I just wanted to say the kids are all over your books. I read Dog Wars with the 3/4’s and they LOVE it (as do I). Emily Rodda, Roald Dahl and Jeff Kinney have all been seriously overshadowed by the great Michael Wagner. – Merryn Clift, Deer Park North Primary School

Fiona Wood, author of Six Impossible Things shares some insight into what she does in her writing workshops at schools:

*This week I took a two-part writing workshop with a group of year 8 students at Carey. Their teacher (hello Mr Mason) and I decided it would be interesting to focus on the idea of ‘place’, following on from their elective study area ‘Backpacking with Books’.

We looked at short excerpts by some fantastic writers, from Chekhov to John Green & David Levithan, and how they evoke a sense of place. We looked at some strategies for the toolbox that can be used when writing descriptive prose. And then the years 8s wrote, using some of these strategies. Workshop writing is more about process than product, but some really beautiful work came out of the exercises we did.*

Read more over at Fiona’s Blog

It feels far too long since attending the last Reading Matters Conference, so we were pretty stoked to read the lineup for the 2011 conference. The program will include:

Cassandra Clare (US)
 Markus Zusak 
Melina Marchetta
 Rebecca Stead (US) 
Karen Healey 
Ananda Braxton-Smith
 Kirsty Eagar 
Ron Brooks
 Brenton McKenna 
Leanne Hall 
Lucy Christopher (tbc) 
Delphine de Vigan (tbc) (France)
 Kate Burridge
 Zoe Sadokierski
 Denis Wright (NZ) 
Cath Crowley
 Jane Burke 
Laura Buzo 
Oliver Phommavanh 
Richard Newsome

A big congratulations to Morris Gleitzman for winning the YABBA Award for Fiction Yr 7-9 for Boy Overboard and to Andy Griffiths who took out the Awards for Fiction for Younger Readers with The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow.

Some of the shortlisted titles included Cat illustrated by Craig Smith,The Shaggy Gully Times written by Jackie French, The Tuckshop Kidby Pat Flynn, The Max Remy Series by Deb Abela, a couple of Specky Magee titles by Felice Arena and Tales of Deltora illustrated by Marc McBride.

Books shortlisted in the YABBA Awards are nominated and voted for by children

It’s hard to believe that The Wheeler Centre has only been a part of Melbourne since February. With so many inspiring events on the 2010 calendar, it already feels an integral part of the local Arts industry.

The year began with the prestigious Gala Night of Storytelling which featured Cate Kennedy, Shane Maloney, Tara June Winch and John Marsden.

Some highlights of the calendar included David Astle confessing his love of words, Hanifa Deen asking if Australia is still racist, Sophie Cunningham hypothesising on the future of reading, Tony Wilson and Tony Martin’s Night of Two Tones and Max Barry opening up his music collection for the Writer’s Mix Tape.

Nicki Greenberg and Shaun Tan gave us our Day of Comics. Lili Wilkinson and Kate Holden featured in A Week of Love and Lust. Kate and Sean Dooley gave us their two cents in the Lunchbox/Soapbox series.

But perhaps the most prolific program series was Debut Mondays. Some of Australia’s finest first-timers grabbed the mic including: Andrew McDonald, Sofie Laguna, Amra Pajalic, Anna Goldsworthy, Daniel Ducrou, Jon Bauer, Kathy Charles, Leanne Hall, Steph Bowe, Tom Cho and many more.

The 2011 calendar will be released soon. We can’t wait to do it all again!

Congratulations to Lorraine Marwood for winning the Prime Minister’s Award for Children’s Fiction with Star Jumps.

Other shortlisted titles included Cicada Summer by Kate Constable,Just Macbeth by Andy Griffiths, Mannie and the Long Brave Day by Sally Rippin and Martine Murray and Harry and Hopper illustrated by Freya Blackwood.

Phillip Gwynne and Gabrielle Williams were shortlisted in the Young Adult Fiction category for Swerve and Beatle Meets Destiny, respectively.

John Danalis’ family home was full of curios: old bottles, tobacco tins, a rusty dingo trap – stuff retrieved from sheds and old farms.

Amidst all these relics, on the family mantlepiece, was a human skull they named Mary.

John was an adult before he was shocked into finding out where the skull had come from, and how he could take Mary home.

Listen to John’s interview with Richard Fidler here.

Barry Heard