Sophie Scott is nine, and she’s going to Antarctica with her dad—the captain of the Aurora Australis. It will take two weeks to get there, and they will be staying at Mawson Station for a week before coming home.
This is Sophie’s diary of her trip. But it’s sort of a scrapbook about Antarctica—as well as her diary entries, Sophie includes a detailed map of the ship, and photos of it, too. She describes (and draws) the special cold-weather clothes she has to wear and talks about the strange sounds and sights she sees from the ship. I love the drawings of the people on the ship and at the crew at Mawson Station and also the drawings of the animals and the environment in Antarctica. Many of the pages also feature snippets of information about the history of Antarctic explorers, and facts about the continent and the creatures that live there. (Did you know that an iceberg that sits just under the surface of the water is called a growler? Or that Roald Amundsen from Norway was the first to the South Pole?)
You’ll find a glossary at the end of the book and the endpapers show a map of the world showing Sophie’s journey to Antarctica, and a map of Antarctica from above.
On every page there are interesting things to look at, amazing photos and Sophie’s observations. One of my favourite photos shows a Weddell Seal scratching his nose. I also love the gallery of photos showing the colours of Antarctica. It’s not just white!) Sophie’s journey is based on the author’s own trip to Antarctica and many of ‘Sophie’s’ drawings in the book were co-created with children who read Alison Lester’s online diary entries during her trip. (Children sent the author artwork inspired by the online diary entries.)
This book grabs your attention from the first page. Gallop as quickly as you can to a library or bookshop if you love strange adventures, explorers, sea creatures, ships or Antarctica. Or all of them together!
We put all the entrants’ names into a hat and the winner is … KEN WILLIAMS. Congratulations—we know you’ll love these four fabulous picture books by Peter Carnavas! (Please email editor@alphabetsoup.net.au with your postal address, Ken.)
Here’s what Ken said about his nominated picture book treasure:
A favourite book is Waiting for Mummy by Tae-Jun Lee—a Korean classic retold and published by Australian publishers Wilkins Farago. Story is told largely through some amazing illustrations that take me back to my own childhood as an only child waiting for my mother to finish work to tell her about my day. It transforms me into a sobbing mess with each read.
Today we welcome Tania McCartney to Soup Blog! Tania will share with us how she goes about writing a story. (This post is part of a Blog Tour to celebrate the launch of her newest book—Riley and the Grumpy Wombat: A Journey Around Melbourne.)
Riley and the Grumpy Wombat: A Journey around Melbourne by Tania McCartney, ill. Kieron Pratt. Ford Street Publishing, ISBN 9781921665486
Before we hear from Tania, here’s a bit about the book:
Riley has discovered a wombat in his nanny’s garden. But why is this furry creature so grumpy? Join Riley and his friends from books one, two and three, as they zoom around the stunning sights of Melbourne in search of a wombat that simply needs a place to call home.
Riley and the Grumpy Wombat has black and white photos along with illustrations, and takes the characters on a fun adventure around Melbourne, Victoria.
And now, over to Tania McCartney!
Tania McCartney, with characters from her books
It seems the writing processes of authors are as varied as there are books … and perhaps this is why it’s so fascinating to learn how authors go about penning their work. I’ve been writing since my teens, yet each style of book I write goes through an almost entirely different process—and this process has actually changed over the years as I’ve found better ways of working.
I remember writing my first adult novels in my late teens and early twenties—the process I used then was … well, there wasn’t really a process. It was just ramblings. There was no plot structure, no character development, no deliberately-placed threads that were then woven delicately through the text, no no. It was just open slather. I wrote from the heart, I wrote with passion—I just wrote.
That was some of the easiest writing I’ve ever done. I sent one of these novels—Breathing Under Water—in for The Australian/Vogel Award (this was around 20 years ago) and although it wasn’t shortlisted, the publisher liked it enough to send it to an outside reader. After a few months, I received the outsider’s critique, which basically said there was ‘obvious talent’ but did the publisher really want to spend time working with me to hone a messy storyline. The publisher didn’t.
