predicting the future with monsters

I like to pick holes in the CBCA Book of The Year for Older Readers. When I worked in libraries, every year I seethed against the judge’s “poor” choices but I’ve slacked off the last couple of years. Now’s the time to get back into my mid year apoplexies.

As an erratic reader who rarely reads all the titles on the Shortlist, let alone the Notables, I have no right to opinionate, but that never stops me.

The Minnow

I love beautifully designed books and The Minnow by Diana Sweeney is exquisite. The book’s designer Imogen Stubbs has been shortlisted for the Young Designer of the Year Award in the 2015 Australian Book Design Awards. Her body of work at Text led to her nomination, and it’s the picture spread across the covers that makes this my favourite of Stubbs’ work (although her cover for The Lost Child by Suzanne McCourt intrigues me).

Convicts, Crusades and everything Pink

Lili Wilkinson has had quite a year so far, winning three tributes for her work. And this is for three different books, not just three accolades for the one book.

I may have blogged somewhere about Pink (Allen & Unwin, 2009) being highly commended in the 2010 Barbara Jefferis Award. I don’t often read books more than once, but Pink was so wickedly luscious I had to. I think the Barbara Jefferis Award is the most important offered in Australia because it’s for

“the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society.”

Inky Goodness

The longlist for the 2009 Inkys has been out for a while, but I’m experiencing some thesis induced insanity at the moment and the Inkys just remind me of all that YA reading I have to catch up on. You may notice Matata the reading cat has a predilection for classics, but she’s not averse to YA in between. I think she could out-read Inky the dog any day of the week.

When I first saw the list I thought the best book of recent times, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, outranked everything else, even the books I hadn’t read :P

But then I read Skim by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki which utterly captivated me and The Hunger Games moved down my list. I hadn’t noticed Skim was on the Inkys list at first, but how could such a masterpiece of word and image (my two fav things) not be. I didn’t think its graphic novel-ness was the deciding factor in my opinion. But perhaps it was because it’s the combination of the words and pictures which I love so much, especially the full and double page spreads of illustration, with Skim’s diary creeping across the scene. My favourite is Skim and Lisa trying to summon the dead boy’s spirit in the woods, and missing him because they’re facing the wrong way (right). Its partial repetition on the end papers makes for a beautiful book design.

My favourite words in Skim are repeated in the blurb. The Inkys page also has them, but they missed the most important line (you can’t trust a dog with ink on his paws)

I had a dream
I put my hands
inside my chest
and held my heart

to try to keep it still

The unusual angles, tantalizingly crossed out words of Skim’s diary and obscuring of Skim’s face so much of the time, until she finds herself and an unexpected friend, combine to make a work of art on a very different level to The Hunger Games. And I much preferred the UK/Aust cover to the Canadian.

The Inkys are out there

The longlist for the 2008 Inkys has been released. Not being a teenager, I can’t vote, but I can opinionate. I was looking through the list, thinking, how many books have I not read? but it was mainly the first few I’ve missed/couldn’t be bothered with. My to-read list has grown.

Obviously I think Extras by Scott Westerfeld should win. I preferred his three previous ones, but the theme of beauty being the reason for existence is still there. Fame is added as another reason, with similar consequences if it’s all you live for. Westerfeld’s onto other topics for his next book, which I’m glad of. As much as I love the Uglies series, it could only be stretched so far. And thank you to Mr Wester for providing pics for the stealing. If you’re thinking (like me) the above photo looks kind of photoshopped, click on the larger version and it looks more realistic, but I’m still not totally convinced :)