Alphabet Soup

Book Review: Heipparallaa!

Posted on December 18, 2012January 6, 2015 by Alphabet Soup

Heipparallaa! by Liliana Stafford, ill. Elina Järvinen, ISBN 9781921136306, Windy Hollow Books

Reviewed by Matilda*, 6, WA

Heipparallaa means almost hello. This book is about two girls sending emails to each other. One lives in Finnish Lapland in the snow, and one girl lives in Australia. They write about what they are doing. It’s December. One place is snowy and one place is hot. Both girls are telling each other about Christmas in their place. Maaria lives in Finnish Lapland and she said that they make ‘new bread’ called uutisleipä. Alidia goes to Carols by Candlelight.The best bit was the imagination when the girls pretend to send sun and fruit and the cool wind to each other.People who like writing letters and people who like imagination would like this book. I wish that I was the Australian girl and I had a penpal. I think this book is good for kids 6 to 14.

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* Matilda is a member of our Undercover Readers Club. (Download information about the club on the magazine’s website.) Matilda reviewed her own copy of Heipparallaa!

competitions, National Year of Reading

Summer 2012 First Line competition

Posted on December 17, 2012December 17, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

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If you were about to write a mystery story, what would your first line be? Send us only the first line of your story—make it irresistible!

You can send us as many first lines as you like. You can write your first line(s) on the back of your entry form. An entry form may be printed from the website (see competition rules), photocopied, or contact us to have one emailed or posted to you. (If you send us an entry and a few days later you send us some more first lines, you will need to include another entry form to go with your extra lines. We get quite a few entries and we can’t always match up stray writings with their entry forms!)

Your entry can be handwritten or typed. Make a copy of your entry as we cannot return entries.

A $20 book voucher is awarded to the winner in three age categories: Under 7s, Under 9s, and Under 12s.

Find more writing and art comps on the Comps for Kids page.

Christmas, info

Last-minute Christmas orders!

Posted on December 17, 2012December 17, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

From today until 21st December 2012 all orders to Australian addresses will be sent via Express Post at no extra charge.

Prices: Single copies are only $8.20, a 1-year subscription (4 issues) costs $29.80 and a 2-year subscription (8 issues) costs $50.00. All prices include postage and handling.

Order online with a credit card on the magazine’s website.

Your shipping will be upgraded to Express Post at our office automatically, you do not need to enter a code when you order.

issue 17 (cover) — Have you read the current issue?

info

2012 Alphabet Soup Creativity Award – The Winners!

Posted on December 7, 2012December 10, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

IT’S FRIDAY!

And you know what that means … it’s time to announce the winners of the 2012 Alphabet Soup Creativity Award!

*drumroll*

MOST OUTSTANDING ARTWORK—Daniel Hayes, 10, WA

The judge’s comments: This painting captures the drama of a long, dark arctic winter. Imagine this lonely polar bear waiting months and months for the sun to rise again! Despite being immersed in the freezing gloom, the artist has given the bear and her iceberg a magical inner glow.

Daniel wins $50 from the Book Chook, an art appraisal with James Foley, and a copy of James Foley’s book In the Lion.

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MOST OUTSTANDING STORY—Simon Bird, 11, WA

THE STRANGE CLOUD OF MIST

It’s night time, thought Jake. I hate night time. Jake was lying on his bed, looking out the dark window. He was 11 years old and had brown hair and eyes.

CRASH!

Jake heard some spray and saw the window cover in water drops.

‘What was that?’ he asked himself. He jumped out of his covers and sneaked towards the window. It wasn’t rain because it was only a quick burst of misty water. Jake opened the window and stuck his head out. He saw a large cloud of mist swirling around his neighbourhood.

Strange … Jake thought. It must be a dream … I’ll pinch myself. Jake pinched himself hard and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was in his bed and it was morning, yet the window was still covered in misty water.

Jake hopped out of bed and hobbled down the stairs. His breakfast was already waiting for him at the table.

