One Shot World Tour: Australia

Monday, August 27th, 2007

That’s Why I Wrote This SongI’ve just come back from one month in Brazil (where I was, unexpectedly, pretty much incommunicado) to find that I missed the Australian stop of the multi-blog event One Shot World Tour, organized by the same group that put together the Summer Blog Blast Tour and this week’s Recommendations from Under the Radar. Some of the dishes served up at the several-course (Vegemite and all) Australian meal were: interviews with Margo Lanagan and Queenie Chan at 7 Imp Things and the YA YA YAs, respectively, and an exploration of John Marsden’s Tomorrow Series at Jen Robinson’s Page (see full OSWT schedule here).

I’d like to add my contribution, late as it may be, by pointing folks to award-winning Australian writer Susanne Gervay’s latest ya book, That’s Why I Wrote This Song, a cutting edge story set against the rock music scene, about sixteen year old girls connected through music as they search for identity. In a recent article contributed to PaperTigers, Gervay tells us: “[The book] embraces other mediums and technologies, in a collaborative work with my songwriter and musician daughter, Tory, who wrote the lyrics and rock music that are integral to the story (…). The story also has the dimension of film, as a young producer translated Tory’s song ‘Psycho Dad’ into a film clip.” The song and the video are available for downloading from the author’s website.

For more Aussie kidlit talents, check out the following: interview with Hazel Edwards, ‘personal views’ article by Chris Cheng, and Caroline Magerl and Shaun Tan online galleries.

Latest issue of PaperTigers now online…

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

… and if you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to do so. The focus of this issue is Young Adult books, including interviews with YA authors Alan Gratz (Samurai Shortstop) and Hazel Edwards (Antarctica’s Frozen Chosen); and YA librarian Miranda Doyle. Our Illustrators’ Gallery focuses on two artists who have contributed greatly to making illustration relevant to Young Adults: Shaun Tan (The Arrival) and Gene Yang (American Born Chinese).

Book of the Month is Paul Yee‘s What Happened This Summer, a rich collection of short stories about different teenagers growing up in Toronto, with a focus on their Chinese Canadian backgrounds. If you’re looking for inspiration about which book to read next, try our Reviews section; and take a look at those mentioned by writers Susanne Gervay in her Personal View YA Books: Cutting Edge Literature and Mitali Perkins in hers, Teens Between Cultures: A Reading List.

I have also picked out a short list of only some of the wonderful YA books we have featured on PaperTigers: Open up and get reading: YA books you just can’t put down and I hope you will add some of your own suggestions – we would love to hear from you.