Australia Day Awards and Children's Literature

Graeme Base

Publications include: 

• Eye to Eye, Penguin Australia, 2015.  
• Little Bug Books, A series of six toddlers' books; Penguin Australia, 2014, 2016.  
• The Last King of Angkor Wat, Penguin Australia, 2014.  
• My First Animalia, Penguin Australia, 2013.  
• Co-Author, Breather, Penguin Australia, 2013. 
• Little Elephants, Penguin Australia, 2012.   
• The Jewel Fish of Karnak, Penguin Australia, 2011.  
• The Legend of the Golden Snail, Penguin Australia, 2010.  
• Enigma, Penguin Australia, 2008. 
• The Discovery of Dragons: New Research Revealed, Penguin Australia, 2007.  
• Uno's Garden, Penguin Australia, 2006.  
• The Waterhole, Penguin Australia, 2001.  
• The Discovery of Dragons, Penguin Australia, 1996.  
• The Sign of the Seahorse, Penguin Australia, 1992.  
• The Eleventh Hour, Penguin Australia, 1989. 
• Illustrator, Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, Penguin Australia, 1987. 
• Animalia, Penguin Australia, 1986. 
• My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, Penguin Australia, 1983.  

Stephanie Owen Reeder

Story Time Stars

Rakali of the Riverbank

Sally Odgers - Sally Odgers is a Tasmanian author and manuscript assessor. She was born in Tasmania in 1957 and has written over 400 books.

Eliza Hull - Eliza Hull is an award-winning musician, writer, and disability advocate. She is the creator of the ABC podcast series We’ve Got This about parenting with a disability. She also edited and created the book with the same title We’ve Got This: Essays by disabled parents which features parents who identify as disabled, Deaf or Chronically Ill.  She is a contributor in the Growing up Disabled in Australia and Teacher Teacher anthologies, and her award-winning children’s book Come Over To My House, and its companion, The World We Can Build (co-authored by Sally Rippin and illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett), authentically represent various families with disability. A writer for the ABC, Eliza is also a regular television and radio guest, using her lived experience of disability to reduce stigma.

Patricia Pledger - for service to children's literature. Pat Pledger is a director of Pledger Consulting and editor of the ReadPlus blog. Previously, she has been a school library coordinator and English teacher. She is keenly interested in the promotion of reading and has presented conference papers about literature activities at national and international conferences. She also reviews for the South Australian English Teachers’ Association and the School Libraries Association of South Australia.

The Australia Day 2026 Honours List recognizes and celebrates 949 Australians, including awards in the Order of Australia (General and Military Divisions), meritorious awards, and recognition for distinguished and conspicuous service. This year's list includes 680 recipients of awards in the General Division of the Order of Australia, with 187 Meritorious awards, 10 AM and 12 OAM in the Military Division, and 60 distinguished and conspicuous awards. Notable recipients include Olympic legend Cathy Freeman, who has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, and former premiers, community champions, and mental health trailblazers. The youngest recipient is Nicholas Alexander Pearce, a 32-year-old co-founder of HoMie Streetwear Store, which supports young people affected by homelessness and hardship. The eldest living recipients are Janina Archabuz and Derrick Hammon, both at age 99, recognized for their community service in Melbourne and Canberra, respectively.

The Stories Behind the Stories by Danielle Higley

"In my research of these authors, I began to see that our most treasured children's books weren't just built on creativity and imagination - many were born from an extraordinary persistence and grit."

I thought I knew many of these back stories - but I didn't. Reading this book I made so many delightful discoveries.

Did Clement Clark Moore really write The Night Before Christmas? 

Why is there a black telephone in the room (Goodnight Moon)? After all this is perhaps supposed to be a bedroom.

Do you recognise the name Bennett Cerf?  I had no idea he was the co-founder of Random House who published books by Dr Suess (Theodor Geisel). He is also the man who set Dr Seuss the 50 word challenge which led to Green Eggs and Ham.

"When CS Lewis (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) was sixteen, a image of a faun carrying parcels and an umbrella through a snowy wood popped into his mind."

Wilson Rawls (Where the Red Fern Grows) loved Call of the Wild which his mother read to him. He had very little education, could not spell and had no idea about punctuation or paragraphs. His burnt all his work which he had spent years writing. Luckily his wife encouraged him to rewrite his stories and she helped him with the paragraphs etc. 

Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) lived in Stuttgart, Germany during World War II. "There were no colours. ... Everything was greys and greens and brown greens and grey greens. ... (with the Very Hungry Caterpillar) the child inside me - who had been so suddenly and sharply uprooted and repressed - was beginning to come joyfully back to life."

When he was a young school boy Cadbury had a chocolate factory near Roald Dahl's school. The children were sometimes asked to taste the new chocolate creations. Have you made a link here?

I do like the way the Table of Contents page is presented.  The art in this book has been created using collage and fragments of book covers.  You can see inside this book on the publisher page. 

There are twenty-nine books explored here and nearly all are titles I am sure you would expect to see. Here are a few:

• Charlotte's web
• The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe
• Green Eggs and Ham
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Where the Wild things are
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• Peter Pan and Wendy
• Winnie-the-pooh
• Goodnight Moon
• Curious George
• The Hobbit
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Harry Potter 

And then there are other books which, while very familiar, may surprise you:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Henry Huggins
• Where the Red Fern Grows
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Percy Jackson
• A series of Unfortunate Events
• The Boxcar children
• Nancy Drew mysteries
• The Giving Tree
• Roll of Thunder hear my Cry
• Captain Underpants
• The Magic School Bus

I have had this book on my "to buy" list for over a year. Last week I decided this could be my Book Week gift to myself even though the books inside are not Australian. 

There is a detailed bibliography at the back of this book which you could use for extra research.

A visually stunning look at how timeless stories are made. Baby Bookworm

The publisher Bushel and Peck Books donate one book to kids in need for every book they sell. They give books to schools, libraries, shelters, and other organisations. Isn't that wonderful!

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Joy McCullough

Sutton is worried. Her dad has a new 'girl friend'. Does this mean he plans to marry Elizabeth? Does this mean two people will move into their small apartment? Or will Sutton and her dad have to move to the suburbs of Seattle? Elizabeth has a son called Luis. Luis is so very different from Sutton. How can they ever be friends? And then there is the issue of Sutton's mother who is working in Antarctica. Sutton is sad that her parents are divorced but at least mum does live in the same building except these days she is never home because she is studying emperor penguins and with climate change her study time is unpredictable. Mum's return will be delayed and she won't arrive home in time for Sutton's tenth birthday.  Life seems way too hard for Sutton right now and her bot programming is not working out either.

Sutton loves science. She is working on a program for her bot (small robot). Dad is keen for Sutton to like Elizabeth and to make friends with Luis but the outings he organises seem doomed to fail. They go to the Museum of Popular Culture. Luis loves Star Wars and Harry Potter but these references are a mystery to Sutton. In a way these two kids are polar opposites - science brain versus imagination. The next outing is a hike at Discovery Park which has 12 miles of trails. The biggest complication here is Luis and his allergies. He is allergic to bees, peanuts and dairy. His mum is naturally very protective but on the hike Sutton and Luis are separated from the adults and things do go terribly wrong. These kids, though, are resilient and together they can survive.

A field guide to getting lost is an easy novel to read, I did care about the characters, and I enjoy books with alternating voices. The sense of community in the final scene made me smile. It reminded me of the final scene in The View from the 32nd Floor and the community of Hazel Green (Odo Hirsch). There are a lot of "issues" in this middle grade story but they are handled with a light touch. If you know a middle grade reader who has allergies to various foods and bees this book could be somewhat reassuring showing there are ways to cope when things get tough especially when you have the support of a good friend (and a mum who truly cares about you).

With chapters switching narrative focus between the two protagonists, their inner turmoil is handled with sensitivity, creating a character-driven tale that doesn’t skimp on plot. Kirkus

You can read the first chapter on the Simon and Schuster web pages. Here is an interview with Joy McCullough. Thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advance reader copy of A field guide to getting lost which was published in April.

I would follow A field guide to getting lost with:

To Night Owl from Dogfish

The Shape of Hope: Finding wonder, joy and strength in literature

In this post I am going to attempt to distill three wonderful conference days into one post.  I tend to think in 'dot points' so here are my reactions and thoughts now that I am home from this splendid conference. This is my third post about this event. You can read about all the presenters here and also details of my presentation at the Texas Book Festival.