‘I’m not hungry right now,’ Jake said to himself. ‘Something’s not right.’ Jake dressed himself and stumbled out the door. He jogged to the nearby beach and saw that most of the beach parasols had been washed into the ocean, plus mounds of seaweed were piling on the shore.

I knew something was wrong, Jake thought to himself. The beach has been wrecked.

Jake jogged home to tell his parents, but something captured his eyes. His parents’ car was gone! He panicked. Where were his parents? Surely they wouldn’t be gone at this time of the morning. The front lawn of Jake’s house was wet and ruined.

Jake heard a windy sound from behind him. He turned around and saw a massive cloud of misty water! The mist was swirling around at high speed, ripping out plants and pulling pots and cars. One of the cars Jake saw was his parents’ car!

‘No!’ Jake yelled. Jake ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but he was too slow …

The judge’s comments: This story carefully builds suspense, and Jake’s feeling of foreboding pulls the reader through the story. Abandonment is an age-old theme in storytelling and this story leaves us guessing what is to come. We sense that Jake is capable but his fear is real.

Simon wins $50 from the Book Chook, a manuscript appraisal with Dee White, and a copy of the e-book Ten Top Writing Tips for Kids—What to Write About.

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MOST OUTSTANDING POEM—Rose Thorpe, 11, NSW

RACCOONS

Smart and clever,
Cunning and quick,
The raccoon darts,
Weaves and dips
Between the buildings,
In the night,
Guided by
The silver moonlight.
The sun is rising,
Night is away
Hurry my friend
Before the brand new day.

The judge’s comments: Line breaks and well-chosen words reflect the movement of the raccoon at night. The poet conveys a lot of action in this brief poem.

Rose wins $50 courtesy of the Book Chook, a poetry appraisal/mentorship with Lorraine Marwood, and a copy of A Ute Picnic.

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SECOND PLACES

Second Place (Artwork)—Caspian by Benjamin Woo, 6, Malaysia.

Second Place (Story)—UFO by Harry Cordingley, 10, WA.

Second Place (Poem)—The Sun, Ellie Rose Fisher, 11, WA.

Benjamin, Harry and Ellie Rose each receive a runner-up medal.

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If you’d like to submit writing and/or artwork for Alphabet Soup‘s 2013 issues, check out our submission guidelines.

illustrator

Art assessment/mentoring with James Foley

Posted on December 5, 2012December 5, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

James Foley is visiting today to tell us about how he came to be an illustrator—and the details of the fabulous prize he is donating for the winner in the Most Outstanding Artwork category of the Alphabet Soup Creativity Award. (You can read about the prizes for the Most Outstanding Story and the Most Outstanding Poem categories in earlier posts this week.)

Thanks, James!

—

I write and illustrate children’s books. I’ve recently released my second picture book, In The Lion, through Walker Books. It’s a little like The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly but darkly funny and set in a zoo. My first book, The Last Viking, came out last year. it was written by Picture-Book-of-the-Year winner Norman Jorgensen.

Most illustrators will tell you they’ve been drawing for as long as they can remember. I started my career in primary school, drawing cartoons for the school newspaper. The paper only lasted one issue, probably because my class faked a fire in the school hall using a smoke machine to get our front page story. In year 7, I won third prize in a state-wide ‘Make Your Own Storybook’ Competition. I later worked on a regular comic strip for my high school paper; political cartoons for a Curtin University paper; and a full-page comic for Notre Dame University’s Quasimodo magazine.

But my professional career really began in 2003, when I drew my first covers for Western Australia’s weekly Quokka newspaper. By the time I finished in 2010 I’d drawn nearly 300 full-colour cartoons.

I like working in pen and ink, pencil, charcoal and watercolour. I also use digital tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter and a Wacom graphics tablet.

I have a website and you can also visit The Last Viking blog which goes behind-the-scenes of the picture book.

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THE MENTORING

My assessment/mentoring will contain feedback on your illustration, suggestions for drawing activities, advice on books to look at and artists to look up, and general tips for illustrating books. The winner will need to email me a scan of their artwork for appraisal. I will email back my feedback and tips.

