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Deakin Newsletter Summer 2005Newsletter and reviews written by Dr. Andrea Deakin.Harry is Here!
The friends are now in the Sixth, Grade XI, their O.W.L. examinations behind them and entering on the studies that will determine their future careers. The playful earlier scenes with aberrant wands now give way to Hermione's matter-of-fact ease. They are not now engaged with the basics of witchcraft, but rather the vagaries of love. When the book opens Cornelius Fudge has come to meet with the Muggles Prime Minister, for Lord Voldemort's activities have spilled into the normal world, causing disruption and worse. Security must be increased. The situation is becoming more and more serious and the threat has once more become acute at Hogwarts. Trusted by Dumbledore, Snape has become Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and Malfoy has early shown his vicious antagonism. This is a much darker book than its predecessors, becoming ever more sombre as it progresses. Harry discovers the loneliness of his position, unable to share all that he knows with his friends; having to place love to one side, dealing with enemies who seem to grow stronger and more aware all the time. As Dumbledore, using the Pensieve, shows Harry events from Voldemort's childhood, Harry realises how intertwined their lives are; so close that there can only be conflict. The end builds powerfully to the shocking climax. The book does not lack all humour -- every drama needs comedy, and J.K. Rowling introduces it brilliantly, firstly through a trip to Diagon Alley brightened by a brilliantly comic episode in Fred and George's joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes , and secondly by altercations between the faithful Dobby and a reluctant house elf, Kreacher. Peeves is back to take delight in the confrontations, commenting with glee, "Kicky, scratchy, tweaky, pokey." I will take no issue with Rowling's affection for adverbs, a carping reference that has been made elsewhere. May those who write perfect prose write half so entertainingly or tell so gripping and inventive a tale. The ends are drawn together, a moment of high drama has left us waiting breathlessly for the sequel. The power of love and the virtue of friendship have girded the young knight and we now await the final battle. Fiction Books:
Ed Kennedy is a taxi driver, underage at nineteen, functioning on the lower end of competence, ignored by his brother, dismissed by his mother, and with friends as incompetent as himself. They are the losers amongst their crowd. One day fate intervenes. Ed manages to thwart a bungled bank robbery and becomes, temporarily, the town hero. His small moment of fame is not what directly changes his life; instead it is a playing card, the ace of diamonds, which arrives in the mail shortly afterwards. On the card are three addresses. Intrigued, Ed follows up each to find a situation that requires a solution - a girl who loves to run, a lonely elderly widow who mistakes him for her dead husband, and an abused wife. Slowly Ed understands that he is not hopeless or helpless, he is capable of making a difference. The satisfaction and growing surety in his own capacity to make a difference changes his attitude and his self-expectation. We watch him develop; for he is truly a caring and capable young man who is now beginning to believe in himself. The ace of diamonds is followed in turn by the other three aces culminating in the challenge to help each of his best friends deal with a personal problem, and so grow themselves. Ed is an engaging character, and the people we meet through his journey of self-discovery are the people we meet every day - flawed, uncertain, on the wrong track, or simply lost. An interesting parade of bewildered characters moves in and out of the story anchored by the character of Ed and his devoted, smelly, coffee-addicted dog. As the book develops there is a growing appreciation of a presence that lies behind the message and Ed's restoration. I am the Messenger (The Messenger in Australia) won the 2003 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award.
Warrior Girl is narrated by the twelve-year-old cousin of Jehanne - Joan of Arc. Struck dumb after seeing the murder of her mother, Marianne has become very close to Jehanne, who best understands and interprets her. Like Joan, Marianne is afraid that the English, helped by the Burgundians, will overpower France, and so, when Jehanne explains to her about her "voices" and her need to persuade Robert de Baudricourt, whose support she must have, to help her see the Dauphin, Marianne goes with her. The story follows both girls until Joan gains her audience, but then it returns again to Marianne. She leaves Jehanne to go and visit her dying grandmother. There she is given a box containing a buddy badge that belonged to her father - the needed proof of ownership of the land he has left her. From here the story interweaves Marianne's struggle to gain her rightful inheritance and her support for Jehanne. The tale is so skillfully crafted that we are always aware of Jehanne and her call. Jehanne and Marianne are skillfully drawn characters. Sir Gaston is less so, he is something of a cardboard villain, but this weakness cannot detract too greatly from a first novel which is stirring, sensitive and very promising. The revelation that ends the novel is powerful and feels exactly right. Pauline Chandler is an author to watch.
