The Lost Thing wins a 2011 Oscar for Best Short Animated Film
A few posts back, we mentioned that The Lost Thing—an animated film based on Shaun Tan’s book—was nominated for an Oscar. The very exciting news today is that it won the Oscar for Best Short Animated Film!
Hooray! Hooray!
If you haven’t already checked out the trailer, you can find it over on The Lost Thing‘s own website. (Due to the win, there are a lot of visitors there today, so make sure you check again later if you’re finding it slow to load!)
Free exhibition: Look! The art of Australian picture books today
If you’re in Victoria, take your family to the Keith Murdoch Gallery to see illustrations from many of our favourite illustrators (and probably yours, too!). It’s free, and there are free events and activities for adults and kids, tours and a kids’ drawing competition.
You’ve probably heard that The Lost Thing—a 15 minute animated short film based on the book by Shaun Tan—has been shortlisted for an Oscar. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, you’ll find it at The Lost Thing website.
If you dream of being an illustrator when you grow up, here’s your chance to meet a real, live illustrator—Dean Jones, author-illustrator of All Through the Night.
Dean Jones will be signing books after an illustration demo.
I loved reading his books when I was growing up, and I’m still reading them. Now my kids are reading them—my daughter really likes Matilda.
I can’t imagine Roald Dahl’s stories without Quentin Blake’s illustrations. (There should be a Quentin Blake Day, too. While we’re waiting for someone to organise that, you can check out Quentin Blake’s fantabulous website.)
Anyway, back to Roald Dahl. Here’s something you didn’t know about me. When I was about 11, I used to correct people who thought Roald Dahl’s name was RONALD Dahl. They never believed me. (I was quite bossy about it but they didn’t know anyone else called Roald, so they thought I had it wrong. Ha!)
Then, when I was 15, I had to learn a poem off by heart to recite in front of the class. I was very slack and I didn’t think about the assignment again until three days before the recital. In a bit of a panic, I borrowed Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes from the library and I spent two nights frantically learning ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ It was fun and actually not too hard to memorise (even though it’s quite long) because of the rhymes and the way the story unfolds. And because, when you have someone listening to you reciting it (and they don’t have the book in front of them, so they can’t read ahead) you can’t wait to get to the funny bits!
I can’t remember what anyone else’s poems were about but I can still recite big chunks of Jack. If you haven’t read Revolting Rhymes yet, find a copy immediately. (If you can’t buy your own, ask for it at your school library or your local library.)
Visit the official Roald Dahl Day site for a free PDF with Roald Dahl Day activities. You could have a Roald Dahl Party to celebrate your favourite books any day, of course. It doesn’t have to be 13 September!
Here’s my favourite Roald Dahl Book. What’s yours?
Today I went into the city to eavesdrop on Indigenous Literacy Day events. At the State Library I arrived in time for a Meet The Author presentation by Gladys Milroy and Sharyn Egan, who were answering questions from an enthusiastic school group. Gladys Milroy has written a title in the Waarda series, The Great Cold and Sharyn Egan was talking about illustrating Dead Man’s Gold (written by Michael Torres).
Gladys Milroy and Sharyn Egan talking about their books. (ILD 2010)
Off in another room, Cheryl Kickett-Tucker was talking to two more school groups (and her gorgeous baby was with her too!). She talked about how there were different ways you could tell a story—not just writing a book, but also perhaps plays, movies, music with or without lyrics, collage, news stories and even more. She talked about how she loved writing in a diary when she was growing up. (Even if her brother did show it around to everyone and embarrass her!) She also read two chapters from her new book, Barlay!, and showed some photos of the scenery around Rocky Pool, where the book is set.
Cheryl Kickett-Tucker, reading a chapter from her new book. (IDL 2010)
While the authors and illustrators were off having lunch and resting their voices, school groups were taking part in The Great Book Swap—looking through piles of books on trestle tables at the State Library. So many books!
Gladys Milroy and Sally Morgan waiting for their session to begin in the Art Gallery. (ILD 2010)
Next I stopped by the art gallery where two groups of children were busy experimenting with story and art, guided by Sharyn Egan, Gladys Milroy and Sally Morgan. Sharyn Egan talked about how sometimes you need to make lots of little sketches and play around a little to find what it is that you want to draw. And she pointed out there are different ways of looking at things (like an aerial view, rather than looking straight on)—which echoed what Cheryl Kickett-Tucker had said about storytelling earlier.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting some more WA writers and illustrators, and hearing about where they find their inspiration!
Indigenous Literacy Day aims to raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Project. You can read about the project on the ILP website, and donate while you’re over there. There are also a number of bookshops participating in Indigenous Literacy Day by donating a percentage of their sales on 1 September 2010 to the Indigenous Literacy Project.
Alphabet Soup magazine is donating 10% of all orders today to the ILP (and until 5 September, if you add a note ‘ILD order,’ we’ll count it with today’s orders!). Subscribe via our website! (It’s only $29.80 for a 1-year subscription!)
Well, the Undercover Readers Club is now officially launched. In case you missed it — we’ve had children’s authors, poets and illustrators visiting the blog to talk about what they used to read undercover when they were growing up.
Tomorrow we’ll post a list of all the books mentioned, in case you’d like to look for them the next time you’re at a library or book shop.
And if you came late to the tour, here’s a list of all our visitors. Thanks for helping us launch the Undercover Readers Club. Hurrah!
ILLUSTRATING WORKSHOP with children’s illustrator, Lisa Stewart
WRITING WORKSHOP with Oliver Phommavanh, author of Thai-riffic!
alphabetsoup.net.au 