The weather is warming up (by degrees at least if you can excuse the sudden rainstorms) and we’re counting the days until daylight savings and some balmy evenings.

This warmer weather also signals the countdown to the holiday season (90 days until christmas to my counting) so we’ve put our heads together in the office and come up with a list of activities that we’d want to be a part of if our local library happened to run them.

The activities cover ages from 1-early teen so there’s something fun in there for everyone, and they’re the type of sessions that no-one will leave bored or empty handed from!

Download the full flyer below and don’t forget to give us a call when you start your planning.

School Holidays 2013

I’m back from the Sunny Brisbane Writers Festival where I was lucky enough to see some Booked Outers (and soon-to-be Booked Outers) in their native habitat.

Day 1: A day of tall tales began with a session with Martin Chatterton, who taught me that when it comes to stories, tone and confidence are key! My word hunt then led me to a session with Nick Earls (or Nick Management Consultant – to see what I’m talking about head here) Nick discussed the etymology of surnames with the illustrator of his upcoming book. Finally into a session with the wonderful Ben Law who had the audience laughing, cringing (at threatened nudity) and ‘oh yeah-ing’ in equal measures. It was a session on non-fiction writing, and while it may have been aimed at 12-15 year olds, my roving reporter skills have clearly benefited from his wisdom.

Day 2: The sun was shining (while in Melbourne grey clouds abounded) so I took advantage of the opportunity to leave my cardigan at home! In hindsight, this could well have been a mistake as the charming Chris Turney took myself and 200 grade 4/5 students on a sub-zero trip to Antarctica. We lost a few men, had to eat our dogs and…well, I won’t give it all away. At the end of the session, the number of questions from the audience was astounding. The poor person with the microphone was darting back and forth – probably good for his circulation in the cold!

Then onto more amplified theatrics with Ghost Boy and his colourful umbrella! I’m sure the teacups that lined the terrace were close to cracking with vibrations from the crowds shrieks and roars. Together we made some lively poems, with a surprising amount of roast ‘sexy’ chickens. This roving reporter wanted a photo op, but the superstar was too mobbed by his crowd of adoring fans.

Day 3: David’s partner Katherine, of ‘Squish Rabbit’ fame began my third and final day at the festival. In her session ‘How to Write a Rabbit’ I (along with an enthusiastic group of kids) was treated to a lovely session on how small things can say an awful lot. For example, while a carrot-eating rabbit is probably a very traditional type of rabbit, a burger-eating rabbit (although hopefully not the bunny kind!) is probably a bit crazier. The drawings inspired by this talk were incredibly good, and I heard one little girl exclaim ‘I didn’t know I could draw!’.

My festival experience ended with Pat Flynn and Peter Carnavas, who talked about their new book ‘My Totally Awesome Story’. The competitive banter about who’s better – authors or illustrators – had the audience in stitches. Everyone learned how to draw the characters and to imagine how the main character Duane might react if approached by a shark – by biting him of course! I was sad to leave the festival, but when I heard a voice beside me say “That was my favourite session of the festival, I love Pat Flynn”, I thought instead that it was the perfect moment for this roving reporter to head home to Booked Out HQ.

• Rosalind McClintock, Booked Out Agent

As the National Year of Reading draws to a close and we start counting down to the holiday season, we’ve done some brainstorming in the office and come up with a list of speakers with fun and interactive sessions. End the year on a high by booking something kids can sink their teeth into.

Why not make sure that kids head off on holidays with a book in their bag and a spring in their step?

The attached flyer offers some suggestions for entertaining ways to wrap up the year, and we’re always here to make personal recommendations and help you make your bookings.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Download PDF

Congratulations to JC Burke whose book Pig Boy has won best fiction at this years Ned Kelly awards. The awards, designed to recognise the best in Australian crime writing and announced annually at the Melbourne Writers Festival haven’t previously been awarded to young adult fiction, so the win this year is a great honour for Jane (and well deserved because the book is fantastic!).

You can read a review of Pig Boy here.

Following hot on the heels of Book Week, and kicking off a week of schools festivities at MWF, the shortlists for the 2012 Inky Awards have been announced!

This great prize, recognising both local (the Gold Inky) and international (the Silver Inky) work is judged by a panel of teenage readers and then voted for by an audience of young adults. So if your YA book is on the list you know you’re doing something right!

The 2012 Inky shortlist is a great one and can be found in full here but a special hooray goes to the following Booked Outers nominated for the Gold Inky.

• Leanne Hall Queen of the Night
• Gabrielle Williams The Reluctant Hallelujah
• Em Bailey (aka Meredith Badger) Shift

Congratulations and good luck all!

Congratulations to all the great authors and illustrators shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year awards. Special shout out to the following winner and honour books.