I will also provide a signed copy of my latest book In the Lion.

I remember being encouraged at a young age to follow this dream, so hopefully I can do the same here.

—

We can hardly wait to announce the winners on Friday. While you’re waiting, you can check out the book trailer for In the Lion. It’s really cool.

poetry

Poetry Appraisal with Lorraine Marwood

Posted on December 4, 2012December 4, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

Today we are so pleased to have Lorraine Marwood here to tell us a bit about her poetry writing, and the prize she is donating for the winner in the Most Outstanding Poem category of the Alphabet Soup Creativity Award. (We’ll be announcing the winner on Friday, so stay tuned!)

Over to you, Lorraine!

—

I have written many, many poems and had them published in places like The School Magazine in New South Wales (and Alphabet Soup of course) and USA magazine Cricket. I love the way a poem can become a little image of a snapshot of a moment in a day.

I have two collections of poems published with Walker Books: A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems and Note on the Door and Other Poems About Family Life. I have just completed a third collection of poems with Walker—Guinea Pig Town and Other Poems About Animals and this will come out in 2013.

I also like to write verse novels. Star Jumps won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (children’s category) in 2010, and Ratwhiskers and Me is set on the Victorian goldfields. Imagining what it would have been like to live in times gone by is another way of writing that I enjoy. I love researching and reading all about those times too. I never know when an idea will suddenly take hold and grow into a poem or a book.

Look out for my Aussie Nibbles titles too—The Girl Who Turned into Treacle and Chantelle’s Cloak.

I have a website all about my books, and a blog where I often write about projects and inspiration and travels.

Walker Books also has notes on my books and each time I write a poetry technique so it’s often a good idea to look here also.

—

My poetry appraisal/mentoring will contain feedback on what makes a poem stand out from the crowd, how to continue writing, where ideas for poems come from, tools that poets use, how to make a few words sparkle and dance, and suggestions for reading poetry, too.

The winner will email me their poem of up to 15 lines (non rhyming and double spaced) for comment.

I will also provide a copy of one of my poetry collections A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems, and I’ll include some suggestions on how to pattern a poem from some of mine in the book.

—

Children who have had poetry published in the Write On! section of a 2012 issue of Alphabet Soup are in the running for this fantastic prize. These children will be entered automatically. We will announce the winner on Friday and will contact the winner directly.

If you’d like to submit your story or poem for possible publication in a 2013 issue of the magazine, read the submission guidelines on our website.

authors, info

What to Write About (Dee White)

Posted on December 3, 2012December 3, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

Yesterday we announced the Alphabet Soup Creativity Award—for outstanding work published in Alphabet Soup magazine in 2012. Today we welcome Dee White to share some ideas for what to write about, and to tell us about the prize she has donated for the winner in the Most Outstanding Story category.

Over to Dee!

A House Can Tell A Story

There are so many potential stories hidden inside your home.

You just have to use your imagination and look for them.

What if you opened a drawer and found a secret letter hidden there?

What if something in your house came to life and started chasing you or wanted to be your friend?

What if your house could talk and told you a story about the people who used to live there before you did?

What if your house got blown away like Dorothy’s in The Wizard of Oz and you ended up somewhere completely different?

What if there was a treasure chest hidden in your garden?

What if there was a secret compartment in the wall of your bedroom and it led to another world?

One of my favourite things to do when I can’t think what to write about is to look around a room in my house and pick an object. It could be a wall, a door, a light switch, anything.

Next I imagine what it would be like to be that object sitting there day after day. I think about what that object can see and do and how it might feel. Then I write a piece about it.

It’s fun to do this with a writing friend and see if they can guess which object in the room you are writing about.

This excerpt is from Dee’s new e-book, 10 Top Writing Tips For Kids: What to Write About.

Dee is donating a free copy of this book and one hour’s mentoring (a manuscript appraisal) to the winner of the Most Outstanding Story category of the 2012 Alphabet Soup Creativity Award.

