Maroons When I finished Grievers I wasn’t aware of a sequel. It stood on its own and stories don’t need to tie up neatly. I felt a strong presence from Dune and I was so glad there is more to hear from her and her story. In Maroons Dune becomes friends with another “survivor”. This story shows Dune and Dawud navigating their life in this … Continue reading Books of February 2023
The World We Make N.K. Jemisin’s world building has no equal in my book. From the Inheritance trilogy to the Dreamblood duology and the Broken Earth trilogy she takes me places I never imagined. In “The City We Become” and its sequel the world building is placed on New York City and the concept of the world’s great cities having avatars. In The City We … Continue reading Books of January 2023
At the Olympic Games this year Sunisa Lee won the All-Around Individual Gold Medal for gymnastics. She is the first Hmong American to compete in gymnastics and her success brought visibility to Hmong communities in the United States. Sunisa Lee Is Representing America in the Tokyo Olympics—and a Community America Left Behind in TIME magazine. The US abandoned Hmong people who had helped them in … Continue reading Hmong Text Set
Last week I went to my first (virtual) NCTE Build Your Stack event. During the convention I usually avoid the exhibit hall and so I hadn’t been to a BYS in person. Last week was so much fun! The idea is that people share five books that they want people to know about. There was a whole group share, including a video from two young … Continue reading Build Your Stack-Middle Grade Girls
NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) week was last week but I’m always a little bit slow with things like this. So here is one of hopefully a couple of contributions from me, albeit late. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation has been around for about 10 years and its goal is to increase literacy opportunities in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The … Continue reading NAIDOC week Build Your Stack-the Indigenous Literacy Foundation
Originally posted on La Pluma Poderosa: Book Reviews:
Before I move to discuss some picture books I have on hand I’ll link to another couple of book lists that are helpful. They aren’t all picture books but I’m going to focus on picture books here. 31 Books to Celebrate Asian/Pacific Heritage Month Asian American Kids Books AAPI Month from the Today Show The Today Show… Continue reading APIDA children’s literature-picture books
With all these book presentations I am coming at it from a white perspective and so my discussion comes from this perspective. There is a lot that would pass me by. I would love to see these books in classrooms around the world as well as in Australia. They are all contemporary publications (with the exception of “Stradbroke Dreaming”) and are verbally and visually stunning. … Continue reading “Build-your-stack” First Nations’ Children’s Books
Over the next few weeks or so I will be posting about books and resources relating to Palestine. This is the first one and I am looking at books for middle grade readers (around grades 6-8). A couple of weekends ago The Right Pen Collective launched the inaugural Virtual Australian Muslim Writers’ Festival. The Right Pen Collective’s mission is to make books by Muslim Australian … Continue reading Palestine Text Set-Middle Grade
I’ve spent the last month highlighting a book of poetry a day by a poet writing in so-called Australia. Over the past year and a half I’ve been reading a lot more poetry from local authors. This month gave me a chance to look more closely at my collection. There are of course many more poets I could have included and many of the authors … Continue reading Reflections on #AustralianPoetryMonth
“Trigger Warning is not for the fainthearted, but neither are the elemental realities of domestic violence and environmental catastrophe that these astonishing poems address. Comprising three sections, the first summons a difficult personal history by conversing with poets – from Sylvia Plath to Anne Carson – whose dramatised confessions trigger Takolander’s own. The second part remains focused on the domestic, while redeeming that scene of trauma … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 31: Maria Takolander: Trigger Warning (UQP, 2021)
“There is healing in this poetry. These are our words. From our country. Our lands. Our spirits. For all the troubles we face every day, we are a passionate people. When we hear these poems, we know, we are lovers of life.”This anthology of poems was written by twenty-one Arrernte women from the heart of the continent in Mparntwe Alice Springs around the theme of … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 30 Arelhekenhe Angkentye “Women’s Talk”: Poems of Lyapirtneme from Arrernte Women in Central Australia (Ptilotus Press, 2020)
