The Graveyard Book: a neat and tidy review

Children's cover illustration

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is one of the greatest books for children's bedtime reading.  The Graveyard Book is a spooky modern reimagining of The Jungle Book, telling the story of Nobody Owens, an orphan raised by the ghostly inhabitants of a graveyard.  As Bod explores the side-by-side worlds of the living and the dead, his safety is threatened by the man who murdered his family.  This is a classic coming-of-age story that will resonate with both young and older readers.

Bedtime reading gold?

What makes The Graveyard Book such a brilliant bedtime read is its structure.  Each chapter is an episode, containing a story with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end.  Enjoying the story one chapter at a time, children will be excited to continue following Bod's journey, but will sleep soundly at each chapter's end.  I think this would also make it a fantastic audio book.

Adult cover illustration

Double demographic?

Neil Gaiman has referred to The Graveyard Book as "a book for adults that children would like too".  It is for parents AND for their children.  In fact, the book has been published with several different front cover illustrations to highlight its different demographics.  

Two different narratives fit snugly side by side: one of a child's coming of age in a big and scary world; and another of parents struggling with the emotional conflict of letting go as their child outgrows their cotton-wool protection.  This double narrative makes The Graveyard Book a rewarding read that validates the experiences and emotions of both young AND older readers.  

Youth and Children's Writing Prize and Uni Update

Shortlists and Prizes!

So a very quick and exciting update for you!  Firstly, my short story Eyes and Ears won the 2014 QUT Youth and Children's Writing Prize.  I might have dropped off the face of the blogging world the last few months, but believe me, I've been busy at work in the writing world.  

Secondly, my poem Getting Late has been shortlisted for the 2014 QUT Poetry Prize.  The winner is to be announced sometime this week.  I'm on tenterhooks.  

This sudden and overwhelming recognition for my work has taught me a real lesson.  Certainly true for me is the axiom that we're our own worst critic.  But it's time I stopped undervaluing my work and started believing in it.  

General Updates

It's been an amazing semester of learning and opportunity at uni: 

1.  I'm growing proficient and passionate about proofreading.

2.  I'm trying to freelance my way into publications.

3.  Poetry is definitely a medium my creative mind makes sense in.

4.  Career counsellors and teachers are helping me to get an idea of what I'll do after graduation.

I've been absent from Bouquets of Sharpened Pencils for a long while.  I'm in the process of rethinking my online presence and I'm not sure yet if this is the best platform for me.  You can expect some tweaks sometime in the future.  

Anyway, that's all for now.  Take care and I'll fill you in on the results of the Poetry Prize!

120 Years of Seven Little Australians

The opening lines of Seven Little Australians had me hooked.  In 1994, Ethel Turner's children's classic was the only book by an Australian author to have been continuously in print for 100 years!  That's an enormous feat to boast.  And for a kid's book too!

Having heard past students grumble "too old" over this book, I wasn't pumped to read it for uni.  Yet in the first lines, I found something homey and familiar I did not expect.

What do you think?

Before you fairly start this story I should like to give you just a word of warning.  If you imagine you are going to read of model children, with perhaps a naughtily inclined one to point a moral, you had better lay down the book immediately and betake yourself to Sandford and Merton, or similar juvenile works.  Not one of the seven is really good, for the very excellent reason that Australian children never are.  

Ethel Turner.  1894.  Seven Little Australians.  Ward, Lock & Co., Limited.  

Remind you of anything?  Let me throw around a couple of names...  E. Nesbit?  Lemony Snicket?  

This sort of writing is so familiar and comfy to me.  The first person narrator, addressing the reader in that sweet, motherly way is so full of warmth.  This style of storytelling, while boring or unfamiliar to some, gives me the same feelings of safety and ease as it did when I first read E. Nesbit as a child.  

And that "word of warning"...  Despite being 120 years old, this is so reminiscent of A Series of Unfortunate Events novel.  It feels way too current for a book written two centuries back.  

It's amazing these storytelling styles are evident so far back in time, and are yet so fresh and friendly now too.  

   

Short existential update...

How are you?  I haven't written in a while due to a muddle of busyness and boredom.  When my reading life isn't inspiring, I hit dry spells in blogging and writing.  

Daunting life changes and new responsibilities have me feeling even more existential than usual.  I'm wondering how I can reimagine my writing habits and goals to work better.  I'm tantalised by the idea of doing some music reviewing.  If you can suggest any favourite reviews as examples, I'd love to read them.  

Sadly uni semester two is about to start.  The next six months promise to be tough, but I hope that  exciting inspiration and new work comes out of it despite the stress.  

This has been a very brief touch-base sort of post before I get busy again.  In the meantime, I hope your reading lives are still fantastic!

Bookfest Haul June 2014

So I have yet another Bookfest haul for you to enjoy!  I had an eye out for books from my semester two reading list... 

My best friend Kate and I headed down to the June Lifeline Bookfest on its final day.  You might remember my January haul.  If not, you can catch up HERE.  

