WA Branch Newsleer Issue #2 April 2017 Page 1 The Newsleer of The Children’s Book Council of Australia WA Branch (Inc.) PO Box 473, West Perth WA 6872 Email: [email protected]No. 2 April 2017 Editor: Jan Nicholls Email: [email protected]WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE? 2017 Execuve & Commiee CBCA Book of the Year Notables and Short List A Night with our Stars report Naonal Simultaneous Storyme Book launches Paper Bird Hot Desk Fellowship Spotlight on SCBWI Between the Lines Liest and much more... Commiee Meengs are held at 7pm on the third Wednesday of every month at Oasis Loeries House, 37 Hampden Road, Nedlands. All welcome to aend. Newsleer deadlines for 2017: Issue 3: Friday 2 June, Issue 4: Friday 1 September, Issue 5: Friday 3 November Please email items of interest to the Editor [email protected]NEW EDITOR NEEDED! Apply within! 2017 Execuve: Elizabeth Allen, Secretary; Jan Nicholls, President; Suzanne Pearse, Treasurer and Felicia Harris, Vice President Inset: WA Board Representave, Angela Briant Margaret Hamilton cung her rerement cake aſter 56 years of service to CBCA Shortlisted tles by WA creators
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WA Branch Newsletter Issue #2 April 2017 Page 1
The Newsletter of
The Children’s Book Council of Australia
WA Branch (Inc.)
PO Box 473, West Perth WA 6872 Email: [email protected] No. 2 April 2017
The WA Branch AGM was held on Wednesday 5 April at Penrhos College. Vice President, Felicia Harris chaired the meeting, formal business was kept to a brief minimum. Thanks were recorded to Sue Stopher, Immediate Past President, retiring WA Board Representative, Steve Halbert and to long-serving members Eve Morrissey and Dominique Ward who are taking a break from the committee in 2017.
The new Executive was elected, continuing committee members were thanked for their ongoing support and two new committee members were welcomed—Kelly Canby and Jodie Davidson.
Jennifer Jackson from Paper Bird Books was a warm and engaging guest speaker. Audience members were fascinated to see a slim blue volume Inside Perth’s Bookshops that gave us a glimpse into the history and
development of specialist and independent bookshops in Perth
including Haddons, and were delighted to hear that the Barwell family tradition continues with Muriel’s daughter, Jane, who is heavily involved with children’s books and running Paper Bird story time sessions. Jen’s passion for a ‘space dedicated to kids and not just the corner of a regular bookshop’ is infectious and one has to admire her drive, vision and sense of community in aiming to keep books for children relevant and accessible.
On April 6-7 President Jan Nicholls and Independent Board Director Angela Briant attended the National CBCA AGM and Board Meeting in Melbourne. This was an ideal opportunity to meet other Branch Presidents face to face and discuss items of interest to our respective branches. At the ensuing April committee meeting Angela was unanimously elected as our WA Branch Board Representative.
After 56 years of service to the CBCA the seemingly indefatigable Margaret Hamilton has resigned from her role as Deputy Chair of the Board and from the Awards Foundation but will retain a connection by joining the Committee of Responsible Persons. Margot Hillel, Board Chair, presented Margaret with a beautiful hand-made glass bowl. On behalf of the WA Branch I commend Margaret for her tireless efforts and thank her for so many years of dedicated service. Without Margaret (and June
Smith) the Awards Foundation, which funds the Book of the Year Awards would not exist. The AF fund currently stands at $1, 172, 000 and Margaret would dearly love it to reach $2 million by the end of 2017. To donate please refer to the last page of this newsletter or to the CBCA website. Thank you for electing me WA Branch President. It is an honour and privilege. I look forward to working with the Committee as we continue to run our signature events, support and promote our amazingly talented creators in WA and strengthen our partnerships with similar groups such as SCBWI raising community awareness of who we are and the important role books play in the lives of our children. I look forward to meeting you soon at a future WA Branch event. Jan Nicholls
2017 WA Branch Committee
EXECUTIVE
President Jan Nicholls
Vice President Felicia Harris
Secretary Elizabeth Allen
Treasurer Suzanne Pearse
Immediate Past President Sue Stopher
Ex officio Chloe Mauger
WA Board Representative Angela Briant
COMMITTEE
Nola Allen
Joanna Andrew
Angela Briant
Kelly Canby
Sharon Coppin
Dee Cunninghame
Jodie Davidson
Mary Gimondo
Trish Montgomery
Karina Oliver
Aniek Ragan
Denise Robins
Gail Spiers
Sally Woffenden
Jo Andrew, Nola Allen, Felicia Harris and Kelly Canby
Elizabeth Allen, Myrtle Spiers and Gay Tierney
Rebecca Newman, Jenni Woodroffe and Chloe Mauger
President, Jan Nicholls and Jen Jackson
Margot Hillel and Margaret Hamilton
WA Branch Newsletter Issue #2 April 2017 Page 3
CBCA Book of the Year Notables and Short List 2017
The announcement of the Notables in late February, a whole month before the Short List, is a wonderful new initiative which
allows for greater recognition and celebration of the depth of talent in the Australian children’s literature community. Short
lists by their very nature are limited and inevitably some very worthy titles miss out by the tiniest of margins. The Notables list
goes some way towards recognising this dilemma and redressing the situation. Here at the WA Branch
we are particularly proud of our WA authors and illustrators featured in this list as well as our local
publishers Fremantle Press and Magabala Books in Broome.