I was so crushed, I didn’t submit anything to a publisher again for close to ten years. But it wasn’t only because I was crushed—it was because I had no idea how to hone and structure my work.
Since that time I had plenty of ideas but was simply too confounded about the process. I thought about reworking Breathing Under Water, and I played with it occasionally, but nothing eventuated. Then, in 2007, I began work on a fresh idea for a young adult novel that struck me so quickly, it poured with ferocity from my fingertips.
The plot of this new book—let’s call it The One—required a lot of research, intense character placement and development, and a mass of location and time links. I needed to plan.
So what I did was set up a spread sheet listing the characters, their location, their specific roles and their connection to each other. I also kept detailed notes on the information required to tie characters and events together, and placed ‘markers’ through the manuscript to indicate where extra pieces needed to be written.
I needed these markers because I found I was writing parts of the book that weren’t necessarily in chronological order. It didn’t help that the book also skips through time, so I had to be very careful about where I placed which occurrence.
Taking the time to chart what I was writing kept me on track. At first I was worried a spread sheet would endanger the freedom of the storyline. I worried it would become too formulaic—too predictable. But the opposite happened. Extraordinary coincidences began to occur with characters and events and the research I conducted. It was extraordinary.
Life circumstances forced a four-year break from The One, and I have only just looked at the manuscript again this past month or two. Without my notes and spread sheets, I would have been lost, so I’m thankful I learned how to structure my own writing process.
When it came to writing my Riley the Little Aviator picture books, things went a little differently. I’m a really visual person, so all four books (as well as number five, being written now) were actually done after I had chosen a series of photographs to dot throughout the storyline.
I would place these photos directly onto Adobe Illustrator book pages and begin to write the text around the photos, chopping and changing it as the story went along. For all four books, I had absolutely NO idea of the endings. I knew roughly where the story was going and I had faith that the ending would unfold, magically. And indeed—each time, it did.
For Riley and the Curious Koala, this writing style was particularly strong. As Kieron illustrated each page, I was spurred on to the next, and would often make changes to the text to reflect Kieron’s (often hilarious) interpretation. The storyline for Curious Koala wasn’t finished until around three weeks before printing. This was a wonderful process—collaboration between author and illustrator. I loved it.
For Grumpy Wombat, I had to get the text in shape well beforehand because Paul Collins from Ford Street needed to approve it for publication. The final version, however, was still played around with right up to the last minute, even as pages were being laid out by the graphic designer.
On the back cover of Riley and the Grumpy Wombat
I absolutely loved having such freedom and scope to perfect the text so close to printing.
For my non-fiction books, my process is more methodical. For my history book for the National Library (Australian Story: An Illustrated Timeline, out 2012), I did a stack of historical research. I kept a Word document and a spread sheet that covered the text, images, references, links and notes. When it came to actually finalising the text, I placed it onto landscape book pages, just like I did with my Riley books, so I could ascertain how much text would be needed and in which timeslots I would need to write more. This helped me with image selection, too. It helped me keep focus.
For my lifestyle book—Handmade Living—I kept computer and hard copy versions of the work so I could write, layout and edit with greater ease. This helped me cut down the editing process considerably.
Some authors may work their way through books from front cover to back cover, but I find that, no matter the genre, I tend to jump around and write what works at the time. If I’m struggling in one area, I leave it and move onto a part I feel compelled to write in. Whilst I do believe in ‘pushing through’ writer’s block (it works for me), I also believe that if a section of any work is sticking, you may need to work on another section for a while. Sometimes we just need a few hours or even a week to let a certain part of any book simmer. Then things will flow again.
The writing process is certainly a unique one and—like anything—the more you practise, the easier it becomes.
So long as I have good coffee, silence, a nearby plant or flowers, and lots of sunshine streaming into the room, my writing processes are always joyful.
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Thanks for visiting and talking to us about the writing process, Tania!
If you want to follow the Riley and the Grumpy Wombat Blog Tour, here’s where to go:
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.
Well, there are only 7 sleeps left until Christmas day!
At this time of year, when I’m reading books to my children at bedtime, we always have at least one Christmas-themed book and (as we’re running out of days to talk about them) I thought I’d list a few all in one post!
