c'est le temps de l'amour, le temps des copains et de l'aventure

Wes Anderson's latest film Moonrise Kingdom is just adorable. I've talked before about how the Tenenbaums remind me of Salinger's Glass family and I also think there's something Mitfordish about his films and the families within. There'll be them that just don't like Wes, and that's fine by me, but his films really tickle my fancy.*

Moonrise Kingdom is about Sam and Suzy, a pair of twelve year olds who are in love and run away - Sam from scout camp, Suzy from her home - to be together. It's set in the 1960s, has a brilliant soundtrack and all the trademarks of a Wes film: the obligatory slow motion shot, long tracking shot that shows a bunch of different rooms, Bill Murray, wonderful colours and costumes.

It felt like a really wonderful middle grade novel. The kind that makes your heart swell and pushes your nostalgia buttons, one that's about innocence and creeping towards the end of childhood. The kind of book that would win the Newbery Medal. For in these books it is always the time of love, the time of friends and of adventure!

In the film, Suzy lives in a most spectacular house called Summer's End, which reminded me of a book I read recently...

In Monica Dickens' The House at World's End, Tom, Carrie, Em and Michael have to stay with their rather unwelcoming uncle and aunt, because their mother is in hospital after a beam from their house (as it burned down in the middle of one night) fell on her and broke her back, and their father is sailing round the world in a boat he made himself. However, they soon con their uncle into allowing them to strike out on their own in a tumbledown house in the countryside (at World's End), a house that becomes the most wonderful lawless refuge for the children - and a menagerie of stray animals.

Michael, who was the youngest, came in like a bishop in a long towel bathrobe meant for a man. They had lost everything when their house caught fire, and although their aunt and uncle had bought clothes for them, Valentina's patience had run out before she finished outfitting Michael.
  'Excuse me.' He stirred the dog Charlie with a towelled toe. 'She says you must go down to the cellar.' Charlie thumped his tail without opening his eyes. He was a part poodle, part golden retriever, part hearthrug, who liked people better than dogs. 'It is your duty,' Michael told him. That was one of Valentina's favourite sayings.
  'It's worst for him,' Carrie said. 'She kicks him under the table.'
  'I kick her back,' said Michael. 'That my duty.'
  'When we're at school,' Carrie said. 'I think She ties him up, and the cats laugh at him.'
  'I don't blame them.' Em always sided with the cats. 'They think he bit through that old electric wire and burned down our house.'
  'After the fire...' Carrie said, looking through the wall at nothing. 'Do you remember? There was just the spine of the chimney and bits of burned framework, like ribs, and our rubbish heap. I did a picture at school of the black broken ribs and the tin cans. Miss Peake called it morbid. I called it "After the Fire".

The slightly anarchic family dynamics, the rueful independence, the gloriousness of these childrens' lives - I love it. The same way I love Glenda Millard's perfect and quietly heartwrenching Kingdom of Silk books, Hilary McKay's mad Cassel family (see Michelle Cooper's recent post). Or the Conroy sisters from McKay's The Exiles (I LOVE!), who just love books, but when they're forced to spend a summer at Big Grandma's house they discover the joys of gardening, badger spotting and fishing in a bucket:

All by herself Phoebe had acquired a new hobby. It was her own invention, nobody had helped her, nobody but Phoebe would even have thought of it. You filled a bucket with water, tied a bit of string on the end of a stick, held the stick over the water, and there you were. Fishing in a bucket...The fisher in a bucket can take liberties that conventional fishermen can only dream of. He can stir the water vigorously with his rod and produce no ill effects. He can carry the water to any more convenient site...It is a good hobby, and cheap, and if more people did it more often...

(I've been on a bit of a middle grade kick of late.)

Watch the Moonrise Kingdom trailer:



*The evil sister and I have been trying to list them in order of our favourites, and we have boiled it down to The Darjeeling Limited right up the top, as well as The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore, then Fantastic Mr Fox and The Life Aquatic a little bit below. My sister didn't love Moonrise Kingdom, and she felt that because the film revolved around children that she wasn't able to invest emotionally enough in the story. I think she has an interesting point, though I think she is also wrong.

