It’s World Read Aloud Day and, what better way for me to celebrate than by reading aloud to you. Enjoy!
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What I Read in May, 2024
It’s a new month, which means time to share what I read last month. I was on the road – in France, London and Singapore – for most of May, so was surprised when I tallied up and saw I’d still managed 12 books. Here’s what kept me up late in hotel rooms all over the world 🙂
Books for Children
1.Kitty and the Kidnap Trap, by Paula Harrison, illustrated by Jenny Lovlie (Oxford University Press, 2021). I spent some time browsing London bookshops and came away with several books including this one. Kitty is a human child by day but a superhero, with cat powers at night – and in this instalment uses those powers to rescue her friend’s pet hamster. Very cute.
2. Squishy McFluff: The Invisible Cat! (Squishy McFluff the Invisible Cat), by Pip Jones, illustrated by Ella Okstad (Faber & Faber, 2018). Another London purchase – this time an early reader chapter book, in rhyming verse, which I found quite novel. Ava and her invisible cat get up to lots of mischief.
3. The Lonely Book, by Meg Grehan (Little Island Press, 2023). Also bought in London, but recommended to me at my conference in France by a bookseller from Canada. Really pleased to get hold of this – a verse novel about a magical bookshop, families, gender identity and acceptance. Great stuff.
4. Keisha Jones Takes on the World, by Natalie Denny, illustrated by Chante Timothy (Little Tiger, 2023). And yes, also bought (and read) in London. This one is about a determined, feisty girl who is out to make a difference – in spite of her propensity to not always get that right.
5. Overheard in a Tower Block: Poems by, by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter Barry Books, 2017). Another one bought in London, a collection by the current Children’s Laureate that reads a lot like a verse novel, though many of the poems do stand alone.
6. Little Hero, by Emily Lim-Leh (Penguin, 2024). I was lucky enough to attend the launch of this book at the AFCC in Singapore this month, and headed staright to the bookshop to buy it. Inspired by the real life of the author’s father (who was on stage at the launch) it tells the tale of seven year old Xiong as he navigates life in post-war 1940s Singapore.
7. The Riding Gallery, by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Marine Heiduczek (Walker Books, 2024). Yes, I’m the author of this one, but also, I sat down and read it cover to cover after my author copies arrived. It doesn’t matter how much I have worked on a book, how well I think I know it, it’s only when it arrives in hard copy and I can turn the pages, seeing both text and image in physical form that I really know whether it works. I think it does – and can’t wait to share it with the world in July.
8.Eye Spy Singapore: A look and find activity book, by Pippa Chorley & David Liew (Marshall Cavendish, 2021). I was gifted this book by my wonderful friend David Liew (who, you might notice, is also the illustrator) and was lucky enough to have it signed both by David and by the author, Pippa, at the AFCC. A fun book exploring many of Singapore’s attractions and landmarks, with each spread also inviting young readers to find items in each scene.
9. Picture Perfect Poetry: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students, edited by Carol J. Labuzzetta (2024). What a treasure! I have been eagerly waiting for this anthology, because I had three photos and three poems included, but also because I knew it would be a visual and literary feast, pairing nature photography with poems, from members of the Poetry Friday community and beyond. I read it in one sitting but will be dipping in and out for a long time to come.
10. 
Abre, by Amandine Laprun (Actes Sud, 2022). I fell in love with this little beauty when I saw it in the window of a Paris bookstore. The shop was closed so I had to wait till the next day to go back and buy it. The image doesn’t do it justice – the book is shaped like a tree and has a ribbon which ties the front and back covers together so the book stands upright like a little tree. Each spread shows the cherry tree at different times of year, so that it goes from spring, through summer, autumn, winter and back to spring, with blossoms, leaves, cherries, autumn leaves and bare branches, as well as squirrels, birds, and even children all visiting the tree. Stunning.
11. 
Curly, by Rachelyn Gordon, illustrated by Cecilia Hidayat (2023). I bought this book at the AFCC after listening to the amazing author speak on a panel. Curly’s pixie cut makes her feel strong and confident – until she starts school and other children tease her about having short her. An important message, but also just a lovely story.
Books for Adults
The Spare Room, by Laura Starkey. Read on Kindle on two of my flights this month. AÂ heart warming rom com.
That brings my total for the year to 57, with more to come. I brought home quite a few books from my trip, and often ponder whether I could read in my sleep to keep on top of all the amazing new books I want to read.
What have you been reading?
Poetry Friday: What is poetry?
It’s Poetry Friday and I am excited, because it’s also February, and that means in just
four weeks the poetry anthology I co-edited, Right Way Down, will be released and head out into the world.
As a result, in between grinning in wild anticipation, I am going to be thinking and writing and talking about poetry A LOT from now until then (and beyond).