One book that we continue to pull out since my eldest daughter was little is The Nativity, illustrated by Julie Vivas. It uses text from the Authorised King James Version of the Bible to tell the Christmas story and the illustrations really glow and make this a wonderful book. (You might know her illustrations from other books, like Possum Magic, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge and Our Granny, or many others!)
We also love Twelve Days of Christmas by Rachel Griffin. It comes with a CD of the song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ and each double-page spread in the book covers one day of the twelve days. Each page has photographs of brightly-coloured embroidery showing scenes from that particular day – our favourites: the Five Gold Rings worn by an elephant, and the Pipers Piping, who are snake charmers. We love this book and we never get tired of the fun CD, and of course, the twelve days of Christmas aren’t over until Epiphany, so we can keep listening until well after Christmas! (This was published in the UK and my children seem to think that the twelfth day should be ‘Drummers drumming’ and not ‘Lords-a-leaping’, but I don’t know if this is an Australian preference or a Newman-children preference. If we’re singing it along with a piano we go with my children’s preference, but we respect the CD version when we’ve got that on!)
I believe Twelve Days of Christmas is currently out of print, which is A TERRIBLE THING! But I’ve seen it at several public libraries, so you could add it to your ‘must borrow’ list.
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by Kevin Whitlark arrived in our house just before December and (you guessed it) is a silly version of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ and full of all kinds of dogs doing doggy things. We like to sing ‘Three French Poodles, Two chewed up slippers, and a fat cat in a fur treeeeeee’ very loudly. If you love dogs (and Christmas carols), you will love this picture book. It really is very silly but it’s good fun and has been read quite a few times since it first arrived.
What about your holiday reading? Do you have any Christmas books that you just love and you think we should know about?
~ Rebecca Newman (Editor, Alphabet Soup magazine)
The Nativity, illustrated by Julie Vivas, Omnibus Books, ISBN 1862910529. This book was selected for review from the Editor’s own collection.
Twelve Days of Christmas, by Rachel Griffin, Barefoot Books, ISBN 9781841489407. This book was selected for review from the Editor’s own collection.
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas, by Kevin Whitlark, Scholastic Australia, ISBN 9781741694451. A review copy of this book was sent to us by Scholastic Australia.
Look at this promo video from Spare Parts Puppet Theatre! This puppet show is based on The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek, by Jenny Wagner. (It’s one of our favourite books!)
There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake Answering Questions!
There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake (by Hazel Edwards and illustrated by Deborah Niland) celebrates its 30th birthday this year. Do you have a question you’d like to ask the hippo? You can ask away on Hazel’s website! (You can also find out the answers to to questions from other kids, like: What kind of cake is it? and Do you talk?)
The site also has news about Hazel’s latest picture book Flight of the Bumblebee, which comes with a CD of Antonia Kidman reading the story, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous music Flight of the Bumblebee.
One book that we continue to pull out since my eldest daughter was little is The Nativity, illustrated by Julie Vivas. It uses text from the Authorised King James Version of the Bible to tell the Christmas story and the illustrations really glow and make this a wonderful book. (You might know her illustrations from other books, like Possum Magic, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge and Our Granny, or many others!)
We love this book and we never get tired of the fun CD, and of course, the twelve days of Christmas aren’t over until Epiphany, so we can keep listening until well after Christmas! (This was published in the UK and my children seem to think that the twelfth day should be ‘Drummers drumming’ and not ‘Lords-a-leaping’, but I don’t know if this is an Australian preference or a Newman-children preference. If we’re singing it along with a piano we go with my children’s preference, but we respect the CD version when we’ve got that on!)
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by Kevin Whitlark arrived in our house just before December and (you guessed it) is a silly version of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ and full of all kinds of dogs doing doggy things. We like to sing ‘Three French Poodles, Two chewed up slippers, and a fat cat in a fur treeeeeee’ very loudly. If you love dogs (and Christmas carols), you will love this picture book. It really is very silly but it’s good fun and has been read quite a few times since it first arrived.
alphabetsoup.net.au 