From: Judith Ridge <judithr>
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 20:23:59 +1000

Golly, the emails accumulate when you don't check for a few days! So here are a few observations on the discussion about Aus children's books, in no particular order!

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Morris Gleitzman is spelt that way! :-) Also, in Australia, "Aborigine" and
"Aboriginal" are ALWAYS capitalised. It's an important point of respect for our Indigenous people, who have many different names for themselves in their own languages.

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Bob Graham:


I can't answer this question, as I haven't seen the US editions of Graham's books. I can tell you that " 'Let's Get a Pup!' said Kate" is just called
"Let's Get a Pup" in the Australian (and I presume UK) edition. Graham no longer lives in Australia - I think he lives in France, maybe the UK - and his UK/Aus publisher is Walker Books, which is known as Candlewick in the US, as there was already a Walker Books when they set up in the States. My understanding is that Graham is edited by the UK editor (Walker Books Australia doesn't do any local publishing, there's no editorial staff) but whether or not changes are then made by Candlewick, I don't know.

The "Americanisation" of Aus children's books raises many hackles here, as you can imagine. I suppose it's fair to say that we feel, as we've had to
"translate" American English in film and TV and books forever, that you lot can jolly well put up with our vernacular peculiarities! (and of course, we're terribly fond of them!) It seems from the many discussion on this topic, on ccbc and child_lit and elsewhere, that the US teachers and librarians and so on have a much different attitude towards this than publishers sometimes do.

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Shaun Tan:

Damn! I missed him on the TV. And there was just an apology on tonight's 7.30 report, because Stephen Murray's name is actually Stephen Matthews. He's quite a well respected, if sometimes controversial reviewer. I must say I don't always agree with him! You can read a transcript of the program at: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s603827.htm

I was privileged to work with Shaun on one of his early books, "Crew's 13", a collection of classic horror fiction compiled by Gary Crew, with each story illustrated with an amazing black and white etching. One of them graces my bedroom wall! My favourite Tan picture book is "The Lost Thing".
"The Red Tree" won the New South Wales (my home state) Premier's Literary Award in the children's book category this year.

I'm not a big fan of "The Rabbits", although Tan's artwork is stunning. I am generally a fan of John Marsden, although I enjoy his longer fiction more than his picture books, and I find the text of "The Rabbits" troubling. Barbara gave an excellent summary of its intent, however, I (and I'm not alone here) find it deeply ambiguous. Yes, it's about the white invasion of Australia, but it can also be read as anti-immigration. I am entirely sure that this was not Marsden's intention, but I know I am not alone in feeling discomfort about the text.

Marsden has just published a book called "The Boy You Brought Home", a guide for single mothers of boys. It's receiving quite a lot of favourable media attention.

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The Magic Pudding:

I'm not sure I'd go so far as call this "Australia's national book", but it's certainly a long-standing favourite, although not widely read by kids any more. Having said that, I know of one family in which it's a firm favourite of the kids and parents. A fairly woeful animated movie was made of it a few years ago. I don't think it's ever been out of print. It was written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay, who was notorious in the beginning of the 20th century for his erotic illustrations. If I had to nominate the "national book" for kids, I'd go for "Seven Little Australians" by Ethel Turner - also never OP in over a century.

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Margaret Wild:

Without a doubt our best writer of picture book texts. (I confess a bias, I worked with Margaret for two years. Now writing full time, Margaret was for many years one of our top children's book editors.) She has recently published her first YA novel, a verse novel called "Jinx". It's been shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award for Young Adults.