• Austin/Texas authors - books to explore

Paige Britt  Why am I me? Kirkus Star review

Samantha M Clark The Boy, the Boat and the Beast

Meredith Davis  Her Own Two Feet
This is the true story of a little girl from Rwanda who comes to Austin for an operation to help her walk.

Carolyn dee Flores The amazing water color fish
Watch this video of the story. The unique aspect of this book is that it rhymes in both English and Spanish.

Bethany Hegedus  Grandfather Gandhi; Rise Maya Angelou

KA Holt  Redwood and Ponytail; I wonder

Lupe Ruiz-Flores  Author of six bilingual picture books and Lupe is a poet.

Vanessa Roeder  Lucy and the string; The Box Turtle

Christina Soontornvat  Diary of an Ice Princess series
New book coming about the rescue of the Thai soccer team - The Thirteen

• Conference program

Briley Dinner table decoration speaker Nicola Davies

There were so many special aspects to the organisation of this conference. One thing I really appreciated was the use of a schedule app. This conference was almost paper free (apart from all the glorious books in the bookshop, the IBBY book displays and the poster sessions). By using the app participants were sent a daily personalised schedule with times and room numbers. The other aspect of the program that I really appreciated was the pace of this conference and they way the organisers at no time had to cajole people into sessions. It seemed to me the delegates were expected to take responsibility for their own program - there were no bells and no one rushing around saying go to this or that session. Here is a list of all the breakout sessions.

• My Pre-conference Reading

My reading really paid off.  Prior to the conference I tried to read any many books from the range of speakers as I could. On my flight over I completed a few more Middle Grade novels such as The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin, Whale Boy by Nicola Davies and The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye. On the days prior to the conference I visited the Austin Central library. What an amazing space, building, and children's collection. The library was built two years ago and is housed over six floors with an outdoor courtyard garden, central light filled atrium and bright comfortable furniture. While I was there I read several picture books including: Mine Yours illustrated by Qin Leng; The Red thread by Grace Lin; Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin; What can you do with a Rebozo by Carmen Tafolla;  The Pond by Nicola Davies, and The Promise also by Nicola Davies;

• What do I want to read now?

Aunt Pearl illustrated by Irene Luxbacher
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Black is a rainbow color by Ekula Holmes
Just in case you want to fly illustrated by Christian Robinson
A time to Dance Padma Venktraman
Deep Underwater illustrated by Irene Luxbacher
Nerdy Book Club blog post by Padma Venkatraman about colonisation and the depiction of people from India in books like The Secret Garden.
A place at the table by Laura Shovan and Saadi Faruqi
Lucy and the string by Vanessa Roeder

• References to Australian books

Florette by Anna Walker
The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
Every Child a Song by Nicola Davies illustrated by Marc Martin (Australia)
Sophie Scott goes South by Alison Lester (poster session)
The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke (poster session)
Bob the Railway dog by Corinne Fenton illustrated by Andrew Maclean (poster session)

• Some memorable quotes (paraphrased)

"Poetry is a party we're all invited to" Jacqueline Woodson
"We never know how our words go out into the universe"  Naomi Shihab Nye
"We are always looking for answers but really it is curiosity that unites us." Paige Britt

On Hope:
"Hope is generosity - to give something away that is unexpected." Ekua Holmes
"Hope - there is no other way. ... Find that book for that child. Words matter. We need to be hopeful for a better tomorrow."  Baptiste Paul

"You're not supposed to have an agenda! NO I have an agenda. I want to re connect the child with the natural world, I want to open up conversations, I want children to be empowered not powerless." Nicola Davies
"Picture books are extraordinary, powerful and unique."  Nicola Davies
"The story space allows us to imagine a new world - dreams become action." Nicola Davies

• Poster Session highlights

1. Spark wonder in Green Literacy - Jen Cullerton Johnson  
2. Representations of food insecurity and hunger in children's literature - Maria V Acevendo-Aquino and Estela Ipina
3. Student-created book trailers on motivation and comprehension - Jared Crossley
4. Map it - using maps and digital collection to teach information books - Bindy Fleischman

• Discoveries

Grace Lin was inspired by Ezra Jack Keats and his book Snowy day and this lead to her books about Little Snow.

