Peas on Earth
Cheryl Orsini’s 2008 Christmas card, Peas on Earth.
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Margaret Wild & Julie Vivas: Puffling
The Fiewel & Friends cover for the US edition of the picture book Puffling by Margaret Wild and Julie Vivas. Publication is scheduled for Autumn 2009.
Puffling is a baby — small, white, and very hungry.
Every day he waits in the burrow while his parents, Big Stripy Beak and Long Black Feather hunt for food.
As he grows, Puffling dreams of the day when he will leave his nest and fly away — but he isn’t ready yet, not until he’s tall and brave enough to fend for himself. Every day Puffling asks his parents, but every day they say he must wait until he has grown bigger.
Will he ever be ready to head out into the world on his own?
This story about how love makes us strong, brave, and happy, too, is perfect for families experiencing milestones big and small.
Margaret Wild is one of Australia’s leading authors of children’s books, and her books have sold around the world. Her many acclaimed titles include Miss Lily’s Fabulous Pink Feather Boa, and Woolvs in the Sitee, as well as Our Granny, which was also illustrated by Julie Vivas.
Julie Vivas is the illustrator of many well known books for children, including Our Granny, written by Margaret Wild, Possum Magic, and The Nativity. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her family.
Topics: Childrens books, Julie Vivas, Margaret Wild | No Comments »
Jonathan Harlen: Dangerous Games
The UK cover for Jonathan Harlen’s novel for children, Dangerous Games, which is to be published by A&C Black in 2009.
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Work in progress: Never Ever Before
An illustration from Stephen Michael King’s new picture book, Never Ever Before, which is to be published by Scholastic Australia in the second half of 2009.
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Rachael Treasure: The Dare
The UK cover for Rachael Treasure’s The Dare (Australian title is The Rouseabout), which is to be published next April by Preface.
From the cover notes:
Discover one of Australia’s best-loved writers
‘Kate felt her skin prickle. The glow of the night suddenly faded. She felt the coldness of her mother’s death creeping up on her again and she shivered. “All right, then,” she said, “I’ll take on your challenge … I’ll have my conquest by sun-up.”‘
Kate Webster seems totally carefree: playing hard, drinking even harder, she tells herself that she will worry about the consequences later. But there is one consequence she cannot escape: her little daughter, Nell - the result of a wild dare she once undertook.
Now she seems hell-bent on self-destruction: fighting with her family over the future of their farm in the Outback, refusing to reveal who Nell’s father is, while still loving him, and often neglecting Nell herself. But destiny is about to take a hand and stop Kate dead in her tracks, as tragedy rocks her world - and the father of her child walks back into her life.
Topics: Fiction, Novels, Rachael Treasure | No Comments »
Nicolas Rothwell: The Red Highway
The cover of Nicolas Rothwell’s The Red Highway, which Black Inc will publish next May.
The beautiful cover image is the painting Near Ruined City, by Angelina George.
From the cover notes:
A key to unlock the heart of the country
This is the story of a quest — a journey down the red highway.
On returning from a war zone, Nicolas Rothwell begins to explore the deserts and towns, sleepy coastline and hidden worlds of Australia’s north.
As he travels, his journey gathers momentum and finds a shape. He has unforgettable, even mystical encounters: with a nun, an explorer, a collector and a hunter.
It becomes a quest — for knowledge and a sense of home — that builds to a stunning culmination.
Nicolas Rothwell is among Australia’s most gifted writers, and The Red Highway is a one-of-a-kind book.
It explores death, friendship, travel and art, and evokes a unique and mesmerising part of the country.
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Boxed deal for Natalie Jane Prior
UK rights to Natalie Jane Prior’s proposed four title series for 9-12 year old readers, The Minivers, have been bought by Marion Lloyd, for her imprint at Scholastic.
Marion said “Natalie has written an absolute winner … the little classic I’d been hoping for. I love those two inspirational tiny divas — they are super characters.”
Her offer came in a beautiful ‘Mini Choo’ shoe box.
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Tamsin Ainslie: i like to draw …
I like to draw with a 2b pencil. I always have several notebooks and sketchbooks on the go.
I use my favorite little ruler that I had at art college (it’s so faded now that the numbers are barely visible) and I can never find an eraser to use, or the right paintbrush — of which I have 100’s, as I can never bring myself to throw out my old paintbrushes, because I love them.
See my web site here.
Tamsin is currently illustrating a number of picture book texts, including Little Dog by Katrina Germein for Scholastic, and Can We Lick the Spoon Yet? by Carol Goess for Working Title Press.
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Kirkus praise for Babylonne
Here’s an early review from Kirkus Reviews for Catherine Jinks’ Babylonne.
A sharp-tongued protagonist enlivens a medieval tapestry stuffed with mysterious antecedents, religious persecution and gory violence, in this irresistible followup to Jinks’ beloved quartet about Pagan Kidrouk.
Babylonne, the daughter he never knew, has every reason to believe the heretical teaching that this world is Hell, after her childhood as an abused bastard amonth strict Cathars, and having witnessed the vicious reprisals of crusading Catholics.
Fleeing marriage to a senile suitor, she reluctantly accepts protection from her despised father’s protege, a Catholic priest.
Before his gentle wisdom can completely soften her prickly shell, she is swept back into the horrors of religious war, forced to choose between everything she believes and the one thing she most wants.
Resourceful and cynical, with a carefully hidden streak of romantic idealism, Babylonne is an engaging heroine, and the grave Father Isidore makes the perfect foil
Thelfth-century Languedoc — sordid, squalid and bawdily beautiful — glows with its own earthy vitality.
While Babylonne’s story stands well on its own, make sure that interested readers can find the previous titles wile hoping for as many sequels.
(Historical fiction, 12 & up)
Topics: Catherine Jinks, Childrens books | No Comments »
Kate Jennings: American Revolution
Where were you when America elected Barack Obama?
Kate Jennings was in New York, eyes wide open, completing her take on an amazing time: “the run-up to the election … a time when every day felt like a year and we became slightly crazed from worry but also mesmerised, unable to switch off the cable news stations, obsessively tracking the DOW, VIX, LIBOR spreads, polls in red states. So much at stake.” American Revolution is a dazzling and perceptive look at the United States between hope and despair: an election-year kaleidoscope.
Jennings describes how and why the US economy fell off a cliff and how an apparently endless run of primaries and an increasingly rancorous campaign culminated in a world-changing victory.
She surveys the characters – Obama, Palin, McCain and the Clintons – and conveys the concepts – derivatives, bailouts and moral hazard.
This is an essay that shows America in fascinating flux: it is witty and poetic, acute and evocative
“The television networks are justifiably in raptures about the historic election of an African-American as the president. All the same … to reduce Obama to a label, to ‘African-American,’ does him – and us – a disservice. He wasn’t elected for the colour of his skin; he was elected because he offered the hope of a wise, steady and healing leadership to a country bullied and battered in the name of patriotism, plundered and pillaged in the name of free markets, neglected and abandoned in the name of small government.”
Kate Jennings, American Revolution
Kate Jennings is a poet, essayist, short-story writer and novelist. Both her novels, Snake and Moral Hazard, were New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
She has won the ALS Gold Medal, the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Adelaide Festival fiction prize. In the 1990s, she worked as a speechwriter on Wall Street.
Stanley and Sophie, a memoir of life in New York City where she has made her home for the past three decades, was published in 2008
Quarterly Essay presents significant contributions to the general debate. Each issue contains a single essay written at a length of about 25,000 words. It aims to present the widest range of political, intellectual and cultural opinion.
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