The APA Ed Awards shortlist

The Australian Publishers Association Australian Educational Publishing Awards 2009 Shortlist was announced this week.

Congratulations to:

David Demant who was shortlisted in the Primary Student Reference category for A Story of Natural Numbers

Nicolas Brash who was shorlisted in the Primary Student Reference category for So, You Want to be Prime Minister?

And Corinne Fenton and Peter Gouldthorpe who were shortlisted in the Primary Library Book category for The Dog on the Tuckerbox.

Winners are announced on August 5.
Good luck everyone!

Au revoir

Hello everyone! I’m Audrey the French intern and I’ve been doing my final internship at Black Dog Books!

Unfortunately, Friday was my last day, but I had such a great time there for the past 4 months! Of course, the best part was the Aussie lunch on Thursday! Yummy Fairy Bread!

I wanted to thank the whole team for having been so nice to me and staying calm when I was asking heaps of questions!

Now I’m just sad to leave Melbourne and such a great welcoming team!!
Thank you!

Sneak peek at upcoming titles

We had a great time in Sydney on Monday at the Australian Booksellers Association Conference. Our stand was ideally located right next to the registration desk so the poor booksellers did not stand a chance! They had a great opportunity to see some of our upcoming titles but we thought it was unfair that only those who made it to the conference got to see what was coming up in the next couple of months so here is a sneak peek at some of the titles we have coming out for Christmas.

Halloween in Christmas Hills by Karen Tayleur illustrated by Heath McKenzie

When Miles Cameron was allowed to go trick or treating for the first time, everyone warned him to stay away from Stingy Jack’s house. If only he had listened.We are taking Halloween back from Hollywood with this very Aussie tribute to the holidays!

Coming in October

After by Sue Lawson

CJ makes one terrible mistake and he is banished to the country to live with his grandparents. His attempt to fade into the background at his new school is thwarted when Luke Bennett befriends him. Here he learns that no matter how hard you try to run from the past it is always right there in front of you, waiting.

Coming in August

Angel Fish by Lili Wilkinson

Stephan says children can liberate the Holy Land from the Infidel. And Gabriel believes him. Together they gather an army of children and march over the Alps toward Jerusalem. But as misadventure and tragedy strike again and again, Gabriel must confront his doubts. Is Stephan truly a holy prophet? How far can they survive on faith alone?

Coming in September

Mama’s Song by Ben Beaton

Estranged from her family. Pregnant. Alone. Georgina has escaped to a small town in the middle of nowhere, searching for the one person in the world that she can count on. But Georgina will discover that growing up means accepting the consequences of her actions. Whether she is ready to or not.

Coming in Septemeber

Hostage by Karen Tayleur If you could have that moment over again, would it be different? If you could have your life over again, would it be different?

Tully becomes a hostage when she is abducted from a chemist on Christmas Eve. Her ordeal lasts 24 hours. Or so she says. Sometimes, it only takes a moment for your world to change.

Coming in October

Saving Pandas by Dr Carla Litchfield

The first book in our brand new ‘Rare Earth’ series which looks at endangered species and what is being done to help them.  Cute, cuddly and completely misunderstood. Introducing Pandas. And you will get to meet some real life Pandas in November when Adelaide zoo unveils their new resident giant pandas – Funi and Wang Wang – to the world.Coming in October

And from Red Dog Books Christmas Carols from the Kennel by Santa Paws.

The best Christmas Carol book in town! And look out for Santa Paws tweets in November and December!

Speaking of twitter – are you one of our followers? No, why not? http://twitter.com/blackdogbooks

Danny Katz talks about the Sydney Writers Festival

“Ladies and Gentlemen…. please welcome to the stage… international rock legend….. Dannnnny KATZZZZZ!”    That’s the imaginary introduction I always give myself before I bound onto my imaginary stadium-stage in my mind, and perform before thousands of imaginary fans, like the imaginary Lord o’ Rock n’ Roll that I am.

