A big hearty congratulations to all who have made it onto the 2016 Yabba shortlist.

We would like to do a shout-out to the following Booked Outers who have made the list – we wish you all the best for the announcement in Term 4!

Picture Story Books

Fiction for Older Readers

Fiction for Younger Readers

Fiction for Years 7-9

Looking for someone to bring the laughs to your students?

Someone to put a smile on teachers’ and pupils’ faces alike?

Booked Out has a range of hilarious and motivational speakers, many of whom are appearing now at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Look, Tommy Dassalo even has a book-themed poster for his show!

Congratulations to Corinne Fenton on the launch of her latest book You Have My Heart. This gorgeous book, with illustrations by Robin Cowcher celebrates love and the strength we can draw from it through the ups and downs of life. Pictured below is Corinne at the launch on Sunday, and the book at our morning tea table today!

Booked Out congratulates the longlisted authors for the 2016 Golden Inky Awards! Selected by young adults themselves, the Golden Inky Awards recognise outstanding Australian YA literature. We are excited to see so many Booked Outers commended, including:

• Erin Gough for The Flywheel
• Amie Kaufman for Illuminae with Jay Kristoff
• Lili Wilkinson for Green Valentine
• Gabrielle Williams for The Guy, The Girl, The Artist and his Ex
• Fiona Wood for Cloudwish

The shortlist will be announced on 16 August, and the winner will be announced on 4 October.

Teens can apply to become Inky judges, who will work together to select the shortlist – applications close Monday, 28th March – click here for more information!

Every now and then, Booked Out is lucky enough to work with a fantastic school who are keen to put in the hard yards to bring a international visitor to their school – in this case, the International School of Phnom Penh were extremely lucky to welcome the brilliant and dynamic Bernard Caleo. Below is an account of the visit from both Bernard and the wonderful teachers who organised the visit, Ann and Sally.

Bernard Caleo

In the first week of February 2016, I taught kamishibai and comics classes at the International School of Phnom Penh. This incredible opportunity came about because one of the school’s librarians, Sally Bray, an Australian, had worked with Booked Out in bringing authors into schools when she had taught in Australia. And so I found myself as the ‘visiting author’ during the ISPP’s Book Week celebrations, which also included a book character costume parade, a school-wide ‘Where’s Wally’ competition, ‘Drop Everything and Read’ announcements (I loved these), Monument Books the Phnom Penh bookshop setting up shop in the new still-being-built library, a candlelight read-aloud night, and a poetry day. It was a great delight to be amongst such motivated staff and students, for whom books, literacy, reading and writing are a vital part of school life.  With the primary students I told kamishibai (Japanese ‘paper theatre’) stories – it was a thrill to have Japanese students in the audience correcting my pronunciations and translations – and led kamishibai workshops, with each ‘buddy’ student duo writing and drawing and showing their own story.  With year 8 students I led comics workshops, in preparation for them making comics adaptations of their own stories later this year.

It was a stimulating, hilarious, intense and engaging week, and I would like to thank in particular Hannah French from Booked Out and Ann Coster from the International School of Phnom Penh for making the whole experience so well-run and enjoyable. And the students at ISPP, who leapt into making comics and kamishibai with such enthusiasm and energy.

Bernard Caleo,
Melbourne,
February 2016 

Above: Bernard telling kamishibai stories to primary student at the International School of Phnom Penh on Monday February the first, 2016

Ann Coster and Sally Bray: International School of Phnom Penh

During the first week of this month, here at ISPP (the International School of Phnom Penh), we celebrated “Book Week.” It was five days devoted to books and literacy. The hands-down highlight of the week was the participation of visiting author/illustrator Bernard Caleo!
 
For our Elementary students, Bernard introduced the world of Kamishibai, a form of Japanese storytelling. But Bernard did not just tell Kamishibai stories. Bernard performed the stories, gave life to the stories and inspired our students to try to imitate his passion for stories. His efforts were most effective because he used Kamishibai as the means for the students to understand the intricacies of this Japanese art form. It was through Bernard’s Kamishibai stories that we learned of the history of this ‘paper theater’ in Japan beginning in the 1930’s. Bernard’s energy and enthusiasm, to present stories and to observe stories created by our students, was limitless. He was a crowd favorite for all ages and well appreciated by our teachers for the clear way he could communicate how a Kamishibai story works.
 
For our Secondary students, Bernard brought his talents as a graphic novelist and web comic creator. He led workshops with the Grade 8 students, introducing the ideas and skills involved in creating and developing graphic novels and mini-comics, giving a genuine view of the nuts-and-bolts of being an author. The Grade 8 students will begin studying Graphic novels, their history, format and literary style in the next few weeks and Bernard’s insights will form a great foundation for these studies. Bernard also offered two extra sessions for other students who were interested, called “How and why create mini-comics”, discussing the development of cartoons, to comic strips, to  comic books and finally graphic novels. His presentation of Kamishibai to the Secondary students during an extended assembly showed his skill with diverse age ranges and larger audiences. Bernard’s artistic skills, animated presentations and enthusiasm for his subject were well received by the students and teachers.
 