Many years ago Allen Say was asked a very serious question by a Grade 4 child - "To be an artist can I be one by working hard or do I need talent?"  This question lingered with Allen and led to his newest book - Almond

Christian Robinson dedicated one of his books to his high school art teacher who not only encouraged him she organised for him to enter competitions. I think he said she paid for them.

Elise Gravel has wonderful cartoons on her web site which explain concepts such as empathy, diversity and racism. Her book What is a Refugee was developed when a publisher saw one of her cartoons.

The second pre conference tour was to the Harry Ransom Center which is which is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin. There we viewed a range of items by Arthur Rackham. I was interested to discover there are many other archival collections like this in America such as the Children's Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota. At this conference I met librarian Lisa von Drasek. I would love to spend time in her library and possibly others like it some time in the future.

The common bird in Austin Texas is the Grackle. I think they drive the locals crazy but I found them fascinating.  This sculpture can be seen in the Austin Central library - it's a cuckoo clock with no hands.

 Image Source: https://ebird.org/news/grackles

• One more thing ...

Poem from the session:
"Looking at Refugees: Books as Help Patricia L. Bloem, Oralia Garza de Cortés, Laura Vander Broek"

Home, by Warsan Shire (British-Somali poet)

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark.

you only run for the border
when you see the whole city
running as well.

your neighbours running faster
than you, the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind
the old tin factory is
holding a gun bigger than his body,
you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.

no one would leave home unless home
chased you, fire under feet,
hot blood in your belly.

it's not something you ever thought about
doing, and so when you did -
you carried the anthem under your breath,
waiting until the airport toilet
to tear up the passport and swallow,
each mouthful of paper making it clear that
you would not be going back.

you have to understand,
no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land.
who would choose to spend days
and nights in the stomach of a truck
unless the miles travelled
meant something more than journey.

no one would choose to crawl under fences,
be beaten until your shadow leaves you,
raped, then drowned, forced to the bottom of
the boat because you are darker, be sold,
starved, shot at the border like a sick animal,
be pitied, lose your name, lose your family,
make a refugee camp a home for a year or two or ten,
stripped and searched, find prison everywhere
and if you survive and you are greeted on the other side
with go home blacks, refugees
dirty immigrants, asylum seekers
sucking our country dry of milk,
dark, with their hands out
smell strange, savage -
look what they've done to their own countries,
what will they do to ours?

the dirty looks in the street
softer than a limb torn off,
the indignity of everyday life
more tender than fourteen men who
look like your father, between
your legs, insults easier to swallow
than rubble, than your child's body
in pieces - for now, forget about pride
your survival is more important.

i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home tells you to
leave what you could not behind,
even if it was human.

no one leaves home until home
is a damp voice in your ear saying
leave, run now, i don't know what
i've become.

• Silent Auction raising funds for IBBY projects

The silent auction was fabulous and I picked up a signed copy of the new Rosemary Wells book Twin Trouble. This linked beautifully with the display at the Austin Central library from the Rosemary Wells book about Yoko.

 Mural in the children's section of the Austin Central Library

One piece of art from Yoko's Show and Tell on display in the Central Library in Austin

Why you should read Children's books by Katherine Rundell

Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise is the full title. Notice all those wonderful CAPITAL LETTERS!

I need to carry multiple copies of this book with me at all times. I read children's books. I blog here about children's books. I visit libraries to borrow children's books. I browse the kids section in bookshops so I can keep up with new titles and buy children's books AND I don't think there is anything wrong with that BUT when I explain this is what I do, people are astounded. Do you read adult books they ask? Yes I say but very infrequently and mostly I am disappointed in them. I see it in their eyes, their opinion of me slumps. How can anyone enjoy reading (almost exclusively) hundreds of children's books?  Thank goodness for Katherine Rundell - she gives voice to the things I think but cannot express as eloquently.  Katherine talks about the myth of reading in one direction. Moving from Spot to the Wild Things, on to Narnia and Catcher in the Rye then finishing your life with Finnegans Wake and Jacques Derrida. She argues this is totally wrong. The human heart is not a linear train. Here are a couple of quotes from this essay by Katherine Rundell:

Children's books when "read with an adult eye, have a different kind of alchemy in them." page 9

