Author: Alphabet Soup

This post was added by Rebecca Newman. Rebecca is a children's writer and poet, and the editor of the Australian children's literary blog, Alphabet Soup. For more about Rebecca visit: rebeccanewman.net.au.
Posted in info

Young Writers in Action: Jaya

Posted on by Alphabet Soup
We love receiving your poems, stories, artwork and book reviews! Today we share a poem by 10-year-old Jaya. Thanks, Jaya!
Imagination by Jaya, aged 10

It flashed in my head
It appeared on my bed
Where ever I go
It follows me high and low
Holding me close
Or pushing me far
It leaves me the one
Same small scar
A scar of joy
A scar of fright
I feel the scar day and night
Deep in dreams
Deep in thought
The scariest thing a prince has fought
Has no name
Has no shape
From its reach
You won’t escape

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Posted in authors, illustrator

Stephen Axelsen and The Nelly Gang

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

Stephen AxelsenToday we welcome Stephen Axelsen to the blog. Stephen is here as part of a blog tour to celebrate the launch of his new graphic novel The Nelly Gang — you can read a review of the book here. We asked him some questions about how he goes about creating a graphic novel.

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The Nelly Gang (cover)How is creating a graphic novel different from writing and illustrating a picture book?
The biggest difference is that a graphic novel has a lot more pictures in it than a regular picture book, so they take much, MUCH, longer to illustrate. The writing takes a bit longer too. The Nelly Gang took more than a year to make. Also in graphic novels the story is mostly told in speech balloons. These balloons have to be designed and positioned so that they are nice and clear and don’t interfere with the pictures.

Why did you choose to tell this story as a graphic novel rather than a picture book or otherwise?
The story would not fit into a picture book, unless it was a very, very thick one. (There are up to 25 pictures on some double pages.) The Nelly Gang could have been a novel, I suppose, but I love drawing the old costumes and wagons and things too much just to use words.

How did you go about creating The Nelly Gang?
The story plan was the first thing put down on paper, but the very, very first ideas were pictures in my head; vague images of things I wanted to draw. Then I wrote the first story plan or plot, after which I began the rough drawings. The drawings would suggest new story ideas, and while rewriting the story NEW picture ideas would pop up, so I’d change the story again. The writing and drawing kept changing each other in an endless loop until I nearly went mad (or maybe I did go mad) and it was time to STOP and call the story finished.

What sort of tools do you use?
I used a mixture of ‘traditional’ and ‘digital’ media, which means that I did the drawing outlines with old fashioned pen and ink on paper, then scanned these into my computer where I tidied things up, added the colour then the speech balloons and text.


The Nelly Gang is set in 1860. How did you go about researching for the book?
A lot of my research was done online, but I also travelled to old goldfields, visited Sovereign Hill at Ballarat (which was excellent for picture reference) and even had a paddle steamer ride at Echuca. I had to have a paddle steamer in the story because they are such wonderful things to draw!

Now that The Nelly Gang is out, are you working on something new?
I am working on two big books at once now – a picture book for an American publisher about Joe Dumpty, P.I. (Humpty Dumpty’s brother, who is a Private Investigator.)

AND the sequel to The Nelly Gang, called Nelly and the Dark Circus. As the title suggests it is set mostly in a circus, and Nelly is in it. So is her goat, Queen Victoria, of course. 

Do you have any tips for young graphic novelists?
The best thing to do is look at as many graphic novels as you can find, choose the ones you like best and copy bits of them. Very soon you will start having your own ideas and awaaaay you’ll go!

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You can find out more about Stephen Axelsen (and the books he has illustrated and written) when you visit his website. Check out the other stops on his blog tour for more news and information about The Nelly Gang and graphic novels:

Nelly Gang Logo

THE NELLY GANG Blog Tour Schedule

Saturday September 14th  — Launch at The Story Arts Festival, Woodlands of Marburg.  (Launched by Megan Daley)

Monday September 16th — Children’s Books Daily  

Review and Book Launch update + giveaway

Tuesday 17th September —  DeeScribe Writing

Review + five tips on graphic novel making 

Wednesday 18thSeptember — Kids Book Review

Review + giveaway

Thursday 19thSeptember — Sheryl Gwyther’s Blog

Writing and Illustrating Graphic Novels

Friday 20thSeptember — Soup Blog [You’re here!]

Review + interview

Saturday 21st September —  BuzzWords

The Value of History + review

Interview with Stephen Axelsen © 2013 Stephen Axelsen and Rebecca Newman https://soupblog.wordpress.com

Posted in Book reviews by Joseph, Book reviews by kids

Book review: The Nelly Gang

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

   The Adventures of Nelly Nolan: The Nelly Gang by Stephen Axelsen,   ISBN 9781921977916, Walker Books Australia

A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.

