"Writing is always an experiment." Ursula
Let's begin with the title of this new book from the team that brings our NSW children The School Magazine:
Tales of all Kinds: The world of Ursula Dubosarsky
In 2020 The School Magazine are honoring Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky. She worked at The School Magazine (2006-2008), she is still a regular contributor AND you may know, she is also our Australian Children's Laureate 2020-2021. This book - Tales of all Kinds: The World of Ursula Dubosarsky - has been produced to celebrate and showcase Ursula's writing and yes it contains tales of all kinds!
First off, inside this new book, you will find two Word Spy columns ('Pig Latin' and ‘Spoonerisms') that were originally published as part of a series in The School Magazine, illustrated by Tohby Riddle. Later on, somewhat different versions of the columns were published by Penguin Random House as the collections The Word Spy and The Return of the Word Spy.
In addition to the extracts from the Word Spy book, Tales of all Kinds contains six 'stories' which Ursula describes as a piece of fan fiction (The Birthday Party); a memoir (Poor Teddy!); a poem (Christmas Eve); a play (The statue who came to dinner); and a story (The Night Parrot).
The first pages also contain an interview with Ursula by her Laureate Magpie - he is such a cheeky fellow!
As a way to organise my thoughts about Tales of all Kinds I thought I would use three headings - The Child Reader; The Teacher; and Personal reflections.
The Child Reader:
Just like the School Magazine itself, I imagine a child reading this slim volume (34 pages) will flick through and pick out a page that looks interesting. The illustrations are fabulous, showcasing famous names such as Kim Gamble (Tashi); Tohby Riddle; Andrew Joyner; and two names new to me Anna Bron and Gabriel Evans. More about Gabriel later in this post.
Or perhaps the child reader will pause at the contents and select the item that sounds interesting. I did this and I picked out Poor Teddy! More about that one in a minute. The designers of Tales of all Kinds have been clever putting Ursula's play (The statue who came to dinner) at the back because many of us flick through magazines and newspapers from back to front. I know the plays in the School Magazine are one of the most popular parts each month. My reading group, in a local school, love to read these plays. Perhaps the child reader will begin with the play - gathering five or more friends to read and perform. Which ever way the child reader approaches this slim volume he/she is sure to be rewarded with a series of delightful reading experiences.
The Teacher:
I recommend, if you are a teacher or a Teacher-Librarian you should do one of these things-
- Buy one copy to read aloud to your Primary class (Years 3-6)
- Buy a few copies for the school library
- Buy enough copies for a small literacy or writing group
- Buy extra copies to use with the whole class then you will have a low cost and very valuable resource which you can use in so many ways
Here are a set of very comprehensive teachers notes to use with Tales of all Kinds. The notes are also available as a pdf. Here are the order details. Tales of all Kinds could also be used as a starting point for an author study. Ursula has such a diverse range of books from Picture books (for all ages), easy chapter books right up to Young Adult titles.
Teachers might also like to watch a webinar from 24th March this year. At the end of this program the interviewer asks Ursula some very pertinent questions. These could serve as a model to use when an author or illustrator visits your school.
"What do you think is the most valuable thing about a good story?"
Ursula likes to feel or see the finger print of the author. She recommends new writers need to write using their own voice.
"Why is reading by yourself so critical?"
Ursula is currently exploring art which depicts children reading alone. She says these are beautiful depictions of absorption. When we read alone Ursula explains it is a coming together in privacy and peace with the author.
Image Source: Child Reading Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1890
She loves this question when it is asked during an author visit. You tells the kids to be a writer you need to READ. On the issue of reading aloud Ursula expects her picture books to be read aloud - like a play or a performance piece.
"What's the one thing you want people to remember about Ursula Dubosarsky as children's laureate?"
I joined the library!!
From my point of view:
You might like to begin with my previous post about Ursula which I wrote when she was announced as the 2020-21 Laureate.