"Children's fiction necessitates distillation: at its best, it render in their purest, most archetypal forms hope, hunger, joy, fear. Think of children's books as literary vodka." page 12

Children's novels say: "look, this is what bravery looks like. This is what generosity looks like. They tell me, through the medium of wizard, lions and talking spiders, that this world we live in is a world of people who tell jokes and work and endure. Children's books say the world is huge." page 47

"Children's book are not a hiding place, they are a seeking place." page 62

This is a tiny little book, only 15cm tall, with just over 60 pages. It costs around $13. The publisher has given this book a bright red cover so I can be seen on a shelf - perfect. I highly recommend this little gem for all children's literature fans who face my struggles explaining why "you should read children's books even though you are so old and wise." Buy one for yourself and an extra copy or two for your friends.

The book is also intended to fight against the “outrageous and absurd” idea that adults who read children’s fiction should feel some kind of cultural shame. “I’m not arguing that adults should only read children’s fiction, but I’m arguing, very passionately, that adults who read children’s fiction are offered something which perhaps other fiction cannot provide: a kind of hope and hunger. The Book Seller

Books by Katherine Rundell:

Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D Sieruta

"Told conversationally, moving easily from book banning to social politics to plain old sour grapes, this collection dispels any notion that children’s literature is apolitical and humorless. Librarians, writers, teachers, scholars, and enthusiastic readers alike will revel in the information that complicates the world of children’s literature."  VOYA

This book, Wild Things from 2014, is an easy to read critical look at various aspects of children's writing such as banned books, critics versus popular titles, celebrities writing children's books and the post Potter world. It is from a US perspective but children's literature fans here in Australia will be familiar with nearly all of the titles which are cited.

The chapter that resonated with me was entitled:

And to think I saw it on Hollywood Boulevard: The celebrity Children's Book Craze

I have been reading advanced reader copies of novels this year from Australian publishers and by Australian authors. Quite a few have been written by 'celebrities' although I am often ignorant of their celebrity status. Nearly all have been quite hopeless and so you haven't read about them here on my blog. Remember all book comments are subjective and it may that you loved a recent celebrity title or perhaps it was the one book that helped your child on the path to reading and that is great but with so many books flooding the market every month I worry about three things - are all these titles worthy of a huge investment by a publishing company, have other wonderful books been overlooked because of budget constraints and is there a way to rediscover the wonderful books of the past that may have slipped past our attention especially the attention of gate keepers like Teachers and Teacher-Librarians. Perhaps these older titles deserve publication in preference to the "five minute wonder" celebrity title.

Betsy Bird makes some very astute comments about the trend of publishing books by celebrities. Here are a few quotes:

"If we sound cranky, it's because it often seems that what lies behind your typical celebrity book is an inherent level of disrespect for the craft of children's literature."

"Certainly during challenging economic times, publishers feel great pressure to sell blockbusters, drawing attention away from lesser-known authors and illustrators. There's no doubt that publishing is driven by sales, and just the right celebrity book can bring in the big bucks."

Here is a comment about the children who are offered these books:

"... it's the poor tots of this world who not only have to read the often patronizing, flat prose offered by most celebrity authors, ... (but luckily) children are unrelenting critics, and they do not care about the number of movies or television shows in which someone has starred. ... They just want to read a good book."

My question on this issue is - in let's say five years, or even less, will these books by current celebrities still appear in bookshops? I am guessing, in most cases, probably not.

Here is a fun review of this book by Travis Jonker where he talks to the ghosts of famous children's authors about this book. Read more praise for this book here.

Helen Oxenbury a life in illustration Words by Leonard S Marcus

As Christmas approaches book lists are appearing all over the place - on blogs, in shops and in book store catalogues. After you have made all those book purchases for others here is a book to add to your own list or if you are looking to give a gift to a Children's Literature fan (like me) this book is perfect.

I spied Helen Oxenbury a life in illustration on the web some weeks ago and then I saw the actual book on the coffee table of a good friend yesterday. I exclaimed WOW I want to read that! She generously said take it home. You will love it.

So last night I sat down thinking I would read a few pages. You have probably guessed I read the WHOLE book in one sitting. That's over 265 pages but before you are too impressed, about half the book is given over to full page examples of the joyous work we associate with Helen Oxenbury.

My own first memory of Helen Oxenbury would be her Tom and Pippo series. Reading Helen Oxenbury a life in illustration I have discovered Helen produced 12 books about Tom and his toy monkey. They were first published in 1988. This is one series that surely should be back in print. I fondly remember giving these book to many family friends.

It is at times like this I wish I was still 'living in' my school library.  I need to sit down and look more closely at earlier Helen Oxenbury books such as The Great Big Enormous Turnip by Alexei Tolstoy (1968), The dragon of an ordinary Family by Margaret Mahy (1969), The Hunting of the Snark by Edward Lear (1970) and Meal One by Ivor Cutler (1971). I also love the way I make discoveries. I had no idea Helen Oxenbury illustrated another favourite book - Franny B Kranny there's a bird in your hair (2001).

Image Source: http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidloves.com/2011/04/meal-one.html

Of course one of the most famous books illustrated by Helen Oxenbury is We're going on a Bear Hunt. This book has been a part of my read aloud repertoire since it first appeared in 1989 and who can resist Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell (1991). There is a whole chapter devoted to Farmer Duck in Helen Oxenbury a life in illustration.

Michael Rosen (We're going on a bear hunt) talks about his ideas and reaction to the illustrations in a candid way.  He simply didn't understand Helen's images at all.  We're going on a bear hunt began life as a song. Helen actually did the art for the album sleeve. About this time Michael Rosen came across the song and he added it to his one-man show for school children. An editor at Walker books heard the song and recognised the potential for a book. Helen drew on the landscapes near her home at Hampstead Heath and the landscapes of her childhood in Felixstowe. Eighteen months later the books was finished. I loved reading her thoughts about the last page, which for me is the most important. Here is a quote from The Guardian:

"It occurred to me three-quarters of the way through that possibility that the bear was all on his own in the cave, and might just have wanted some company rather than to eat the children."

So the bear, Leonard S Marcus explains : "slopes of into the night, looking utterly downcast." "The sudden pivot from suspense to pathos lends the story an unexpected poignant added dimension."

One thing that has always puzzled me is why the pop up version of We're going on a bear hunt does not have this all important end paper. The pop up does, however, have a fantastic page with the snow storm and it is such fun to pop everyone under the bed covers after they race upstairs and jump into bed.

Now take a few minutes to read this review where Booktrust asked some of the most famous names in children's books (such as Anthony Browne, Lauren Child,  Michael Morpurgo and Shirley Hughes) to share their comments about Helen Oxenbury and her equally talented husband John Burningham.

Helen Oxenbury a life in illustration is a scrumptious book. It has a beautiful dust jacket which covers a surprise, a ribbon bookmark, there is a list of all the awards Helen has won since 1969 and the bibliography of her titles is generously spread over 10 pages allowing room for many of her book covers. It is very clear Leonard S Marcus just loves Helen's work but at no point does he intrude.

One last thing - did you know Helen Oxenbury designed the famous Walker Bear - all book people know this little logo means you can be sure the book in your hands will be just perfect.

"The Walker Bear is always in motion, right foot first, perpetually carrying the flickering candle in its green candlestick - respected the world over a symbol of publishing quality and distinction."

Here is an image from Ten Little Fingers Ten Little Toes by our own Mem Fox.

Bookworm : A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan

"Was your first crush on Dickon ... do you still get the urge to tap the back of the wardrobe if you find yourself alone in a strange bedroom?  ... If so this is the book for you."

"words weren't just markings on a page to be passively absorbed and enjoyed but could be tools, treasures and toys all in one." (The Phantom Tollbooth)

"I have lived so many lives through books, gone to so many places, so many eras, looked through so many different eyes, considered so many different points of view."

A few months ago a fellow children's literature enthusiast loaned me her copy of Bookworm. I thought I would dip in and read a few chapters - the cover looked interesting and it was tactile.

A few days later I lifted my head with a huge sigh of happiness. While I was not lucky enough to have the fabulous book-abundant childhood of Lucy Mangan, she loved and read so many books that I loved and read that I felt as though I had emerged from a long a joyous conversation about hundreds of wonderful children's books and our shared memories of reading them. We both visited the public library with our dad, we both received books as presents from relatives and family friends and we both continue to love reading children's books even though we are now adults. If you, too, are a huge fan of children's books both especially the ones you read as a child then this is a PERFECT book.

