on the road on fire

“Being out there on the road made me realise that people are always playing with your story, inventing you, changing who you are to suit them.”

I love Girls in Boy’s Cars by Felicity Castagna (Pan Macmillan, 2021). It’s heartbreaking and clever and full of the teen angst of growing up female. There’s a road trip, make-overs, a drowned town and more crimes than should be able to fit in one book. It’s on the Shortlist for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year – Older Readers award. I wrote this for the CBCA WA Shortlist talk this week, but I caught covid (of course I did) and handed in my words for someone else to say.

you’re burning my life

The Book of Chance by Sue Whiting (Walker Books, 2020) has mystery, mayhem, a dog or two. What more could I ask for? No murder, sadly, but something kind of just as bad. All of it 10-12 years old friendly. Also, shortlisted for the CBCA Book of The Year Younger Readers 2021.

“I needed a dog that knew how to forge ahead and not look back.”

AusYA Reading Challenge 2020: February

I think I could love It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood (Text Publishing, 2019). What better time to blog here again, two years after my last rambling. I’ve been reading the whole time, but putting reviews on Goodreads. Time for some backups (and pics of my dog reading).

“Tonight, everything is still possible.”

mistakes, mistakes, everywhere

I accidently uploaded my review of Breathing Underwater by Sophie Hardcastle before I finished it. If you momentarily saw it before I unpublished, you’ll just have to wait to read the final.

Kind of ironic when I just blogged about wanting-to-take-back-something-you-put-online of My Life as a Hashtag.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSb87NrFEiv/

love Oz YA

Today is day 2 of J.T. Carlton’s challenge to post three quotes in three days. The rules are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Nominate three more blogs
3. Post one quote each day for three days

Today’s quotes are from Australian YA. I nominate Michelle at The Unfinished Bookshelf because she Loves Oz YA!

On 14 July in Melbourne there’s a free event at Readings Bookstore Hawthorn:

Where’s OzYA going right, and where’s it going wrong?

Danielle at Alpha Reader is taking part #LoveOzYA

Magabala Books

I read Ambelin Kwaymullina’s guest blog post “What teachers and school librarians can do to support Indigenous books” and she mentions Indigenous publisher Magabala Books which publishes many children’s and YA books. I particularly like their picture books, because PICTURES…

Governments do listen

Wow, I didn’t think they did, but the Australian Society of Authors told me yesterday that Federal Minister for Competition Policy Craig Emerson announced,

The Government has decided not to change the Australian regulatory regime for books introduced by the previous Labor government…read the rest

This means parallel importation restrictions on books detailed in Australia’s Copyright Act will remain unchanged. The ASA, Australian publishers, authors, illustrators and others campaigned all year to bring about this decision and they’ve succeeded.

ASA Executive Director Dr Jeremy Fisher acknowledged the Australian publishing industry was facing significant pressures.

Minister Emerson correctly highlights the fact that e-books and digital technology are having an impact on the Australian publishing industry. The ASA welcomes change. We constantly seek new means to increase authors’ incomes. We are currently in discussions relating to fair contracts for authors with regard to e-books and products such as Kindle. We have also taken an active role in the US-based Google Book Settlement, which will see authors being able to pursue income streams for out-of-print works. The ASA will always seek improved income streams for its members in both print and digital forms.

Of course the whole world, and one little rabbit, knew this before me, but I only have a few more paragraphs of thesis, then I might be able to join the living again.