Paris is surrounded by people, but she is always alone. Although she lacks for nothing material, no one has affection or time for her; so it is little wonder that she becomes attached to the one person who pays attention to her, her Uncle Franklin. It is as if he sees something of himself in her. Franklin is taking her on an expedition to the Himalayas. Through the influence he has with the authorities they are traveling to an area that foreigners may not enter. He and a group of friends are on the ultimate hunting expedition. The rest of the party belongs to a gourmet club, eating the rare species that they kill. Tahr, a boy monk, breaks through the trees surrounding their camp. His companion has died in an accident, and he has just had an encounter, a view of a strange humanlike creature. He is taken in by the group who want to use him in their hunt for the ultimate prey - a yeh-teh. The Buddhist Tahr, the spoilt and lonely Paris, and a third, the young female yeh-teh, Geng-sum, come from three very different backgrounds. Thrown together by circumstance and danger, they learn to know themselves more fully, and to reach out and learn about others. The story is not a treatise on the nature of war, nor on saving the planet and its resources, nor on the nature of humanity and getting to know others different from ourselves. All of that is there, but Philip Gross wants us to discover it for ourselves in this gripping, very real story that is told with conviction and compassion, and with a powerful sense of place. Philip Gross is a poet who has been short listed for the Whitbread Award for Poetry and has won the Signal Award for Poetry in 1991 with The All Night Cafe.
In ancient China, during the Han Empire, an emperor, afraid of the imperial dragons, had them all sent to the far distant western mountains. Here they were cared for by an imperial dragonkeeper. When the story begins the present dragonkeeper, unworthy of his honourable calling, is a drunken bully who has allowed the condition of the imperial dragons to deteriorate so far that few are left. These few the keeper leaves mainly in the care of a young slave girl. When she finds one dragon dead and not only feels, but also hears, the other mourning, she is unexpectedly drawn to him. When he, too, is in great danger she comes to his aid, and finds her destiny. She and the dragon set off on a journey across China with two other companions, a stone so treasured by the dragon that he will not be separated from it, and the girl's one friend, a pet rat called Hua. Close behind them comes a dragon hunter, intent on the death of the dragon. This is a closely observed and perfectly created world, believable and intriguing. The journey teaches young Ping self-confidence, the value of friendship, what constitutes courage, and the ability to believe in herself and her gifts. The lessons are learned in a vividly realised and colourful world and in a gripping and intensely enjoyable tale. Dragonkeeper, first published in Australia, won the CBCA Book of the Year Award 2004, The Aurealis Award for Speculative Fiction, The Young Readers section of The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, and was short-listed for The NSW Premier's Awards and The Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature.
Other Echoes was first published in 1982 and has just been re-released. Flora is resting in the sanatorium of her English boarding school. Entrance examinations for university are over, and the staff has decided that she is suffering from nervous exhaustion and requires rest. She is bored, neither jigsaws, nor embroidery appeal to her, and in the end she asks for paper, lots and lots of paper. She will tell a story formed from the bits and pieces she remembers of her past. It will be a form of jigsaw, and embroidery may also play a part. Bit by bit the memories return, and are fitted together as they make a little more sense to a young woman out of childhood and on the cusp of adult comprehension. There is Borneo, where she and her parents moved after World War II. Picnics on the beach, a game of Cowboys and Indians all played out within the limited sphere of the British colonial children. Part stories of a strange doll, a dead child, a strange old man, and an abandoned house on the hill, gradually fit together in the setting of a community haunted by the terrible experiences many of the island's colonials suffered when they were imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp during the war. This is a past time, a vanished time, but not a historical time. It is in that "no time" when the past is not far enough away for it not to impinge daily on those presently alive. For the old it is still too fresh, for the young it still hangs on the edges of family experience. Many parts of that past are here, from the camp to the social structure to the subtle changes gradually working through society since the 1930's and 1940's. They are still a great part of the world of the elderly, and therefore still accessible to the young. This jigsaw of a story is told with subtlety, insight and compassion - each part fitting with and illuminating the next.
