Inky Awards longlist announced

The Inky Awards, coordinated by the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria, have announced the longlist for 2011.

The Inkys are international awards for teenage literature that are voted for online by the readers of insideadog.com.au. It recognises the fantastic home grown writing talent from Australia with the Gold Inky and also titles that come from across the ocean with the Silver Inky.

Click here to search Libraries ACT for the following titles.

Gold Inky Long List - Australian titles

• Pigboy by JC Burke
• Good Oil by Laura Buzo
• Just a Girl by Jane Caro
• The FitzOsbourne’s in Exile by Michelle Cooper
• Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
• This is Shyness by Leanne Hall
• Black Painted Fingernails by Steven Herrick
• Silvermay by James Moloney
• The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling
• All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

Silver Inky Long List - International titles

• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
• No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
• Where She Went by Gayle Forman
• Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
• The Agency: The Body in the Tower by YS Lee
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
• First Light by Rebecca Stead
• Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork
• Violence 101 by Denis Wright

Look out for the short list and voting opportunities from 1 September.

"Books are now in your hands"

At the Hay Literary Festival in late May, an exciting new website was launched. Unbound is a "crowd-funded" online publishing platform with the tagline "books are now in your hands." It's based in the UK, but readers around the world can participate.

Unbound is a new way of connecting with writers. Most of the writers on our site will be well known, others will appear here for the first time.

What's different is that instead of waiting for them to publish their work, Unbound allows you to listen to their ideas for what they'd like to write before they even start. If you like their idea, you can pledge to support it. If we hit the target number of supporters, the author can go ahead and start writing (if the target isn't met you can either get your pledge refunded in full or switch your pledge to another Unbound project).

There are several levels of support, each with different rewards. The higher your pledge, the greater the rewards you'll receive, from your name in the back of the book to lunch with the author. Plus you can alert your friends and earn Unbound credits on the site when they support a project too.

Current authors on Unbound include Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, and Amy Jenkins, creator of the 90s television series This Life.

To learn more, visit the Unbound website: http://www.unbound.co.uk/

Poems About Portraits with Samuel Wagan Watson

The ACT Writers Centre is hosting a poetry workshop for Indigenous writers this weekend.

Event: Poems About Portraits

Date and Time: 10am-12.30pm Sunday 3 July

Cost: Free. Morning tea provided

Venue: The Studio, National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes. Underground parking provided

Bookings essential on 6262 9191 or to admin@actwriters.org.au

Samuel Wagan Watson is a contemporary Indigenous Australian poet. His poetry ranges from observation of everyday experience to the effects of colonisation in a vividly direct, almost tactile, language.

His publications include: Hotel Bone (Vagabone Press, 2001); Itinerant blues(UQP, 2002); Of muse, meandering and midnight the winner of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Indigenous Writers for 1999); Smoke encrypted whispers (winner of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry Book of the Year for 2005).

Samuel Watson has also received a Highly Commended in both the Anne Elder Awards and the 2000 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Australian Culture.

In this workshop, participants will produce poems from portaits - undertaking a poetry commission and creating a textual landscape from someone else's art. This workshop is presented by the ACT Writers Centre with support from the National Portrait Gallery and the ACT Arts Officers.

This workshop is for Indigenous writers.

Visit ACT Writers Centre website

Borrow Smoke Encrypted Whispers from Libraries ACT.



The Gruffalo's Child visits Canberra Theatre and Libraries ACT

The Gruffalo said that no gruffalo should

ever set foot in the deep dark wood…

 

If you loved The Gruffalo, don't miss the sequel - The Gruffalo's Child. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's bestselling book has once again been adapted for the stage by London's Award Winning Tall Stories Theatre Company (the team behind The Gruffalo), and produced in Australia and New Zealand by CDP.

One wild and windy night the Gruffalo's child ignores her father's warning and tiptoes out into the snow. After all, the Big Bad Mouse doesn't really exist… does he?

Songs, laughs and scary fun for children aged 4 and up, and their adults.

