Post from Paul Collins, author of the thrilling book, Mole Hunt
I grew up in a house without books. One occasionally materialised from
a drawer - it was a green-spined mystery title by Erle Stanley Gardner.
I used to look at it on its rare appearances, and wonder what a book
was doing there. None of my family read - my brother, a director of a
printing company, hasn't read a book to this day. But we both read
comics. We'd devour Marvel Group Comics such as Captain America,
Spiderman, Daredevil, the Uncanny X-Men, etc. And I think this is why I
write the way I do- it's not 'literary', nor really 'character-based',
but I'd like to think an amalgamation of both, but surely driven by
action. There is of course a place for all writing and we just need to
find our niche.
Regardless of style or motivation, writing novels can be an arduous and
unrewarding business. It's one of the few jobs in the world where
someone can work for a year and there's absolutely no guarantee that he
or she will be paid. So imagine working for a year maybe as a
carpenter, plumber, whatever, and getting told after a year that your
work isn't up to standard and sorry, we're not paying you.
More authors than not go through this scenario. I went through it with
Mole Hunt. Over four years it was submitted to most of
Australia's
major publishers and some via an agent in the UK and the US. Many
replied saying how good it was, but -
Penguin UK praised it to the hilt saying if they didn't already have
Artemis Fowl, the young James Bond, etc, they'd be keen. Another
prominent Australian publisher told me Mole Hunt reminded her of what
she used to love in science fiction - but it wasn't for her imprint,
which was more contemporary literature. But of course, rejection is
rejection.
Having learnt the hard way, I know that persistence is the key. I'm
reminded of when I first started submitting Dragonlinks (book
one in
The Jelindel Chronicles), my personal best-selling book. It was
at the
beginning of a fantasy craze in Australia. Every major publisher
rejected it. Three years went by and finally a publisher at Penguin
left and I resubmitted the manuscript without telling the new publisher
that Penguin had already rejected it some years earlier. It worked. The
publisher bought it. Published in 2002 it's still selling today.
Why dystopian fiction? Well, I've written it in the past with The
Earthborn Wars published by Tor in the US (The Earthborn, The
Skyborn
and The Hiveborn). Fifteen years before The Hunger Games,
I
also wrote
a virtual reality dystopian novel with a remarkably similar plot called
Cyberskin. People dying from a terminal illness can sign their
lives
over to a legal 'snuff' movie company and get killed live for the
audience (for payment, of course, a life insurance policy that goes to
their grieving family). They're pitted against a superior fighter who
is an enhanced fighting machine.
So it's a genre that I feel comfortable with. I think dystopian fiction
also lends itself to fast-paced filmic action, which is usually
attributed to my writing. Sometimes it's best to stay with what we know
and love. My own favourite authors are Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl)
and
Philip
Reeve (Mortal Engines). I can just as easily see these
books as
films, as I can my own Mole Hunt.
Although I suspect the time of the anti-hero is nigh, I was a little
worried about Maximus Black. He's obviously a sociopath, and
demonstrates this propensity by killing two people in the first
chapter. But just today I started reading Scorpio Rising by
Anthony
Horowitz. His baddies make Maximus look like an apprentice sociopath.
Scorpio agents manage to kill a truckload of people in the first
hundred or so pages. So that's one piece of doubt off my mind - perhaps
killing in comic-book fashion in YA fiction isn't so prohibited after
all. Further doubt has been eroded by various reviews that are
appearing. Bookseller and Publisher said it was 'bitingly clever' (I
don't usually get quotes like that!) and a cross between The Girl
With
the Dragon Tattoo, Dexter and Total Recall. Now if
the book lives up to
that description I suspect I'll have an enthusiastic readership. Other
reviewers refer to it as being so fast-paced it would give Matthew
Reilly a nosebleed, while another said she couldn't put the book down
(must be that magnetic cover!).
Paul Collins
Melbourne June 2011
Head Spinners by Thalia Kalkipsakis
Allen and Unwin, 2011. ISBN 9781742373454.