Older Readers: Meg Caddy and Dianne Touchell
Younger Readers: Lee Battersby, Paula Hayes and Dianne Wolfer
Early Childhood: Davina Bell, Sally Morgan, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Kylie Howarth and Danny Parker
Picture Books: Danny Parker, Davina Bell, Karen Blair, Raewyn Caisley, Gabriel Evans, Chris Nixon, Chris Owen, Danny Parker and Mel Tregonning
Information Books: Mark Greenwood
You can find the full Notables list plus cover images of the books and publishing details here.
https://cbca.org.au/notables-2017
WA is represented in the Short List this year by Waer by Meg Caddy in the Older Readers category;
Chip by Kylie Howarth in the Early Childhood category; Magabala Books with Mrs Whitlam by Bruce
Pascoe in the Younger Readers category and Small Things by Mel Tregonning in the Crichton Award for
new illustrators. The full lists are available at the following links.
https://cbca.org.au/short-list-2017
https://cbca.org.au/crichton-award-2017
We wish all candidates the very best of luck and eagerly await the
announcement of the winners at the 71st CBCA Awards Presentation
which will be held in Hobart on Friday 18 August.
The committee is considering the implications of the move to the new awards judging structure where judges are assigned a
particular category rather than reading all categories. Our WA Judges for 2017-18, Ruth Campbell-Hicks and Margaret Merga,
are reading the Early Childhood and Older Readers categories respectively.
We are still determining the form our traditional Judges’ Talks will now take and hope to have information out to members
soon. Visual presentations in the form of video clips and PowerPoint slideshows will be provided by the current judges and will
be incorporated into our program of events. As always we will endeavour to select presentation venues both north and south
of the river in the metropolitan area and in regional areas wherever possible.
Please check our website for up-to-date news plus our WA Branch Facebook page. We will also post information on WASLANet
An enthusiastic audience of nearly 200 supporters gathered at the Bendat Parent & Community Centre on 2 March for our 14th ANWOS. The spacious venue offered comfortable seating, excellent sound and vision of the presenters, a display area to peruse and buy books plus a room for book-signings and space to network while enjoying the delicious refreshments. Many starry creators, both familiar and new, were spotted mingling in the crowd.
President, Sue Stopher briefly welcomed everyone before Jan Nicholls took charge as MC for the evening. 2016 was such a bumper year for children’s publishing in WA that not all those eligible could be included in the program. 22 presenters were invited to participate – 7 for the first time (including Lee Battersby, Violet Tregonning, Meg Caddy and Paula Hayes). We trialled a new ‘Three in One’ segment for first-timers Nadia King, Monique Mulligan and Teena Raffa-Mulligan who were delighted to have their say, no matter how brief. More than half the speakers were represented in the ‘long-list’ of the Notables, which added an extra festive air to the evening.
It is always impressive to hear and see what these talented people can do in their allotted three minutes and we listened to many insightful, poignant, funny and exciting presentations, given so generously by our guests, who had come from as far afield as Albany, Bridgetown and Dalyellup. Special mention goes to Violet Tregonning for bravely agreeing to speak on her late sister Mel’s behalf about the luminous Small Things and on a lighter note, Kylie Howarth for involving everyone in some speed drawing of Chip the seagull. Other highlights included Sally Murphy reminding us that books are for readers, not boys or girls; Mark Greenwood insisting that Boomerang and Bat ‘is not a cricket book’ but about recognising stories that need to be told and Frané Lessac revealing that zebra finches sing in their dreams. Chris Owen expressed his passion for reading aloud with rhyme and rhythm and ‘big vocabulary’ while Norman Jorgensen presented his tale with bold and rollicking humour. James Foley explained that inwardly he sees his books as films, thus comic books fit his personal style, while Danny Parker reminded us that friendships can grow where words build bridges.