To celebrate the Canberra Theatre performance of The Gruffalo's Child, Libraries ACT will be hosting two special story times:

Civic Library

Tuesday 12 July

10.30 am - 11.30 am

Dickson Library

Thursday 14 July

10.30 am - 11.30 am

You might even meet the Gruffalo himself!

There is no need to book in for these special sessions, just come along.

Click here to borrow The Gruffalo's Child from Libraries ACT.

Read more about the Canberra Theatre production here.

Book now for the holidays

The July School Holiday Program is available, with places booking out quickly.

School holiday activities are targeted for school aged children to encourage them to visit the library during the holidays to have fun and learn something new. There are are a range of activities for different age groups including origami, manga drawing and animal pilates.
To make a booking:

1. Click here to view the full program of activities and reserve a place
2. Phone 6205 9000 OR
3. Visit any branch in person

Please note: Story Time and Giggle & Wiggle are only held during school terms.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

There's been a huge buzz around N.K Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms ever since it was released early in 2010, enough to get it a surprise Hugo nomination for 2011. With all I'd heard about and that entrancing cover I did want to read it.

Having done so I'm not exactly sure why it's so hyped. There's nothing particularly exciting or ground breaking in the book. In fact for it's 300 or so pages largely nothing happens, aside from the Twilightesque love story between passive protagonist Yeine and the dual god aspect Nahadoth (Nahadoth is Edward and Yeine is Bella, if you want to continue the Twilight metaphor poor old T'vril is Jacob).

The story is fairly generic. Naive young girl from the outlying barbarian matriarchal kingdom of Darr gets called to the capital and is proclaimed as heir to the fast fading king. This of course throws Yeine into a deadly game of intrigue with her vicious cousins Scimina and Relad. I'm probably doing Relad a bit of a disservice here, he didn't seem like that bad a bloke. Scimina was thoroughly hateful and at times I wished the book was about her, she seemed a lot more interesting than Yeine. Yeine has nothing at all to fight with and her cousins have gods as their playthings. One of things that really bothered me about the book was that there was never any clear reason as to exactly why beings with godlike power allowed themselves to be enslaved and tortured by the highbloods. There was some confusing claptrap about one of the higher gods; Itempas, having defeated Nahadoth and Co, but it didn't fly for me.

What sets The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms apart from so many other books like it and all the other Twilight wannabes is the writing and the style. Jemisin has a remarkable skill with words and having the story told in first person by Yeine (who Jemisin admits is largely her) is a master stroke. Yeine isn't the most reliable of narrators, but she's stunningly, painfully honest at the same time. The story as told by her skips about here, there and everywhere, it visits past, present and future, not always in that order. Yeine breaks into the chapters to tell little fairy stories about her world and the gods that inhabit it. At times it is frustrating, but for the most part it's fascinating and gives the whole thing a rather dreamlike, poetic quality.

However brilliant the style is it doesn't cover up the very sketchy Eddingsesque wold building. I was never able to get a real sense of the world that Jemisin was trying to create, big on feelings, emotional conflict and love stories, very light on actual detail about surroundings or appearance. There's evidence in the appendices that quite a lot of thought has been put into creating the world, but it doesn't show in the story. Many of the characters are equally as two dimensional and this made it hard for me to connect or sympathise with him. I probably liked the child like god Sieh the most, until he showed his true colours and became truly creepy.

Although The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the first book of a trilogy it's fairly self contained and tied up neatly at the end. I liked this, because I don't have any intention of spending any more time in the world or with the characters.

The Dervish House

I have to admit I approached Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House with a bit of trepidation. Firstly it was identified as SF and SF and I have never played together well, secondly everything I had heard about the book seemed to indicate that it had been nominated for the Hugo in an effort to give the award a bit of cred as something that could be won by serious literary works.

It’s hard to accurately classify The Dervish House. The SF seems to be the smallest part of it really. It’s only classified that way by virtue of it being set in 2027 and containing some nanotech. It’s part SF, part political thriller, part boys own adventure, part caper novel, there’s some historical fiction and even a love story.

The story covers the lives of 6 individuals over the course of week. Initially the 6 main characters are connected because they all live in Adem Dede Square, which has one of Istanbul’s few remaining dervish houses in it. Their lives will intersect during this week in ways that none of them could have envisaged at the beginning of it.

Like McDonald’s recent works The Dervish House is set in an exotic, developing country; this time Turkey’s ancient bustling capital of Istanbul. Ian McDonald writes lovingly about the city and seems to have captured it’s spirit and that of it’s residents. The city itself becomes in effect a 7th main character.

The 6 principals, through whose eyes readers see the story in short point of view chapters are Georgios Ferentinou; a retired Greek economist who pines for a lost love and wishes that his life had turned out differently. Can; a nine year old boy with a heart problem, who interacts with the world outside the square and his special school, mainly via the use of his remarkable bitbot, a nanotech toy. Adnan; an aggressive trader who is trying to pull off the biggest deal of his career. Ayse; Adnan’s wife, a dealer in religious antiquities who is on the trail of a mythical artefact called The Mellified Man. Leyla; a young lady from the country, who is trying to forge a career away from her tomato farming community as a marketing manager. Finally there is Necdet, a tortured former drug addict who goes from battling the demons of his past, to seeing the real thing on a regular basis.

The book is really a bit of a slow burn and takes far too long introducing it’s main characters and setting up their stories. It was a little frustrating at times trying to work out where and how they connected and why I should care. Once this is done, and everything is set in place ,the last 100 or so pages are a real thrill ride and it’s hard not to be taken in by it all and I genuinely connected with the characters, except maybe for Necdet, who I honestly could have done with a lot less of. I felt Leyla got hard done by in this respect, readers seemed to get less of her than the others and along with boy detective Can, she was probably one of the most accessible of the sextet.

Although McDonald could have done with a ruthless editor to trim some of the fat and the occasional unnecessary indulgence The Dervish House is a good read. It was unfortunate that it took so long to make me care about the characters and to set everything up. It’s all self contained and ends neatly, no overblown series in the brewing here. I don’t know that I could rate it as the best of any given year, but it’s well worth considering as entertainment done with style.

Meet the Author: Jennifer Horsfield

Bring your lunch and join us for a chat with Jenny about her book Mary Cunningham – An Australian Life.

Mary Cunningham lived at Tuggeranong Homestead from the 1880s to 1914. Her life was bound up with some of the great stories of early nationhood: the prosperity brought by wool, the arrival of Federation, the imperial enthusiasms of the Edwardian era, the creation of the national capital, and the sorrows and losses of the Great War.

Date: Thursday 28 July 2011

Time: 12.30 pm - 1.30 pm
Venue: Civic Library
Book now to secure your place

About the author
 
Jenny is a Canberra writer and historian with a strong interest in the lives of post-Federation Australian women, especially those seeking a new and more challenging role at a time of great social change.

Jenny’s book Rainbow: the story of Rania MacPhillamy was chosen as Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the ACT Writers and Publishers awards in 2008.

Her latest book, Cara and her daughters: the story of the Edgeworth David women, will be published early next year by Rosenberg Press.

Borrow books by Jenny from Libraries ACT

Read more about the Cunningham family

August's local author is Nicole Murphy.

McVillain: The Man Who Got Away

David McMillan is one of those rare individuals whose life story sounds so unbelievable that it can’t possibly be true. I first heard of him when he was the subject of one of Channels 9’s successful ‘true’ crime stories; Underbelly. McMillan’s story was called The Man Who Got Away. After seeing the show and reading up a little bit about the man I realised that I had been aware of a number of episodes in his life, they were usually the headlines in newspapers.

McVillain: The Man Who Got Away covers David McMillan’s life from his birth in 1956 up until his imprisonment for drug smuggling in 1982. It could be argued that his life after that is even more bizarre. He remains the only Westerner to have ever successfully escaped from Bangkok’s notorious Klong Prem prison (also known as the ‘Bangkok Hilton’) and then he had some incredible adventures in the sub continent. He later wrote about his escape from Klong Prem in the book ‘Escape’.

