From: MShuttleworth at slv.vic.gov.au <MShuttleworth>
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 10:41:28 +1100

Greetings from Australia!

Julia Lawrinson?s Bye, Beautiful (Penguin), set in the West Australian wheat belt in 1966, tells of the secret lives of two teenage sisters. It is a stark and beautiful reminder of the many forms of oppression?patriarchal, racial and economic?that lie in wait to shape a life.

Ignore Ursula Dubosarsky and you miss one of the most original writers of our time: The Red Shoe (Allen & Unwin) weaves fable, fiction and fact to portray a family and plays upon the climate of fear that defined the Cold War era.

Tim Flannery?s YA adaptation We Are the Weathermakers (Text) leaves the reader in no doubt about the causes of global warming, the serious implications, and the need for urgent action.

Pushing the boundaries in exciting ways are Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell (Pan Macmillan) and Nick and Norah?s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn (Knopf). We're really looking forward to David Levithan joining us in May 2007 for Reading Matters, the Centre for Youth Literature's biennial conference.

I should also mention The Arrival by Shaun Tan, a magnificent (sorry, sounds like hype but it's just the truth) 128 page silent graphic novel about a migrant's physical and spiritual journey.

Also, the website I work with, www.insideadog.com.au has a list of the 12 books of Christmas. After all, a book, like a pet, is not just for Christmas!

Thanks one and all for a year of interesting reading on CCBC.

Mike


Mike Shuttleworth Program Co-ordinator Centre for Youth Literature 328 Swanston Street Melbourne VIC 3000 PH: 03 8664 7262 FAX: 03 9639 4143 http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/youthlit/
Received on Thu 07 Dec 2006 05:41:28 PM CST