How many nights over how many years over how many decades have I dreamed of being a Marshall-amped Red-Hot-Chilli Rock-Star?  Well now….. after decades of patience, persistence, preparation … my fantasy has finally come to fruition.  It may not have been Wembley Stadium, it may not have been to an ocean of screeching fans, it may not have even involved any semblance of musical expression, but it was enough for a 45 year old speccy goose with extremely low expectations.  Last month at the Sydney Writer’s Festival I took part in a three-day tour of Sydney theatres, performing in front of bussed-in batches of schoolkids – and by “performing” I mean standing completely still on stage with my illustrator wife Mitch Vane, both of us chatting for half an hour about our Little Lunch books.

AND IF CHITCHATTING TO CHILDREN ABOUT KID’S BOOKS WITH YOUR WIFE DOESN’T SCREAM RAUCOUS REBELLION, THEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT ROCK N’ ROLL STANDS FOR ANYMORE, MAN.

Yeah, the tour was just how I’d always imagined a rock tour to be: we got driven to gigs in a fancy decked-out limo  – an Audi people-mover with Sydney Writer’s Festival written on the side and Morris Gleitzman stuffed in the back.  And we performed at Australia’s most grungy rock venue: the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Theatre in Penrith, where legendary rock-acts like Barry Crocker and the New South Wales Police Band regularly do their Morning Melodies shows.  And we got mass-adoration from hundreds of kids in the audience, all  of them cheering and chanting and jumping up and down, mostly because it was 3:30 p.m and they really needed to go pee.

Then after our gigs we got to do that whole rockstar backstage autograph-signing-thing, with all our young fans queuing up to meet us – the Brad and Angelina of children’s publishing.   And as we signed notepads and boogery bits of tissue, we got talking to these kids and they all told us the same thing: that they LOVED reading.  All kinds of books.  Any kind of book.  Young kids, older kids, tough kids, nerdy kids, they all read every night and went to libraries all the time and even made up their own stories -  one 5th grade boy told me that he’d permanently unplugged his Wii and was spending most of his time writing his novel.  He’d just finished the first chapter about how much he was missing his Wii.

It was very cool and reassuring that book-reading was still so cherished by young kids, that’s what made our tour most inspiring.  Though coolest of all was being introduced before each show like the rock-gods that we are…. a school librarian would shuffle onstage and softly say “Now boys and girls, please be well-behaved and quiet while we hear a very interesting talk from Mitch Vane and Danny Klatz.. I mean…. Katz.  Sorry.”

All photographs are courtesy of the Sydney Writers Fesival and Jamie Williams

Uncle Eddie launch

June sees the release of the first two books in the Uncle Eddie series. The series, written by Lucy Farmer and illustrated by Kevin Burgemeestre, follows the adventures of Uncle Eddie the ranger in and African National Park. Uncle Eddie’s days are full of hungry hippos, sunbaking crocs and killer bees and good old-fashioned common sense. These books are perfect for early readers and those just developing their reading confidence.
The book had its Australian launch yesterday at Beaumaris North Primary School. Lucy – in full park ranger attire – had the kids fascinated with her tales of life in an African national park and the animals she encountered.
After a brief Q&A Lucy read from the first book in the series Uncle Eddie and the Hippos to a very appreciative Year Two audience. I think many of them will be rushing out to buy the book to find out why the hippos don’t eat the grass in front of Uncle Eddie’s house!
Next, Kevin Burgemeestre took the kids through some tricks on how to draw a hippo – using the massive hippo he had drawn as an example. Then they were let loose with pencil and paper to create their own wonderful hippos!
But this wasn’t the first launch of the book. Last week the kennel was delighted when the real Uncle Eddie sent us through photos of the African launch of the book. We donated copies of the book to the local school just outside of the National Park where Eddie works.
And I think you can tell my the faces below that they were very well-received!

The 2009 ABIA Awards Shortlist announced!

black dog books would like to congratulate Carole Wilkinson, Corinne Fenton and Peter Gouldthorpe all of whom were shortlisted at the awards!

Corinne and Peter were shortlisted in the Book of the Year for Younger Children category for their gorgeous book The Dog on the Tuckerbox.

Carole was shortlisted in the Book of the Year for Older Children for Dragon Dawn the exciting prequel to the bestselling Dragonkeeper series.