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Supporting Australian book creators
By Aaron Blabey
Issue 108, Term 1 2019
When I began writing books professionally in 2006, I had never heard of the Australian Lending Right Schemes. My publisher just handed me a form, which I blithely filled out and promptly forgot all about. Then, after a hair-raising period filled with newborn children, an elephantine mortgage, and mo
Morris Gleitzman on the uniquely contributive role of school libraries
By Morris Gleitzman
Issue 109, Term 2 2019
During my time as Australian Children’s Laureate, I have continued to visit many schools — something I have been doing for about 30 years. I speak to lots of school library staff, because of my long-held interest in the health of school libraries. Over the last 18 months, this has been particularly
Supporting Australian book creators
By Ruilin Shi
Issue 109, Term 2 2019
When I was at school, the library was one of my favourite places to visit. It was where I could pick up any book and go on fantastical adventures, or learn about the world beyond that of my home, my school, and my social circle. I had always marvelled at the fact that I could pick up any book in the
Daring to be different: celebrating diversity in literature
By Ruth Devine
Issue 105, Term 2 2018
My favourite memory growing up is of snuggling under the doona while my dad sat on the edge of the bed and read me a story. It was our cosy, nightly ritual. I would drift off to sleep with a head full of shipwrecks and pirates, fairytale castles and magical faraway trees. Often the stories were of g
Leigh Hobbs on school libraries and storytelling
By Leigh Hobbs
Issue 100, Term 1 2017
What role, if any, did school libraries play in developing your love of storytelling? When I was a child at school — in the pre-computer and internet early 1960s — the school library was my centre of exploration and discovery. I had friends of course and liked mucking around in the school yard, but
Supporting Australian book creators
By Nicole Richardson, James Moloney
Issue 98, Term 3 2016
According to an article published by The Conversation last year, the average Australian author receives an annual income of AUD$12,900 (Zwar, Throsby & Longden 2015). One-fifth of authors are able to call writing their full-time profession, but most rely on other paid work or their partner’s inc
The writing (and revising) of The innovative school librarian
By Elizabeth Bentley
Issue 111, Term 4 2019
I was one of a group of school librarians, initially composed of students on the MAEd course at Canterbury Christ Church, tutored by Sharon Markless, and later joined by Sarah Pavey. We continued to meet regularly with Sharon to discuss research and other issues related to school librarianship. Shar
Author Spotlight: Vanessa Len
By Vanessa Len
Issue 119, Term 4
Tell us a bit about your journey towards becoming a published writer. Only a Monster is a young adult novel about a monster girl whose summer is ruined when the cute guy at work turns out to be a monster slayer! It’s my first novel, and the journey to its publication has been exciting, surreal, and
Two sides of children’s literature: gatekeeper and creator
By Karys McEwen
Issue 121, Term 2, 2022
Drawing from the experiences of young people The idea for my middle-grade debut novel, All the little tricky things, published by Text Publishing in May this year, came from a conversation with two Year 7 students. I have been a high school librarian for over eight years and throughout that time I
Leigh Hobbs on the invaluable, irreplaceable school library
By Nicole Richardson
Issue 106, Term 3 2018
Earlier this year, author and illustrator Leigh Hobbs finished his time as Australia’s Children’s Laureate for 2016–17. The role is to promote the importance and transformational power of reading and creativity for young people. During Leigh’s two years as laureate, he passionately campaigned for sc
A thank you to libraries and ELR
By Mem Fox, Nicole Richardson
Issue 102, Term 3 2017
What role have libraries played in your life? I grew up in Zimbabwe, Africa, so libraries didn’t play a huge role in my early life. But at high school I spent a lot of time in the Bulawayo Library (our major city library) which was very well endowed at the time, and full of excellent non-fiction tha
Celebrating 80 years of Puffin
By Dot Tonkin
Issue 114, Term 3 2020
At the start of World War II, as British children faced mass evacuations on an unprecedented scale, Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin, said, ‘The worst has happened, but evacuated children are going to need books more than ever. Let us get out half a dozen as soon as we can.’ And so one of the worl
Book launches: connecting schools, students and local authors
By Jenna Hildebrand
Issue 109, Term 2 2019
Reading culture As school library staff, we strive every day to establish libraries and resource centres as places that support our students’ reading and information literacy. In our relentless quest to promote reading for pleasure, one major challenge is the structured class context. We need to lo
Supporting Australian book creators
By Nova Weetman
Issue 119, Term 4
I grew up in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne along the Yarra River from Warrandyte, in a sleepy orchard town called Wonga Park. It wasn’t big enough for a permanent library. Instead, we relied on the weekly visit of a mobile library full of books. By the time I was ten, I was allowed to ride
Supporting Australian book creators
By Alison Lester
Issue 110, Term 3 2019
I love school libraries and it makes me feel sad and angry when I hear about schools closing their libraries. The library should be the engine room of every school, a place where students and teachers can go and be expertly steered to the information they need. And, this information might be digital
Windows and mirrors: Visibility and representation in Australian LGBTQIA+ YA fiction
By Nell Day
Issue 113, Term 2 2020
Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange ... When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own li
Supporting Australian book creators
By Ruilin Shi (with thanks to Jeannie Baker)
Issue 111, Term 4 2019
Australian book creators, including Jeannie Baker, lose income through the free multiple use of their work in Australian public and educational lending libraries. That is why the two Australian Lending Right Schemes (ELR and PLR) are so important to all of them. The Educational Lending Right (ELR) s
Supporting Australian book creators
By Sally Rippin
Issue 115, Term 4 2020
When I was growing up, our family moved around a lot. We lived in England, Brunei and Hong Kong, as well as Darwin, Perth and Adelaide, moving every couple of years because of my father’s job as an engineer. By the time I arrived in Melbourne, ready to start Year 8, I had already been to seven diffe
Supporting Australian book creators
By Anna Fienberg
Issue 116, Term 1 2021
In her novel Celestial Navigation, Anne Tyler observes: ‘One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that other people will never know about.’ Like billions of other fans of good fiction, I am saved every day by insights such as Anne’s. Novels l
Supporting Australian book creators
By test1
Issue 112, Term 1 2020
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