Scot Gardner – The Dead I Know WINNER Older Readers

Kate Constable – Crow Country WINNER Younger Readers

Robert Newton – When We Were Two HONOUR Older Readers

Jackie French – Nanberry: Black Brother White HONOUR Younger Readers

Lucia Masciullo (illus) – Come Down Cat by Sonya Hartnett HONOUR Early Childhood

Who’s got their copy of the 2012 MWF program. Is it as torn, dog eared and covered in wishful circles around all the amazing sessions on offer just like ours is?

With the schools program opening in a little over a week, we’re excited to see some of our favourite Booked Outers in action. You might notice one of the agents floating around Fed Square, program in hand, waiting to see one of the following speakers.

• Melina Marchetta
• Jackie French
• Alice Pung
• Robert Newton
• Lili Wilkinson
• Michael Pryor
• Morris Gleitzman
• Valanga Khoza
• Neil Grant
• Penni Russon
• Terry Denton
• Andy Griffiths
• Julia Lawrinson
• Carole Wilkinson
• Emilie Zoey Baker
• Archie Fusillo
• HJ Harper
• Heath McKenzie
• Doug Macleod
• Scot Gardner
• Elizabeth Honey
• Oliver Phommavanh
• Gabrielle Wang
• Kirsty Murray

With such an exhaustive list we (and probably all of the hard working speakers) will need a nice long nap after August! See you at the festival.

It seems we’re never short of awards, which are a great way to recognise the extraordinarily talented writers we have living here in Australia.

Last week JC Burke told us that she’d been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Awards. These awards aren’t traditionally given to YA authors, so Jane is justifiably thrilled that her most recent novel Pig Boy has made the cut. There’s a great review of this book here and it’s worth a read if you haven’t picked it up already.

Robert Newton was ecstatic to be the 2012 winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. He won for his YA novel When We Were Two and deserves a huge congratulations for the accomplishment of his most recent book.

Then today the shortlist for the Victorian Premier’s Award was announced. As always congratulation go out to all shortlisted authors, but a special shout out goes to the following Booked Outer’s on the list.

Nettie Palmer Prize for non-fiction * Alice Pung Her Father’s Daughter

Prize Writing for Young Adults * Doug MacLeod The Shiny Guys

And of course we’re all eagerly anticipating the announcement of the CBCA Book of the Year award. Not long now! This one will be announced in just a few weeks on Friday the 17th of August.

A very special Feedback Friday this week – with pictures! In these cold winter months, a lot of schools have been warding off the winter blues by having special interactive workshops or residencies with our creative speakers.

This wonderful feedback was entitled “David Miller – a wonder!”

David’s contribution to the students’ learning has been amazing. Our students were amazed by his artistic talent and to see, up close and in 3D, the paper sculptures that illustrate his books.

The sculptures David had on display during his visits to our network of schools were exquisite. At Moulamein, these displays draw incredulous cries of joy from our students, and his skill in cutting and constructing sculptures in paper was truly mesmerising. All of our students were so thrilled to have a turn at making things with paper, and happily coloured, snipped and folded paper to create swimming and flying ducks, and some amazing mice and beautiful gum leaves. Students also had the chance to discuss ideas for writing based on some of David’s latest illustrations, and began the creative writing process that they are following on with now David has departed. It was a lot of fun for us all.

Our thanks go to David for a wonderful program of learning that we will now continue in our Reading, Writing and Visual Art units. David’s visit provided students and teachers with a renewed appreciation for the role of the author/illustrator and we were all inspired by his beautifully written stories and his stunning illustrations.

It was a fabulous two days of exceptional experiences. Thank you again for helping our schools to deliver experiences that are enhancing our students’ learning across the curriculum.

-C. Peach, Principal, Moulamein Public School

Or it may as well be, with the holidays and all of the exciting parcels stuffed with new books arriving on almost a daily basis at Booked Out HQ.

One very exciting piece of news we received recently was about the imminent launch of a brand new series by our very own ninja Tiffiny Hall! Back in Melbourne from the most recent season of “The Biggest Loser”, Tiffiny has been hard at work on the latest credit to her name, a brand new fiction series about ninja Roxy Ran and her best friend Jackson Axe.

White Ninja is the first book out in the series, due in September and combines all of Tiffiny’s passions – writing, courage and being a ninja! We’re also very excited to finally have her back in Melbourne so that she can visit schools to talk about the experience of writing these great books.

Tiffiny’s is one of many new books that has made its way to our metaphorical christmas tree over the last few weeks. Frankly there have been so many we don’t quite know what to read next. Any suggestions would be most welcome!

New/ Upcoming Releases….

• After – Morris Gleitzman (due late July)
• Vanguard Prime: Goldrush – Steven Lochran (due late July)
• No Sex In the City – Randa Abdel-Fattah (out now!)
• The Ink Bridge – Neil Grant (out now!)
• Welcome to Normal – Nick Earls (out now!)
• Andy Roid – Felice Arena (series out now!)
• White Ninja – Tiffiny Hall (due September)