![\"Image](\"http:\/\/dnwfriends.nzl.org\/content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/fleurbeale.jpg\" "\\"Fleur")
<\/a><\/div>\nPlease let David know if you are interested in standing for the President\u2019s position, becoming a member of the committee or have items for the agenda. dcretter@clear.net.nz or phone 384 9311 Copies of the full minutes of the 2011 AGM are available here<\/a>We are delighted to announce that after the AGM the award-winning local author Fleur Beale (left) will address the meeting.<\/p>\n Fleur Beale has written over twenty novels for teenagers. She won the 2007 Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for her first children\u2019s novel, Slide the corner. She has been shortlisted several times in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards (including this year), and in 2011 her novel Fierce September was the Young Adult Fiction Category Award Winner. Fleur Beale won the 2012 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal.<\/p>\n Photograph of Fleur Beale from the Random House website http:\/\/www.randomhouse.com.au\/authors\/fleur-beale.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n FDNW Research Grant Winner presents her research<\/b><\/p>\n Anne Siebeck, the recipient of a Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection Research Grant presented some findings from her research at a Friends\u2019 event at Archives NZ on 8 February 2012.<\/p>\n In The foreign books we read as children<\/i>, Anne outlined her research methodology and the results of her analysis of the data she collected. Being particularly interested in the books that were actually read by New Zealand children, she started with the DNW Collection. She gave us the benefit of her work on the original languages of these books.<\/p>\n Anne is continuing her analysis of the data she has compiled and, in particular, will be looking to see if these results are reflected in contemporary publishing by Gecko Press. We await the results of her research with great interest.<\/p>\n Joan McCracken \u201cWho ate Roger and Titty\u2019s trout?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat description did they give to adults?\u201d<\/p>\n If you can answer these questions, or at least know where to look for the answers, then you should have been in Hawke\u2019s Bay over the weekend of 13-16 January this year when some of the New Zealand members of The Arthur Ransome Society met together on the closest weekend to Arthur Ransome\u2019s birthday on 18 January. (He was born in Leeds in 1884).<\/p>\n TARS is based in England, but there are members worldwide. There are 16 members in New Zealand (including three in Wellington and two on the Kapiti Coast) and seven of them plus two wives were involved in this celebratory extended weekend. We met first on the Friday afternoon to get to know each other and then the weekend really began with a talk by Cheryl Paget (our \u2018Susan\u2019) at the Hastings Public Library. This talk, titled \u201cArthur Ransome, story-teller, journalist, sailor, fisherman and suspected spy\u201d, was open to the public and had been well publicised by an informative article in the local newspaper, as well as a display in the library. It was very pleasing to see that up to fifty people had sufficient interest in the writings for children and the career of an English gentleman and possible double agent to attend. After the talk the nine enjoyed dinner together at a local restaurant.<\/p>\n The children in Arthur Ransome\u2019s books have very active holidays, so we did not spend the weekend sitting around talking, though there was a lot of that also. We next gathered on Saturday morning at the Napier Visitor Centre for a guided walk around the city\u2019s art deco buildings. Our guide was most informative and we did a lot of looking upwards and peering through letterboxes and doors while appreciating the beauty of the many ziggurats, sunbursts, speed lines and other art deco features incorporated into buildings. A cruise ship was expected into port that day, so we also got to see the young couple dressed in 1930s style clothes hanging around by a vintage car ready to pose for photos or just to add a bit of atmosphere. Remembering that the 1930s was the time of the Swallows and Amazons, this tour put us in the right period for our weekend.<\/p>\n In the afternoon we did the coastal tour to the Cape Kidnappers\u2019 gannet colony. This involved sitting on the outside edge of trailers being towed by a tractor along the beach. This afternoon trip was very popular and there were five tractor and double-trailer units full of enthusiastic bird- watchers. At various places our tractor driver stopped to point out features of interest. Fault lines were clearly visible and we could see how they had slipped during earthquakes by following the different coloured layers in the rocks. The trip along the beach to Cape Kidnappers took about one and a half to two hours, to where there was a short steep walk up to the top of the cliff to the largest mainland gannet colony in the world. Here we could watch and listen to the gannets, both adults and a few large demanding chicks.