BRAG 200x200

Recently I went along to the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery to see their BRAG 200x200 exhibition. This exhibition showcased 200 artworks from the gallery's permanent collection to mark the 200th anniversary of the proclamation of Bathurst. The exhibition included paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, photographs, installations and new media works.

It was really fabulous. It's a shame that galleries can only ever display a fraction of their collection at any time. Founded in 1955 BRAG now have a collection of more than 2,000 pieces, which are valued at more than 8.6 million dollars.

Somewhat surprisingly there was a big spectacular James Gleeson as the first thing you saw as you entered. I do love his work, although I realise they all look somewhat like disembowelings and so aren't for everyone. 

The Coast Near Coolum Augmented by a Recollection of Mazzepa 1985
James Gleeson

Grace Cossington-Smith is another favourite. Also an immediately recognisable style. But prettier than Gleeson, with more universal appeal, even if many of them seem to be variations on a theme, or the same room.

Open Doorway 1960
Grace Cossington-Smith

The People's Choice award of the exhibition was a rather enchanting still life.

Iceland Poppies
Archibald Marriott-Woodhouse

Each room had quite a different feel and something of interest.

Native's Chest 2010
Danie Mellor

I've seen these pencil sculptures before. They're very cool. 

The Amorphous Ones (the unending novelty of liberated sensation) 2008
Lionel Bawden

Many of the works had a distinctively Australian feel.

Cherries 2008
Amanda Penrose-Hart

Riverside, Bridle Track 1983
Graham Lupp

Petit Testament (verse three) 2003
Garry Shead

Modern art isn't my thing so much.

I'm not sure that I even classify welded
shopping trolleys as art...

The exhibition has sadly closed but BRAG always has something interesting on show.

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
70-78 Keppel Street
Tues - Sat 10 - 5
Sun 11 - 2
Closed Monday

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CBCA Book of the Year Award Winners 2015

It's always an exciting day for Australian Books- the annual announcement of the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards.

This year has been an absolutely huge year for women writers and illustrators at the CBCA Awards. Freya Blackwood alone won 3 categories! Which is unprecedented in the 70 year history of the awards. And Libby Gleeson won 2! Great stuff. Tonight Libby Gleeson was named as the winner of the 2015 Nan Chauncy Award for an outstanding contribution to Australian Children's Literature.

See the Judges' Report 2015.


Book of the Year Older Readers Winner -

The Protected - Claire Zorn (see my review)

Book of the Year Older Readers Honour Books

Nona & Me - Claire Atkins
The Minnow - Diana Sweeney


Book of the Year Younger Readers Winner -

Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and The Present

Book of the Year Younger Readers Honour Books

Two Wolves - Tristan Bancks (see my review)
Withering-By-Sea: A Stella Montgomery Intrigue - Judith Rossell (see my review)

Book of the Year Early Childhood Winner -

Go to Sleep, Jessie! Libby Gleeson, Freya Blackwood

Early Childhood Honour Books

Noni the Pony Goes to the Beach - Alison Lester
Scary Night - Lesley Gibbs, Stephen Michael King (illustrator)


Book of the Year Picture Book Winner -

My Two Blankets - Freya Blackwood, Irena Kobald (text) (see my review)

Book of the Year Picture Book Honour Books

One Minute's Silence - Michael Camilleri, David Metzenthen (text) (see my review)
The Stone Lion - Ritva Voutila, Margaret Wild (text) (see my review)


Eve Pownall Award for Information Books Winner -

A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land - Simon Barnard

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books Honour Books

Audacity: Stories of Heroic Australians in Wartime - Carlie Walker
Tea and Sugar Christmas - Jane Jolly, Robert Ingpen


Crichton Award for New Illustrators Winner-

One Minute's Silence - Michael Camilleri, David Metzenthen (text) (see my review)

Congratulations to all the winners. There are always more excellent books waiting to be read. 

