![\"The](\"http:\/\/dnwfriends.nzl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/table.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>About 175 Friends and members of the public enjoyed some fine fare in the Library\u2019s Main Foyer. Some took advantage of the opportunity to view the Grimm Stuff exhibition of illustrated versions of folk tales and fairy stories from the Dorothy Neal White and National Children\u2019s Collections before moving to the Auditorium for Gavin\u2019s presentation. Gavin kept the audience entranced with slides of his illustrations and entertaining and informative commentary on the reason he chooses to illustrate both New Zealand and overseas traditional tales and his sources of inspiration. His presentation was followed by many questions and great acclamation, proving that Gavin is not only an accomplished author and illustrator but also a gifted speaker who can adapt his style to any audience from small children to adults.<\/p>\n
In thanking Gavin, Lynne Jackett noted that he has been nominated for New Zealand children\u2019s literature awards more times than any other author or artist. You can read more about Gavin on his web site http:\/\/www.gavinbishop.com\/flash\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n On Wednesday 26th November 2008 Julia Marshall talked to a meeting of the Friends about creating and running Gecko Press. Julia\u2019s background in publishing and children\u2019s literature included working in the publishing industry in Sweden for 12 years and with Bridget Williams Books for two years. Julia also completed Kate de Goldi\u2019s course for writing for children.<\/p>\n During her OE, Julia had enjoyed European children\u2019s books and looked for them in English translations. She \u2013 and the audience \u2013 were astounded to discover that only 1% of children\u2019s books published in England had originally appeared in another language.<\/p>\n Upon her return to New Zealand Julia decided to eschew the safe options and make use of the experience she had gained overseas. She decided to translate and publish award-winning or notable European picture books in New Zealand \u2013 and thus in 2005 Gecko Press was born to \u201cpublish curiously good books from around the world. \u2026 We choose books excellent in story, illustration and design, with a strong \u2018heart factor\u2019.\u201d (from the Gecko Press catalogue). Julia showed images from several of the 27 books currently forming the Gecko Press list. The Gecko Press books are all eye-catching and beautifully produced and audience members were grateful recipients of copies of the new Gecko Press catalogue and a Donkeys greeting card.<\/p>\n The world, of course, includes New Zealand, so while most of the books originate overseas, Julia has so far published four books by New Zealanders. It was a remarkable achievement to win the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award with the first of her \u201cNew Zealand\u201d books, Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop\u2019s Snake and Lizard<\/em>.<\/p>\n The event was attended by 31 people, a number of whom were \u201cnew faces\u201d, responding to the advertising of the event on the Wellington Children\u2019s Book Association web site. Many at the event expressed their enjoyment to Julia in person, and I have received several comments since re-iterating what a great evening it was. You can find out more about Julia, Gecko Press and its list at http:\/\/www.geckopress.co.nz<\/a> .<\/p>\n Four members of the Friends Committee attended Consensus and conflict in junior fiction, an illustrated talk by Caroline Campbell. Many of you will recall Caroline\u2019s presentation, complete with side-saddle and crop, after she was awarded the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection Scholarship (2003-2004).<\/p>\n Caroline is both a lecturer at the Institute of Communication and Design at Massey University in Wellington and an illustrator of children\u2019s books. This talk was based on her research into Australasian junior fiction published 1890-1920. Caroline explored the idea that images of New Zealand M\u0101ori and Australian Aborigine in the picture books and illustrated novels that were created for Australasian-born audiences offer an alternative to \u2018dying race\u2019 and passive mythologies.<\/p>\n Caroline used four illustrations from books in the Dorothy Neal White Collection as examples including these two from Tiki\u2019s trip to town<\/i> by James Duigan with sketches by G.S. Wanganui, N.Z. : A.D. Willis, [1893?].