Grace Notes by Karen Comer

Grace Notes by Karen Comer (Lothian Children’s Books, Hachette Australia) Grace Notes by Karen Comer is the outstanding WINNER of the CBCA 2024 Book of the Year: Older Readers category. “This song has a grace note, a tiny note that’s there for embellishment but can easily be ignored, not played. Tonight, I add it in […]

BIRDY by Sharon Kernot

BIRDY by SHARON KERNOT (Text Publishing) Sharon Kernot has now written and published two high quality YA verse novels. 2018’s The Art of Taxidermy is multi-awarded (see link at the end of this piece to my notes about it on the blog) and her new book, Birdy, shares some of the first novel’s distinctive thematic […]

The Verse Novel by Linda Weste

The Verse Novel by Linda Weste “I think verse novelists are so clever in the way they say so much, with so few words.” Pip Harry in The Verse Novel The Verse Novel by Linda Weste is an important text. It is an accessible and interesting academic book of interviews with Australian and New Zealand […]

The Verse Novels of Kathryn Apel

The Verse Novels of Kathryn Apel Author Interview “Why can’t we all just be friends?” (Too Many Friends) Australia is a leader in verse novels for young readers and Kathryn Apel is one of our major writers in the field. Kathryn’s engaging and affirming verse novels, Bully on the Bus (2014), On Track (2015), Too […]

Footprints on the Moon by Lorraine Marwood

Lorraine Marwood is an acclaimed verse novelist for children. She won the inaugural Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Children’s Fiction with Star Jumps and was joint winner of the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards with Leave Taking. Lorraine writes with great eloquence about her important new verse novel, […]

Love is Strong as Death by Paul Kelly

I loved the introduction. It was empowering. There is a relief when you hear your words said, your experience that you were too busy, fearful or muddled to express. In his foreword to Love is Strong as Death, Paul Kelly has captured the magic and the mystery that poetry is to me – that it […]

Green Shadows and Other Poems by Gerald Murnane

Green Shadows is the title poem and pervading spirit behind Gerald Murnane’s collection of poetic reflections and learnings in Green Shadows and Other Poems (Giramondo Publishing). Who is Gerald Murnane, recently described by the New York Times as “the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of” who could win the next Nobel […]