‘[W]e are strong, we are beautiful and we should be proud of our culture, our stories, our languages.’ – Danzal Baker (aka Baker Boy) Homeland Calling is a collection of poems created from hip-hop song lyrics that channel culture and challenge stereotypes. Written by First Nations youth from communities all around Australia, the powerful words display a maturity beyond their years. Edited by award-winning author and … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry- Day 29: Homeland Calling edited by Ellen van Neerven(Hardie Grant, 2020)
“The old hill near where I grew up was outwardly ruined: its pines were dead, its vines gone to seed and its sheds, which once held some purpose, sunk and rusted. With my immature logic I considered this place open and powerful, even though the land was enclosed by a wire fence and fallow from overcultivation and neglect. Like other places in the world, the … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 28 Lucy Van: The Open (Cordite, 2021)
“The poems in The Future Keepers honour ecosystems and the custodians of future ecologies. They navigate the poet’s own embodied experiences of change and succession – of family, community and place. From the research scientists, gardeners, birds and plants of Kings Park, to the activism and ecosystems of the Beeliar Wetlands, to the poet’s own inherited landscapes, these poems evoke mutuality and exchange in speaking of the … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 27 Nandi Chinna: The Future Keepers (Fremantle Press, 2019)
“In this beautifully crafted, evocative and poignant anthology of prose and fiction, a diverse group of young black writers are encouraged to find strength in their voices and what is important to them. maar bidi is a journey into what it is to be young, a person of colour and a minority in divergent and conflicting worlds. All talk to what is meaningful to them, whilst connecting … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 26 maar bidi next generation black writing: edited by Elfie Shiosaki and Linda Martin (Magabala, 2020)
“Exploring the languages of anatomy, etymology and incantation, these poems spark conversations about fracture and repair, energy, love and danger.” UQP I discovered Shastra Deo this month as I’ve been diving into Australian poetry. The UQP description is short but there are many reviews of the book online that can be accessed on Shastra Deo’s website on The Agonist page. I read this yesterday in … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 25 Shastra Deo: The Agonist (UQP, 2016)
“Forty years ago, letters, words and feelings flowed between a teenage daughter and her mother. Letters written by that teenage daughter – me – handed around family back home, disappeared. Yet letters from that mother to her teenage daughter – me – remained protected in my red life-journey suitcase. I carried them across time and landscapes as a mother would carry her baby in a … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 24 Charmaine Papertalk Green: Nganajungu Yagu (Cordite, 2019)
‘Omar Musa writes hard, beautiful poems about things that are true.’ – Kate Tempest A collection of love poems and fierce raps, Millefiori is Omar Musa‘s third book of poetry. Both dream-like and gritty, it also includes gorgeous illustrations and draft poems from Musa’s notebook. Heartbreak, cocaine, colonial violence, memory and cave paintings: this is a world full of unbearable beauty and brutality. We know the world … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry- Day 23 Omar Musa: Millefiori (Penguin, 2017)
“Samuel Wagan Watson set the literary world alight in 1999 with his David Unaipon award-winning collection of poems Of Muse, Meandering and Midnight. His next volume, Smoke Encrypted Whispers, won Book of the Year at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards over Tim Winton. In this, his first new volume of poetry in nearly a decade, he once again excites, inspires and shocks. Woven into this collection is … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 22 Samuel Wagan Watson: Love Poems and Death Threats (UQP, 2014)
“Homecoming pieces together fragments of stories about four generations of Noongar women and explores how they navigated the changing landscapes of colonisation, protectionism, and assimilation to hold their families together. This seminal collection of poetry, prose and historical colonial archives, tells First Nations truths of unending love for children—those that were present, those taken, those hidden and those that ultimately stood in the light. Homecoming speaks to … Continue reading #AustralianPoetryMonth with #RedRoomPoetry-Day 21 Elfie Shiosaki: Homecoming (Magabala, 2021)
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