Here are some moments of shared joy:

Chapter 1 The Very Hungry Reader
Miffy "To look into Miffy's face - two dots for eyes and a cross for a mount comprising a face that somehow looked back at me with  happiness, sadness, anticipation, bewilderment, surprise and all points in between"

Chapter 2 - Dr Seuss
Lucy is able to say what I always thought but could not express the huge mess created by that cat in The Cat in the Hat. All I knew was it disturbed me. Lucy calls it "anapaestic anarchy". My family home was such a tidy one I remember being quite distressed by all that mess and also the worry that the mother would come home and see the chaos.

Chapter 3  Now I am Six
I know it will warm the heart of another book loving friend of mine to her Lucy declare "It was with The Owl who was Afraid of the dark that I truly fell in love with the act of reading itself."  Lucy also reminded me how rereading is so important for children. It takes a lot of energy to decipher a text but once this is mastered the child can then "begin to get lost in the story."  I love her phrase - you can't wear out a book's patience. If you have a chance to pick up this book read page 73 and if you are a teacher you might give a copy of page 73 to all parents. (I would also look at the wisdom on pages 206-7)

In chapter 3 Lucy also talks about The Happy Family series by Allen and Janet Ahlberg and a little hardcover book series called Antelope books (Hamish Hamilton) which I remember along with books about doll houses (I long to find my childhood one with hot and cold taps) and the wonderful Flat Stanley. At age six Lucy also encountered Ladybird Books and the wonders of Roald Dahl. I marvel that she read these when so young. Like Lucy I also find George's treatment of his grandma quite aggressive and not perhaps as funny as intended. We both prefer Matilda and the BFG.

Chapter 4 - The Blyton Interregnum
My Blyton time was spent with The Secret Seven and Noddy. I scorned the Famous Five and decided The Seven were a better choice.  Lucy read many more Blyton titles and loved this period.

Chapter 5 - Through a Wardrobe
Early in this chapter Lucy mentions The Borrowers - their world always fascinated me. "drawing pins as candleholders, stamps as pictures on their walls, small coins as plates and cotton reels as stools."  But there is also the bravery of Arrietty and for Lucy it was her first fantasy book.  This, then, leads her perfectly to Narnia and just like Lucy my first joy with these books came from a gift of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lucy herself also discovered a heroine called Lucy!

In this chapter Lucy confesses she deliberately did not read Fairy Tales as a child and this is where she and I part ways because I devoured fairy tales and still hold The Wild Swans to one of my all time favourite stories. As Lucy says about this embargo "being a bookworm does not necessarily mean being a good reader."

At this time Lucy also found Noel Streatfeild and so did I.  I loved Ballet Shoes even though I had no interest in actually taking dancing lessons and then I moved from Streatfeild onto the Wells books by Lorna Hill.  To this day I continue to be tantalized by the idea of sitting in a cafe eating ices as those Wells girls did. Reading many titles from this series is a truly happy book memory for me.

Towards the end of this chapter, though, Lucy Mangan and I part ways because her next reading adventure was with horse stories and I read none!  This section made me laugh out loud with her references to titles such as A Pony for Jean, Another Pony for Jean and More Ponies for Jean.

Chapter 6 -  Grandmothers and Little Women
When her grandmother gave Lucy a copy of Little Women she was entranced both with the story but also the edition. A red leather volume with gold curlicues, beautiful endpapers, a biography of the author and an introduction - "Why would I read ABOUT  the book when the actual book was there, waiting to be read just a few pages on?"  Lucy - thank you for making me laugh out loud!

In this chapter Lucy confesses to another enduring rule - one which I did not follow - against talking animals. Hence she missed out on Wind in the Willows, Tarka the Otter and earlier in her life books by Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh and the Brambly Hedge series.

Chapter 7 - Wonderlands
Now we turn to The Secret Garden and on this topic Lucy and I are in complete agreement. We both loved this book, the garden and Dickon. "At that age, once I was reading, my concentration was total, my immersion in the book complete. A few sentences was all it took for the world to fade away and fiction to assume reality."

