A letter from 64 British children’s writers and illustrators in today’s Observer newspaper adds their support to those in the medical profession, as well as the children’s comissioner, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, who have recently called for an end to the detention of children “whose families have sought asylum in the UK”:

These children have already had their worlds torn apart and witnessed their parents in turmoil and in stress. No wonder that paediatricians and psychologists report that child detainees are confused, fearful, unable to sleep, suffer headaches, tummy pains and weight loss and exhibit severe emotional and behavioural problems.

The same newspaper reports how an Anglican priest dressed as St Nicholas/Father Christmas to deliver presents to children at an immigration removal centre was refused entry.

the increasingly angry security guards called the police. The resulting ill-tempered and surreal impasse between church and state was videotaped by asylum seeker support groups and could become an internet viral hit.

I’ll certainly add a link to it when it becomes available…

How appalling this is. Perhaps every state official who has anything to do with asylum seekers should have to read something like Home and Away by John Marsden and Matt Ottley as part of their training…

It’s currently the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, whose by-line is “celebrating the freedom to read”. Having the freedom to read is always cause for celebration (as is the freedom to write and we should bear in mind those who are persecuted for trying to exercise that freedom). However, having that freedom does not mean that we should advocate a blanket lack of discernment. And it would be naive to think that the reading choices available have not been subject to a selection process along the way: publishers, librarians, booksellers, teachers, parents.

Our Book of the Month back in August, Requiem for a Beast by Matt Ottley (Hachette Livre/ Lothian Books, 2007) caused a great deal of contoversy when it first hit the bookshops in Australia. The misunderstandings about this Australian Children’s Book Council Picture Book of the Year (2008) centered on the fact that this is a picture-book but is certainly not aimed at young readers.

Here’s an extract from our recent interview with Matt:

Requiem for a Beast has now notoriously become the most complained about book for young people in Australian history! That’s because it contains one graphic illustration of a bloodied axe, as well as two vague references to suicide and five incidences of the “f” word. What a lot of commentators didn’t seem to take on board when the book first came to public notice, is that this is a picture book for young adults, not for little children.

My young adult audience has been unfalteringly supportive, and I’ve received the most amazing feedback from them.

The whole ensemble of words, image and music is extremely powerful and the use of swearing in some of the written dialogue is certainly not gratuitous. On the contrary: I cannot imagine that Australian stockmen do not resort to colorful language from time to time. However, this is a book for young adults and indeed adults. It is not for young children – and it was never intended to be.

One of the responsibilities of being a parent or a teacher is to provide young people with the tools to discern and to think for themselves. It can be scary to see where that thinking takes them but we have to trust them to make their choices…

Natasha over at Maw Books has a thought-provoking post with a list of books that have been banned at some point – some of them may surprise you; and she has lots of links to other blogs discussing Banned Books…

The Children’s Book Council of Australia has just announced the winners of this year’s awards. I’ve spotted two of my favorite books of the past year among them: Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia (Winner, Older Readers Book of the Year) and Home and Away by John Marsden, illustrated by Matt Ottley (Honour, Picture Book of the Year). Read this rather sobering post from The Book Chook outlining the awards and highlighting possible changes afoot in Australian publishing and their potential effect on the many wonderful small independent publishers in Australia.

Just One More Book has this podcast about Ten Days and Nine Nights: An Adoption Story by Yumi Heo.

Shelf Elf has a review of Mitali Perkins‘ Secret Keeper (you can also read PaperTigers’ review here).

And read Chicken Spaghetti’s great post, “Neesha Meminger on Kids’ Books by South Asian Authors” – including Neesha’s South Asian selection of books she would add to the CCBC’s list of “50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Know” – apparently soon to become 75… – Hmmm – take a look at the list and tell us what you would add…

The new issue of PaperTigers, focusing on “Music in Children’s Literature,” is now live!

Music is central to the human experience and has been bound up with poetry and storytelling since time immemorial. We have brought together an international array of writers and artists whose lives and work have been touched by music; and whose work, in turn, reaches out across geographical boundaries to touch their audience.

As the final words of the opera Naomi’s Road say, “We’ll always carry with us these three things. Gift of music. Gift of words. Gift of love.”

We hope that you’ll find inspiration for all three of these gifts among our website’s new features, which include interviews with Joy Kogawa and Matt Ottley; gallery features of Lulu Delacre and Satoshi Kitamura’s work; essays by Jorge Luján and Michelle Lord, and more. Through September, we’ll continue to explore, here on the blog, the ways in which music features in children’s and young adult literature, so read the new features and let us know what you think by leaving a comment on this or any of our upcoming music-related posts!