(Ages 8+) Recommended. Brooke has a weird bump on her arm, it's not
itchy and it doesn't hurt, it has a warm tingling feeling and its
growing. Jamie didn't steal anything from the Big Cow Cafe, so how
did the fish sandwich end up in his bag? He doesn't even like
smoked-trout sandwiches. Danny's dad is absolutely bonkers but this,
this is the weirdest, most dangerous thing he has ever done. Why on
Earth is he speeding after another car?
This book has six awesome, excellent and amazing stories that will
leave your head spinning. I think this book is great. I enjoyed all six
stories, my favourite though would have to be Night Sight. I
would
definitely recommend this to people who like silly, suspense filled
stories that are just different, even if just for a laugh. I hope if
you read it (which I highly recommend) you enjoy it.
Tahlia Kennewell (student)
The Glass Collector by Anna Perera
HarperCollins, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-7322-9153-2
Recommended. Friendships and family are important, more so sometimes
than your
standing in life. This is obviously what Aaron believes. Born a
Zabbaleen, Aaron is forced to work with the rest of the men to scavenge
rubbish off the busy streets of Cairo. Living with his abusive
stepfamily and with the low price of recyclable goods scraping a living
is much harder than it once was.
Aaron did always have a special way with the glass; only his practiced
fingers could gather so much broken glass without cutting himself.
Aaron knows more about glass than anyone he knew, the colours, the
lights and beauty that is and can be made from glass. Caught with a
stolen perfume bottle it seems that the delights of being a glass
collector are now denied him. An outcast with nowhere to go, Aaron must
learn the error of his ways and repent for his sins to be allowed back
into the community and to have any chance at being with the girl he
loves.
A book full of complications, desperation and passion, The Glass
Collector was short listed for two awards: the Costa Children's
Book
Awards and the Branford Boase Award. I think that Anna Perera has
captured the thoughts and feelings of the characters brilliantly. The
Glass
Collector is written in both present tense and first person. This
does well to display the thoughts and feelings of life in a poor
village.
This sensational novel confronts several difficult
topics and life ideas including desperation, faith, social standards
and wealth.
Kayla Gaskell (Student, 15)
The Magic Fairy Folk Collection by Enid Blyton
Egmont, 2011. ISBN
9781405257572.
If you go to a person's house and you see their garden has a special
place for the little folk, with wishing wells, toadstools, a birdhouse
or two and butterflies and fairies dancing from overhead branches, and
little
gnomes fishing in a pond or resting on a rock, then there is a fair
chance
that person has been touched with a bit of fairy dust. And if you
go inside
and find that Miss Nearly 5's bedroom is more like the inside of a
fairy dell,
complete with misty, starry sky, then you can be assured of it.
So it's no wonder that that person loves Enid Blyton's tales of the
magical folk who so entranced her that she was reading before she went
to school,
and that she is going to share that enchantment with her own little
folk.
And when a compendium of some of the most-loved tales is published,
that person is
going to pounce on it and instead of reading her university texts,
she's going to transport herself back to her childhood.
So that's what I've been doing. This collection comprises The
Book of Fairies, The Book of Pixies and The Book of
Brownies and has
over 50 separate
stories that are just the right length for reading aloud as a bedtime
story and
sending little ones off to sleep with gentle magical thoughts.
But if I take my grandma's hat off and put my teacher librarian one on,
my experience is that these stories are a great transition between the
instructional home reader and the independence of the 'chapter
book'. Because each story is complete in itself, even though it is only
a few pages
long, young readers manage this "new reading" well and my library
collection always
had a great selection of Blyton's stories available that were very
popular. This compendium would have been a brilliant addition.
Politically correct or not, old-fashioned or not, I'm putting my hand
up to say I am a Blyton fan and her stories have pride of place in my
personal
collection. Perhaps it's time to take this generation back and
introduce them to an
old favourite.