I thought I would start this series of posts with some thoughts on what poetry is. I discovered back when I was completing my Doctoral thesis, that while most people have opinions about poetry, few people can neatly define what it is. So, I decided, the easiest way for me to define it was with this poem:
A Poem
A poem
is a whole lot of words
a plethora of words
a smattering, a scattering
a shattering of words
thrown on a page
in carefully created
chaos
to make you wonder.
(Copyright Sally Murphy 2016).
Later, when I wrote Poetry for Pleasure and Purpose, I  still couldn’t find a better
definition, so I put the poem in there as well, along with a shape poem about how poetry makes me feel. This poem had first appeared here on my blog way back in 2014, looking like this:
Poetree
has lots of branches
goes out on limbs
takes lots of chances.
Leaves you breathless
when you twig
the poet’s skill
(it’s quite a gig!)
It boughs to nature
oftentimes
leaves you marvelling
at its rhymes.
Grows on you
after a while.
Poetree
you make me smile
(Copyright Sally Murphy 2014).
(You’ll be pleased to know that the amateur drawing I did was replaced in the book by a professionally made one).
While these two poems are different, I think they highlight the two things which, for me, are key in good poetry – the ability to make the reader marvel or wonder at something, and the ability to make the reader feel something. I  can’t wait to share this book with the world. It will make you marvel at the cleverness of the many poets whose work is featured. It will make you feel all kinds of things, too – you might laugh out loud, you might cry or you might sigh at the perfect way a moment is captured.
I almost can’t wait for it to be released, but because I HAVE to wait, I plan to spend the month sharing lots of poetry related goodness. First, I am off to see what my Poetry Friday friends are up to. The Roundup is hosted by  Mary Lee.
Hooray for Australia II
I have been trawling through lots of memories and memorabilia from my childhood, looking for items from a particular year for a book I am planning (more on that another time) and came across a poem I wrote in 193. Coincidentally, today marks the 4oth year of the event which inspired me to write the poem.
I was 15 when Australia II won the America’s Cup, very early in the morning of September 27 Australian time. – and I have a confession to make: while my poem shows just how excited I was by this feat, I actually slept though it. My mum tried to wake me to watch it on television, but, while I did wake up, I also decided against getting up – partly because I had got up for at least one other race in the preceding weeks and, most likely, the cancelled decider a few days earlier.
Of course when I DID get up, much later, it was too late and i was disappointed that I hadn’t made the effort. But I was still just as excited as, seemingly, the whole of Australia that ‘we’ had won the cup.
Anyway, here is the poem I wrote in honour of this event. Note especially that the boat and crew are ‘they’ to start with, but the closer they get to winning, the more I, apparently, was part of it and ‘we’ won. Story of my life when it comes to sport!
The great Australian hero:
The boat so highly praised –
Australia II who won the challenge,
And left the Americans dazed.
They left Perth filled with courage,
Determined they would win,
Needing to fill the yearning
They were feeling within.
They made it to the final round
By defeating the English crew,
Then began racing Liberty –
Hooray for Australia II!
After only four finals races
Us Aussies were down, three to one,
But still there was courage left
In the hearts of everyone.
We fought back, bravely, strongly
And levelled the score three to three,
And fear was beginning to spread
Among the crew of Liberty.
The final race grew closer,
The Atmosphere was great,
For all true-blue Australians
September 27 was the big date.
We proved that we could do it,
We beat the Americans well,
As Australia II crossed the line
American spirits fell.
Great joy spread throughout Australia –
The cup was finally won!
John Bertram and his crew were satisfied,
Their glorious deed was done.
(Sally Adam, 1983)
If you want to know more about the story behind the win, visit the post at the National Museum Website here
Where Do Ideas Come From? The origins of Queen Narelle
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.
Anthology News
I have been waiting and waiting for this announcement to be made, and am so glad that Fremantle Press have finally made it official: Right Way Down is being published in 2024.
I have been lucky enough to be working on this book as co-editor with the amazing Rebecca M. Newman, poet extraordinaire and publisher of Alphabet Soup Books. Rebecca sourced funding to get this project off the ground and we have spent many pleasant hours selecting and ordering and editing the anthology. Briony Stewart has spent many more hours devising delightful illustrations, And then Fremantle Press suggested that they might like to come on board and help us get this offering o the world.
Look at the amazing cover!  It is just amazing, and hopefully will lead lots of young readers to pen the book and read poems by some very talented West Australian poets, including Rebecca, A.J. Betts, Cristy Burne, Cheryl Kickett-Tucker, Cass Lynch, Amber Moffat, Meg McKinlay, Sally Morgan, James Foley, Dianne Wolfer and me, among others.
Can’t wait to read it? Neither can I – but we do have to wait until March 2024, when it will be released for your reading pleasure. I have until then to contemplate whether there is any chance of me doing a handstand (hint: the title poem might require a handstand) at the launch.
To see the full Press release click here.
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