<\/p>\n No Great Northern Divers unfortunately, but plenty of gannets both on the ground and in the air. There are good views to be had from the top of the cliff, including the Black Reef gannet colony further out to sea. This was a true Hawke\u2019s Bay summer day with temperatures around 30\u00b0 and we were glad of our sunscreen and hats.<\/p>\n Sunday began with visiting the extensive Hastings Farmers\u2019 Market, where we bought food to have for our later picnic lunch. Then to Cornwall Park to visit the Osmanthus Chinese Garden (right) which was set up in 1996 by businessmen from Hastings\u2019 sister city, Giulin. This is a well laid out garden and a pleasant place to sit and admire the architecture and water features, as well as the resident duck family. But there was no sign of Missee Lee!<\/p>\n Our next activity was the most strenuous of the weekend \u2013 climbing Mt Kachenjunga, aka Te Mata Peak. Here four of the five women in the party decided to stop being \u2018Amazons\u2019 and drove to the top of the mountain, leaving the men to follow our \u2018Susan\u2019, aka Cheryl, and climb to the top, where they arrived exhausted but triumphant ready to enjoy the picnic late lunch which had been taken up by rattletrap. The views from the top are well worth the effort of getting there with 360\u00b0 of extensive scenery to look down on. By this stage we had been joined by two local men (dubbed \u2018Old Billy\u2019 and \u2018Young Billy\u2019) who had attended the Library talk on Friday night and been encouraged to take part in most of the Sunday activities.<\/p>\n Sunday evening, after dinner at a local Havelock North restaurant, we headed off to St Luke\u2019s Church hall where we all took part in a fiendish quiz, of which the two questions at the beginning of this article are examples. A local baker had produced a chocolate birthday cake for Arthur Ransome with \u201cHappy Birthday Arthur\u201d and the Swallows and Amazons pennants in icing decorating the top (right).<\/p>\n Monday was a more relaxed, indulgent day beginning with a visit to Te Mata Winery. Unfortunately they weren\u2019t working on much at the moment \u2013 the grapes are still ripening on the vines in January \u2013 but we were shown around the various parts of the complex and given explanations of the process involved in producing both red and white wines. A visit to their shop enabled some purchases to be made. Then a cross-town drive where different routes were taken, but we all ended up at Silky Oaks Chocolate factory. Our tour fee included three small chocolates to nibble (or save until later) as we listened to an explanation of the processes and gazed through a window to see where the chocolate products were made. The shop has an extensive range of chocolate goodies for sale, but I don\u2019t think many of us were tempted. However we did conclude the weekend over a delicious lunch in the attached caf\u00e9, where hot or iced chocolate seemed to be a popular drink.<\/p>\n As there are at least five TARS members in the Wellington region, the suggestion is that the next TARSNZ gathering is held in Wellington in January 2013. If anyone would like to join us, get in touch with Neil or Barbara Robertson. TARS website http:\/\/arthur-ransome.org\/<\/p>\n Barbara Robertson, FDNW Committee, TARS member, and source of photographs<\/p>\n On Monday 23 April 2012 a large group of \u201cWellington literati\u201d (or so we were described by one of the speakers!) gathered at Unity Bookshop for the launch of two books celebrating the life of publisher and activist Hugh Price. Hugh died in December 2009 and Hugh Price, publisher includes tributes from many friends, colleagues and admirers. Co-edited by Hugh\u2019s wife Beverley Randell and publisher Roger Steele the book is in three parts. The eulogies given at the celebration of Hugh\u2019s life on 5 January 2011 make up part one \u201cChampion of the vulnerable\u201d, followed by further tributes and obituaries. Part three, \u201cA life in print\u201d includes Hugh\u2019s own short memoir \u201cExposed to print\u201d, his doctoral citation and reply (Hugh received an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Victoria University on 6 August 2009), and an annotated chronology of his life and achievements compiled by Beverley.<\/p>\n After an introduction from Roger Steele on behalf of the publishers Steele Roberts, Beverley spoke about her part in editing the book and putting together the timeline. She paid tribute to her daughter Susan\u2019s skills as a keeper of family records and how this enabled her to make such an accurate history of Hugh\u2019s life.