We so appreciate all you did to help bring Bernard to ISPP! We have been hearing nothing but praise and appreciation for the positive energy Bernard showed to our students, helping to make our Book Week a complete pro-literacy highpoint of our year!
 
With gratitude,
 
Ann Coster                                  Sally Bray
Elementary Librarian               Secondary Librarian   

Thank you again to Bernard, Ann and Sally for sharing this experience with us!

Wordburger is David Astle’s latest book geared for younger readers and is packed with word puzzles, tongue twisters and brain teasers – all the ingredients needed to solve cryptic crosswords and become a champion word puzzler!

This deliciously wordy feast for clever kids has received many accolades of late and has been selected as a recommended titled in the Kids’ Reading Guide 2015-16.

The Kids’ Book Review have given Wordburger the thumbs up, with a hearty warning ‘The entire book is totally entertaining, so reader beware, for this book will take up permanent residence at home once you look into it.’

Wordburger fans in Sydney will also have a chance to see the real David Astle in action with events in NSW poised to be announced. Stay tuned HERE. This comes off the back of the Wordburger session in Melbourne’s  Wheeler Centre booking out a month in advance.

And if you missed out on seeing David live, don’t despair as there is now also an app! Check out a whole stack more of Wordburger goodness with beginner cryptic crosswords to solve HERE.

So, jump to it! If you haven’t already taken a bite of this delicious book, now is the time!

Wordburger is recommended for ages 9 – 13, and accompanying adults.

Here at Booked Out we love hearing about how school visits go after we do the organising bit, and last week we were thrilled to receive some great feedback (and pictures!) from Cath Crowley’s visit to the year 9 students of Presentation College to talk about her book, Graffiti Moon.

Here are two fabulous student comments:

I really enjoyed the Cath Crowley experience! I learnt a lot of new and creative ways to write and how to avoid writers’ block. She answered a lot of my questions about her novel ‘Graffiti Moon’ and showed me the inner workings of her mind. It was a really good experience and it will help me to write in the future.

Today we got to meet author Cath Crowley. She took us through writing exercises, giving us great ideas for short stories. She also gave us the opportunity to ask her questions and get our ‘Graffiti Moon’ books signed. I learnt some great writing tips and it was a fantastic experience.

Thanks to Fiona Hall for sending us these comments and pictures!

Graffiti Moon is a great read, and has been studied in many schools since it’s release in 201o. Set over 24 hours in the lives of four teenagers on the verge: of adulthood, of HSC, of finding out just who they are, and who they want to be.
In 2011 Cath took home the NSW’s Premier’s Literary Awards:Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, YA fiction for this book.

All of us here at Booked Out were thrilled by the announcement of Leigh Hobbs as the new Australian Children’s Laureate for 2016-2017. Leigh’s work has delighted readers for over 20 years, with his characters Old Tom, Horrible Harriet and Mr. Chicken well loved by children and adults alike. Congratulations Leigh!

We would also like to congratulate outgoing Australian Children’s Laureate, Jackie French for her wonderful work in 2015. Jackie, along with Australian Children’s Literature Alliance founding board member Ann James, and Victorian sub-committee member Ann Haddon have each received the Member of the Order of Australia for their dedicated work in children’s literature.

Leigh’s next official appearance as Children’s Laureate will be a special Meet the Laureate event with ABC Splash and the Centre for Youth Literature. You can watch the live stream of this event over the internet at 2pm (AEST) on Thursday 25th February.

The Team at Booked Out would like to welcome our newest speaker, Scott Darlow!

Scott is a musician, storyteller and World Vision Artist who works with Indigenous youth through the Young Mob Program. Read more about Scott’s work with World Vision here.

Enjoy below Scott’s version of Goanna’s iconic hit Solid Rock, featuring the original writer, Goanna frontman Shane Howard AM.

Shane Howard AM is one of Australia’s most important and influential writers and singers, whose work, as described by Port Fairy Folk Folk Festival Director, Jamie McKew “…bridges the land between poet and song-writer; between prophet and singer; even between white fellas and indigenous artists”.

Yup, it’s happened. Holidays are over and it’s time for us to shake out the towel and head home from the beach.

We are already looking forward to a fantastic 2016, with many new speakers and booked in for students and teachers across the country.

2016 sees lots of exciting new releases too! We are especially excited to get our hands on Leanne Hall’s new book, Iris and the Tiger. This is Leanne’s first book for younger readers and will be released in late January.

The Booked Out team – Lauris, Simon, Emma, Esther, Hannah and Nat – are all back on deck, and have already started working on the next year of author visits.

You can reach the Booked Out crew on 03 9824 0177 to talk to any of us about planning speakers for the year ahead.

So, let’s get to it!