Surrey Leader - Book Demons win Delta reading challenge

"The All-Delta Reading Link Challenge was held at George Mackie Library on Thursday, March 12.

Squaring off for the right to represent Delta in the Fraser Valley Regional Library's (FVRL) Grand Challenge were Heath Elementary's Majestic Bookworms, South Park’s Book Demons and Delta Manor’s Purple-spotted Ducks.

The winner of the competition was South Park’s Book Demons.

This year’s selection of books included Looking for Bapu by Anjali Banerjee, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, Escaping the Giant Wave by Peg Kehret, Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan, Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr, and Run by Eric Walters."

Congratulations to all these fabulous readers!

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Surrey Leader - Book Demons win Delta reading challenge:

My Baby Love

A couple of days ago, over a very nice lunch, I had a sneak preview of the most beautiful book: Meredith Costain's new picture book, called My Baby Love. The text is deceptively simple, rhythmical and enticing - it will be a joy to read aloud. The pictures by a Spanish artist whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, are wonderful: a combination of realism and whimsy (a description which will probably give you the wrong impression entirely). I think my favourite is the baby swinging from its mother's braids... or maybe the page with the mother's look of adoration.

I don't have it in front of me - for some strange reason Meredith wasn't giving away her first, precious, advance copy - so I can't describe it better than that. It's out in April, so you'll simply have to wait till then and see it yourself.

The only other thing I'll say is: I wish I'd written it! Congratulations, Meredith. This is a wonderful book.

a young writer's interview

Brenton Cullen, a young writer, has sent me his interview to post. Great job, Brenton!

Nim’s Island: not the film, but the book!

By Brenton Cullen


The award-winning family film, Nim’s Island (2008), has dazzled and wowed audiences. But the person probably most wowed by the film, is Australian author, Wendy Orr. She is the woman who wrote the original book, Nim’s Island (Allen and Unwin, 1999), of which the film was based on.
On a Wednesday evening, I phoned Wendy Orr and we had a nice discussion about her, her writing, and the success of Nim’s Island. Wendy has a lovely voice, and with a Canadian accent, her words are perfectly clear and easy to understand.
Wendy’s love of reading came from her parents, who read her books constantly in her early childhood years. She has always had a passion for writing books, and she credits this to all the stories she has read. She enjoys writing immensely, and likes it because she says that reading stories helped, but she wanted to find out the ending and whether or not it was going to be quite suspenseful. So she started writing , just so she could write these stories and be able to find out the endings herself because she would be writing them.
When asked if she thinks her career has picked since the success of Nim’s Island, she answers that she thinks Nim’s Island, the book, has sold more copies, with a reprint available 2008 with the cover of the film on the front. But her 1990’s Young Adult book, Peeling the Onion, based on a true event that occurred in her life, has sold the most copies in Australia.
The stars of the Nim’s Island film, Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin, were delighted to have been working on the film. Wendy says that Jodie Foster’s son had not particularly liked reading until he picked up a cop of Nim’s Island to read for a summer reading course. This was before the film of Nim’s Island had been considered. Wendy says that this was Jodie Foster’s son’s breakaway to reading, and she feels that this is very special.
Wendy thinks that Abigail Breslin had read the book while filming Nim’s Island.
I asked Wendy if the characters in the book Nim’s Island were parts of her or inspired by real people in her life. She says Alex Rover, the reclusive adventure author, does have parts of Wendy herself in her, but exaggerated a bit. Wendy says that she does indeed work in the same way as Alex, getting research from the Internet and atlases and encyclopaedias. But she does not think she has ever had an email from a 11 year old girl deserted on an island!
Wendy had a bit of involvement in the film of Nim’s Island. She is happy to report that she was a consultant on the screenplay of the film, and also helped with the work on the first two drafts of the film’s screenplay. She did this work with the producer and original screenwriter of the film, Paula Mazur.
A typical writing day for Wendy Orr is flicking on her computer and answering all her emails, at around 8 am. At 10 am, she starts to do the proper writing of her upcoming books (a series of stories set in an animal shelter, and another adventure novel for preteens, currently titled Raven’s Peak ).Halfway through the day she’ll stop for some lunch, and then take her dog for a walk. Then back to the computer until 6 pm, until she stops for a bit longer to have some exercise and walk the dog again. Wendy is also very lucky to say that her book, Paradise Palace, for children, is being turned into a television series, and also her adult novel, The House at Evelyn’s Pond, is being pitched for a film as well. And Nim At Sea, the 2007 sequel to Nim’s Island is currently being discussed about also being turned into a film.
As for a third story about our beloved Nim Rusoe, Wendy says she has part of a story idea in her head, but is busy with other projects, so she may write another book, but not for a little while. ‘But I am still working on an idea,’; she says.
Pure magic.


Written by Brenton Cullen © 2009

Old friends and new reading

I had a lovely lunch yesterday with a friend who used to own a bookstore, and Pam and Maria from HarperCollins. I first met Pam at the CBCA awards in Melbourne in 1993, when Leaving it to You was shortlisted, and over the next few years she took wonderful care of me at book events, not only in Melbourne but even in regional places, picking me up from trains, taking me out for lunch or coffee, generally looking after me at a time when I wasn't physically strong. That type of thoughtfulness is rare, and something to be treasured, especially when combined for an absolute passion for, and knowledge of, children's books.

Luckily I don't need that sort of care anymore, and although Ark in the Park (another Harper Collins title) was recently reprinted, most of my books are now with Allen and Unwin in Australia - but it's still a pure pleasure to have the chance to catch up with her.

I also took a bottle of champagne for lunch to celebrate that I hadn't needed to stay with my bookseller friend a couple of weeks ago - she was my planned refuge if I needed to evacuate because of fire.

But we quickly got the personal chat over with and just discussed books and writing: what a treat to hear informed readers. I always feel slightly discouraged and very enthused at the thought of many books I haven't read! And then of course the treat of coming away with a stack of proof copies and swapping books.

So this morning my own ms has had to wait as I've been distracted by Alison Goodman's Eon. I always say I don't particularly like fantasy, but once I start a good one, I'm engrossed. And this is a good one..

fires & philosophy

As most people know, the Australian state of Victoria has had horrific fires over this past month. My family and I were lucky: we live in a high fire danger area, but the only fires we've had this summer were small and quickly controlled, mainly because of the vigilance of the CFA (the volunteer firemen, including Tom) and having Elvis, the water-bombing helicopter nearby.

With so many people losing lives and property, most of us here feel almost guilty for how drained we feel simply from the tension, but that tension's been real. The advice for most people on two days last week was to evacuate, and although of course in the end the only things that matter are the lives and health of the people you love, I found it very confronting to think of losing the home we've built, and the 'stuff' in it. But we had several days warning, and packing the car I was intrigued at how much I was able to put in that was important to me: samples of different parts of our lives. I felt that I had a core from which we'd be able to begin again.

But I can't say how grateful I am that I don't have to find out if I was right. The worst of the danger is over for the year; Tom hasn't been sent away to one of the big fires for over a week; the car is unpacked (the house is chaos!)and life is returning to normal. I'm finally writing again instead of being distracted by raking up the leaves and branches that rain onto the lawn on hot dry days, or wondering where I've packed the tax papers.

Grateful that I can look out into living bush and eucalypt forest; grateful to see an echidna on the path yesterday; grateful for the books I had to send to the kids who'd lost everything; grateful that we can put aside the tension with the rain and have our lives go on as normal.