Aspiring authors who are thinking they would like to write for children should start by reading a bunch of picture books. There are lots of ideas that could lead to an endearing story, but nothing will become published unless you write it! In today’s international publishing climate, debut authors should: 1. Consider not rhyming as it limits chances of getting published, especially by the larger international publishing house. 2. Don't get your story illustrated, as the publisher will choose the illustrator for you, as well as the size and look of the book. 3. Before you submit it to publishers, you should show it to real kids to get an idea if it suits the modern readership. Most of all, you’ll never know if you never try and you should never die with a book still inside you.
Michelle Worthington is an award-winning children's author and international guest speaker on the power of storytelling. Michelle is dedicated to encouraging a strong love of reading and writing in young children and supports the vision of empowering youth through education and working on books that are purposeful, innovative and inspirational.
Monday 26 October 2020
Friday 23 October 2020
Reading to premature babies for brain development
Reading to premature babies every day supports development, not only in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), but also going into early infancy and childhood. Babies enjoy hearing their parent’s voice over any other sound, but what’s more important is that it’s an activity that parents can do every day for their baby during a time where many can feel helpless in an intense and stressful environment. International children’s book author, Michelle Worthington, is mother to three premature babies and knows what it’s like to go through NICU not being able to touch or take home your baby. Sometimes premmie baby may be sleepy or lethargic due to medications or illness. If the baby is awake and making eye contact with you, that’s the best time to read to them. Reading is also linked to improved language and writing abilities at school age, so it’s never too early to start.
Support Life's Little Treasures Foundation
https://lifeslittletreasures.org.au/
Tuesday 20 October 2020
Why kids need authors as much as they need sporting stars
Our role models play an important role in shaping our dreams and ambitions. For many kids, the under-representation of the arts as a viable employment pathway, together with a lack of exposure to creative business owners from across diverse fields, makes it difficult for children who aren’t into sport to see themselves reflected in the people living their dream. Author and illustrator visits to schools play a large part in inspiring young children to not only believe in themselves, but to dare to expand their possibilities and take forward action on what they dream of doing. Until people in power respect the contributions and invest in the arts, the non-sporty kids will continue to miss out on finding their own heroes.
Book Week is 17 -23 October
Thursday 15 October 2020
How to write a book for today’s children
Book Week is 17 - 23 October 2020
Wednesday 14 October 2020
Easy hacks for amazing Book Week costumes
Book Week is often the highlight of the school year for children. It's a week full of excitement, imagination, and of course, amazing costumes. In a world full of technology, it's a fantastic way to capture the attention of young minds, showing them how to explore the universe of books. But for parents, the problem of finding the perfect Book Week character costume can be exhausting. Some books that fit with this year’s theme Curious Creatures, Wild Minds, lend themself to easier costume ideas. A magnifying glass for the Wild Minds of Enola or Sherlock Holmes and Curious Creatures can wear their pjs to school from Pugs Don’t Wear Pyjamas. A red ribbon for Matilda, feelers for Glitch or wearing all orange for The Lorax, it only takes a bit of imagination for kids to have fun and celebrate books, because that’s what it’s all about.
Book Week is 17 - 23 October 2020
https://cbca.org.au/cbca-book-week
Tuesday 6 October 2020
Reading to babies from birth to fight post-natal depression
Saturday 3 October 2020
Book Review: All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton
After not responding to knocks at doors, scrapes on knees and fire alarms at dinner time, I thought it was safer to finish reading it after the boys had gone to bed. My head was filled with white butterflies, white bones, hope, hate, love, life and death. Just as I became Eli Bell in Boy Swallows Universe, growing up as a too smart kid in a shut your mouth Brisbane suburb, so was I Molly Hook, head full of words and infallibly optimistic, no matter what life threw at me. Only Trent Dalton can make you loose yourself in a book like that.
I hate snot. The hardest page of the book for me to read wasn't when the gravedigger's daughter hid with her mother's bones in an open grave, got the beating or saw the rape, it was page 173. It was also the most incredibly moving and mind blowing piece of descriptive writing that I have ever read in my life. In that moment, snot was poetic and graceful. Only Trent Dalton can create characters like that.
The same suffocating pang that squeezed the tears from my eyes when I relived my childhood in Boy Swallows Universe were shed for Molly and Violet Hook. I talked to oceans instead of skies. I spat out pills instead of seeds. I had the monsters in my bed, after I had fed and cared for them all day until they became twisted by drink and darkness. I have carried all I owned and owned all I carried. Only Trent Dalton can see inside my soul like that.
Now, as I check on my sleeping children under the dark sky, I speak softly to it. 'Please don't let anything happen to me so my kids don't end up like a character in a Trent Dalton novel.'
When the blue sky returns, I will ask politely if one day I could write a book as honest and beautiful as a Trent Dalton novel, and I wouldn't even care if it lied.
Highly recommended.
Friday 2 October 2020
Guest Blog - Leo's Story by Megan Firster
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Thursday 1 October 2020
Is imagination an endangered species?
Modern children are very good at mimicry and mirroring instruction, but with the current curriculum’s focus on learning outcomes more so than learning pathways, are they losing the ability to think independently and inventively? The important role that imagination plays in creating engagement is being lost and forced literacy ignores the essence of critical and creative thinking: the need for questioning, exploration, and extended discussion around issues that are important to children. Without imagination, are our children equipped to be the leaders of tomorrow?