McVillain: The Man Who Got Away details his earlier escapades and explains why a bright and charismatic young man raised in Melbourne’s suburbs became a notorious drug runner. David McMillan was intelligent, precocious and charming. He wanted wealth and all the trappings of it, but did not want to work for it. It’s not surprising that he got involved with the world of international drug smuggling. By the time he was in his early twenties he had already made and lost a number of fortunes. The book covers the schemes, the near misses, the successes and the people that David met along the way.

It was a light and entertaining read. I like reading about people whose lives are stranger than fiction and I also enjoy capers. David McMillan is on the money for both of those. He apparently plans a series of books about his extraordinary life and this is the first, that’s good news, because it left me wanting to know more. If I were McMillan I’d hire a ghost writer for the next one (the names Adam Shand, Andrew Rule and John Silvester immediately spring to mind) as while the smuggler is competent enough, he loses focus at times and the scenes don’t leap off the page the way they should. He also failed to adequately explain his relationship with the love of his life Clelia Vigano (who tragically died in a fire in Fairlea Women’s prison in 1982) so that the reader never really gets how close the two were or why he was so desperately in love with her.

David McMillan is almost like Australia’s answer to Henri ‘Papillon’ Charriere. The book has a few flaws, but is well worth the price and time well spent.

Library staff book review: "Just a Dog" by Michael Gerard Bauer

Shortlisted in the Younger Readers category of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards, Just a Dog by Michael Gerard Bauer is presented as a series of journal entries or short tales about the adventures of Mister Mosely, the much loved pet of young Corey and his family. As Corey writes in his journal we learn of Moe’s adventures and although the tales at first seem random, it soon becomes apparent that there’s an underlying story here about a family struggling through difficult economic times.

Although he’s just a dog, and a gangly, dopey looking one at that, Mister Mosely (or Moe as he is affectionately known) is so much more. He is ever present within the household and depending on the situation provides friendship, protection or comic relief to both Corey and his parents.

The beauty of this tale is that it could be about any pet dog because Moe is so ordinary. As young Corey says ‘he didn’t have any special super powers and he didn’t go around rescuing people or catching bad guys the way that police dog on TV does’.

This is a touching story that will have some readers reaching for the tissues. It would be suitable for newly independent readers who will be able to relate to Corey’s love for Moe and the special bond that can form between a child and a pet. Even if you’re not a dog person I think you’ll love Just a Dog.

Click here to borrow Just a Dog from Libraries ACT.

You can also borrow other titles by Michael Gerard Bauer.

Cryoburn

Lois McMaster Bujold and her Miles Vorkosigan saga series seems to be a bit of a favourite amongst Hugo voters. 3 of the books have won the rocketship (1991, 1992 and 1995) and including 2010’s Cryoburn (nominated for the 2011 award) a further 4 have been nominated.

Cryoburn is the 15th full length novel in the series. It was not my first experience of the physically impaired galactic investigator. I read the first book in the series to see what all the fuss was about. While I didn’t hate it, it didn’t strike me as particularly memorable, nor did it inspire me to read any more of the series. So why did I pick up Cryoburn? I want to make an informed decision on the Hugo’s this year and the best way to do that is to read all the nominated works of which Cryoburn happens to be one.

It was an enjoyable enough SF outing, for all that it has the flavour of a detective novel that just happens to be set in a mildly futuristic setting. I’m still none the wiser as to why Miles has such a large and devoted following. There’s nothing particularly new or different about him or the world in which he operates. The world this particular one was set on had a Japanese flavour, but could have easily been set in a Japan some years from now. Despite his impairment, which seems to revolve around the fact that he’s quite small, Miles is a remarkably bland character to have become so popular. His youthful assistants in Cryoburn, pre teen runaways; the animal loving Jin and little sister Mina, were far more entertaining and amusing. They were also better drawn characters. The writing is merely competent without being outstanding.