The Girls They Left Behind is Bernice Thurman Hunter's last novel. It is based on many of her own experiences as a teenager during World War II. Natalie has taken the trip down to Union Station to see off too many friends - troops off to the war in Europe. In rebellion, determined to take some active roll herself, she decides to leave school and go into war work. If she cannot fly the planes, she can build them. The result is a lively portrait of a determined young woman and a very realistic portrait of life at home, coping with shortages, fear, loss, hope and the determination to achieve something that will make a difference and support the young male friends who have left for war. Although I was four or five years younger and in the U.K., it certainly brought back vivid memories to me as I read it. Ms. Hunter has captured the spirit and feeling of the times so well, and has left us an engaging novel that is also an important piece of social history for young teen readers.
Damien and Anthony have lost their mother and the boys are each coping in very different ways. Anthony, the elder, has found that he can avoid trouble and even earn benefits if he sadly says, "My Mum is dead". Damien, who is obsessed by the stories of the saints, has conversations with them. It is as if her death has opened a door for him into another reality. Damien has built himself a hermitage of cardboard boxes by the railway track. Britain is on the edge of changing over from the pound to the euro and the old money is being transported for burning. As the train rattles through town one of the bags of money falls off into Damien's hermitage, for Damien it is supernatural intervention. Suddenly the two boys are very rich. The money only has value for a few more days, which leaves the boys with a moral dilemma. What should they do with it? "What if giving people money just makes people more money-ish" asks Damien. "Our Anthony, for instance, developed an unhealthy interest in real estate." Meantime the boys are threatened by an inept burglar and pestered by people with good causes. They have to make a decision. Sadly, the one thing they both truly want, money cannot bring - their mother. Damien is an engaging sympathetic boy, a lad of vision and character, the moral ground of the story. While Anthony, a teen, is just as lost and trying to hide it in apparent confidence, he lacks Damien's vision. The story is touching, engaging, often funny and heartbreaking all in one --- a study of love, loss, grief, faith, and the alternate choices of generosity and greed. It has been made into a motion picture.
Daughters of the Ark contains two different stories linked by the Ark of the Covenant, an emerald, and the story of the Jews who went with Prince Menelik, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, back to Ethiopia and Sheba's kingdom in the Tenth Century B.C. The first tale, the story of Aleesha, sees her and her family accompany her father, a priest of the temple, as he joins Prince Menelik's caravan on the way to the Queen of Sheba's court. The long journey is beset by threats from the northerners under Jeroboam who are determined to seize the ark and the power it gives them. They believe that it is hidden in Menelik's train. Through an accident one of the emeralds attached to the Ark is in Aleesha's possession - a proof of the treachery she has overheard. Unable to return it safely, she keeps it. In 1984 the Beyta Israel people of Ethiopia are in danger from the warring factions in the country. Debritu's father has been seized and taken away to serve in the army; her teenage brother, Ferdu, is in danger of being drafted, so her grandmother arranges for the children, Debritu, Ferdu and the baby Asefa, to join a caravan trying to make its way across Ethiopia and the Sudan, eventually to Israel. She has placed the emerald, that has been handed down through the family, into Debritu's care. The second story is the one that comes fully to life in a harrowing account of the children's journey to the safety of Israel from whence their ancestors had come three thousand years before. Aleesha is interesting enough, but it is Debritu whose courage and determination wins the sympathy of the reader. There is a great deal of information engagingly presented in a novel that grasped my attention, allowing me to know these people far more intimately and sympathetically than a newspaper column. It should engage young readers and promote much worthwhile discussion. Picture Books:
Michael Morpurgo retells twenty-one of Aesop's classic fables in this new collection for young children. A fresh lively retelling by Morpurgo is accompanied by Emma Chichester Clark's familiar gentle presentation where the colour is bold, but never gaudy, the characters presented with touches that bring a smile. Indeed a gentle wit and acute observation pervade this, as all her books. This is a very attractive introduction to Aesop for the younger child.