Poor Teddy illustrated by Gabriel evans
I totally related to Ursula's story Poor Teddy. I think perhaps one of the kids in my neighborhood had a koala like this except he did not have a music box inside his tummy. I adore the way he is described:
"He was made of kangaroo or maybe rabbit fur, grey and brown and white, stuffed (as I later discovered) with little bits of cork. He had nice shiny soft plastic claws and a black nose like a date and two plastic orange eyes with black pupils that stared at me in a desperate, wet, sad sort of way. Poor Teddy!"
Poor Teddy indeed. What adventures he has and what disasters! And yet he has survived. I smiled when I saw him on the webinar.
For myself, I had a small teddy bear. He also came everywhere with me including for a swim! Here is a photo - you can see, just like the little Koala in this story, my toy friend also has such sad eyes.
Ursula calls this story a memoir. Snippets of memory are used to make a satisfying story. Ursula explains she shaped the episodes leading to a high point arranging the story elements like a collage. I held my breath when Ursula took her koala to the national park and put him in a tree. Was she planning to abandon him? I really like the sensitive illustrations by Gabriel Evans. I now discover Gabriel is the illustrator of Roses are Blue by Sally Murphy and a book by a favourite author of mine Tor Seidler (Oh Rats!)
The Birthday Party illustrated by Tohby Riddle
The Birthday party is a short story with characters from previous books. In My father is not a Comedian (1999) and How to be a Great Detective (2004) we meet Claudie and her little sister Griselda. Ursula calls her story 'fan fiction' because she uses the same characters in different situations Birthday parties are a rich source of ideas for a story especially for a comedy.
In this story I loved the arrival of the teacher. Griselda has invited EVERYONE to her seventh birthday. That means 129 children are in the house. It is chaos and the games Claudie and her friends have organised are not working. Then Mr Ingall (Mr Igloo) arrives and "I suppose by force of his MAGNETIC personality he got Griselda out of the bathroom and lined all the children out in the backyard in a row. Then, one by one, he showed them his glass eye ... "
Christmas Eve illustrated by Kim Gamble
How wonderful to discover Ursula owns the original painting by Kim Gamble. It is a view of Manly which is quite near the part of Sydney where I live.
I also have a personal connection with Kim Gamble. Many years ago Kim came to my school because he illustrated Our School fete by Louise Pfanner which is based on the fetes at my former school.
Ursula wrote her poem Christmas Eve for a previous issue of The School Magazine. Ursula loves writing poetry and she says writing poetry allows for "glimpses of experience" like "shining stones in the water".
The Night Parrot illustrated by Anna Bron
The Night Parrot is set on New Years eve. This story was especially written for Tales of all Kinds. Ursula had an idea that she couldn't develop into a novel - hence a short story. This is a magical story of wishes, new beginnings and warm summer nights. Thea is confused when her father explains mum has had to go to hospital because they might "lose the baby." When the Night Parrot grants her a wish, "Thea closed her eyes as she always did when she wished. She knew immediately exactly what to wish for. 'Find the baby,' she whispered. 'Please find the baby."
The Statue who came to Dinner illustrated by Andrew Joyner
When Ursula worked at The School Magazine she loved writing plays. In her webinar interview she says: "I love dialogue" "I love the comedy" She wrote a series of plays based on Ovid poetry because she says it is "delightful, strange, funny" yet educational and authentic. Here is a new book of plays by Ursula Dubosarsky which contains eleven of the plays which originally appeared in The School Magazine.
Sylvie Quick and the bouncing Baby illustrated by Andrew Joyner
This Sylvie Quick story was later turned into the book Ask Hercules Quick.
The setting for Sylvie Quick and the Bouncing baby is a big block of flats. Sylvie is a child who does odd jobs to save for something. This was Ursula's initial idea. The name Quick (I love this) came from meeting a boy at a writers festival. How delightful to fill the apartment block with animals. Why did she include an elk? Ursula just likes the word. I would pair this story with another picture book illustrated by Andrew Joyner - The Swap by Jan Ormerod.
Later Ursula changed her story to a boy called Hercules. She has an idea of using the twelve labors of Hercules as a story framework - way to organise the 'stuff in your head' . So we might see more stories in the future featuring this character.
In the webinar Ursula says authors need to tame all their ideas. It's almost like you have to: "Pour your brain into an ice tray and stick in the freezer so that it has some shape."
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