It’s fair to say that the team at Booked Out are bona fide book lovers. You might spy us at lunchtime, walking down Brunswick St with our nose buried in a book, trying to snatch a few chapters of the many novels we have scattered about the office.

Our very own Angela reviews Cath Crowley’s latest novel, Words in Deep Blue – see below!

Readers love bookshops. To an avid bibliophile, shelves don’t simply display pretty spines and impressive cover art. A bookshop is a cave of possibilities; a place where our imaginations are called upon to build worlds and explore the lives of the unknown.

Cath Crowley’s Words in Deep Blue gives us Howling Books, a second-hand bookshop owned by the family of 18 year old, Henry Jones. The store is infamous for the Letter Library, a sort of Wailing Wall of sentimental notes left and scrawled within the pages of its books.

Rachel Sweetie was Henry’s childhood best friend. But a confession unanswered and a move to the seaside took her away until the end of high school. After her brother’s harrowing death Rachel, now older and hardened to life, is back in town.

When the sale of Howling Books starts to loom over Henry and his family, Rachel is employed to catalogue those notes left by ghosts of readers past. In the meantime, Henry is nursing a broken heart and he and Rachel find themselves becoming reacquainted with the old and new parts of each other.

Words in Deep Blue is a beautifully written YA novel by the award-winning author of Graffiti Moon and the Gracie Faltrain series. The soft words and delicate prose make for a touching exploration of grief, loss, family, friendship and love. Cath Crowley has given us a story for booklovers, indeed for lovers of any description. The novel tells us what we already know, that life can and will throw us curveballs. But if we listen to the heart, we’ll always find our way back home.

The city of Stonnington’s annual literary festival, [untitled] kicks off next week on Wednesday, 16th November! The launch will be held at the Toorak/South Yarra Library from 6:30–9:00pm, and will feature an appearance from acclaimed playwright Hannie Rayson.

There will be over 25 free events from 16–23 November, with new voices in Australian fiction as well writers at the top of their field, with a host of Booked Out writers to be featured, including:

• Hannie Rayson
• John Marsden
• Sally Warhaft
• Jane Godwin
• Elizabeth Honey
• Kate Mildenhall
• Stig Wemyss
• Nicholas Jones
• Maria Katsonis

Mark these dates in your diary – these events are sure to get you thinking, talking and reading!

Francophiles and their children gathered to hear Gus Gordon launch his new picture book, Somewhere Else at various bookshops in Melbourne last week.

At The Little Bookroom on Saturday, champagne and croissants helped launch the latest whimsical offering from Gus.

Inspired by a research trip to Paris, this book will appeal to as many adults as it will to children. It is a gentle tale of a reluctant duck called George, who doesn’t want to fly.

Illustrator Ann James read the book to Gus’ fans and officially launched it into the world.

Voila!

The Booked Out team are this week spotlighting our talented author, Ailsa Wild. The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales, is a graphic novel about a heroic Australian nurse in WW1.

The book follows Annie’s story as she selflessly battles death and disease on the Western Front. As fate strikes, she also contracts dysentery. A war without and a war within. The Invisible War is a science adventure featuring trillions of microbes on a journey to the center of the gut!

The book (created by Briony Barr & Gregory Crocetti) was written by Ailsa and illustrated by Ben Hutchings in collaboration with art-science collective Free Scale Network and Jeremy Barr, a microbiologist from Monash University.

Dorian Sagan (yes, son of Carl Sagan!) ecological philosopher, award winning author and science writer has written an in-depth review of The Invisible War: A Tale on Two Scales that can be found here.

Congratulations Ailsa and all the team! An amazing achievement!

The Team at Booked Out are excited to announce our touring authors for 2017! See who is heading where below, and for specific dates check out our tour page.

Places are limited – get in quick to secure a spot for your school!

Melbourne

• Andrew Joyner & Ursula Dubosarsky
• Ben Wood
• Jack Heath
• James Moloney
• Michael Gerard Bauer
• Oliver Phommavanh
• Tim Harris
• Tristan Bancks
• Will Kostakis

Regional Victoria

• Andrew Joyner
• Davina Bell & Jane Godwin

Brisbane

• Ben Wood
• Jack Heath
• Oliver Phommavanh

Sydney

• Jack Heath
• Tristan Bancks

Adelaide

• Michael Gerard Bauer

Perth

• Craig Smith (NZ)

Author and illustrator Andrew Joyner has shared his illustration skills in sessions for students live in classrooms for the last few years.

Now, one of these lessons can be found online! Andrew is featuring in tutorials for ABC’s Splash, demonstrating how to draw the beloved elephant. The videos have been made in conjunction with The School Magazine, that Andrew illustrates for regularly, celebrating their 100 year anniversary.  The fun clips encourage kids to dig out their pencils and paper and have a crack at drawing animals through some simple shape-drawing tips.

Internationally published, Andrew still resides in South Australia and is able to venture out for school visits around Australia. Find the videos here and check out his Booked Out profile for more information!

Illustration by Andrew Joyner

Felice Arena is known for creating action packed worlds with words and illustrations, now, his series Andy Roid is hitting the screen!

The Australian Children’s Television Foundation are working with the ABC to produce the 26 part series following the adventures of Andy who is half boy, half robot and the youngest global intelligence spy in the world. So, one can imagine this will be a huge hit with the eight to 12 year old target audience.

After a jam-packed Book Week, we are very happy that Felice will be available for another week of Melbourne bookings in Term 4, between the 24th and 28 of October.

To read more about Andy Roid making the transition from page to screen visit http://actf.com.au/news/10303/from-book-to-screen-slr-announces-andy-roid-tv-series.

The Booked Out Team would like to pass on their congratulations to Rosalie Ham. The Dressmaker has come in as the top selling fiction title in Australia between July 2015 to June 2016, with 131 000 copies sold!

This is a tremendous success for an Australian title.

The Dressmaker was Rosalie’s first novel, published in 2000 then adapted to film in 2015. It then took out the title for Favourite Australian Film in the People’s Choice Awards in December last year.

Congratulations again Rosalie, we wish you every success!