What Bujold did do well was allow the reader to come in 15 books into the saga and not feel like they were lost. There were some references to the world and characters that were unfamiliar, but they were easy enough to pick up. The ending was obviously written for the long time fans and their reaction is likely to be more extreme than mine. Having read the earlier books in the series would probably add context and readers of long running series like to encounter old favourites, which the peripheral characters of Miles’ bodyguard Roic, his brother Mike and others obviously were. As I said they didn’t do a lot for me and I would have preferred to read a book about Jin and Mina, I felt they made better protagonists.

Not having a frame of reference to judge by I can’t tell if this is a superior entry in the series or just a continuation of a familiar and well loved theme. I suspect it is the latter. If you’ve liked other Vorkosigan novels this probably won’t disappoint and if you’re not a fan, but want something light and diverting with an SF slant then you could do worse.

To be a judge: deciding on the Book of the Year Awards

What does it mean to be one of the judges for the Book of the Year Awards (Children’s Book Council of Australia). How do you decide which books are the “best” and whose works should receive special recognition? And how does life change, once you become a judge?

Below, Rosemary Thomas, ACT’s judge for the Book of the Year Awards, shares a little of her experience, and also provides some insight into this year’s predominant themes.

The angst of a judge

Judging is not undertaken lightly and involves a lot of commitment and knowledge of children’s literature. As a judge I am acutely aware of how the professions of writers, illustrators and publishers can be affected by my decisions. This is an award that is recognised worldwide and sets a standard for high quality children’s literature in Australia. It is not a popularity award; there are other awards out in each state for that.

A judge’s term of office lasts for two years. However, the judging panel changes every year with half the panel retiring. This means that in your first year as a judge you are reading next year’s entries while talking about the books that are notable in this year’s awards - quite a feat!

Judges are looking at plot, themes, characterisation, setting and quality production of the novel: editing, grammar, paper, illustrations (where applicable), cover). Regardless of whether the book is professionally or self published, they are all treated with the utmost care and respect for the work within.

Many hours are voluntarily given to be a judge. A box of books comes every three weeks and contents range from 18-60+ titles, the average being 25-35 books per box. These must be read, shared with students and children in the appropriate age group, discussed with peers and an evaluation report written about each book. The reports are then sent in to be correlated with the other judge’s reports. Often they are sent back and you have to reread the book if opinions vary greatly from yours. Annotations are allocated and need to be written for books with possible notable status (usually one to three per box). The entries are increasing each year so over my two years as Judge I have read nearly 800 books while still carrying on my day to day life!

At present all judges are travelling around their area talking with students, parents and community organisations about the judging process, and about notable and shortlisted books. This usually continues until the week after Book Week.

It is such a rewarding experience to attend the judging conference held in April each year. I felt very privileged to be able to converse on such a high level about my passion for children’s literature.

Themes from this year’s entries

The older reader section saw a lot of books exploring the death of a female protagonist. Toxic friendship was also explored this year. As usual there were a lot of novels involving self identity and growing up, but these seemed to have a more positive outlook than last year. Across all categories, friendship, history and family were strong themes, and cross cultural themes were also prominent in all categories except early childhood.

Click here for more information on the Children’s Book Council of Australia.

Click here to find shortlisted titles in our library catalogue.

Cupcake decorating competition for all ages this Friday

What does it take to bake great cakes? The icing on the cake is what's at stake at the cupcake decorating competition being held by 666 ABC Radio this Friday at Gungahlin Library.

Bring your decorated cupcake masterpiece to the library to enter and you could win an ABC prize pack.

Event: Cupcake Decorating Competition
Date: Friday 17 June 2011
Time: Drop off your cupcake between 10.00 am and 3.30 pm
For: Any age - there are categories for children and adults

You can read more about the competition here.

Deadline

Firstly, I apologize to anyone who checks this blog every so often. I haven't updated in over a month because I've had some internet issues and my reading schedule (yes, I'm anal enough that I do have one, not that I stick to it) has worked so that I haven't been able to do anything for review just at the moment. Until Deadline, that is.

If you haven't read the first volume of Mira Grant's (pen name of Urban Fantasy author and John W. Campbell award winner Seanan McGuire) Newsflesh trilogy (Feed) be warned that there are spoilers for that here. You have been warned!