Last year I managed to pick 50% of the winners by cover work alone. This year I only managed 16%!  Yes I picked one correctly of the 6 categories.

Check out the full Shortlist from April. 

The Stone Lion

Margaret Wild features in the CBCA Award lists each and every year it seems. She is rather prolific, having written over 70 books, and is one of Australia's best writers for young people. I've read quite a few of her books and shared some of them here. The Dream of the Thylacine. The Treasure Box. Tanglewood. This years nominated book is The Stone Lion, illustrated by Ritva Voutila who is a new name to me, although she is an accomplished illustrator and artist who has been illustrating children's books for over 20 years. Ritva has two books included in the Picture Book of the Year Award this year- The Stone Lion which was shortlisted, and Outside by Libby Hathorn which is an Honour Book.

The Stone Lion is a beautiful picture book. A story of sadness and joy, despair and hope. The stone lion sits atop a pedestal outside a library. He longs to be alive so he can stroll through the city streets and run through the park opposite his library.

One snowy night, a small homeless girl Sara brings her baby brother to the lion. Sara is freezing and giving up hope.

Sara and the baby will become cold and hard, he thought, unable to walk or jump or feel, Just like me. 

The lion wants to protect Sara and the baby, to take them into the warm library.

Ritva Voutila has created beautiful warm pastel illustrations that have a European feel with stone lions, snowy nights and robins. I expected to see an Eiffel Tower on each page. The illustrations have a Depression-era feel to them.

Gorgeous Endpapers

The winners of the 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia Awards will be announced tomorrow.

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Rivertime

Rivertime is the latest book in my quest to read as many of the CBCA 2015 Shortlist as I can before the winners announcement next week. As usual my reading eyes are bigger than my reading stomach. Rivertime made two shortlists - Picture Book of the Year and the Crichton Award for New Illustrators. It has already won the Readings Prize 2015 and the Environment Award for Children's Literature Picture Fiction. And David Suzuki noless wrote the blurb for the cover. 

Rivertime is a first book for author illustrator Trace Balla. It is a gentle, beguiling story inspired by Trace's own 2012 kayaking trip on the Glenelg River in Western Victoria. In Rivertime 10 year old city boy Clancy is taken on a kayaking trip by his uncle. Clancy is not overwhelmed at the prospect of going without all his modern playthings- there will be no computer, no music, no games on the river.

Soon Clancy is enjoying spending time in the great outdoors. Seeing our amazing birds and animals and living life at a slower pace. Written in a pictorial diary format we travel the river with Clancy and Uncle Egg. It's quirky from the very start.

Rivertime is a gentle meandering of a story about taking time to notice the beauty of the world around us.

Kids love it. You will too.

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Don't Think About Purple Elephants

It seems there are many books written about children's fears and concerns. So much so that there are quite a few lists about them out there too. One from Readings. Or Kids Book Review. Don't Think About Purple Elephants is a great addition to this topic.

Some child are born confident, plucky and happy-go-lucky. Others are born worriers. Sophie is usually a normal, confident girl enjoying her school, her family and her friends. She has a safe life, with a supportive loving family. But at bedtime the worries start to crowd in.

Sophie's worries aren't huge, they aren't life and death, but they are enough to stop her getting to sleep and can disturb her enjoyment of the next day.

Thankfully her mother is very clever and she, and some purple elephants, help ease the burden of Sophie's anxiety. It is all beautifully illustrated by Gwynneth Jones. Don't Think About Purple Elephants was inspired by Susan Whelan's daughters struggles with bedtime anxiety when she was seven.

I came across Don't Think About Purple Elephants back in March because it was launched at the Newcastle Writers Festival. It was a great festival and I saw many wonderful sessions. So many in fact that I didn't get the chance to go to the launch. But I did make sure to buy a signed copy, which I will now donate to my local library. Thankfully author Susan Whelan blogged about the launch.