The story of the undervalued younger son who triumphs over the rest because of his compassion, courage and wit runs through folk tales around the world. Each culture, each area, putting its own stamp on the tale. Folklorist Janet McNaughton catches and spins the story in its Newfoundland version telling the story of Brave Jack with vigour and wit, bringing the setting and the tale vividly alive in its Canadian dress. Here his good heart brings him an apple, a splendid new coat, a good pair of boots and three sharp needles. With these simple objects and the courage of a strong heart, Jack saves a princess and gains a kingdom. Newfoundland scenery completes a sense of place and adds its own drama to the story, and the modern houses suggest the timelessness of the tale, although the mediaeval dress, the castle, and a unicorn tapestry is rather an abrupt contrast.
Little Beo's imagination has been running away on her, and now something dreadful has happened. The toybox volcano has erupted and demolished her room. One by one Beo and her toys find themselves in precarious situations, only Bard the bear, after one bad moment, is in any situation to be of assistance. Help he does through this hilarious inventive epic where Bardic courage and invention and the cooperation of the toys rescue all in time for lunch. Bright, lively, inventive, and a great deal of fun to read aloud as a whole, or with young assistance, By a Thread is a joy. Graham Ross's lively colourful illustrations are the perfect accompaniment.
Me and My Sister has a very simple text, but it is married with perceptive gentle illustrations that capture that tentative relationship between young sisters, one which wavers between companionable frolic and hesitant response. How do you protect your doll and your space from an inquisitive lively sibling, and how can you not join in the fun of sharing and teaching. This is a warm-hearted, understanding book, a little joy that small siblings will quickly respond to. Over and over again Ruth Ohi has given us insightful gentle books for very young children.
Bartholomew lives in a cave at the top of a mountain spending his time smelling the flowers, eating the berries, and sleeping. In the evening he climbs up to the top of the cliff and watches the city lights below. One day a little bug hits him on the nose and chatters to him about the bright lights below. The kindly bear takes him to the cliff edge where he can see them, but nothing will do but the bear promise to take the bug right into the city. The insect's life was short. He would never make it to the city on his own. Bartholomew tackles sharp cliffs, huge rivers, bottomless canyons, stinking swamps, and a waterfall to help his tiny friend on their adventure together to see the city lights. There he has the satisfaction of seeing his insect friend find company with other little bugs. Neal Layton's juxtaposition of the apparently rapidly sketched bear figure and landscape with brightly coloured, sharply-edged sketches of the bugs gives a witty energetic feeling to the story. It is as if the story must be conveyed with the speed and the energy of the little Daddy Longlegs' single day. There is no time for the finish he shows in an early picture of the bear sitting on the cliff at sunset gazing at the city below. No, once the insect arrives time is precious, speed is essential, and the tale is rapidly sketched. Bartholomew and the Bug was the Smarties Nestle Book Prize Bronze Award Winner in 2004.
Papa, Do You Love Me? is a companion to Mama, Do You Love Me?, which was set in the Inuit culture. This equally attractive book is set in Africa, in the Maasai culture. How long does the little boy's father love him? "As long as the wildebeest runs on the mara, the hippopotamus wallows in the mud, and the Serenget rolls to the sky." Softly coloured pictures in ambers and gentle blues and greens introduce these pictures from a life in a very different culture, set in a beautiful and strange land. The theme is the same, warmly and comfortingly presented, the father loves and cares for his son. This is a tender beautifully presented picture book.
