Category: Subjects & themes
Sister Heart by Sally Morgan has been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year. The awards, which are celebrating their 70th year, are the most influential and highly respected in Australia.
We All Sleep by Ezekiel Kwaymullina will be read aloud on a new episode of Play School for ABC Children’s TV to air later this year.
Representation matters, including in picture book illustrations. Perhaps especially in illustrations, because children are fluent in the language of art in a way that most adults are not. There is no aspect of an illustration that escapes the attention of a child, and this means that to create art for children is to speak to an audience more attuned to the nuances of representation than yourself. This is one of the reasons why the misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in illustration – or the misrepresentation of other diverse peoples, for that matter – should never be dismissed as being ‘only a picture book’.
Sally Morgan’s new book, Sister Heart, was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award today. Poignantly written from the child’s perspective, Sister Heart tells the story of a young Aboriginal girl’s experience as part of the Stolen Generations.
What difference does it make if the characters in young adult novels swear? From time to time, publishers are contacted by parents or schools who are concerned by the appearance in YA fiction of (to quote an editor of T. S. Eliot) words ending in ‘uck’ or ‘ugger’.
Artist and author Sally Morgan shares her highlights from the inaugural Spinifex Story Writing Camp. I spent the last week of June participating in workshops at Tjuntjuntjara Remote School with three amazing people – Karen and Tina from the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) and illustrator Ann James.
Children’s publisher Cate Sutherland discusses the trials and the triumphs of publishing children’s picture books. The most common misconception about picture books is that because they are short and written for children they must be easy to write.
Need a last-minute Anzac Day activity? Why not get your students to create and use semaphore flags? The semaphore signalling method was used to communicate important military information, home-front anxieties and, eventually, hopes for a more peaceful world.
Drawing on fascinating archival material, and interweaving fact with fiction, in this video award-winning author Dianne Wolfer deftly recreates the story of Fay Howe, the little girl from Breaksea Island. In doing so she depicts the hardships of those left at home during WWI — waiting, wondering and hoping.
Alice Nelson is a novelist who won the T.A.G. Hungerford Award and was named Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist in 2009. Here she talks about her latest book After This: Survivors of the Holocaust speak.
In a first for WA children’s books Ambelin Kwaymullina’s Caterpillar and Butterfly is one of two Indigenous titles turned into apps suitable for Android and iOS tablets.
Dropping In author Geoff Havel discusses why political correctness and children’s fiction shouldn’t always go hand in hand.
Dropping In by Geoff Havel is a novel for middle readers aged 10–14 with themes of friendship, bullying, living with disability, ADHD and cerebral palsy.
Before Kyle Hughes-Odgers published Ten Tiny Things with Meg McKinlay, he was a well-known street artist with works in cities around the world. He’s even been asked to paint the Perth airport! To celebrate the release of his new book, On a Small Island, why not take a look around Perth for some of Kyle’s […]
Being excited to contribute to the place you call home is what Kyle Hughes-Odgers’ art is all about. And it’s never too young to start in your own classroom! By helping students to discover their unique talents and their passions, we can support their involvement in the community and their ability to contribute.
Watch Kyle Hughes-Odgers at work on his new book On a Small Island.
West Australian teachers may already know Jen from the serialisation of Mystery at Riddle Gully in the Ed! Section of The West Australian. Her latest book Riddle Gully Runaway can be read as a follow-up to Mystery at Riddle Gully or as a stand-alone book.
Author Norman Jorgensen’s research notes on inspiring Viking women.
Children will enjoy creating their very own How Frogmouth Found Her Home drawings, delighting in the bush creatures and colourful parade of Australian fauna.
Caterpillar and Butterfly is an Indigenous picture book with vibrant colour and delightfully alliterative text. Read the story in class. Using the colouring-in sheet, encourage students to create their very own colourful butterflies.
Classified variously as young adult, ‘new adult’ and adult, Whisky Charlie Foxtrot is a great read for senior secondary students. In this post, we invite you to listen to author Annabel Smith as she reads from the novel. A student activity and comprehensive teaching notes are available below.
Chris Nixon is the illustrator of the internationally renowned Jake series and Crocodile Cake but he’s so much more than that. He’s building a CV that includes public art, video direction and commercial illustration. Here are some notes about how he approaches each project and a video of Chris at work.
The final cover is in! Catch the first glimpse of The Last Viking Returns by Norman Jorgensen, in this amazing time lapse video by illustrator James Foley.
Based on the book Light Horse Boy by Dianne Wolfer, and using historical sources and Brian Simmonds’ evocative charcoal images, this is the story of Jim and his experience of the first world war.