We loved seeing Booked Out Speakers Sofie Laguna and John Marsden on the ‘Stranger than Fiction’ Q&A special last night. They were joined by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, and Trent Dalton. If you missed it, catch up on the episode using the livestream here!

Some of those names look veeerrry familiar…

Booked Out are extremely proud to say that some of our favourite speakers have won or received honours in the 2018 CBCA Book of the Year Awards.

For the Older Readers Category, Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell and Fiona Wood take out first place for the very popular Take Three Girls.

Michael Gerard Bauer has also been awarded winner of the Early Childhood category, with the fantastic story Rodney Loses It!

Martine Murray has been recognised with Honours twice (!) in the Younger Readers category, with Booked Out favourites, Marsh and Me and Henrietta and The Perfect Night.

We give a HUGE congratulations to all of the winners and honoured authors!

Beloved teachers and librarians – it’s crunch time. Book Week is only a few days away… but don’t fear. If you’re after a super last minute visit, please give us a call on 03 9824 0177 and we can work our magic.

And it’s only thirteen more sleeps away! While it’s not Christmas, it’s really starting to feel like it.

Teachers, it’s time to get your reading voices ready: Book Week is now on the horizon.

While the Booked Out elves are busily finalising some last-minute visits, we welcome you to get in touch with any questions you might have about your upcoming bookings.

Though we are lucky to say that many of our fabulous speakers are all booked up for Book Week, there are still some spots remaining. So, don’t hesitate to give us a call if you are still after a special someone to speak at your school (Santa hat sadly not included)!

Love theatre and love Gabrielle Wang? You’re in luck, friend – Gabrielle’s award-winning book A Ghost in My Suitcase has taken a leap to the stage – and it already looks fantastic.

Everyone is welcome to come to the Arts Centre Melbourne, who are bringing Gabrielle’s immensely popular journey to life from the 18 – 21 of October.

Performances are being shown each evening, with additional matinees on the Saturday and Sunday.

Supernatural family secrets and mysterious plot-lines can only make your evening better – while also teaching some home truths about the importance of reconnecting with your ancestry.

Tickets can be booked here.

To say there’s buzz around James Moloney’s newest release, The Love that I Have, would be an understatement: it’s already been hailed as a rival to Markus Zuzak’s beloved novel The Book Thief and The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne.

The Love That I Have tells the story of Margot Baumann, a naive German girl who leaves school to take up her sister’s job in the mail room of a prison. But this is Germany in 1944, and the prison is Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin.

Margot is at first shielded from the camp’s brutality, but she comes to know the lives of the prisoners through their letters – letters of love, hope and despair.

The Love that I Have is currently sitting at no. 3 on the national bestseller list – so it’s clearly the book to pick up this winter.

Congratulations, James, on the exciting new release!

Perfect for book groups, libraries and senior secondary, James is available to speak on his new book in Brisbane now. James is also touring Melbourne from 20-24th August 2018.

We are over the moon to say that Sally Rippin’s east coast tour has been a ripper!

Sally delighted students across Melbourne and Sydney celebrating the second installment in her brand new junior fiction series – and isn’t the cover such a delight!

Primary students from Prep to Grade 6 were not the only ones enraptured by the engaging discussion and reading-time – parents were also caught under Sally’s sweet spell.

We can’t get enough of Sally’s warm and bright attitude, and her audiences are also very receptive. If you are interested in booking Sally to exclusively visit your school, you can read more about her here.

Don’t forget to fill out the form at the very bottom to get in touch, and we will be more than happy to advise her availability for a special visit.

It’s fair to say that the team at Booked Out are genuine book lovers. You can often spy us wandering down Brunswick st with a book in hand, trying to get as many chapters in as possible on our lunch break, or exchanging book recommendations over our morning coffee.

Our very own Georgia reviews Bri Lee’s memoir, Eggshell Skull – see below!

Bri Lee’s phenomenal new release, Eggshell Skull, is rapidly making its rounds around the Booked Out office. Intensely personal and perfectly timed, this powerful memoir asserts Bri as an important new Australian voice in the global #MeToo movement.

Eggshell Skull is devastatingly critical of the Australian legal system and how it disempowers complainants of sexual assault. The memoir follows Bri’s journey as a judge’s associate in Queensland, and concludes with Bri’s own battle for justice to hold her own assaulter accountable for an incident that occurred when she was a young girl.

Don’t be fooled by the soft-hued cover, Bri’s story is intensely and intimately told – revealing her continuing torment from her abuse, and covering her first-hand frustration with legal cases which consistently conclude with no convictions or minimal sentences for abusers.

Despite this, Eggshell Skull radiates a sense of power – the title referencing an inversion of a legal concept where assaulters are held accountable to the physical injury they cause to their victims, despite the victim’s weaknesses (being, if you punch a victim with an ‘eggshell’ thin skull and they die from their injuries, you cannot claim lesser fault as the victim was physically fragile).

Bri flips this concept on its head – creating the idea that her offender must take her as she is: an intelligent and well-educated legal professional, who has the guts, resources and support behind her to not back down when bringing her abuser to justice.

Already a confident and eloquent speaker, Bri is now available to be booked in the Brisbane region. Suitable for secondary schools and libraries, Bri is perfect for writing workshops, introducing students to feminism, and sharing her story of standing up for yourself in the face of tough adversity.

Booked Out acknowledges the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures; and to elders both past and present.

Saturday, the 26th of May was Australia’s National Sorry Day. We recognise the ongoing impacts of the trauma caused by the forced removal of Indigenous children from their culture, family, communities and Country. We hope that this day will be another step toward reconciliation, through understanding the ongoing dispossession and disadvantage Indigenous Australians have faced, and in turn be a call for justice and far better future.

#alwayswasalwayswillbe

Get reading – National Simultaneous Storytime is today at 11am!

Every year, a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops…or anywhere that you like to read! This event is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), and is celebrating it’s 18th year today.

This years’ simultaneous storytime picture book is the gorgeous Hickory Dickory Dash, written by Booked Out Speaker Tony Wilson, and illustrated by Laura Wood.

All you need to do to get involved is read Hickory Dickory Dash at 11am (AEST). Register your school, library or organisation here: alia.org.au/nss

Watch Tony’s invitation to storytime here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1nfxELQf0I

Happy storytime!