Yesterday evening Booked Out went along to see beloved illustratorsCraig Smith and Terry Denton talk about their new books, Some Secrets Should Never be Kept and Jandamarra.

The theme of the night was the serious side of illustration. Do children’s illustrators have a duty to tackle serious themes in their work? How should those topics be approached? And how can publishers be convinced to take a chance on picture books that tread on more controversial territory than bunnies and bears?

It was a great, eye-opening night and fascinating to see just how much work goes into seemingly simple illustrations. It was also an important reminder that Craig, Terry and their colleagues are not just casual cartoonists, they are artists.

Where Are You, Banana? is a new picture book written by Sofie Laguna and illustrated by Craig Smith, published by Allen & Unwin.

Here in the Booked Out office we are pretty excited to see Craig & Sofie work together: this could be a contender for cutest book of the year! Sofie’s wacky humour is matched well to Craig’s exuberant watercolours.

There is a book launch at Readings St Kilda on Saturday July 6 at 10:30am. Craig Smith will draw the characters live in store while Sofie Laguna and actor Erick Mitsak will narrate the story. RSVP to Readings St Kilda: events@readings.com.au or 03 9525 3852.

You can listen to audio recordings of the story at the Allen & Unwin site. They were recorded by our very own Michael Wagner!

The Children’s Picture Book Illustrators’ Initiative Winners 2013 were recently announced. Funded by the Australia Council for the Arts, and managed by the CBCA, this Initiative provides grants to support the development of new children’s picture books, including graphic novels and comics.

We were very proud to see many of our creatives shortlisted: Marc Martin, Kylie Dunstan, Anne Spudvilas and Anna Walker. Even more exciting: we are please to see that both Kylie Dunstan (with Puddles Are For Jumping) and Anna Walker (with Mr Huff) received grants for the program.

Congratulations to all our creatives involved!

The lovely collage to the right is a sample image from Kylie’s projectPuddles Are For Jumping.

2013 is the 20th annual Reading Matters conference. Programmed and run by the Centre for Youth Literature, and held at the State Library of Victoria, the conference is a major event for students and librarians alike.

Yesterday was the student day at the Centre for Youth Literature’s 2013 Reading Matters Conference. The student sessions featured a few Booked Outers: Myke Bartlett, Fiona Wood and Morris Gleitzman.

Today is the first of two days of the professional program, which adds a few more of our speakers: Gabrielle Williams and Paul Callaghan. Our Director Lauris Pandolfini is on the scene to follow the progress of the conference.

The tech savvy among you can follow the conference on Twitter with the hashtag #yamatters. Follow the feed here.

Felice Arena recently made a guest appearance on Brownlow MedallistShane Crawford’s Crawf TV.

Crawf TV is part of Shane’s website and is designed to encourage health, reading, and activity for kids. Felice, famous for the Specky books, and now his exciting Andy Roid series, made the perfect guest.

You can watch the video here.

It will be Refugee Week in late June, giving us a chance to reflect on the contributions that refugees make and have made to Australian society. Each year, the refugee council selects a handful of ambassadors who embody this spirit of generosity and this year we are proud to say that Booked Out’s own Abdi Aden has been selected for the honour. Abdi is a worthy recipient of this honour, having spent the past 13 years devoting himself to youth work.

You might have seen Abdi reflect on his amazing life on the ABC seriesGo Back to Where You Came From. If you haven’t, Abdi is available to give talks to schools, libraries and councils. It’s a heartbreaking but hopeful story, and the refugee council couldn’t have found a more inspirational figure to be their ambassador.

Congratulations Abdi, from the Booked Out team.

To coincide with the 30 city tour of Still Awake Still!, a play based on her hit picture book I’m Still Awake, Still!, and Book Week, Elizabeth Honey will be available for school visits in Darwin, Cairns, Townsville, and Newcastle in August and September 2014.

Elizabeth can give interactive talks to large groups, smaller talks for students from P – Year 8, poetry workshops and illustration workshops.

Contact us to secure a date with Elizabeth!

The SWF is now less than a month away, and we’re sure that many of our New South Readers have already checked out the lineup. If you haven’t had a chance, though, have a look now. Booked Out favoritesDavid Astle, Jane Caro, Sophie Cunningham, Mary Delahunty,Catherine Deveny, Nick Earls, Amy Espeseth, Jackie French, Anna Goldsworthy, Dave Graney, Danny Katz, Cate Kennedy, Anna Krien,Ben Law, Emily Maguire, Oliver Phommavanh, Sally Rippin and R A Spratt will all be there. Get involved!

We’ve reached the pinnacle of the awards season, and it’s time for the big one! The Children’s Book Council of Australia has announced its nominees for the 2013 books of the year, and the Booked Out crew represent, yo!

Congratulations to Neil Grant and Doug Macleod, whose respective books The Ink Bridge and The Shiny Guys are nominated in the Older Readers Category.

Jackie French and Morris Gleitzman have both received nods in the Younger Readers category for World War II historical novels, Pennies for Hitler and After, and are joined by Glenda Millard for The Tender Moments of Saffron Silk.

Kirsty Murray is shortlisted in the Information Books list (the Eve Pownall award) for Topsy-turvy World: How Australian Animals Puzzled Early Explorers.

In the picture book categories, meanwhile, we have Sue DeGennaro’scharming The Pros and Cons of Being a Frog, Anna Walker for Prey,Gus Gordon for the delightful Herman and Rosie, and Glenda and Jackie again with Lightning Jack and A Day to Rememberrespectively.

All of these authors absolutely deserve the recognition, and congratulations to them all. Remember, they are all available for speaking engagements, so get in touch now before everybody wants a piece of their fame!

The Booked Out team just had a class excursion to Sammy J’s Melbourne Comedy Festival show, ‘Potentially’. It was, as he said, a once in a lifetime experience – what combination of people and places isn’t?

Booked Out give the evening two very enthusiastic thumbs up, especially if you’re interested in epic tales of possum courage, toe-tapping musical numbers, and words you can roll around your mouth like dirigible.

Dirigible.