Momo celebrating time to read: Night of the Notables

Showing posts with label Night of the Notables. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2021

CBCA 2021 Notables announced

In a previous post I made my predictions of titles I hoped to see in the 2021 Notables. I was right with some, wrong with others, and as usual disappointed some treasures didn't make the cut. I did especially "badly" with the Early Childhood selection. None of the Early Childhood titles (apart from The Small Blue Dot) have appeared on this blog, so in this post I will focus on Younger Readers and Picture Book of the Year.

Younger Readers (20 titles)

Danielle Bink The Year the Maps Changed

I read this earlier in the year but it did not really appeal to me. The family situation is so complex and I wondered if children in 2021 would understand or relate to the refugee situation in Albania from 1999. Other reviewers loved this book.

Children's Books Daily

Better Reading

Kate Constable The January Stars

I read this earlier in the year too. This is heart felt story but again it didn't really appeal to me perhaps because the way realism (the plight of the grandfather) is blended with the time slip. I may re-read this one over the coming weeks.

Kids' Book Review

Better Reading

Kate Gordon Aster’s Good, Right Things

I gave this a four star review.

Kate Gordon The Heartsong of Wonder Quinn

I gave this a four star review but I am still very unsure about the appeal of the cover?

Steven Herrick Zoe, Max and the Bicycle Bus

Five star review - how wonderful to see a Verse Novel on this list.

Bren MacDibble Across the Risen Sea

Five star review - the scenes near the start of this story where the children climb into a high rise tower building continue to linger with me. I was excited to see this on the CILIP Carnegie Medal Long List for 2021.

Amelia Mellor The Grandest Bookshop in the World

I read this earlier in the year but the construct and repetition of tasks which Pearl has to complete did not hold my interest. The history of the Coles family is interesting but this is a very long book which takes quite a bit of reading stamina. When I read this book I actually skipped quite a few chapters and jumped to the end which is something I very rarely do.

Better Reading

Jessica Miller The Republic of Birds

Five star review - this is a book I adored from start to finish. The names, the word choices and complex vocabulary, and the world building made this book a very satisfying one.

Jaclyn Moriarty Kelly Canby The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst

In 2017 I read the first instalment of this series by Jaclyn Moriatry - The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone. The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst is the third book in this series. I did have a copy on my to-read pile but it didn't quite make it to the top before I had to return it.

Paperbark Words

Sally Murphy Sarah Davis Worse Things

Here is my review of Worse Things. This is a splendid verse novel (there are three books in this format in the Younger Readers Notables) but oddly I just don't like the cover.

Katrina Nannestad We Are Wolves

Five star review. Surely this will be short listed and hopefully be among the final winners. The hardcover edition is scrumptious.

Julianne Negri The Secret Library of Hummingbird House

Here is my review. I thoroughly enjoyed the rich vocabulary used in this book and the themes of political activism.

Allison Rushby When This Bell Rings

I have added this to my "to read" list. We have a copy at the Westmead Children's Hospital Book Bunker where I volunteer so I can pick it up next week.

Kids' Book Review

Pamela Rushby The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin Castle

The Book Muse

Kids' Book Review

Children's Books Daily

Kirli Saunders Dub Leffler Bindi

Here is my review and YES this is another verse novel!

Claire Saxby Haywire

I have added this to my own shopping list. Oddly I have not seen this book in any of the bookshops I visit each week. Here is a review from Reading Time. Here is my five star review.

A.L. Tait The Fire Star

I'm keen to read this because some reviewers say it is a book for 12+, others say 11+ and a few say 10+ so I wonder should this book be in the Older Readers category? (I have now read The Fire Star - here is my five star review).

Reading Time

Dee White Beyond Belief

This is now the first book I have added to my shopping list - I plan to read it over the weekend - the cover looks very promising. (note I have now read Beyond Belief - it is an amazing book)

Sue Whiting The Book of Chance

Five star review.

Sean Williams Her Perilous Mansion

Five star review.

Better Reading

Picture Book of the Year

(20 titles)

Tamsin Ainslie Edwina Wyatt Sometimes Cake

Liz Anelli Sue Lawson The Biscuit Maker

Evie Barrow Maggie Hutchings I Saw Pete and Pete Saw Me

Freya Blackwood The Unwilling Twin

Nick Bland Wolfred Philip Bunting Give Me Some Space

Philip Bunting Not Cute

Philip Bunting Who Am I?

Philip Bunting Wombat

Kelly Canby Littlelight

Gabriel Evans Norton and the Bear

Bob Graham Ellie’s Dragon

Armin Greder Diamonds

Alison Lester Jane Godwin Sing Me the Summer

Chris McKimmie Colin Cockroach Goes to Caloundra

Christopher Nielsen Nicole Godwin Jelly-Boy

Matt Ottley Meg McKinlay How to Make a Bird

Felicita Sala Maggie Hutchings Your Birthday Was the Best!

Danny Snell Jackie French The Fire Wombat

Hannah Sommerville Mike Dumbleton Anisa’s Alphabet

Scott Stuart My Shadow is Pink

Jane Tanner Margaret Wild Girl from the Sea

Anna Walker Hello Jimmy!

Annie White Sue Whiting Good Question: A Tale Told Backwards

Anna Zobel Bernadette Green Who’s Your Real Mum?