Barbara Braxton
Interview with Karen Tayleur
at Mary Martin's Bookshop, The Parade, Norwood, South Australia (18 May 2011)
Meeting Karen Tayleur for lunch surrounded by books was the best of
both worlds for me. Karen was in Adelaide as a fellowship recipient of
the May Gibb's Children's Literature
Trust an
award which means a month spent in a furnished apartment at Norwood,
free of the interruptions which might occur at home, a place of
contemplation and quiet.
For the last few weeks, Karen has been researching and writing drafts
for her next two novels. One a gothic romance, is for young adults and
the other will be for younger readers and central to that idea, meant
going to Moonta to peruse the cemetery for ideas and names for her
Cornish story.
But Karen has written a range of stories over the past eight or nine
years, many of which have become favourites in schools, some being used
as class sets. From her days working at black dog books, she was
involved in the series of netball stories called, All Stars,
writing
Bree and Mel. This series for the middle primary student was fast paced
and involving, telling the story of the members of the netball team,
one at a time, showing their interlocking lives and how their different
backgrounds directed their choices. Published in 2005-6, the series is
often stored as a group of ease of access in primary school libraries,
having several different authors.
The stories of David Mortimer Baxter have also proved popular, as they
take a moral precedent and look at it more closely. In Lies,
for
example, David is told not to tell lies, but this does not sit well
when he is then asked to lie not to hurt someone's feelings. The series
of 6 books tells its story neatly with a lesson to be learnt at the
end, but they are not didactic or preaching, simply funny.
Her first novel for older readers, Chasing boys (2008) took a
different
tack, with a book about a girl changing schools,and trying vainly to
fit in. Karen infused the story with gems of observations of young
adults, probably enhanced by her dealings with her daughter and her
friends.
After the success of this book, Karen wrote Hostage (2009), and
my
favourite, 6 (2010). Both of these novels, again aimed at the
young
adult readership, tell of teens in situations which seem very close to
home. Hostage begins with a girl kidnapped by a young man she
knows,
who loses his cool in a chemist shop. Not quite ordinary but the day
spent with the two in his car, seems very ordinary as they drive around
Victoria in search of her father. The shift in power in the story and
the idea of just who is hostage to whom is a never ending thought as
Tully begins to take stock of her life and just who is important to her
and why. 6 too is breath taking as the opening scene tells the
reader
that 6 people have been in a car which has only 5 seat belts and has
crashed with one dead. The suspense through the book, trying to find
out who has died, while Karen goes back and forth, writing from
differing points of view is entrancing, right to the end. Both of these
books are used in schools as class sets, and as part of Literature
Circles, comparing them to other books on similar themes.
Not to be restrained as a fiction writer, Karen has also written a non
fiction book, Burke and Wills, Explorers off the map (2010),
for black
dog books in their engrossing series, Our Stories. Talking
about Burke
and Wills can be quite daunting as so much has been said,and so many
people have their own story about what happened. It is another
Australian story where a failure has achieved iconic status. Karen
handled all this well, producing a book which tells us in plain English
what the trip was all about, who the characters were and what happened.
Inviting double page spreads, the pages have small boxes of
information, maps, document and photographs, all designed to be read
easily by the primary school student.
If this is not all, Karen has also edited a book of short stories,
Short and Scary (2010), also published by black dog books, with
stories
by well know and lesser known authors, alongside new authors, resulting
in a successful group of short stories sure to be well used in
classrooms.
Since resigning from black dog books to concentrate more on her
writing, Karen has found some part time work at the Victorian Writer's
Centre, where she mentors younger writers and does manuscript
assessment.
For more information see her website
and follow her blog .
Fran Knight
(Children's literature enthusiast and reviewer)
Waiting for later by Tina Matthews
Walker Books Australia, 2011. ISBN 9781921720055.
(Ages 5+) Picture book. Warmly recommended. When Nancy goes searching
for someone to ply with her or read her a story, or play cards, or give
her a swing or tickle her, she is rebuffed by them all. Mother and
father are too busy, her brother is cooking, her aunt hanging out the
clothes and grandfather is busy mowing the lawn. All tell her that they
are too busy and to come back later. Later is the refrain on each page
as Nancy looks for companionship. Instead she climbs a tree, finding
that the leaves tell her a story and the limbs allow her to swing fro
them, and the leaves tickle her as she swings. All the things she
wanted from the others she is getting for herself in the tree.