<\/p>\n The second book to be launched was Susan\u2019s record of her father\u2019s first 20 years A mind of his own<\/i>. For over 25 years Susan had assiduously recorded her father\u2019s stories and anecdotes as he told them (sometimes even resorting to the blank pages in the back of Hugh\u2019s cheque book to make notes when no other scrap of paper was available!). Susan spoke warmly of her father and how writing the book eased her sense of loss following his death.<\/p>\n This well-illustrated, beautifully presented boxed set is a very fitting tribute to a much admired man \u2013 and at Beverley\u2019s request we all enthusiastically drank to the launch of the books, and, quoting one of her favourite mis-spellings of his name, \u201cTo Huge Price\u201d.<\/p>\n New donations and purchases<\/b><\/p>\n A pleasingly wide variety of donations has been offered and accepted over the last few months.<\/p>\n Titles accepted for the DNW Collection include: a 1927 New Zealand girl\u2019s annual; an early edition of Ethel Turner\u2019s The little larrikin (circa 1896); several titles in the charming Budge and Betty 1920s series of girls\u2019 adventure stories; a copy of Geoffrey Trease\u2019s Tales out of school which is inscribed as a gift to Dorothy Neal White and her husband, and, with the longest title a gem from 1835, the new edition of Uncle Philip’s conversations with children about the habits and mechanical employments of inferior animals.<\/p>\n The National Children\u2019s Collection has benefited from a number of donations dating from the 1940s and 1950s, including several of Martin Clifford\u2019s school stories from 1952, Miracles of invention and discovery (1947) and The Country Life picture book of the coronation (1953).<\/p>\n It has been interesting to note recently, when I have been selecting new items to purchase for the NCC, that a number of new publications are drawing on classic children\u2019s stories. For example, Andrew Motion has recently written a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson\u2019s Treasure Island, titled Silver: return to Treasure Island. Then there is Frank Cottrell Boyce\u2019s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flies again, a sequel to Ian Fleming\u2019s original story, and Antony Horowitz has produced a new Sherlock Holmes story, The house of silk. Also of note, Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s Newbery Medal winning novel A wrinkle In time is being released in a fiftieth anniversary commemorative edition which includes an introduction by Katherine Paterson, an afterword by Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, and the author\u2019s Newbery Medal acceptance speech.<\/p>\n Staff have begun to move back into the refurbished Molesworth Street building. Reading Room Services staff, who are currently working at 77 Thorndon Quay, are among the last to move back at the end of July. The new reading rooms are scheduled to open on 6 August 2012.<\/p>\n The Dorothy Neal White Collection is scheduled to be packed up from its temporary home at Archives New Zealand at the end of May, and will not be available for viewing until the Collection is re-housed in its permanent home in the SSC Basement, adjacent to the National Children\u2019s Collection, and research services resume in August.<\/p>\n Requested items from these collections will be delivered to researchers in the first floor reading rooms; I will provide more detailed information about this process once the move back is completed.<\/p>\n Mary Skarott Following on from Anne Siebeck\u2019s talk to the Friends about her research into translated children\u2019s literature (see Joan\u2019s report also in this issue), I thought it would be interesting to have a look at some of the works in translation that have been added to the NCC in recent years.<\/p>\n Works in translation enter the collection via both legal deposit (which includes the Gecko Press books) and the purchase of overseas publications. Purchased titles include winners of major awards for children\u2019s literature in translation (The Batchelder Award for works published in the United States, and the Marsh Award for works published in the United Kingdom), together with other books that are selected under the current collection policy and happen to be translated works.<\/p>\n I looked for translated books (both fiction and non-fiction) in the NCC that were published in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and found 94 titles, as summarised below.<\/p>\nRECENT EVENTS<\/h3>\n
\nFDNW Newsletter Editor<\/p>\nTARSNZ Celebrating AR\u2019s Birthday<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nLaunch of Hugh Price memoirs<\/h3>\n
\nL-R, top-bottom: Beverley Randell,; Kate de Goldi & Bruce Foster; Susan Price & Roger Steele; Susan with the books; Guests
\n Photographs: Lynne Jackett and Joan McCracken<\/i><\/small><\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nFROM THE RESEARCH LIBRARIAN<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Move Back to Molesworth Street:<\/h3>\n
\nChildrens\u2019 Literature Specialist, Alexander Turnbull Library<\/i><\/p>\nChildren\u2019s Literature in Translation in the National Children\u2019s Collection<\/h3>\n