Okay, if you're still reading I'm going to assume that you've read Feed and jump straight into Deadline. It picks up a few months after the end of Feed and is narrated in first person by Shaun Mason. Ever since his adoptive sister George died in Feed, Shaun has been a lost person. He and George were one person, they just happened to share two bodies. Without George, poking zombies with a stick isn't fun anymore.

Shaun still runs the news blogging site (The End of the World Times) that he and his sister founded, but he's not active in the field anymore, and the guy who really runs the organisation is their man in London; Mahir Gowda. Shaun wants to stay out of the spotlight and deal with the mess his life is without Georgia. Being an Irwin, Shaun never really had a firm grip on sanity, but George's death seems to have knocked it looser than ever. She's dead and he still talks to her...and she answers back.

That's how it is until a refugee from the CDC (Centre for Disease Control); Dr Kelly Connolly, turns up on his doorstep and the subsequent spontaneous zombie outbreak manages to destroy their headquarters in Oakland. Events that also lead to the book's first significant death. From then on it's Shaun and his team of motley outlaw bloggers against the world, as it becomes clear they're about to blow the lid off one of the biggest cover ups in world history.

I'll make it clear that I adored Feed. It was one of my favourite reads of 2010, and I'm tickled pink that it's been deservedly nominated for the Hugo this year. I went into Deadline with some big expectations and for the most part it meets them. Not to say that it isn't without it's problems. It suffers from the lack of George and my own favourite character from Feed; techno whiz Fictional, Georgette 'Buffy' Messonier. I liked Shaun okay in Feed when he was filtered through Georgia's perspective, but with his somewhat hazy hold on sanity, and having him as the primary narrator makes him into a bit of an arsehole and somewhat hard to identify with. However I did like the urbane, anglo Indian Mahir Gowda and was glad he got a bigger role in Deadline. I also warmed to Shaun's fellow Irwin Rebecca 'Becks' Atherton, and head Fictional Magdalene 'Maggie' Garcia and her herd of miniature epileptic bulldogs were also suitably quirky. While, she was also at times a pain in the backside (possibly this is a side effect of living in a world where anyone can spontaneously turn into a flesh eating zombie), I was quite impressed with the no nonsense, tough talking, renegade medical researcher Dr Shannon Abbey.

Deadline does suffer a little from 'second book in a trilogy' syndrome in that for the first half of the book it's quite heavy on the exposition. It does a lot of 'this is what you missed' early on, before it gets into the new story. I do understand that not everyone picks up trilogies from the first book, but I felt this was overdone and I also would have appreciated a little less of Shaun explaining to everyone that he does talk to his dead sister and she talks back, but he's not all the way crazy.

Once you get over the half way mark the story ratchets up a notch or twelve, the action gets really tense and full on and the body count rises. As with Feed, I began to become concerned for the key members of the cast and know that not everyone was going to make it to the final page. Mira Grant is a master at this and I love her and her work for it.

After reading the Coda of Deadline and saying 'WTF?!' (anyone who says they saw that coming is lying) I'm now eagerly awaiting Blackout next year.

When will you rise?

Celebrations marking the official opening of Gungahlin public library

Join us for an afternoon of performances and fun activities to celebrate the official opening of the new Gungahlin Library this Friday. Enjoy school choirs, bands, poetry performances and ‘meet and greet’ sessions with local authors Stephanie Owen Reeder, Anthony Hill and Daniella Brodsky.

666 ABC Canberra Drive program presented by Louise Maher will be broadcast live including interviews and entertainment. Louise will delve into life in Gungahlin and what it’s like living in the fastest growing area of Canberra. Ask questions direct to the ABC 666 chefs in the Kitchen Clinic between 3.30 pm – 4 pm or bring along a cupcake that you have decorated and enter their inaugural cupcake decorating competition.

Event: Celebrating Gungahlin Library's Official Opening
Date: Friday 17 June 2011
Time: 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm 
Cost: FREE

There is no need to book in for this event, just come along and enjoy.