The story promotes several messages with an underlying subtlety.
Parents and family ignore the child to the detriment of all. Many
students reading this will tell stories of how their parents have not
enough time for them, and the story asks people to re-evaluate their
time spent with their children. But Nancy finds she is able to
fend for herself, able to fill in her time by herself, able to occupy
herself without the family. This too will be a telling discussion point
with students. What is there that they can do by themselves? Do they
need an adult or older sibling with them? But like all good stories,
the family is reunited at the end, each learning something that will
enhance family life.
Each page is illustrated using a Japanese woodblock technique giving
the story a grounding in the familiar, the home and garden. Shown in
wonderful detail, the illustrations beg the reader to notice and talk
about what they see. The New Zealand author, Tina Matthews, a
passionate promoter of the Free Range Kids movement seeks to advance
her cause in the best of ways, through a simple and warm hearted story
of a family.
Fran Knight
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Penguin, 2011. ISBN 9780143206262.
Recommended. Anna and the French Kiss is an excellent coming of age story for
young
teenagers to read. There's something in it for everyone, from comedy,
to adventure but most of all to love. It is a tale that will leave you
feeling light heartened and elated for ages after you've put down the
book.
The story begins in America but quickly changes to France when the main
character Anna is forced to live there by her over-bearing father.
Despite obvious resentment her feelings soon change after she falls for
Etienne St Clair, the charismatic, gorgeous boy who lives on the floor
above her. Her love takes a back step when she finds out that he has a
permanent girlfriend, something that won't ever change, no matter how
she feels.
Throughout the book it is easy to get lost inside the world of Anna, St
Clair and the culture and joy of European France. Once you start
reading you won't be able to put it down until your eyes have finished
reading the very last word.
Amelia Rohrlach (Student, Year 11)
Editor's note: Amelia gave this 4.5 stars out of 5
Take two by Sienna Mercer
Egmont, 2011. ISBN 978 1405256971.
Revamped! by Sienna Mercer
Egmont, 2009. ISBN 978 1405243711.
(Ages: 10+) Warmly recommended. Two new books in the series, My
sister
the vampire, will have readers pleased. In Revamped, the
twins,Izzy
and Olivia have now been together for a while, taking in the fact that
one is a vampire, but finding they have much in common. But when
Izzy's dad says he has decided to move to Europe and that they must
move, the girls are distraught. They make up their minds to work
together to change his mind.
In Take two, the girls are thrilled to find a favourite teen
actor in
their town and so try to get to know him. But when Izzy does some
snooping around, she finds that someone on the set has a major secret.
Both books are very readable, short, fast paced and involving from the
start. As with all the books in the series, they should prove very
popular with upper primary readers, with the tension of keeping
their secret, all through the book.
Fran Knight
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss (retold by Martin Powell)
Graphic Revolve series. Raintree, 2011. ISBN: 978 1406 224986.
En route from Switzerland to Australia, the Robinson family is ship
wrecked on a deserted island. They must discover what their new home
has to offer in order to ensure their survival. As they learn about the
island, they come across many unfamiliar plants and animals, some of
which threaten their existence. Over time, the family grow accustomed
to their new home and existence and even welcome a stranger to their
midst.
Although I find this story to be quite familiar, thanks to having seen
a film of the same name in my childhood, I cannot be certain as to how
true it is to the original story. I found most of the text to be
grammatically correct, apart from the following statement, 'It's a wild
fig tree, which have probably grown here since Biblical times!' This
glitch was possibly over-looked due to the limited word count and
vocabulary used in this series. Certainly, the graphic novel format
makes this tale accessible to even children for whom reading does not
come easily. The illustrations brought forth similar feelings to those
I had as a child. I would happily go and live in such a tree house as
is portrayed in this book!