The Rag & Bone Man Press

Come one, come all, to the Official Rag and Bone Man Press Launch!


Immerse yourself in a swanky labyrinth of writers, publishers, spinsters & governesses, and raise a martini to an era of quality prose in the staggeringly glamorous surrounds of The Butterfly Club.


Featuring live readings from Rag and Bone Man Press authors.


Get in your wheelbarrows and barrow on down. We'll see you there!

 TONIGHT! Friday 25 May at 7.30pm

Who are these larrikins, you ask?

Lovers of writing exciting and fresh, welcome to The Rag and Bone Man Press. We are a specialty publishing house, promoting and editing fiction and non-fiction by undiscovered and up-and-coming writers. Our aim is to track down, gather and publish unique writing on our website and as print-on-demand and e-books.


Rag & Bone encourages creative collaborations, holding Salon meetings where writers come together on a regular basis, to keep the energy and ideas for their writing and projects alive. Rag & Bone enables these writers, and communities whose resources and opportunities are limited, to have their voices heard. If you have any ideas for a project – everything from stories derived from world issues like the environment, human rights, or personal accounts, to YA fiction, short stories, poetry or collections of folk tales – please contact us to discuss.


Rag & Bone was founded by Dan Christie, Keira Dickinson and Hannah Cartmel, all of whom work in publishing and creative enterprises across Melbourne. 

I'm going to read my story about this guy:


Tom Hanks on WhoSay

And there will be more readings and music and cocktails - what else could you ask for on a Friday night?

I'm looking forward to it so much that I don't even care that I have to wander southside to attend.

Writers: Rag & Bone want your stories! Send them in! Send them all in!

Visit their website at: www.ragandboneman.org

The Tillermans

Maybe life was like the sea, and all the people were like boats ... Or maybe each boat was a kind of family. Then, what kind of boat would the Tillermans be? A little one, bobbling about, with the mast fallen off? A grubby, worn-down workboat, with Dicey hanging on to the rudder for dear life.
  Everybody who was born was coast on to the sea. Winds would blow them in all directions. Tides would rise and turn, in their own rhythm. And the boats - they just went along as best they could, trying to find a harbour.

Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt, first published in 1981, is one of those quintessential classic American children's books. Or at least one of those thick-paged, yellowing novels from the 1970s and 80s that have the same feel, the same smell, the same dorky, now-dated cover illustrations. The characters and the worlds they inhabit are small, but the stories are so rich. I don't feel like the authors are trying to impress me with how cool the characters are, but the focus is on creating relationships that ring true, that tell stories of sadness without being shocking or depressing, that capture a little bit of a life so fully.

Dicey and her brothers and sister (James, Sammy and Maybeth) are abandoned by their mother and find themselves alone in a car park in a strange city. When she doesn't come back Dicey decides they will walk to Bridgeport, where they had been headed before their mother left them, to go and stay with a relative there. Within a few pages you know these children so well and your heart fairly breaks for them as they hope to find their Momma waiting for them in Bridgeport.

There's a lot of walking involved, a lot of trudging, lots of stale donuts eaten and every penny they can get their hands on can go five ways. As the children walk, they talk about their Momma - who clearly became a very sad woman unable to care for her family - they sing together and they form an unbreakable unit. When Bridgeport doesn't turn out the way they expected, the Tillermans head off again, in search of an estranged, eccentric grandmother.

This review made me so sad. Of course we're not all going to like the same stories etc etc, and the books have more supporters than critics on Goodreads so I shouldn't complain, but at least try to tell me what made you stop reading.