Reviewed by Joseph, 9, WA

The Nelly Gang (cover)

This book is a graphic novel — it’s a bit like a comic book with lots of picture frames but it tells one long story through the whole book.

Nelly’s gang are Nelly and her friends Miro, Jin, plus Nelly’s goat. Nelly lives in Christmastown in Victoria in 1860 with her Pa who is looking for gold. When he finds gold (lots of gold!) they decide to go back to Sydney to find Nelly’s Ma. But someone knows about their gold and bushrangers are everywhere — like Captain Sunbeam and also Captain Moonshine. (The title of the book made me think of Ned Kelly, but Ned Kelly is not in this book.) The Nelly Gang have to fight the bushrangers.

The pictures in The Nelly Gang have interesting things to look at in the backgrounds. In a normal book you would have lots of description in words but the comic-style pictures do that in a graphic novel. I like the message tree — the posters on it made me laugh. Nelly’s goat (Queen Victoria) also makes me laugh. That’s my favourite character. And I liked funny lines like ‘as rich as pigs in a parsnip patch’ which is what Pa says to Nelly when they are weighing his gold.

Boys and girls age 8+ would thoroughly enjoy this. You learn a bit of history like what clothes are like in 1860, what school was like (the kids used slates instead of books and pencils), what money they used, how people lived in the goldfields, how they weighed gold and what their transport was like (horses and carriages).

When I got to the end I wondered what will happen to Nelly next so I would like to read a sequel. I would rate this book 9.5 out of 10.

Posted in Book reviews by Rebecca

Book review: Eco Warriors to the Rescue!

Posted on by Alphabet Soup

Eco Warriors to the Rescue! by Tania McCartney, ISBN 9780642277800, National Library of Australia

Reviewed by Rebecca Newman. (A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.) This post is part of a Blog Tour celebrating the publication of Eco Warriors to the Rescue! You’ll find other stops on the tour here. 

eco warriors to the rescue!

Take a sneak peek at some of the pages inside the book, over at the author’s blog.

Banjo, Ned and Matilda are eco warriors looking for the best ways to care for Australia’s native plants. They consult their favourite book on the subject, and then find themselves falling into the book. (Now they can take us on a tour of Australia’s native plants!)

The pages of Eco Warriors feature photos of the children popping into, through and out of historical botanical paintings sourced from the archives of the National Library of Australia. Would you recognise a Kangaroo Paw, a Wattle or a Flame Tree? The three friends point out favourite plants and share tips on protecting Australian flora. There’s also a green moth to search for on every page. (Test your observation skills!)

At the back of the book you’ll find Flower Facts and a map of Australia showing the Australian floral emblem, and the floral emblem for each state/territory. Over the page you’ll find a chart with the native flower assigned to each month so you can learn what your birthday flower is — Alphabet Soup’s birthday is in October and we discovered that the native flower for that month is the Red Bottlebrush. (Excellent! We love the Red Bottlebrush!)

The artwork is bright and fun to look at and when you’ve finished following these three eco warriors, you’ll look at the plantlife in your neighbourhood with new eyes. (Follow the tips in the book and become an eco warrior too — Australia needs more eco warriors.)

Would you love to own this picture book? We have some good news — we have one copy of Eco Warriors to the Rescue to give away — thanks to the National Library of Australia. Here’s what you need to do to enter the giveaway:

  • email our editor with three details —  your first name, postal address and your state’s floral emblem
  • Put ECOWARRIORS in the subject line of your email
  • Get your entry in by 9am EST on Monday 9 September 2013.

We will put all the entries into a hat and draw one winner on Monday 9 September 2013, and announce it here on the blog.

Some fine print:

  • Entries must be emailed by 9am EST on 9 September 2013.
  • We will announce the winner (first name and state only) here on the blog on 9 September 2013.
  • We will email the winner on 9 September 2013 and post the book to them by the end of September.
  • We will post the book to the winner even if we have no response to the email.
  • Entries that do not include a postal address will not be eligible for the draw.
  • Entries that do not include the correct floral emblem of the entrant’s state will not be eligible for the draw. (Double check!)
  • We will not pass your details on to any third party except when required by law.
  • This giveaway is open to Australian residents only. Schools are welcome to submit an entry.
  • You may only send one entry in per person for this giveaway.

ATTEND THE LAUNCH OF THE BOOK!

If you live in Canberra, you can Join Tania McCartney and her three real-life eco warriors — Banjo (Riley), Ned (Andrew) and Matilda (Claire) — as they launch Eco Warriors to the Rescue! at Canberra’s National Arboretum Gift Shop, Saturday 5 October 2013, at 11am.