THE MENTORING
Here’s how it works.

The winner will send a 500-word piece of writing to Dee. If it’s part of a longer story they’ll need to also send in a plot summary or information about what happens in the rest of the story. Dee will give tips on how to improve the piece of writing and the winner’s skills in general. She’ll also answer questions they might have about the piece or writing in general.

ABOUT 10 TOP WRITING TIPS FOR KIDS

Dee has written this series to encourage and inspire kids who love to write. 10 Top Writing Tips for Kids: What to Write About was released in November 2012.

Other books in the series coming in 2013 are:

10 Top Writing Tips For Kids – Heroes and Villains
10 Top Writing Tips For Kids – Want to Be a Writer?
10 Top Writing Tips For Kids – Make Your Writing Sparkle

More about the 10 Top Writing Tips books can be found at http://10topwritingtips.wordpress.com

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ABOUT DEE

Letters to Leonardo (cover) — Letters to Leonardo (Dee’s Young Adult book)

Dee White has worked as an advertising copywriter and journalist, but wanted to be an author from the time she was seven. Her first book for young adults, Letters to Leonardo, took more than ten years to research and write. Dee’s other titles include Hope for Hanna, A Duel of Words and Harry’s Goldfield Adventure.

Dee is passionate about encouraging young readers and writers, and her blogs Writing Classes for Kids and DeeScribe Writing are full of career and writing tips for students and new and emerging writers.

She runs writing workshops for primary and secondary students across Australia with sessions focusing on story ideas, plotting and character development. She also runs them online at Writing Classes for Kids.

She is honoured to be providing the prize for the inaugural Alphabet Soup Creativity Award, and hopes that it will help encourage young writers.

For more information on the 2012 Alphabet Soup Creativity Award, visit the Award page (there’s a tab at the top of this blog).

Excerpt from 10 Top Writing Tips for Kids: What to Write About © Dee White 2012.

info, poetry

Alphabet Soup Creativity Award

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

We love reading all the work you send us and we really love publishing it, too. Sometimes we’re blown away by the amazing stuff we find in our inbox and our post office box. And that’s why we are thrilled to be announcing the inaugural ALPHABET SOUP CREATIVITY AWARD.

Prizes will be awarded in three categories:

Most outstanding story

Most outstanding poem

Most outstanding artwork

If you are a child who had work published in the magazine this year, you are automatically in the running for this Award. (This excludes the winning pieces in the writing or design-a-cover-competitions).

The prizes:

Most outstanding story—the winner will receive $50.00*, an ebook by Dee White, and a manuscript appraisal (professional feedback) from Dee White on a 500-word story they have written (not necessarily the story that was published in Alphabet Soup).

Most outstanding poem—the winner will receive $50.00*, a book of poetry by Lorraine Marwood, and a poetry appraisal (professional feedback) from Lorraine Marwood on an unrhymed poem up to 15 lines written by the winner (not necessarily the poem that was published in Alphabet Soup).

Most outstanding artwork—the winner will receive $50.00*, a book by James Foley, and an illustration appraisal (professional feedback) from James Foley on a piece of artwork (not necessarily the artwork published in Alphabet Soup).

You’ll hear more about these people and the prizes this week, starting on Monday. And on Friday we’ll announce the winners here on the blog. (If you are a winner, we will also notify you personally.)

Read more about the award (including some fine print) on the Alphabet Soup Creativity Award page.

*$50.00 cash for each category is courtesy of The Book Chook. (Thank you!)

Book reviews by Celine, Book reviews by kids

Book Review – Blood Brothers

Posted on November 30, 2012January 6, 2015 by Alphabet Soup

Dragonkeeper: Blood Brothers by Carole Wilkinson, ISBN 978742031897, Walker Books Australia

Reviewed by Celine, 10, WA

Recently I devoured the most exquisite yet enchanting book, Blood Brothers. It is the fourth book in the series ‘Dragonkeeper’. It tells the story of a monk named Tao. He is the only monk in his family for one reason. He is accumulating good karma for his brother Wei. His brother Wei is unable to move his limbs or talk, but Wei has the powers of a dragonkeeper. When Tao and Wei hold hands, some of the powers are transferred to Tao, as Wei cannot use them. Tao can then talk to a dragon that was following him throughout his journey so far.