One More Sheep is a great deal of fun. Every night Sam the shepherd brings home his sheep and tucks them up safely in bed. He always tries to count them, but you know how it is with sheep... One night there is a banging at the door. When Sam opens it he finds one bedraggled sheep looking for shelter. Sam is about to invite him in, but the other sheep are not fooled. Neither are we when we see Ayto's illustration, but then Sam is tired. Desperately the sheep try to prevent Sam from letting this one in. They know a wolf in sheep's clothing. This hilarious picture book is illustrated with sharp-edged style and wit by Russell Ayto. It has been short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal.
This is the story of a day out for a family of rabbits. Floppy Ears, the youngest, is left out of much of the fun because he is "too young"; but he is not too young to spy the fox watching them from the hill and give the alarm. It is a simple story, but told here with gentle humour, nice pacing and good timing. At the same time the illustrations, which at first glance seem conventional, are, with more care, seen to be not only realistic, but carefully observed. There is a quality about them that creeps up on the observer, a reality that makes you feel that you could smell those flowers and feel the breeze that ruffles the soft fur of the rabbits. It will be interesting to watch for more from this author and illustrator. They have turned what, in clumsier hands could have been a very ordinary tale, into a delightful experience.
Every creature on earth sleeps, although human young seem, from time to time, to be determined to fight the need. Arlene Alda's collection of photographs illustrates creatures asleep, from cats in the sunshine and tiny puppies nestled in a human hand, to children in car seats and readers in hammocks. Each gentle photograph brings a sense of peace and relaxation so attractive and convincing that parents, let alone babies, will have a hard time keeping their eyes open. It is a celebration of peaceful slumber.
The tiny nervous mouse, clutching a small piece of cheese and sitting on the painting of a fiercesome dragon on the cover of Chopsticks is a powerful invitation to open the pages. Chopsticks is a tiny mouse who lives on a floating restaurant in Hong Kong harbour. When night comes he scurries around looking for scraps the cleaners have left. One night one of the carved wooden dragons clears his throat and speaks to the mouse, asking Chopsticks to free him from his wooden pillar so that he might fly over the mountains. Chopsticks sets off to find Old Fu the carver, who made the dragons, in the hope of enlisting his help. There is a task that the mouse must perform to free his wooden friend, but after this every full moon the pair fly the whole night long exploring the land beneath and returning just as the sun rises in the east. A great deal of the pleasure in this picture book lies in the depiction of the little grey mouse and the rich colours of his surroundings. Most striking is the moonlit silhouette of the mouse and the newly released dragon uncoiling from his pillar, and the pair then flying over the moonlit landscape of India and China.
On Monday, August 21st 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. The thief turned out to be Vincenzo Perugia, an Italian who wanted to restore the painting to Italy. Rick Jacobson has taken this incident and retold it from the point of view of the painting. She hangs on the wall as the homesick Perugia speaks to her in Italian about his home and stirs her memories and with it a longing to see Italy again. A conspiracy between the two lost and lonely Italians ends with Mona Lisa's rescue from the wall in the Louvre. In Perugia's home, hidden beneath the bed, she is beginning to settle to Paris, learning to recognize the voices and personalities of the neighbours. Then Perugia comes home one night. The Louvre is crawling with police and it is time to leave, to escape to Italy. The tension of the escape, the first thrill of entering Italy, and the arrival in Florence, all invitingly illustrated by the artists, are all new and exciting for the Mona Lisa; but then strange voices announce the arrival of an art dealer, the adventure is over. After a brief tour of Italy she is returned to Paris where even today her smile is fed by her memories of Italy and Perugia. An imaginative retelling of the facts of the original theft conveys to children the powerful effect of a work of art and the emotions it can arouse. It also deals with the painful power of homesickness and how it can drive people to great lengths in order to return. It is an unusual story that raises our sympathy while we respect that the deed was wrong. It is easy to understand the leniency with which Perugia was treated. The theft was not so much a criminal act as a foolish attempt to restore the painting to Italy fuelled by the perpetrator's own longing for home, foolish, wrong, but not criminal. It offers children not only an interesting tale, but a subject to consider - how would they have dealt with Perugia? Poetry:
Having lost a cat and having promised herself no more kittens, Cynthia Rylant is trapped when she passes an animal shelter. She describes the nervous kitten, You spent the first weekBut it is not long before Boris has established himself and a kitty video has turned him into "an ottoman potato" batting at the birds on the TV screen. This delightful collection of poems traces their growing relationship, cat and owner, through acceptance, concern about neighbourhood dogs, catfights, and the trauma of a move to new places. This is a study of companionship and understanding and the way that affection and sympathy, feline or human, can see us through many of the traumas of living.
