, or parenthood with writing, or struggling to stay focussed and positive in the face of rejection after rejection, that dreams can and do come true.
I’d like to thank my family back in WA, especially my husband and children – it isn’t easy living with a writer. Also, the two women to whom this book is dedicated – my sister and my sister-in-law who, like Dominic, have fought their own battles with cancer. My fellow writers, especially the children’s writing community, which is filled with supportive, lovely people. And Walker Books, who have shown such belief in me and in my stories. Of course, I’d like to thank the Premier and the Queensland Government for making this writer so very happy. An award like this is very affirming of what I’ve been trying to do.
Lastly, I’d like to remind every adult here tonight that children’s books are not just for kids. They are for the child inside each and every one of us.
Thank you.
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