Another Tale of Fontania -coming soon

TO BE PUBLISHED EARLY OCTOBER

NZ Writer and Illustrator Barbara Else, illustrated by Sam Broad  The Knot Impossible – A Tale of Fontania Gecko 2015 $24.99pb 328pp 4# in The Tales of Fontania series ISBN 978 1 7765 7004 1 Themes: Magic/ Sea stories/ Series/ Stage fright

Rufkin is a failure - there is no doubt about it – a child from a popular acting family he suffers from stage fright, his school reports all say ‘could do better (much better) and his mother thinks he is lazy. All of which explains why, at the beginning of the story he is on his way to work in a ship salvage yard while the rest of the family go on holiday.  But. Take a look at the jacket (another creation from Sam Broad) and you will realise at once that the story is going to take us far away from land-based salvage yards to the adventures of the sea and Rufkin is about to take Centre Stage.  Flip through the chapter headings  - disasters ahead/ oat bars and tiddlers/ jaws in the river/ glinty black buttons to get a flavour of what lies inside the pages.

With her inimitable wit, sense of story and eye for detail Barbara Else has created for her readers another enchanting story, the fourth in the Fontania series.

I didn’t want to finish it… Please don’t let this be the last Fontania title. There are so many more characters living there just waiting to let their stories OUT and be told. New characters to meet/ old characters to check up on.  What happens for instance to Rufkin? Does he ever get to win a barrel-boat race? (see p. 322)  (In a book world where so much gets worse and worse it is heartening to see a series that gets better and better and better and…

Year 5 up/ Age 9 up

INTO THE RIVER PROTEST MEETING WELLINGTON

    I spent the lunch hour yesterday outside Unity Books in Wellington reading my copy of Into the River at one of the ‘silent reading’ meetings. The idea for the meetings came from Emma Neale of Dunedin who assessed the book for Ted Dawe before it was published. They were held up and down New Zealand. I am not sure what happened in the other centres but our group was hardly ‘silent’. You couldn’t put all those writers and illustrators, readers and librarians together and expect them to be totally quiet. However, much reading was done. The whole place was positively BRISTLING with news media and we were also joined by a very large person in a golden gorilla suit who had a placard making some points of his (her) own although not much to do with Into the River.

 Please go to  https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand

for a detailed video clip look at this protest including an interview with Susan Pearce who organised the Wellington event or, of course, just Google Ted Dawes or Into the River for an overwhelming amount of information including Emma and the Dunedin protest and  links to the Guardian newspaper UK.

There is, so I hear, more to come…

Unsolicited Books

Over the past month I have received so many unsolicited books. 
I have written myself some fairly strict guidelines about what I will and will not post on this Blog so I thought it was worth repeating a paragraph I posted earlier.

PLEASE DON’T BE OFFENDED!

          As you might imagine I sometimes feel I am drowning in a sea of books as they continue to flow into my private mail box or are delivered by courier or NZ Post – and sometimes, very special, even by hand.

          It is just not possible to review everything I receive (nor would I want to) although sometimes I am sent emails or notes or even have phone calls asking why the book ‘they’ sent me has not yet been blogged.

          I try very hard to only review books here that I know will play an important part in the reader’s life either in a school/ college/ library or a private (doesn’t that sound grand?) collection.  I am looking for books that will make them think, laugh, cry, question, be involved, find answers.  

           I very seldom post unsolicited material but of course sometimes it happens that an absolute treasure appears. So. Please send me the books by all means but just don’t be offended if I don’t post them. 

 

Congratulations to Barbara Else.

The University of Otago Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne has just announced the seven recipients of the Arts Fellowships for 2016.  Barbara has been awarded the College of Education/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence.

Barbara, who has written six novels for children and six for adults, says she wants to use the time to write a children’s novel that begins in ancient times and moves to a contemporary New Zealand sea-side settlement.

Well done Barbara – that is such good news

Acknowledgments to Hutt News

 

And keep watching this space next week for a review of Barbara’s latest book published by Gecko Press – The Knot Impossible to be launched in October.  Number Four in the Fontania series.

Tapirs in the city

UK Writer and Illustrator Polly Faber, illustrated by Clara VulliamyThe Not-A-Pig  #1 in the Mango and Bambang series  Walker Books 2015 $19.99hb 142pp  ISBN 978 1 4063 6143 8  Themes: City life/ Friendship/ Short stories / Single parent families/ Tapirs

So many people thought that Bambang was a pig but of course he wasn’t. He was a Malaysian Tapir as Mango, who knew everything, tried to explain to anyone who would listen. In these four short stories it is hard not to fall in love with the two characters as they explore the inside of a big city, go swimming in an Olympic sized pool, eventually avoid the wicked intentions of a determined animal collector and learn to sing and to play the clarinet. The stories are written with a charm and warmth and are a pleasure to read aloud. This is Polly Faber’s first book and I am looking forward impatiently for the rest of the series.    

Year 4 up/ Age 8 up

Moa Hunting!

NZ illustrator Patrick McDonald We’re Going on a Moa Hunt Puffin 2015 $19.99pb 32pp ISBN 978 0 1435 0638 6

Themes: Traditional nursery stories - reworded

The pictures in this rewording of a very familiar children’s story are amazing and full of images (with much humour) of the New Zealand bush and mountains, seashore and countryside – with hundreds of NZ birds, butterflies, fish, shells and mammals (including the moa) to be found on every generously covered page.  For very small children and specially those who know the words of ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ off by heart, a certain amount of explaining needs to be done before embarking but the excitement is the same and so is the wonderful tension on the journey ‘out’ and the one back home again. My only quibble is – why wasn’t a small girl allowed to be one of the Moa Hunters?     

Preschool up/ Age 3.5 up

Don't forget tomorrow, September 8th, is 

WORLD LITERACY DAY

The importance of Nursery Rhymes

NZ illustrator Donovan Bixley

Pussycat Pussycat and more

Upstart Press 2015 $19.99pb 24pp

ISBN 978 1 9272 6228 3

Themes: Traditional nursery rhymes (cat themes)

I feel I know every picture, every nuance of this book off by heart as since it was sent to me three weeks ago (and I apologise I am only posting it now) it has travelled back and forth to the Waikanae Kindergarten. The children have pulled it out of my book bag each Tuesday morning and insisted that that is the book we begin with. It is a long time since I shared nursery rhymes with children and I had forgotten how magic they can be with their simplicity and yet their sense of huge story behind each one. And this is even before the illustrations are mentioned! Donovan Bixley’s pictures for these four rhymes (all with a cat hero) are charming. They are warm and friendly and funny and cover each page with images. They are very ‘touchable’.

I read an interesting article on the importance of nursery rhymes the other day – it was written a few years ago and I am not totally sure of its source but have a look as it does make some very valuable points.

www.kbyutv.org/kidsandfamily/readytolearn/file.axd… 

Preschool up/ Age 3.5 up