I am not quite sure what Kids Can Press is aiming at in this poetry series. Engaging the teen reader? Jabberwocky won the Governor-General's Award for Illustration and here we saw the nonsense poem, more open to re-interpretation because of its form, re-interpreted with striking illustrations that carried a socio-political punch - suitable for older teens and adults. We really should have a separate award for illustration and design in adult titles, where this version could more properly have been considered. The illustrations deserved an award - but were they for children? This second book, Noyes' The Highwayman, raises similar issues. Firstly who is it aimed at, obviously older teens and adults, fair enough. The poem is rarely in collections of young children's poetry although it appears in collections for older children, like the Oxford Treasury of Classic Poems (Eds. Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark). The subject matter is both romantic and tragic. Noyes, who died in 1959, was writing about a period 200 years earlier. Since the reader was highly unlikely to be held up by a highwayman, the figure had now slipped into the area of romance and both the tragic love story and the highwayman's trade had become acceptable. We can weep for Bess, the Landlord's daughter. Murray Kimber's illustrations are set it in a 1930's city and the highwayman rides a motorcycle. At once you have lost sympathy because the period of G-men and crooks has changed, but not evolved sufficiently and enough time has not passed to allow Noyes' hero to be considered a heroic figure and not a threat in our present environment. Strong as the illustrations are and gifted as Kimber is as an illustrator, the combination of Noyes' poem of an Eighteenth Century figure and the portrait of a 1930s crime landscape jars. The poem loses its romance and Noyes' intention. Apart from that, a combined reading and viewing keeps pulling the reader up. Noyes' gives various visual and aural clues to the action - there is the description of the highwayman's clothing which does not fit the illustrations. He and his horse "clattered and clashed" on the cobbles - a horse's hoofs make a very different sound to a motorcycle's tires. "He rode up right in the stirrups", he "tugged at his rein". King George's men were never dressed like G-men. "Tlot-tlot; tlot, tlot! The horse hoofs ringing clear" ... and so on. What you read gives a totally different vision from what you see. As a contrast consider the striking work of the late Charles Keeping in his version of The Highwayman. Keeping remained within the eighteenth century period but used a striking twentieth century technique to produce a chilling and powerful interpretation of the poem - modern, yet totally in step with Noyes' intention. Non-Fiction Books:
This visual dictionary uses pictures to define words offering the correct term for a wide range of objects. It is divided into chapters outlining subjects, from astronomy to sports and including - earth, vegetable kingdom, animal kingdom, human being, food and kitchen, house, do-it-yourself, and gardening, clothing, personal adornment and articles, arts and architecture, communications and office automation, transport and machinery, energy, science, society, and sports and games. The languages represented are English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. The simple clear illustrations have the words listed below while the more complex illustrations have colour diagrams with lines indicating various areas with the translations beside them. More than 6,000 illustrations are given, ranging from the structure of a radio telescope to the construction of various types of faucet, the design of a pleasure garden or the table of chemical elements. There are five indices at the back, one for each language. The dictionary would be equally of value to anyone learning another language or someone acquiring English as a second language. It is also interesting to browse through, one of those practical books that still intrigue the casual reader.