Jo Schenkel
Stresshead by Allayne Webster
Omnibus, 2011. ISBN 9781862918207.
(Age: 13+) Recommended. Denise (Dennie to her family and friends) is
having a really
tough time. With her mum acting super weird, her boyfriend being a
total jerk and her Year Eleven results withheld, she doesn't even have
her best friend Kat to turn to. Kat has problems of her own. How can
Dennie cope with the stress?
First things first, this is not your average run-of-the-mill teenage
LOL novel. It deals with some issues rarely seen in this genre, such as
accidental pregnancy, depression, and even breast cancer, in a
sympathetic and nice way. As well as dealing with the affect of these
issues on the patrons themselves, it also took into perspective the way
it affected the whole family, and how different people may react. It
was a very interesting book, especially as the characters were
realistic.
On of the things I loved about this book was the dialogue. It was
snappy, original, and down-to-earth, which is also the main quality of
this book. It was very down-to-earth and easy to relate to. Overall, it
was a nice read. Great dialogue and realistic events made this one
worth reading, although it was let down by a sluggish-at-times pace and
boring finish.
I recommend this book.
Rebecca Adams (Student)
Dork Diaries: Pop Star by Rachel Renee Russell
Simon and Schuster, 2011. ISBN: 978 0 857071187.
Recommended for ages 9 and up. Nikki is a self-confessed dork! Her dad
is a pest exterminator who drives a van with a giant roach on the roof
and he is the reason that Nikki has won a scholarship at her new
school. Her mum demands regular family times and often asks that Nikki
look after her little six year old sister, Brianna. Although she has
two great friends, Chloe and Zoey, they don't know the truth about
Nikki and her family. When McKenzie, an externally attractive but
internally nasty person from her class, sees Nikki performing a song
and dance routine at the local pizza bar with Brianna, she and her
'mean girl' friends film the event and upload it to YouTube. With this
as blackmail material, McKenzie tries to stop Nikki and her friends
from entering a talent competition to be held at school.
This is the third book in the Dork Diaries series and contains
a
winning format for younger girls or slightly older disinclined female
readers. Although the protagonist is aged fourteen, the overall content
of the book would still be suitable for younger children. With themes
of friendship, honesty, resilience, bullying, cyber bullying, first
love and being prepared to stand up for what you believe in, this could
possibly be used as a class text. Containing large, well spaced bold
font, presented as diary entries and liberally scattered with cartoon
style illustrations, this series is similar to the Louise Rennison
books. It is bound to fill a niche for girls in the same way The
Diary
of a Wimpy Kid does for the boys.
Jo Schenkel
Pip and Posy: the little puddle by Axel Scheffler
Nosy Crow, 2011. ISBN 9780857630049.
From the illustrator of The Gruffalo comes another Pip and Posy
story for the very young. This time Pip comes to Posy's
place to play, and because it is too wet to play outside, they have to
stay indoors. They have heaps of fun, so much that Pip forgets to
go to the toilet and has an accident. But Posy brings a level
head to the situation and soon the friends are happily playing again,
even if Pip does look a little strange.
It's a simple story based on a very ordinary situation and that's what
engages the age group. They can relate to both characters, and
the illustrations are just enchanting. There's even a lesson to
be learned by grown-ups in this one.
Barbara Braxton
Being here by Barry Jonsberg
Allen and Unwin, 2011. ISBN 978 1742373850.
Leah Cartwright lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's
disease but is aware that she is in her declining years. When Carly, a
sixteen year old student interviews her for a history project, Leah
recounts her childhood living on a remote farm with only her mother for
company.
Leah's loneliness of childhood is reflected by her existence in the
impersonal care facility. Despite her assurances to Carly that her life
was not unhappy, the reader is left with a real sense of sadness for a
childhood spoiled and lost.
Being a puritanical Christian with an unhealthy, dogmatic, Old
Testament view of life, Leah's mother is arrogant, ignorant and
completely indifferent to the views, needs and rights of others. What
Leah forgives and understands as circumstantial behaviour is nothing
short of child abuse in emotional and physical form, perpetrated by a
domineering bully.