We acknowledge the support of our sponsors, Fremantle Press and booksellers Westbooks who offered a generous 15% discount for pre-purchases and whose busy staff brought a plentiful supply of the books for eager audience members to buy and have signed. Raffle prizes were won by Sandi Parsons, Irene King and Lorrie Finlay and the $450 raised will go to support children in crisis. Thanks to the WA Branch Committee for their wonderful support in various forms on the evening and to Convenor Joanna Andrew for bringing it all together.
Chloe Mauger
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WA Branch Newsletter Issue #2 April 2017 Page 5
Book Discussion Group
CBCA WA Branch Membership
St Stephen’s students take on a Book Week Design Project
On Wednesday 26 April Gail Spiers hosted an animated meeting discussing the titles on
the 2017 Book of the Year Short List. Members selected their favourite titles to review
and outlined the merits and strengths of each one. We eagerly anticipate the
announcement of the winners in August. Next month we revert to the usual format of
discussing one title per meeting. Everyone is welcome to attend.
24 May Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland Penguin Random House
28 June Everything is Changed by Nova Weetman Penguin Random House
26 July The Road to Winter by Mark Smith Text Publishing
23 Aug The Blue Cat by Ursula Dubosarsky Allen & Unwin
Welcome to the following new members. We look
forward to meeting you at WA Branch events and hope
you will join our Facebook page and like and comment
on our posts.
We recently moved to a new database so if there are
any members who have renewed but not yet received a
Number as it entitles you to a discount on CBCA Book
Week merchandise and a minimum 10% discount on
book purchases from our WA Branch supporting
bookstores.
These stores are listed on our website and on Page 15 of
this newsletter. Members are also eligible for a
discounted rate at WA Branch events such as ANWOS,
the Judges’ Talks and the Book Week Dinner.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/111888132180231/
As a member of the Book Week dinner committee my creative skills are often challenged to make interesting table decorations. This year I have some help from the year 9 Design students from St Stephen’s School in Duncraig. As part of a class project each student will create a 3D model of the theme Escape to Everywhere in the style of an illustrator featured in the 2017 Notables list. This model will be a focus for the table decorations.
The students participated in an illustration workshop with Samantha Hughes at Paper Bird Books in March and with her advice in mind, they were ready to meet with me (as the project client) to gain some background into the history of CBCA WA Branch and the Book of the Year awards. I used copies of the Notables books to explain the award process and discussed how their models would be used as table decorations and may be
displayed in libraries, classrooms or bookstores during Book Week. Armed with a wealth of information, the students were ready to move to the next stage of their designs. I look forward to meeting with them in the next few weeks to discover what they have created. Thanks to Bronwyn Schultz and Dee Cunninghame for involving CBCA WA in this exciting design project.
In launching Me and You written by Deborah Kelly and illustrated by Karen Blair in the wonderful exhibition space upstairs at Paper Bird Books & Arts on Sunday 12 March artist-in-residence Briony Stewart, described the award-winning illustrator as one of Western Australia’s rising young stars stating that “Karen’s illustrations are...a series of snapshots of the disordered, messy and busy goings-on of family life...the reader can feel the relationships between the people in the book.”
Karen then spoke of the moment she first read Deborah’s “delicious and poetic words” and fell in love. Initially, Karen aimed to keep it simple, starting with only two characters but the love expanded and she drew inspiration from her immediate family and extended tribe - including the cat! Inspiration for the main character took the form of her young daughter, Alice, who charmed the launch crowd with knock-knock jokes and a warm speech echoing the theme of the book - ‘Even people we don’t know - you’re welcome too!’ Published by Penguin Random House, Me and You is a gentle reminder that life need not be so complicated; that we need to live in the present moment where we can enjoy the simple pleasures of life. As Briony said in launching it, “This is a book to be savoured.” For teachers, Me and You is a multimodal text that can be read on three levels: written, visual and gestural. The written text is poetic and whimsical with alliterative elements. The visual text uses watercolour with the raw, honest line work showing the emotions of each character, adding depth and meaning to the words; the gestural text (postures of each character) invites readers to share the pure enjoyment of movement - from ‘castle stomping’ to the thrilling feeling one gets from swinging ‘toes-pointing-to-the-sky.’ Teachers’ notes and other activities can be found on Karen’s website. http://www.karenblair.com.au/ Rebecca Palmer
Based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale about the dangers of rumours, It’s Quite True! retold by Lis Mathiasen (right) and illustrated by Judith Price (left) was launched by Norman Jorgensen at Paper Bird on Saturday 25 February.