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Patricia Wrightson and books for the middle school years:

Sadly, many of Wrightson's books are also out of print in Australia. I was very interested in the work Barbara did with young readers and her books. I do think it's true that her books have proved difficult for some young readers, and it's probably fair to say that she's "out of fashion" these days. However, in the last few years there haven't been many really challenging books being published in Australia for this age group (middle readers), and I feel there's definitely a problem here. This year's Children's Book Council awards shortlist for younger readers only has two novels of any length in it, with two picture books and two slim chapter books. Fine books in their own right, but hardly a challenging, sustained read for the best readers in the middle school years. I really believe that the "bums and farts" books that Barbara mentioned have come to dominate publishing for this age group because they sell so easily. (I don't include Gleitzman and Jennings in this category by the way; their books have high appeal, but also have substance, and Jennings single-handedly changed the face of publishing and writing for reluctant readers in this country.) This is doing a real disservice to serious, gifted readers who are not ready for the mature content of our young adult fiction - and as was pointed out to me often when I was in the US last year, we do "get away with a lot" in our YA books in Australia. We've been a fairly liberal society (although this is changing) and our publishing industry is not influenced by the conservative right as it is in the US. There is not a single book on this year's Young Adult shortlist that I would give to a 12 year old, due to the mature content.

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Some of my favourite Australian books, authors and illustrators. I've reviewed a number of these books, and would be happy to email them to anyone interested. I don't have a website yet! I've put the publisher's website address after each title. You'll see Allen and Unwin dominate - they're our best Australian children's book publisher, but their website is ridiculously slow to load!

Elizabeth Honey does write marvellous novels for the middle school readers, just none eligible for this year's award. She's funny and wise and her books have such energy and joy about them. Try "Don't Pat the Wombat" and "Remote Man" for starters. www.allen-unwin.com.au

Kim Gamble (illustrator) and Anna Fienberg (author) have together produced some wonderful picture books and chapter books. Their "Tashi" series is a firm favourite with young readers. Anna also writes wonderful novels for middle school readers, and a very fine YA novel, "Borrowed Light", which I believe was published in the US. www.allen-unwin.com.au

Ursula Dubosarsky writes the kind of challenging, even eccentric books for middle school readers I was just bewailing the dearth of. It's been a couple of years though! I believe she's working on the sequel to her absolutely wonderful "The Book of Samuel". Also: "Bruno and the Crumhorn", "The Game of the Goose" and "The White Guinea Pig" amongst others. penguin.com.au

Garth Nix: "Sabriel" and "Lirael". I'm sure they're well known to CCBC-net readers. allen-unwin.com.au

Isobelle Carmody's "The Gathering" is one of my all time favourites. It's a chilling allegory of the misuse of power. penguin.com.au

My good friend Pamela Freeman's "Floramonde" fantasy trilogy "The Willow Tree's Daughter", "Windrider" and "The Centre of Magic" draw on traditional European fairy tale and folklaw. For middle school readers. The "spinoff" chapter book, "Victor's Quest", has just outrageously gone OP. allen-unwin.com.au

Melina Marchetta's "Looking for Alibrandi" was one of those "instant classic" novels for young adults, and was made into a fantastic feature film a couple of years ago. The coming of age tale of a young Italian-Australian woman. penguin.com.au

Phillip Gwynne's "Deadly, Unna?" and "Nukkin Ya". The titles are Aboriginal English expressions, meaning (loosely and respectively) "It's great, eh!" and "See you later". They're, again, coming of age novels, this time of a young white man and his friendships with a young Aboriginal man and his sister. Inter-racial romance! Wonderful books. penguin.com.au

Meme McDonald and Monty Boori Pryor are a real-life inter-racial romance. Meme and Boori have collaborated on a number of books exploring the contemporary experience of young Indigenous people. The trilogy "My Girragundji", "The Binna Binna Man" and "Njunjul the Sun" takes a young Aboriginal boy through some painful and some wonderful experiences to manhood. allen-unwin.com.au

Odo Hirsch. In his delightful "Hazel Green" series, our young heroine faces increasingly complex ethical dilemmas, in a wonderful urban setting that feels like fairy tale, even though it's not. allen-unwin.com.au

Well, there's a taste. I could go on. I'm sure I'll think of many more and feel dreadful for leaving them out!

My first article on Aus children's books for The Horn Book will appear in the November "history" edition.

Judith Ridge Sydney, Australia
Received on Thu 11 Jul 2002 05:23:59 AM CDT