The suffering of Leah's childhood is moderated by the character of
Adam, a boy of her own age who manifests as an imaginary friend yet
develops substance, influence and presence to a degree which must be
determined and rationalised by the reader.
Through Leah, Jonsberg conveys the message that we are in control of
our stories. As a child, Leah was completely and utterly powerless to
alter any tangible aspect of her life and she had no recourse to social
authorities, friends, family or witnesses of any kind. In the midst of
this powerlessness however, the child responds by re-writing her story
in her own imagination, creating an escapist, alternative experience
which merged and also diverged with her reality. It could be considered
that this response is a symptom of mental illness which would be an
understandable outcome produced by the mother's psychiatric problems.
Interviewed by Carly, Leah has the opportunity to tell her story to a
person who at first appears completely disconnected in a cultural and
generational sense, yet who becomes captivated by the tale. Talking
together, the pair offer insights which touch each other and a
meaningful relationship beyond the school project is formed.
The theme of story telling continues with Leah's desire to commit her
life to tape, almost as a statement but with an attempt to positively
influence Carly, thus altering and participating in her life story.
This narrative will be interpreted differently by readers as Jonsberg
invites them to take some responsibility for bringing the character of
Adam to life and making conclusions about his nature and purpose.
Rob Welsh
The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards
Penguin, 2011. ISBN: 978 0 670 92029 7
Recommended for secondary students. Following her mother's minor
accident and incapacitation, Lucy, between jobs and beginning to
question her relationship and what she is doing with her life, returns
to her family home for a brief stay. Arriving at the place of her
childhood, Lucy is unsettled by the memories of not only her father's
death but also her first youthful romance with Keegan Fall, a local man
with whom she is reunited. Suffering from jet lag, and unable to sleep,
Lucy explores a part of the house her mother has kept locked.
Practicing the skills she learnt from her father, she picks the lock on
a window seat and discovers a blanket and some old brochures about
women's health and the suffragette movement. Her temporary lack of
direction and inquisitive nature lead her to investigate the history of
these items and, in doing so, Lucy uncovers some well hidden family
secrets.
Written with flowing, descriptive text, many paragraphs in this novel
lent themselves to being read aloud. Edwards has produced a well-paced
and engaging novel about family history, love and relationships. The
modern day story is cleverly intertwined with the historic tale and the
selfishness displayed by Lucy contrasts with the selflessness of other
characters from the past. This could perhaps be used by secondary
students as a paired text, contrasted with Mary Lawson's Crow Lake.
Both
revolve
around the untimely deaths of parents and the ways in
which such events can affect those left behind.
Jo Schenkel
7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando
Penguin, 2011. ISBN 9780143206255.
(Age: 14+) Mary is a wealthy and popular teenager living in New York
City. On the morning of her seventeenth birthday, she wakes up
expecting presents. Instead she finds herself naked and scratched in a
department store, and no recollection of the night before. Soon her
life starts falling apart, and she has no idea why. She thinks that
someone is out to get her, but who? Isn't she the popular girl everyone
loves? 7 Souls is definitely original, I can most certainly say that.
The
problem is, perhaps it was a bit too original. The plot is very strange
and some elements are a little annoying. The main character,
Mary, is very hard to relate to, and the dialogue is quite clumsy, as
though the writers themselves weren't sure what the characters should
be like. The pace is slow at the best of times and some of the
supporting characters are much undeveloped. But this book redeems
itself from those flaws with a couple of things. First, the
description. This may be why the pace is a little sluggish, but anyway
the description is vivid and powerful, and makes the story far more
interesting than it would have been. Second, the plot. Although it is
very strange, it actually makes for an intriguing idea, and a truly
chilling prospect. It is quite a scary book.
This book is not for everyone. A lot of pages coupled with a very
strange plot means you could either love it or hate it. Either way, it
is still a fairly decent read.
Rebecca Adams (Student)