Author Kevin Price signing copies of Kumakana at the launch at Northside Books on 7 March.
At Astrofest at Curtin Stadium on Saturday 18 March hundreds of fans counted down the launch to The Cosmic Adventures of Alice & Bob. Written by Cristy Burne and illustrated by Aska Superska, the pair entertained the large crowd with a lively and energetic role play complete with sound effects and volunteer actor dads nominated from children in the crowd. Curtin University's Dr Wiebke Ebeling (and editor-in-chief of the book) also had a hand in entertaining the crowd. Published by CAASTRO, free class sets of this book were offered to WA schools.
Photo credit: Denis Knight
Julia Lawrinson’s latest YA novel Before you Forget, published by Penguin Books, was launched by Fremantle Tennis Club President and family friend Laurie Apps, at The Literature Centre on 16 February. Surrounded by friends, family and colleagues Julia and her daughter Annie, shared the motivation for the book - the emotional story of a family trying to come to terms with a beloved husband and father’s slide into early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. A poignant short film, beautifully made by Kori Reay-Mackey, and Annie’s powerful art work complemented the moving speeches. You can read Julia’s speech on her website here and view the video on YouTube at this link.
Kelly Canby
Recent Book Launches
Arrr! ‘Twas a fine morning on Sunday 19 March when Captain Jan the Red appeared at Fremantle Sailing Club to launch a book that’s guaranteed to shiver your timbers!
1, 2, Pirate Stew (Five Mile Press) is the third offering by Perth author-illustrator Kylie Howarth. Her first book Fish Jam was nominated for the CBCA Crichton Award for illustration and her second, Chip is on the 2017 CBCA Notables list. That sets the bar pretty high for book number three and 1, 2, Pirate Stew doesn’t disappoint. As a counting, rhyming picture book, it even features a terrific rhyme for the very tricky number twelve!
Attending land-lubbers laughed at clever pirate puns, munched on cupcakes and hunted for treasure before happily parting with their gold for a signed
copy of the book with its limited-edition pirate tote bag.
It seems they took the advice of Captain Jan when she said, “1, 2, what should you do? Read this book whatever you do! 3,4 then buy some more – for the kids in your life and those next door!”
At the launch of their picture book Dog Lost, written by Jan Ramage, at The Literature Centre on 6 April illustrator Brian Simmonds made it all sound so easy. He cited a teacher who forty-odd years ago said: ‘All you have to do is put the right colour in the right place.’ Simmonds laughed, ‘What could go wrong?’ This is his third book and Jan Ramage’s fifth.
Dog Lost tells the story of a cattle dog – Dog – swept away by torrential rain in wild country with the illustrations suggesting it is WA’s northwest. Lesley Reece described Ramage’s prose as sparse, poetic and lyrical whereas Simmonds’ art, ‘picked up all the senses – the smells and feel of everything going on.’
Ramage said the book was a story of love, persistence, resilience and trust, ‘ about the persuasive belief that amazing things happen if one believes. It also honours dogs. Mankind owes so much to our faithful friend.’ In writing the story, she drew on a special memory, when as a child of twelve on her uncle’s station, she helped him drive cattle, on horseback, from one paddock to the next.
It was Ramage who, after falling in love with his pictorial study River (Fremantle Press), suggested to her publisher, Windy Hollow Books, that Simmonds had the right touch for Dog Lost.
Simmonds decides what to draw by skim reading and seeing what images jump out at him. ‘It’s a question of making yourself available. Then lightning happens. The word magic often bobs up,’ he said. ‘It may be magic. It’s just instinctive, intuitive.’ All illustrations are in his signature pastels, over charcoal. They are rich, dynamic and tender. ‘I drew the charcoal pictures first, then coloured them in.’ All the colours appear to be in the right places – his old teacher would have been proud!
Jen Banyard
Jan Ramage and Brian Simmonds
CBCA Book Week Merchandise
The whimsical images by multi award-winning illustrator Freya Blackwood will inspire you to Escape to Everywhere for CBCA Book Week this year. Enhance your library or classroom and celebrate Book Week in style with the delightful range of merchandise on offer. Order Forms with all the details will be despatched early in term two, with a closing date of 3 June for their return. WA Branch members are eligible for discount on purchases. For further information check out the WA Branch directly www.cbca.org.au and for specific queries contact [email protected]