Homecoming definitely has a wholesome whiff about it, for sure, but in a way that acknowledges and appreciates the dark side of the world and doesn't dismiss it or run away from it. All the children (and most of the grown-ups) learn about right and wrong, about what's important in life - and learn that all these things are difficult and changeable and confusing. The people that the Tillermans encounter on their travels, and the kindness (and cruelty) of strangers, the sea motif and the ideas of home and family all make for the best kind of book, in my opinion.

Homecoming's sequel, Dicey's Song, won the Newbery Medal in 1983.

The Tillerman Cycle: Dicey's Song, A Solitary Blue, The Runner, Sons from Afar, Come a Stranger, Seventeen Against the Dealer.

john green is a crazy man in an airport, answering yr questions

and i think he is the bees knees for it.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

started amy and roger's epic detour (by morgan matson published by simon and schuster) today and so far it's quite good. but the most exciting thing is the quote that opens chapter two:




yes! that's the luckies' song california in popular song from the final (amazing) album first frost.
read a review of first frost here. buy it here.
visit morgan matson's website here.

Indie Bound and National Bookshop Day

Two new community-minded bookshop innovations were discussed at #abaconf11:

Indie Bound

A new club is in town. Indie Bound has arrived on Australian shores after much success in the US and UK.

Indie Bound is a small business and bookshop collective that will encourage a "shop local" approach, opening the public's eyes to where their money goes when they buy things and hopefully making them realise that buying locally will help to create healthy local economies, which in turn will help communities thrive.

Membership to Indie Bound will be open to all members of the ABA, will cost $100 for the first year and $50 for subsequent years.

"Put your money where your heart is." - Becky Anderson.

www.indiebound.org.au

National Bookshop Day

August 20 2011 will be National Bookshop Day.

Like Record Store Day, National Bookshop Day will be a a party to celebrate how fantastic and essential and permanent our bookshop are. At the ABA Sunday practical session Fiona Stager from Avid Reader talked about how NBD will be a strategic campaign that will let people know the true facts of the book industry and correct any misinformation (CoughThanksNickSherryCough) that might have leaked out. There'll be lots of material available to booksellers who want to participate, but we're also free to take our own spin on the party.

Celebrations might include having authors working behind the counter at your local bookshop, book busking (speak to Jon at Pages and Pages for tips), hipster sit-ins (speak to Fiona) in your shop window, "double love" extra loyalty points, reading flashmobs...and the possibilities are endless. I. Can't. Wait.

Read more about National Bookshop day at the ABA website - more information will be available in the coming week or so.

Text Prize 2011

The winner of the 2011 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing is...

MYKE BARTLETT

...for his novel The Relic.

Set in Perth, The Relic is an adventure story, a fantasy, "that will make its readers smile but may also scare them under the bed" and sees mythological creatures invade and threaten to take over the world.

Myke - who was here at the ABA conference in person this morning and has a pair of excellent red boots and dapper fashion sense - is a Melbourne writer who started out his writing career with podcasting novels.

You can visit his website here.

Pictured is the 2010 winning title of the Text Prize The Bridge by Jane Higgins. It will be released very very soon and it is very very good.

reading matters = raging success!

congratulations to all the folk at cyl for a great conference. i wanted to thank them for letting me volunteer - it was nothing but top fun.*

markus zusak is clearly uber-human. the man has not aged since i first met him around the time the messenger came out nine years ago! he is also quite wonderful. it was rawther special to hear him read from the still-in-production bridge of clay and i can only imagine what it must feel like to have the world waiting, champing at the bit. plus, have you seen which book has been on the new york times bestsellers list for 193 weeks?! like everyone else at the conference, i was really moved by markus saying that he doesn't want for his book to be the best, or the worst - or better or worse than his last - but that he wants to write so like himself that it is the book that only he could have written.

it was a real joy to meet ursula dubosarsky. her presentation about the golden day was an illuminating look at the inspirations and influences behind a story. rebecca stead (in conversation with pam mcintyre) made me laugh, cry a little bit and yearn for a new york childhood - as well as reminding me to back up my computer frequently. finally getting to meet richard newsome, whose books i adore, was a highlight and his panel with thai-riffic! author oliver phommavanh was an absolute riot, irreverent and ace.

in other news: according to recent search stats bean there, read that has become a pirate blog. pirates obviously like coffee and books too: BEAN THERE READ THAR arrrrr. (i added the "arrrrr").

i finished my internship this week and made these to take on my last day (because i know the way to a publisher's heart):



i am reading meg rosoff's there is no dog. last night i watched hannah gadsby's show artscape and it. was. brilliant. (the first part last week was hilarity incarnate too).