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Coco Banjo Is Having a Yay Day

I've followed Nikki Gemmell's career for some time. From the 90s when she read me my news on JJJ (back when I was almost young enough to listen to a youth broadcaster) I started reading her writing from her first novel Shiver in 1997 when I was drawn in by the Antarctic story line. I then read Cleave and The Bride Stripped Bare, her publishing sensation, initially published as Anonymous.

Two years ago Nikki Gemmell, now a mother of four, rebranded herself as N.J. Gemmell and started writing for children with The Kensington Reptilarium and The Icicle Illuminarium, neither of which I've had time to read despite meaning to. And now I see that the third book in that series, The Luna Laboratorium is on the way in October. 

Last week I found Coco Banjo is Having a Yay Day in the shops and picked it up immediately. Coco Banjo is aimed at younger readers (6+) than her other books and I knew that I could slip it into my busy schedule. N.J. has turned illustrator designer here too and she's done a great job. 

Coco Banjo will be a welcome addition to the modern graphic style novel for young (probably girl) readers. The Wimpy Kid series led the charge, and has been wildly popular in Australia, but it's great to see so many wonderful Australian stories added to the genre such as Andy Griffith's Treestory books, and Anh Do's WeirDo series.

Coco Banjo is a student at Banksia Bay Public School. She has a lovely teacher, Miss Bonkiss (I like what she's done there), and a mean principal, Miss Trample, much in the Miss Trunchbull style of principal. Coco is a seemingly normal Australian girl, but her mother is a world famous fashion stylist and is away much of the time. Coco lives on an island in Sydney Harbour by herself.

It reminded me of an inverted treehouse for girls. Coco Banjo is Having a Yay Day is the story of just one day. Coco's Yay Day involves not going to school, staying home painting her toe nails, eating lollies and riding her dolphin. As you do. I could do with a Yay Day myself. 

Coco's best friend is N (Narianna), and the mean alpha girl is called Belle. While the school may be typical, with it's bush tucker garden, maths lessons, boring assemblies and looming exams for selective high schools, the kids are modern- they take selfies and have instagram accounts.

Random House have provided a great Teacher's Resource where N.J. Gemmell sets out her aims in writing Coco Banjo. She wanted to reflect life in a typical Australian primary school, for parents to have a giggle of recognition, for Coco to be a positive role model and to empower young girls. I think she has achieved all this and more. Coco Banjo ultimately is a story of friendship and loyalty peppered with dresses, tap dancing penguins and school life. Better yet, Coco Banjo is fun. 

Coco's next adventure, Coco Banjo has been Unfriended is out very soon (1/9/15).

http://australianwomenwriters.com

21 Must Read Australian Books

Buzzfeed certainly do come up with some interesting lists. This list of Aussie books is from May 2015. It is a great mix. Some of the usual suspects, and some rather more esoteric titles and little known authors.

1. Obernewtyn Chronicles - Isobelle Carmody

2. The Tomorrow Series - John Marsden (well I've read at least one, more likely a couple)

3. Came Back To Show You I Could Fly - Robin Klein

4. Jessica - Bryce Courtenay

5. On the Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta

6. Sun on the Stubble - Colin Thiele

7. Sing and Don't Cry - Cate Kennedy

8. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay (see my review)

9. Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

10. Somewhere Around the Corner - Jackie French

11. The Harp in the South - Ruth Park

12. An Open Swimmer - Tim Winton

13. Lexicon - Max Barry

14.  The Old Kingdom Chronicle - Garth Nix

15. Thunderwith - Libby Hathorn

16. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

17. The King Arthur Trilogy - M.K. Hume

18. The Green Wind - Thurley Fowler

19. Rowan of Rin Series - Emily Rodda (I've read the first one)

20. Sea Hearts - Margo Lanagan

21. Walking Naked - Alyssa Brugman

4/21

There is always much excellent reading ahead.

June 2017 5/21