<\/p>\n You can read Tiki<\/em> online in the International Children\u2019s Digital Library http:\/\/www.childrenslibrary.org<\/a><\/p>\n Lynne Jackett Research Librarian Shaping children’s literature – Eleanor Spence, 1928-2008<\/b><\/p>\n Eleanor Spence had wanted to write for children, about Australia, from the time she was a girl. Yet it was not until she was a children’s librarian in Coventry that the wish became a need. It was in England that she discovered just how few Australian children’s books existed.<\/p>\n Spence went on to make an outstanding contribution to Australian children’s literature, in a pioneering career spanning five decades and entertaining generations of young people. Her work helped shape the direction of children’s literature in Australia.<\/p>\n Eleanor Spence, who has died at 79, was born Eleanor Rachel Kelly, the youngest of the three children of Eleanor and William Kelly, who owned an orange orchard at Erina on the NSW Central Coast. Her mother, a high school teacher in Edinburgh, had met her father in Scotland, where he was recovering from wounds suffered in World War I. They corresponded after his return and she eventually sailed to marry him.<\/p>\n Spence went to a three-teacher primary school and books were as essential as furniture in her home. She began to write short stories and poems at about 10 years. She read these to her mother, who suggested that the stories be based in her own land, rather than the land of the books she was reading, inevitably Europe or America.<\/p>\n Erina was a rural area before World War II. The Central Coast became for her a place halfway between reality and romance. She spent a lot of time gazing at morning skies, sunsets and evening stars. She played in the bush, cricket on the veranda on rainy days and rode her bike to swim at Terrigal or in Wamberal lagoon.<\/p>\n She attended Gosford High, which had an excellent library and good English teachers. Winning a scholarship, she studied arts at Sydney University, living in a Country Women’s Association hostel in Kings Cross. She graduated in 1949.<\/p>\n A year’s “rather unsatisfactory teaching” in a girls’ school was followed by two years as a librarian in in Canberra. Holidaying in Austinmer, she met John Spence; they married in 1952 and went to England, where he did postgraduate work in Rugby and she reached her turning point in Coventry.<\/p>\n Back in Sydney in 1954, Spence began her first full-length story, Patterson’s Track<\/em>, which Oxford University Press published in 1958. It featured a rural community such as she knew at Erina. In the 1950s Australian children were reading Blyton, Biggles and English school stories. In the 1960s Oxford published a list of Australian children’s authors, and Angus & Robertson appointed the first specialist children’s editor. Writers such as Hesba Brinsmead, Ivan Southall, Colin Thiele, Patricia Wrightson, Nan Chauncey, Joan Phipson and Spence emerged.<\/p>\n Further stories by Spence alternated with the birth of her three children. The Green Laurel<\/em>, Children’s Book of the Year in 1964, was written at the busiest time, with children aged two to seven. Then she studied Australian history as background for her books. The earliest were about basically happy families, with difficulties rather than conflicts but without sentimentality. Yet they touched on social issues and carried an element of mystery, and the social issues component grew more important with time. Her books became part of what was described as a “cultural and artistic renaissance” in Australian children’s literature.<\/p>\n Child’s play \u2026 Eleanor Spence helped shape children’s literature in Australia<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Maurice Saxby, the children’s literature expert, wrote: “More than any other writers, Eleanor Spence and Joan Phipson have perhaps helped guide the direction of Australian children’s literature in the past 30 years. They have both expressed in their novels of family life not only social changes but the concerns and preoccupations of a growingly complex Australian society.”<\/p>\n During the ’70s and ’80s Spence’s books were regularly published to critical acclaim and an enthusiastic readership. The October Child<\/em> (1976) broke new ground in describing the challenging experience of a boy with autism. It won Spence another Australian Book of the Year Award, and in 1977 she was shortlisted for Britain’s Carnegie Medal.