*except when i had to be onstage. that bit was SCARY.

an awfully exciting gift

i haven't read it yet. just keep touching it. and looking at it. and reading the bit that says "for kate". i'm sure the rest of the book will be just as good as the bit that says "for kate".

thank you, thank you to our lovely walker rep, who is beautiful and stylish and kind.

review : one of our thursdays is missing

for your reading pleasure, a very special visitor review:

One of our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde (Hodder & Stoughton)

If a university literature lecturer and an absurdist personality came together for a night of sweet passion, the resulting baby would be novelist Jasper Fforde. Having established a reputation with The Eyre Affair as a ridiculously talented writer with two Fs beginning his surname, Fforde has given us the sixth book in the Thursday Next series.

Our story is a metafictional adventure set in the Bookworld, where all the written books live in an inverted sphere with flesh and blood characters. This is where we find our heroine, the fictional Thursday Next. Her namesake – the Real Thursday Next – is due to negotiate peace talks preventing a war between genres…however she is nowhere to be found. Fictional Thursday secretly pursues the case with her cocktail-making robot butler.

One of our Thursdays is Missing is peppered with literary references that would make any self-respecting Lit student pat themselves on the back on many pages. The many jokes for the sake of wordplay and literary reference could be found a bit wanky by some, but I couldn’t help but giggle at the jaded conspiracy theories placed in fiction instead of non-fiction, meeting the Great Gatsby’s younger brother Mediocre Gatsby, and when our heroine crash landed into a “mimefield” which was full of, well, men dressed in black slacks, striped shirts, white face paint and large hats who became silently murderous when not applauded.

Impossible to pinpoint one genre for One of Our Thursdays is Missing, I can only describe it as kind of like playing bingo with Dr Who and John Cleese, using a four dimensional piece of paper. Trust in Fforde’s creations as they navigate their world and relish the ride.

Now where’s my robot butler? I need a Tahiti Tingle.

If you like your books metafiction-fantastic this will be your cup of tea.

review by Arlene

she said 'do me a favour if you wanna be my saviour then you're gonna have to learn how to sing'

It's been one of those weeks where there's many many things to do, places to go, people to see, coffees to drink and books to read.

Coming up on bean there, read that there are lots of reviews of very exciting and wonderful books. Here is a taster:

How to say goodbye in robot, Natalie Standiford

One of the best and most beautiful books I have read in a while. It's an intelligent and heart-rending story about Bea aka Robot Girl and what happens when she tried to befriend the prickly and odd Jonah, also known as Ghost Boy. Kind of Paper Towns meets Stargirl.

The Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters, Natalie Standiford

After Robot I had to go and read anything, anything else by Natalie. This one was quite different, but extremely hilarious and equally well written. Someone has offended Lou Almighty and must confess or else the entire Sullivan family will be cut from her substantial will.

Angel Creek, Sally Rippin

Jelly, languishing in that summer between year six and year seven, is hanging out with her cousins Pik and Gino down the Merri Creek when they find a baby angel with a broken wing. It's absolutely marvellous - for those middling readers and for grown-ups too. I kept expecting Cedar B to pop around the corner...

The Our Australian Girl series

The historian in me (lying essentially dormant since honours ended in 2007) gets a sense of glee when fab historical fiction comes out for young Australian readers. These four books were all brilliant. More on them later.