Check out what I got for $21!

1. The Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
2. The Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
3. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
4. The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
6. Deadly Unna? by Phillip Gwynne
7. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
8. Dirt Music by Tim Winton
9. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

I'm excited to be growing my Lemony Snicket and L.M. Montgomery collection, and then there are new authors to start collecting too.  Junot Díaz is a literary great that my writing tutors rave over.  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is his first novel so it'll be exciting to see how the voice I remember from his magnificent short story collection This is How You Lose Her translates to a long work.  

Anyway, a funny highlight of the Bookfest was having my picture taken beside way too many copies of Fifty Shades of Grey.  The whole length of the table was double-breasted with them!  Possibly a bit scary, but mostly hilarious.  

After sating our appetite at Bookfest, Kate and I went and filled our grumbling tummies at Grill'd.  Then we got a bit adventurous at the gourmet dessert lounge Cowch, which just opened in the delicious district of South Bank Grey Street.  My mouth is watering over the memory of turkish delight ice-cream with fresh strawberries and curls of chocolate.  We sat in front of the open fireplace and watched the far side of the street wibbling and wobbling through the heat haze.  

Braving the chill wind, we enjoyed the view from the bank of the Brisbane River until after dark.  

I hope you got a chance to duck down to the Bookfest, but if not there's always January 2015 to look forward to!  Expect to hear plenty about the books I bought as we get busy reading for semester two.  

Uglier than a carpark

Who knew the fabulous Hugh Laurie was also an author?  I would've clambered on board that train ages ago if only I'd known!  His crime novel The Gunseller is a wit-driven comic spoof of the genre.  

I was given an excerpt of The Gunseller as a uni reading and the pdf cut off on a terrible cliffhanger after only three pages!  The beginning is so dynamic, so rip-roaring that I waited weeks to source my own copy to read on.  One of the highlights of the first chapter is this amazing bit of character description.  It showcases Hugh Laurie's freshness as a writer.  I hope you enjoy and are inspired to read on too:

Raymer, I estimated, was ten years older than me.  Which was fine.  Nothing wrong with that.  I have good, warm, non-arm-breaking relationships with plenty of people who are ten years older than me.  People who are ten years older than me are, by and large, admirable,  But Raymer was also three inches taller than men four stones heavier, and at least eight however-you-measure-violence units more violent.  He was uglier than a car park, with a big, hairless skull that dipped and bulged like a balloon full of spanners, and his flattened, fighter's nose, apparently drawn on his face by someone using their left hand, or perhaps even their left foot, spread out in a meandering, lopsided delta under the rough slab of his forehead.  

Hugh Laurie.  1996.  The Gunseller.  UK: Arrow Books.  p 4.

The Meaning of Liff - Douglas Adams' Dictionary

You know how there's always something you can't quite describe because there's no word for it?  It's agonising!  But trust Douglas Adams to come to the rescue with his "Original Dictionary Of Things There Should Be Words For."  

The "New and Unimproved" edition of The Meaning of Liff was published last year on the book's 30th anniversary.  I was surprised and delighted to receive it as a gift.  This book is best described as a genius, hilarious gift to the world - you can stop fluffing about for words that don't exist and experience the great relief of knowing that someone else knows exactly what you're talking about.

If you need any more convincing, here are a few highlights:

Abilene adj.  Descriptive of the pleasing coolness on the reverse side of the pillow

Beppu n.  The triumphant slamming shut of a book after reading the final page

Dewlish adj.  (Of the hands and feet.)  Prunelike after an overlong bath

Essendine n.  Long sigh emitted by a fake leather armchair she sat on

Frolesworth n.  Measure.  The minimum time it is necessary to spend frowning in deep concentration at each picture in an art gallery in order that everyone else doesn't think you're a complete moron

Kettering n.  The marks left on your bottom or thighs after sunbathing on a wickerwork chair

Malibu n.  The height by which the top of a wave exceeds the height to which you have rolled up your trousers

Perranzabuloe n.  The squirty function in an electric iron

Scosthrop vb.  To make opening or cutting movements with the hands when wandering about looking for a tin opener, scissors, etc., in the hope that this will help in some way

Shoeburyness n.  The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is still warm from someone else's bottom

Thrupp vb.  To hold a ruler on one end of a desk and make the other end go bbddbbddbbrrbrrrdrr

Wigan  n.  If, when talking to someone you know has only one leg, you're trying to treat them perfectly casually and normally, but find to your horror that your conversation is liberally studded with references to (a) Long John Silver, (b) Hopalong Cassidy, (c) the Hokey Cokey, (d) 'putting your foot in it', (e) 'the last leg of the UEFA competition', you are said to have committed a wigan

Adams, Douglas and Lloyd, John.  2013.  The Meaning of Liff.  30th Anniversary ed.  UK: Faber and Faber.  

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did and rush to procure your own copy.  This is a sensational mashup of quirksome ideas.