<\/p>\n Subsequent books examined religious discrimination, adoption, homelessness, family life, relationships, bigotry and materialism. The Seventh Pebble<\/em> (1980) won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for its depiction of challenges facing an immigrant Irish family in rural Australia. She wrote historical novels, including Me and Jeshua<\/em>, about Jesus’s cousin growing up in Nazareth. Spence wrote 21 books for children. Her last, Another Sparrow Singing<\/em>, was published in 1992. Several have been translated into other languages and Braille.<\/p>\n In the 1970s and 1980s she worked as a teacher’s aide and then taught at the Autistic School, Forestville; in 1978 she took a Churchill Fellowship to study care for autistic children overseas. The Spences lived in Turramurra until they divorced 20 years ago, when she moved back to the Central Coast.<\/p>\n The Australia Council Literature Board awarded her an Emeritus Fellowship in 1998 and she became a member in the Order of Australia in 2006. Eleanor Spence is survived by her children, Alister, Nigel and Lisette, and their families, including five grandchildren.<\/p>\n Tony Stephens Sydney Morning Herald October 17 2008.<\/small><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/news\/obituaries\/shaping-childrens-literature \/2008\/10\/16\/1223750228433.html<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Ivan Southall, one of Australia’s best loved and most prolific children’s book authors, has died. He was 87.<\/p>\n Southall, who passed away at the Wantirna palliative care hospice early yesterday after a short battle with cancer, won four Children’s Book of the Year Awards during the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n He received national and international acclaim for his books \u2014 including the British Library Association’s Carnegie Medal for Josh<\/i> (1971). His Hills End<\/i> was included in The New York Times list of books of the year in 1963.<\/p>\n Children’s author John Marsden said Southall would be sadly missed. “I’d call him the last of that generation of great storytellers who reigned supreme in the 1950s and ’60s,” Marsden told The Sunday Age.<\/p>\n “Some of his books haven’t dated all that well admittedly because he was quite class conscious when he wrote \u2026 but he was still just a terrific, natural writer with a great flair for storytelling.<\/p>\n “And as he grew older, he had a willingness to experiment and get more adventurous with his writing, which wasn’t always appreciated by his audience.”<\/p>\n Marsden said Southall’s books were always strong on character and he had a real Australian quality to his stories.<\/p>\n He said one of his best books was Seventeen Seconds<\/i>, about a couple of Australians working in bomb disposal in World War II. “God, it was a hair-raising book. It was just a stunning piece of writing, which didn’t get the attention it deserved.”<\/p>\n Maurice Saxby, children’s literature expert and a close friend of Southall, said the author had had “an inestimable influence on the way his readers view themselves as individuals and as Australians”.<\/p>\n One of Southall’s most popular books, Fly West<\/i>, was derived from his adult book They Shall Not Pass Unseen<\/i>, a gripping account of his wartime service with RAAF No. 461 Squadron. It is regarded as one of the best Australian non-fiction books to come out of World War II.<\/p>\n His daughter, Elizabeth Barber, who read some of her father’s own books to him in the hours before he died about 2am, said right to the end that despite difficulties with his cancer and early dementia, he spoke often of his wartime experiences.<\/p>\n Southall was the pilot of a Sunderland flying boat based in Wales and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking a German submarine in 1944.<\/p>\n Southall was born in Canterbury on June 8, 1921, and raised in Surrey Hills. Educated at Box Hill Grammar, he wrote from an early age and served an apprenticeship as a process engraver at an afternoon newspaper.<\/p>\n After war service as a pilot, he stayed on in Britain and worked as an RAAF historian before returning to Australia and starting a career as a freelance writer for magazines. He mowed lawns to supplement his income.<\/p>\n In 1981, Southall was awarded an Order of Australia for services to literature. In 1998, the State Library of Victoria staged a retrospective exhibition of his work, Ash Road to Ziggurat.<\/p>\n Gerry Carman & Mark Russell November 16, 2008 http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/national\/loved-childrens-writer -loses-fight-with-cancer-20081115-67pg.html?page=-1<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Bea Turner, our 2008 Scholarship winner, also won a research scholarship to go to the University of Reading in late 2008. Congratulations, Bea! She reports that she is drafting an article for our next Notes-Books-Authors, looking at two of Mrs Molesworth’s novels \u2013 The Cuckoo Clock<\/i> and The Tapestry Room<\/i>. We hope to publish later this year.<\/p>\n Life in the Library is somewhat hectic at present as we plan for the rebuilding project. This currently involves preparing the collections to move, including protective enclosures for fragile items, and clearing our workstations. This latter task has resulted in the discovery of treasures lurking in cupboards that have now been transferred into Library collections.<\/p>\n One hundred and eighty people attended the 8 tours of the Grimm Stuff Exhibition last year. It was the first time I had curated an exhibition in the Gallery (rather than the regular displays in the DNW display case) and I thoroughly enjoyed selecting the items to display, working with the Gallery staff, writing the captions and conducting the tours.<\/p>\n In early March I travelled to Greymouth to speak at the South Island Children\u2019s Librarians Conference. After my presentation about the Dorothy Neal White and National Children\u2019s Collections I also demonstrated the International Digital Children\u2019s Library. After the presentation one of the delegates told me she thought I have the best job ever. I have to agree. It is 32 years since I first began to work with the NCC and even on the worst days, the collections still bring me joy.<\/p>\n I usually curate the small displays from the children\u2019s collections in the Ground Floor Reading Room myself, but Mary Skarrott \u2013 one of our cataloguers \u2013 has been the guest curator of the last, lovely display before we move. “Making magic in children\u2019s literature: the ancestry of Harry Potter” has been on show since November and will be removed later this month. Mary says \u201cThe world of Harry Potter, created by J K Rowling in 1997, is a recent phenomenon, but stories like Harry\u2019s, featuring wizards, witches and magic spells, have been popular throughout the history of children\u2019s literature. Forming part of the fantasy genre, these are stories that can trace their roots as far back as the oral traditions as myth, legend, folklore and fairy tales.\u201d Titles displayed are The beeman of Orn<\/i> by Frank R Stockton, Charmed life<\/i> by Diana Wynn Jones, The dark is rising<\/i> by Susan Cooper, Groosham Grange<\/i> by Anthony Horowitz, The haunting<\/i> by Margaret Mahy, The Hobbit<\/i> by J R R Tolkien, The lion<\/em>, the witch and the wardrobe<\/em> by C S Lewis, A wizard of Earthsea<\/em> by Ursula Le Guin, The wizard of Oz<\/em> by L Frank Baum and The worst witch<\/em> by Jill Murphy.<\/p>\n Lynne Jackett Friends will be heartened to know that both the Dorothy Neal White Collection and the National Children\u2019s Collection will remain easily available during the National Library building redevelopment. Both collections will move location, but clients will be able to request titles from both of them from service points close to the current Library building. The NCC will also remain available for inter-library lending.<\/p>\n Storylines Notable Picture Books 2009<\/strong> Special Mentions:<\/strong> The judging panel also made special mention of Jack<\/em> by Mike and Esther Fitzpatrick, illustrated by Bruce Madden (JacksBooks). For a self-published book, the design and production values are worthy of special mention.<\/p>\n Storylines Notable Junior Fiction 2009<\/b> Storylines Notable Young Adult Fiction 2009<\/strong> The Storylines Notable Books List was established in 2000 to reflect the wide-ranging achievements of New Zealand authors and illustrators. The Storylines Notable Books List allows for the inclusion of anthologies and works by New Zealand writers and illustrators published internationally.<\/p>\n The Storylines Notable Books List is selected by a panel made up from the Storylines community, of current children’s literature professionals. These include past and present members of the Storylines management committee, all of whom have a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field of children’s literature and many have served as judges for the New Zealand Post Book Awards (and its previous incarnations) and the LIANZA children’s book awards.<\/p>\n The panel meets regularly throughout the year to discuss recently published books and the following have been selected as notable, from New Zealand children’s books published in 2008.<\/p>\n Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust announcement www.storylines.org.nz<\/a><\/p>\nLots in translation!!<\/h4>\n
<\/a> <\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/small>Left: One of the small number of New Zealand original titles, by Wellington author Dylan Owen<\/small><\/div>\nBlow.08<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/a>
\nDNW & NCC Collections<\/p>\nOBITUARIES<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nLoved children’s writer loses fight with cancer<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
\nThe Age<\/small><\/p>\n
\nFDNW SCHOLARSHIP 2008<\/h4>\n
FROM THE RESEARCH LIBRARIAN<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nResearch Librarian
\nDNW & NCC Collections<\/small><\/p>\nNATIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING REDEVELOPMENT<\/h4>\n
STORYLINES NOTABLE BOOKS LIST 2009
\n(for books published in 2008)<\/h4>\n
\nHerbert, the Brave Sea Dog<\/em> by Robyn Belton (Craig Potton Publishing)
\nThe Apple<\/em> by Ben Brown, illustrated by Tracy Duncan (Puffin)
\nKei te Pehea Koe?: How Do You Feel?<\/em> by Tracy Duncan (Puffin)
\nEvery Second Friday<\/em> by Kiri Lightfoot, illustrated by Ben Galbraith (Hodder Children’s Books)
\nPiggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig<\/em> by Diana Neild, illustrated by Philip Webb (Scholastic)
\nThe Seven Stars of Matariki<\/em> by Toni Rolleston-Cummins, illustrated by Nikki Slade-Robinson (Huia)
\nRoadworks<\/em> by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock (Walker Books)
\nThe Were-Nana (Not a Bedtime Story)<\/em> by Melinda Szymanik, illustrated by Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson (Scholastic)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/div>\n
\nThe judging panel made special mention of Bubble Trouble<\/em> by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Polly Dunbar (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books). Margaret’s poem has been in print for many years and therefore not eligible for inclusion in the list. However the panel considers Bubble Trouble<\/em> to be a treasure for New Zealand children.<\/p>\n
\nFive (and a Bit) Days in the Life of Ozzie Kingsford<\/em> by Val Bird, illustrated by Rebecca Cundy (Random House)
\nNight Hunting<\/em> by Deborah Burnside, illustrated by Jeff Fowler (Puffin) Big Fish, Little Fish<\/em> by Melanie Drewery (Raupo)
\nPayback<\/em> by Michelle Kelly (Scholastic)
\nOld Drumble<\/em> by Jack Lasenby (HarperCollins)
\nThornspell<\/em> by Helen Lowe (Alfred A. Knopf)
\nLand of Promise: The Diary of William Donahue, Gravesend to Wellington, 1839-40<\/em> [My Story] by Lorraine Orman (Scholastic)
\n“Why I Hate School”<\/em> by Michael Fatarsky by Kris Stanhope (Scholastic)
\nFreaky Fish<\/em> written by Feana Tu’akoi, illustrated by Eleanor Meecham [Kiwi Bites] (Puffin)<\/p>\n
\nJuno of Taris<\/em> by Fleur Beale (Random House)
\nThe 10 pm Question<\/em> by Kate De Goldi (Longacre Press)
\nThe Tomorrow Code<\/em> by Brian Falkner (Walker Books)
\nScorched Bone<\/em> by Vince Ford [Chronicles of Stone, Book 1] (Scholastic)
\nGool<\/em> by Maurice Gee (Puffin Books)
\nShadow of the Mountain<\/em> by Anna Mackenzie (Longacre Press)
\nStorylines Notable Non-Fiction 2009<\/b>
\nPiano Rock: a 1950s Childhood<\/em> by Gavin Bishop (Random House)
\nHigh-tech Legs of Everest<\/em> by Mark Inglis with Sarah Ell (Random House)
\nLet’s Get Art: Children Look at Contemporary New Zealand Art<\/em> by Brad Irwin, illustrated by John Ward Knox (Random House)
\nJuicy Writing: Inspiration and Techniques for Young Writers<\/em> by Brigid Lowry (Allen and Unwin)
\nAtoms, Dinosaurs & DNA: 68 Great New Zealand Scientists<\/em> by Veronika Meduna & Rebecca Priestley (Random House)
\nBack and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious<\/em> by Gregory O’Brien (Auckland University Press)
\nLearn to Skateboard with Luka – Ko te Akonga ki te Papa Retireti I te Taha o Luka<\/em> by Lee and Errol Petra, translation by Tokikapu Peta (Raupo)
\nHow to Make a Piupiu<\/em> by Leilani Rickard (Raupo)<\/p>\nBackground<\/h5>\n
HOT OFF THE PRESS!!<\/h4>\n