Yellowcake, Margo Lanagan

Still reading...don't interrupt. Margo's stories blow me away, no exceptions. But my lovely pal Clare describes this collection even better than I think I will be able to when she said (in her Bookseller and Publisher review, latest edition Junior term 1): "Each one is truly elegant, possessing a haunting, often unnerving quality that leaves the innards of the story lingering long after the last page is turned."

Other Very Exciting Things emerging in the next little while...

• I reviewed A Pocketful of Eyes (Lili Wilkinson) and The Dead I Know (Scot Gardner) for the next Junior edition of B+P and cannot wait to share my thoughts on those when I can.
• The Reading Matters conference is coming up in May. Get tickets, ok?
• Literary anthology Visible Ink will be launched at the John Curtin on March 2nd from 6.30pm. I've worked really hard on this. Come see.
• How to say goodbye in robot is available at the Younger Sun Bookshop in Yarraville. Go there and buy it.

And with no more to-do, here is the latest Darren Hanlon film clip, directed by Natalie van den Dungen, for the song Butterfly Bones*:

*if you don't like it i will be forced to believe you have no heart. truly.

waiting...waiting...

Half Brother, Kenneth Oppel (David Fickling)

Ben Tomlin has been an only child for thirteen years. So when his research-scientist parents bring home a baby chimp to raise as a human child, Ben's life is turned upside-down. Teaching a baby chimp how to understand language is not his idea of fun, especially when he's trying to settle in at his new school. But it isn't long before Zan's infectious personality endears him to everyone and he becomes a real member of the family. But just what will happen when he grows up and the experiment comes to an end? Ben must take dramatic steps, and the repercussions ricochet through home and community with devastating results. This phenomenal novel is a thought-provoking story of relationships and family, first love and growing up, ethics and dilemmas.
4th January 2011

Angel Creek, Sally Rippin (Text)

In her new falling-down home, in her new street, in her new suburb, Jelly waits for high school to begin. She can only feel happy up in the branches of the old apricot tree and by the creek at the back of the house. One night, Jelly and her cousins spot something in the creek’s dark waters. At first they think it’s a bird, but it isn’t…it’s a baby angel with a broken wing. And they decide to keep it. But soon things start to go wrong, and Jelly discovers that you can’t just take something from where it belongs and expect that it won’t be missed. Sally Rippin’s Angel Creek is a book about growing up: being brave and selfish and tough and scared. It’s a book about an angel. But not the sweet variety. It’s a book about the things that change and the things that always stay the same.
28th February 2011

More than you can say, Paul Torday (W & N Fiction/Hachette)

The bestselling author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen returns with a Buchan-esque thriller. A late-night gambling session ends in a bet for Richard Gaunt: can he walk to Oxford by lunchtime the next day? Gaunt sets off and as morning breaks and the dreaming spires near, his evening's winnings look set to double. But when men in a Jeep reverse into him, scooping him off the roadside, Gaunt's life takes a very strange turn. Taken to a country house, he is kept hostage by a man with impeccable manners, Mr Khan who makes him an unusual offer - ten thousand pounds in return for a 'green card' marriage to a woman called Adeena.Traumatised by a tour of duty in Iraq, Gaunt has a cavalier attitude to life and feels he has nothing to lose. His childhood sweetheart won't speak to him, he has lost every job he ever had and he needs cash urgently. He therefore decides to accept Khan's strange proposal - never imagining where this decision will take him. For with his new bride comes a whole lot of trouble...
1st February 2011

some of my favourites for twothousandandten

2010! there were books! oh by god there were books! it was a fun year to be a bookseller in a children's bookshop, i can tell you. here are some of my favourites from the year (almost) gone by:

the keepers: the museum of thieves, lian tanner

lovely, lively little tale of goldie roth - the bold child of jewel who dared to run away and who finds refuge in the strange, dangerous museum of dunt where she learns a kind of magic and, when her city is threatened, takes on hatred and fear.

first sentence: goldie roth hated the punishment chains.

read my review here.

the last dragonslayer, jasper fforde

the story of jennifer strange, who works for the wizard employment agency kazam at a time where magic is waning throughout the world and the ununited kingdom is awaiting the death of the last dragon - so they can get their hands on the pristine wilderness he has been living in and build shops and houses and roads. jennifer, the wizards, the sisters of the lobster and the cranky orphan boy tiger prawns all come together in this gorgeous fairytale-esque story of classic ffordian hilarity and cleverness.

(i have lent my book out so can't give you the first sentence. it's awesome, i promise you.)

review coming...

about a girl, joanne horniman

a beautiful love story, sensual and evocative. all the relationships explored in this story - and there are many - are wonderful, as are the descriptions of place within about a girl, tropical lismore and chilly canberra. literary references and beautiful observations round out this glorious book.

first sentence: this morning i woke and remembered her, and went to the window to look out into the leafless garden, leaning my forehead against the cold winter glass.

read my inadequate review here.

monsters of men, patrick ness

final in the chaos walking trilogy, finishing off the story of todd, viola and that surprise third voice which joins in to tell it (shan't spoil it for those who haven't read this yet). this tale of war is so fast-paced that it leaves the reader breathless, but also - curiously - holding that same breath until the beautiful, satisfying conclusion.

first (two) sentence(s): 'war,' says mayor prentiss, his eyes glinting. 'at last.'

read my review here.

big river, little fish, belinda jeffrey

tom was born on the banks of the river, the day his mother died. he grows up good with his hands but slow at school, with his only friend hannah as his only champion. the way tom cared for the lost souls living down at the riverbank near broke my heart. a remarkable novel, poetic and lush. frightening and real. this is an australian novel supremo.

(have lent this one out too, thus no first sentence and no pic)

read my review here.

graffiti moon, cath crowley

over one busy night, one magic night. lucy dervish is looking for the graffiti artist shadow (who she loves and lusts after), but is stuck with ed (but twist! ed, we know, is in fact the very same shadow) and ed has to rob the school's media department later in the night. evocative and funny and just as good on a re-read (that makes three reads for me now).

first paragraph: i pedal fast. down rose drive where houses swim in pools of orange streetlight. where people sit on verandahs, hoping to catch a breeze. let me make it in time. please let me make it in time.

read my review here. and read about the launch here.

six impossible things, fiona wood

i love dan cereill. the poor thing, his dad's just come out as gay - and bankrupt - he's had to move into a stinky old terrace house with his mum, had to start at a new school and is in impossible love with his next door neighbour. this is a great debut by fiona wood - funny, heartwarming and clever.

first two lines: there's this girl i know. / i know her by heart. i know her in every way but one: actuality.

read my review here. and here i'm chatting with fiona wood.

slice, steven herrick

slice is the story of darcy, who says lots of things he should probably leave unsaid, who has a crush on meditating audrey from next door, is a sometimes reluctant (but ultimately steadfast) friend of weird noah and whose dad worries - in a hilarious way. no one writes boys like steven herrick. love it.

first two sentences of the chapter entitled 'the value of poetry' (from uncorrected proof): 'all romantic poets deserve to drown, or die slowly of tuburculosis in a garret.' i'm standing at the front of class, waiting for universal acclaim from my fellow students.

read my review here. and more herrick-love here and here.

meredith music festival 2010

day one:
we are so hip we had to climb a tree to demonstrate to the masses. then we break a hip trying to get down while wearing masks and wellies.

little red. because i've been going to see them since way back when and they are still mega-nerds.

day two: i consider getting a massage, but it seems like a risky move.

the beautiful afternoon sun shines through the gums and pines...

terrible quality photo of neil finn as he invites anyone who can play guitar a bit to come up on stage and play a song with him and a young lad called matthew, who we predict will get so lucky post-show, is the winner.

day three:
i find who i have been looking for and the weekend is complete.

meredith. it was a gas.

three new favourites