MISSING MISSING MISSING

These are the books that were overlooked that I really think should be Notables for 2021. Please try to find these and if you work in a school library I recommend you add them to your collection and also I recommend you read all of these to your students.

Scary Bird by Michel Streich - I am certain this will WIN other awards. I really thought this would be the 2021 Picture Book of the Year winner. Message to the publisher (Scholastic) - please send this book far and wide. Perhaps it might win a future Kate Greenaway Medal as Bob Graham did in 2002 for Jethro Bird Fairy Child or a Caldecott prize as we saw with Hello Lighthouse in 2019. Nop (Caroline Magerl) is on the 2021 Greenaway Medal Long List. I adore Scary Bird so much I plan to add a copy to my own picture book collection.

Finding Francois by Gus Gordon - I was sure this would be a 2021 Honour book. In my review I said: "How lucky are our Australian children to see, touch and hear such a beautiful book which has clearly been crafted with love and care."

A Boy and a Ball by Phil Cummings illustrated by Phil Lesnie. Again I was certain we would see this book on the Picture Book of the Year short list. In my post about this and Anisa's Alphabet I said: "The topic of refugees is a complex but very important one and these books are perfect to use with senior primary school students and high school students. It makes me so sad to say Australia has a terrible record on the treatment of refugees but I celebrate the power of these books by Australian authors and illustrators."

Extraordinary by Penny Harrison illustrated by Katie Wilson - I wish this was on the Notable list - do make sure you add this to your library. In my blog post I said: "I think Extraordinary could be a contender for the CBCA list. Penny Harrison's rhyming words work really well. This is not always the case when authors choose to write their text using rhyme. Little children are sure to be attracted to the sparkles on the cover too."

Duck Apple Egg by Glenda Millard illustrated by Martina Heidczek - this is a perfect preschool level book which I expected to see on the Notables (Early Childhood). In my blog post I said: "It is so important for a picture book to employ equal partners - the author pens a brilliant text and the illustrator creates images both worthy of the words but also images that take young readers beyond the words into another realm of imagination."

Here are the Younger Readers titles I expected to also see on the Notables lists. I do hope you have these in your library:

Eloise and the bucket of Stars - I gave this four stars

Pierre's Not there - I gave this five stars (buy a set and perform the play)

Threads of Magic - I gave this five stars

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Night of the Notables 2021 Guest Speaker (me)

Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to share books I read in 2020 - books I have talked about here on Momotimetoread - as guest speaker at the Night of the Notables. This is an event hosted by the Children's Book Council of Australia (NSW Branch) where we celebrate the books selected for the Notable list in each of the five competition categories - Early Childhood Picture Book; Younger Readers; Older Readers; Picture Book of the Year and the Eve Pownall Award for Non Fiction.

I decided to talk about my 2020 reading journey and this blog - momotimetoread. My blog began in 2008 and when I was thinking of a name I had two thoughts. Firstly I had held dear one novel I read before I became a Teacher-Librarian - Momo by Michael Ende. A young reader, the child of a friend, shared this book with me in about 1980. Momo is an allegory about time and the way, when adults give away their time (in this case to the evil time thieves), it means there is little or no time left for their children. Momo herself is the hero of the story. She witnesses the neglect of the children and sets about trying to thwart the dreadful time thieves.

Ende, Michael. Momo. Puffin (Penguin Random House)

So I had the word Momo. The next ingredient I thought of all the children who visited my school library. Over 32 years I worked in five school libraries. While this didn't happen every week, way too often a little child would return a library book, I would exclaim "wow wasn't that a great book" and the child would say "Mummy or Daddy or whoever the adult in their house - didn't have time to read it."

In 2008 mobile phones were not quite as ubiquitous as they are now but let's put these ideas together. Children need your time. They need to to hear you read books. They need time for reading themselves. There should be time in a family when children see adults reading. Looking at screens and not talking with a child makes me despair. The children in my former school were from affluent families and yet often no one could be bothered to take a little time to read a picture book (borrowed from the library) with their child. A picture book - that is ten minutes of your life! Hence we come to the name Momotimetoread. My hope is that adults will give time to their children - reading to them, reading with them, giving their children time to read, reading themselves, talking about books and more.

You can buy thyme at the supermarket but you cannot buy or make time it is something we have already. We all need to think about how we use the time we have.

Your children will become readers if you give them the precious gift of time.

When I write my blog I have several audiences in my mind. I am thinking of parents who might like to discover new books. I am thinking of a senior primary child who might use my suggestions next time they visit their school library. And I am thinking, and this is the main one, of my Teacher-Librarian colleagues who may not have time to read every book. For the teachers and Teacher-Librarians who read my posts I like to include extras - teachers notes, author and illustrator web site links, ideas for further reading, and occasional discussion ideas or thematic links. Lately I have been giving books a star rating. I only give two levels - five stars (I loved it) and four stars (I loved it but with minor reservations). I completed post number 2000 earlier this year. Here is a Pinterest listing nearly every book I blogged in 2020.

Two of my topics for this talk link to IBBY Australia. We have held several events recently which focus on books translated into English. You can find many titles in this Pinterest collection. IBBY also have a wonderful program where they collect wordless books. IBBY call these Silent Books. I have a Pinterest of these too but I called them "Textless Books".

Here are the books I talked about at CBCA the Night of the Notables 2021. I could have easily talked about many more books but my time was limited to twenty minutes so I needed to be selective. Titles in colour link to the post about each book. I divided my talk into sections: