A book launch! I hear you exclaim. Where? When? What? Um, well, I regret to inform that you have missed that particular book party boat - the official book launching IRL event hoo-ha for Oswald Messweathertook place in April. But wait! The good ship YouTube is still floating mine and Ozzie's boat and YOU can enjoy just about every riveting moment of the day right there, right now! Hurrah!
Brian Falkner with Dim and Ozzie
Dimity Powell … seems to have the ability to touch on subjects that in other hands would seem worthy or didactic, and to make them heartbreakingly real and emotional, in a way that is accessible to both children and adults. It is beautifully illustrated by Siobhan McVey. Brian Falkner, children’s author, interview
With very little professional help (the hubster filmed it all on his phone, phew!), a lot of excellent support by Yvonne Mes and the crew at The Mad Hatters Bookshop in Manly (thanks Laura and Isabel!) a brilliant creative cast of on-set extras (all of you who crammed in with masks in place to join in the jubilations, thank you!) and the tireless paper boat engineering expertise supplied by my gracious parents (couldn't have done that without you!), this was a truly memorable day. Watch it now! Just click on the clip below.
Boats were made, ideas exchanged. Stories were read and epiphanies revealed. It was a morning of casual creativity and informal information sharing. And Oswald, aka Ozzie, never once felt the urge to jiggle or jitter or count his crayons. A momentous first step forward in spreading awareness and appreciation of young children laboring under the yoke of OCD. We can always do better to make more of a difference and provide more support but I hope picture books like Oswald Messweather are a positive springboard from where these discussions can fly.
Twelve-year-old Matthew Corbin is your regular pre-teen boy living in an unspectacular cul-de-sac deep in British suburbia. The major difference between him and the other inhabitants of Chestnut Close however is the state of his red-raw hands and tortured mind and the fact that he barely steps outside his terraced-home second story bedroom. Matthew is afflicted with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD and can barely function as a result. From his fishbowl vantage point, Matthew keeps track of his neighbours, dutifully recording their every movement, their comings and goings, and their habitual rituals in his notebooks. In this way we are introduced to the residents and their characteristic irks and quirks from the get go in a way that is both intriguing and comical. Matthew’s observations allude to his condition; he is both analytical and detailed in his approach. The orderliness of his notations suggest a mind used to repetition and accuracy, an intense desire to ‘get things r
What are little boys made of? Is it really frogs and snails ; everything that is not sugar and spice and all things nice that are otherwise attributed to the makeup of girls? Should blue be the only shade that maketh the man? Debut author illustrator, Scott Stuart blows these outdated tropes well and truly out of the water with this deliriously amusing and tender picture book, My Shadow is Pink . Our intrepid main character’s little face is a picture of consternation after he concedes that his shadow is not the strong blue that trails the other males in his family. His is a delicate shade of rose and mirrors that which he loves most: sparkles, dancing, twirling and dressing up. Despite his father’s reassurances that his shadow will adopt a more ‘manly’ appearance one of these days , and the little boy’s own yearning to fit in with the other acceptable shadow groups, he is unable to dismiss his conflicting feelings. Then one day an invitation to let his shadow dress up in its favour
The Grandest Bookshop in the World It’s something I’ve always wanted to do – live in a bookshop and be surrounded by the magic of words and other spellbinding things, like cake. Siblings Pearl and Vally Cole are living that dream. But it’s not just any old bookshop; it’s the Cole’s Book Arcade in Melbourne. Their fantastical story germinates from their father’s own stirring rags to riches tale and meanders closely to the actual chronological time line of the eccentric Edward Cole, founder of Coles Book Arcade in the late 1800s. The key thing to remember be you staff, family member or patron of the Arcade is that buying a book is secondary to enjoying your visitation. Customers are encouraged to relax, read, dine on tantalising fare, wander through the exotic gardens harbouring monkeys, or perhaps select a curious toy for a well-behaved youngster. These fascinations really did exist and in the Cole children’s thrilling tale form the critical backdrops to their chilling (fictional) a
Comments