Summer allows time for outdoor activities involving wildlife. David Burnie has two practical guides for children who have an interest in the natural world. Bird Watcher has practical advice on how to set up an area for observing birds and how to draw the birds to you by offering them a "snack bar" in your own backyard. Bird tables and bird feeders, gardening with birds in mind - for example growing sunflowers, are all ways of drawing them closer for observation. There are ways to keep track of your bird watching and advice on how to watch and listen for birds that are night active. The book is light and compact to slip into a backpack or pocket, clearly set out and generously illustrated. The front and back flaps open out to offer a quick reference guide to the more common birds. Bug Hunter introduces children to the more common insects that they can easily find and identify. David Burnie describes essential equipment, where to look, how to find the camouflaged varieties, how to make a net for flying insects, how to raise caterpillars and how to explore insect homes in their natural environment. Both books are practical colourful guides for elementary age children, easy to read and practical in use.
This is a revised edition of the late Plantagenet Somerset Fry's history that was first published in 1994. Simon Adams updates this new edition. The book begins with the origins of life on Earth and ends in the 2000s, a visual journey into the past and a look at the present. A world map opens every chapter; the illustrations depict scenes from the pivotal events of the period. A comprehensive index makes it straightforward to access any particular topic. This new updated edition focuses on the period between 1946-2000. Included in this edition are: the tragedies in Africa; the religious conflicts and the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in Asia; the conflict in the Gulf; in Europe, the end of communism and the developments which led to the European Union and its expansion; in the Americas the economic development of the US and the "affluent society"; Quebec voting to remain in Canada; the rise of AIDS in the US; the Falklands War; and 9/11 and its aftermath. Australia and New Zealand appear to have been blessedly quiet. Somerset Fry's history still remains one of the most accessible, useful, and enjoyable introductions to world history for young people available today. Awards:The Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal have been announced. The Carnegie Medal was awarded to Frank Cottrell Boyce (screenwriter of Hilary and Jackie) for Millions. The Kate Greenaway Medal has been awarded to Chris Riddell for his illustrations for Jonathan Swift's Gulliver. Chris Riddell also won in 2002 for Pirate Diary. The shortlist for the 2005 Norma Fleck Award for Non-Fiction:
I regret to be so late with this news. I have only just heard. The award-winning illustrator and author Laszlo Gal died on December 30th 2004. His first book with William Toye was Cartier Discovers the St. Lawrence (1970). Gal won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrators Award for The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The Little Mermaid, by Margaret Crawford Maloney and illustrated by Laszlo Gal won the 1983 Canada Council Children's Literature Prize. His work lit up the early days of the renaissance in children's publishing in Canada. Stephane Poulin has won the 2005 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award for Un Chant de Noel (Dominique et Compagnie). An English version of the book will be published by Kids Can Press in autumn 2006. Sheila A. Egoff:/Library/Images/deakin/sheila_egoff.jpg) Sheila Egoff died in Vancouver on May 22nd 2005 in her 88th year. She was a scholar and critic of children's literature throughout her professional life. Sheila began working in the children's department of Toronto Public Library in 1942, working towards her degree, taking night courses at the University of Toronto, and went on to complete her studies as a librarian at University College, London. While at the Toronto Public Library she had come under the tutelage of Lillian Smith, who had an enormous influence on her. On her return to Toronto Sheila brought the British Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books to the Toronto Public Library and was its first curator. Her range of experience and growing reputation caught the attention of Samuel Rothstein and she was chosen as one of the founding faculty members at the School of Library Science at the University of British Columbia. She was the first full time professor of children's literature and children's librarianship. Sheila influenced countless classes of children's librarians and two of her students, Sarah Ellis and Kit Pearson, went on to win Governor-Generals Awards.Professor Egoff was the first Canadian critic of children's literature to win international recognition and her advocacy and scholarship contributed to the present recognition in Canada of children's literature as a legitimate academic study. She wrote several books including The Republic of Childhood, Only Connect and Worlds Within. She was the first Canadian to be appointed as a judge of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and was the recipient of many awards and honourary doctorates. She developed the first Pacific Rim Conference on Children's Literature at the University of British Columbia in 1976, and in the 1980's the B.C. Book Prizes established an annual award for children's literature bearing her name. |
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