Kai the dragon is in search of a dragonkeeper. As Tao journeys on from his house, he comes face to face with some terrible bloodthirsty nomads. Will Tao escape? Can Wei survive?

I believe the title is very suitable for this story and you will understand it when you finish the book. Blood Brothers is very hard to put down. I experienced the feelings with the character as if I were in his shoes—sad, relieved, excited and worried.

This book is recommended for ages 9 and above. My favourite part was when Tao called Wei ‘Wei-Wei’. I would rate this book all the stars visible in the night sky.

Now I’m going back to read books 1, 2 and 3!

–

* Celine is a member of our Undercover Readers Club. (Download information about the club on the magazine’s website.) A review copy of Blood Brothers was provided by Walker Books Australia.

Christmas

Author visit: Dimity Powell

Posted on November 29, 2012November 30, 2012 by Alphabet Soup

Today we welcome Dimity Powell—Dimity is a children’s author on a blog tour to celebrate the launch of her new and Christmassy chapter book, PS Who Stole Santa’s Mail?

Before we hear from Dimity, here’s a bit about the book:

When the post boxes of Bramblebury mysteriously begin to disappear, Sam has just weeks before the biggest day of Santa’s year to discover what’s happening to all the Christmas mail. And then his sister vanishes too. Will he be able to find his sister and save Christmas, along with Santa’s reputation, before the Delivery Book closes for the year?

What he needs is a Christmas miracle.

Can you describe your book in five words or fewer?
Presents, elves, mayhem—it’s Christmas!

How did you get your idea for the book?
The original manuscript was the result of an assignment for a Writing for Children Course back in 2008. The idea came from a newspaper article about how a local council was rumoured to take away post boxes on the Gold Coast, decreasing their numbers dramatically. I thought this would make a good light-hearted mystery novel based on the question ‘what if all the post boxes in a small boy’s town suddenly and inexplicably disappeared just two weeks before Christmas?’

Why do you write for children?
I delight in writing for children, especially those in the ‘golden age’ of independent reading. They believe in magic and that anything and everything is possible, while still being hard to convince. It’s challenging and rewarding.

Is your main character a bit like you?
Yes. He is a firm believer in Santa Claus, as am I (hand on heart). Apart from that, I’m not as good on a scooter as Sam and I don’t hang out in shopping plazas much.

How did you become a writer?
Like most people, I went to school first. My happy place was in the world of books and reading, and spending long hours penning stories about lost ponies. In English class, I loved composition exercises the most. And to this day have never forgiven my Year 8 English teacher for ‘losing’ a story which had taken me weeks to perfect—an anthropomorphic tale about ants. Even at the age of 12, I suspected foul play. I never got it back and am still wondering why …

What do you like best about the main character?
Sam is a likeable 8 year old whose main mission in life is to ask Santa for his first really big present, his own bike. I love Sam’s determination to track down the missing post boxes, and rescue his little sister and the missing Christmas mail. He shows grit and courage but would not succeed at times if it weren’t for his close bumbling friend, Tobii. I’d like to have a mate like Sam; not too overbearing, not too perfect, but steadfast.

Did you have to do any research for this book?
I confess, I have never actually made it to Lappland, current residence of Santa Claus, but I have been to his birth place in Turkey, if that counts. Santa’s Winterworld is based on documentaries, articles and pictures I have seen and read of his Lappland home.

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Check out the other stops on the blog tour:

17 Nov Kids Book Review

18 Nov My Little Bookcase

19 Nov Sheryl Gwyther

20 Nov Morris Publishing Australia

21 Nov Kathryn Apel

22 Nov Elaine Ouston

23 Nov Renee Taprell

24 Nov Alison Reynolds

25 Nov Buzz Words

26 Nov Christine Bell