Chapter 8 - Happy Golden Years
These were the early days of Puffin books and Lucy started saving her own money so she could buy books like Charlotte's Web. This book outraged Lucy. "I. Could. Not. Believe. it. ... I was beyond appalled." Luckily for Lucy her next book was a sheer delight of words and ideas - The Phantom Tollbooth. She says "reading this book was like watching the translucent paper being peeled off a transfer, revealing the true colour beneath. The world of every book would glow a little brighter ever after."  I love this image and idea.

The next book was certainly life changing one for me too - Goodnight Mister Tom. Thank you Lucy I will now go back and revisit this wonderful book. You can expect to read my thoughts in a future post.

Chapter 9 - Darkness Rising
Lucy reaches High School and like I did, she finds dystopian fiction in books like Z for Zachariah, The Tripods series by John Christopher and Brother in the Land.

Chapter 10 - A coming of Age
Once again Lucy and I agree on our favourites - Bridge to Terabithia, and Dicey's Song. Where we part company is on Sweet Valley High. No titles from this series ever reached my reading pile but Lucy devoured them.

Thanks to Lucy Mangan I have encountered some delicious new words such as zeugma, interregnum and percolations.

On the final pages of Bookworm there are lists of all the books mentioned in each chapter. Thanks to this I hunted out Would you rather and talked about here it a few weeks ago.  Listen to an audio sample from Bookworm.

Here are some very warm reviews:
The Guardian
The Irish Times

The little library cookbook by Kate Young

Eating and reading are two pleasures 

that combine admirably  CS Lewis

Well here is a first for this blog - an adult book and yes it is a cooking book or as the library term would say a cookery book.

On Friday I said goodbye to my school library and received an avalanche of gifts, hugs, events and even some poetry.  Our local bookseller presented me with this book The little library cookbook.  I am not sure how she knew this would be such an utterly perfect, unexpected and generous gift.  If you have been reading this blog for a long time you will know if a book mentions food I will mention the food they mention!  Also I am a cake nut.  In fact when students borrow 'cookery' books from the school library I often flip the pages and show them the recipes I think would be delicious.  I as they move off I say remember Miss L loves chocolate cake!

I don't think I have ever read a 'cookery' book from front to back but I read every word on every page yesterday of this book.  There are some things I would like to cook but more importantly there are references to books I have read and loved.  I smiled on every page.  If you are a reader and a cook you should hunt out this book.

To begin with I read contents list which is divided into before noon, around noon, after noon, the dinner table, midnight feasts, parties and celebrations and Christmas.  Reading this I discovered references to Australian children's and I was puzzled because the author Kate Young lives in London and has an award winning food blog.  It was in the introduction that I discovered Kate grew up in Australia - in Queensland and this is where she read and heard books like Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman, Wombat's don't have Christmas by Jane Burrell and of course Possum Magic by Mem Fox - no food book could miss that one and I imagine you can easily guess which recipes she has featured.

Kate Young had me hooked when she mentioned honey cake.  I have talked about this delight in several of my posts.   She says "the scent of a honey cake transported me to the back seat of our old car, listening to Alan Bennett read Winnie-the-Pooh on audiotape as we drove to Canberra."

Here are some of my favourite books/recipes from this book - I was especially excited to see the reference to Redwall by Brian Jacques - his books are filled with an abundance of delicious sounding foods. I am only listing the children's book references - of course there are adult books listed by Kate Young too.

Pippi Longstocking - Tunna Pannkakor
"they thought it was a very good pancake."

Redwall - Fruity nutbread -
"Matthias seated himself to an early breakfast ... nutbread, apples and a bowl of fresh goatsmilk."

Little House on the Prairie - Baked Beans
"Ma was busy all day long cooking things for Christmas ..."

Charlotte's Web - Blueberry Pie "Just in time for a piece of blueberry pie' said Mrs Zuckerman."
The tale of Peter Rabbit - Currant buns "She bought a loaf of brown bread and five currant buns."

There are also recipes from The Little White Horse (I adored that book when I was about 10 and still have my copy), The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, Danny the Champion of the world and The Secret Garden.

Where to now?  Well I have a jar of honey given to me by a student last week from their own backyard hives so I will make the Fruity Nutbread which has honey and another favourite ingredient - walnuts.  I might also try the crumpets from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and apple pie from The Railway Children.