Our latest blog posts
Q&A with Kate Beaton
Kate Beaton is an award-winning Canadian comics artist, and creator of the much-loved comic strip Hark! A Vagrant. Here, Bronte Coates talks to her about writing and illustrating her first picture book, The Princess and the Pony.
The first time I ever met the fat pony of your book (on your popular comic website Hark! A Vagrant) I was immediately smitten – and I’m obviously not alone! Can you talk a bit about this character’s origins?
It…
Meet Alison Huber, our new head book buyer
We chatted to Alison Huber, our new head book buyer, about books, reading, and the strangest thing to ever happen to her in a bookshop.
Describe your taste in books.
Taste: such a loaded term! So personal, yet ultimately made real by the judgment of others. Consequently, describing my own taste makes me feel rather exposed. And like everyone’s, my tastes change, go through phases, and sometimes, become unrecognisable to my older self.
Reflecting on how I might answer this…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People by Emma Farrarons
Gut: the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ by Giulia Enders
The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna
St Gill & His Audiences by Sasha Grishin
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Girl With the Dogs by Anna Funder
The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop
The Unbroken Line by Alex Hammond
The…
The way forward for #LoveOzYA
Earlier this week we hosted a lively discussion about the current state of Australian young adult fiction (or, OzYA) at our Hawthorn shop.
Panellists included editor Marisa Pintado (commissioning YA editor for Hardie Grant Egmont), author Melissa Keil (inaugural Ampersand Project-winning author of Life in Outer Space), librarian Susan La Marca (Head of Library and Information Services at Genazzano FCJ College) and blogger Danielle Binks (reviewer and blogger at Alpha Reader). The discussion was chaired by bookseller…
Highlights in children's and YA books for July
With everything from excellent illustrated stories for encouraging new readers, to bold debuts for teens, it’s just as well it’s much too cold to do anything but snuggle inside with one of these superb new books.
Both of my picture book recommendations for the month take the reader on an important journey of self-discovery, but in markedly different ways.
In Mr Huff, Anna Walker’s subtle, detailed ink and pencil artwork is both beautiful and emotive. A little boy who…
What we're reading: Harper Lee, Joanna Rakoff and Larissa Dubecki
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on or the music we’re loving.
Alan Vaarwerk is reading Melbourne literary journal Kill Your Darlings
I really should be used to it by now, but I’m constantly blown away by the breadth and quality of writing on display in Kill Your Darlings.
In their most recent issue, Gillian Terzis’ exploration of online grief and hashtag activism…
Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards Winners 2015
Congratulations to the winners of the Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards 2015!
Ellen van Neerven has received the $5,000 Dobbie Literary Award (for a first-time author) for her short-story collection, Heat and Light. Voted by our staff as one of the Best Fiction books of 2014, you can read our review here.
Joan London has received the $30,000 Kibble Literary Award (for an established author) for her novel, The Golden Age. You can read our review…
Thoughts on Go Set A Watchman
I’ve finished reading Go Set A Watchman.
Whew! What a relief! Now I can read all those reviews, opinion pieces, hot takes and tweets safe in the knowledge that I have read the book, and my opinion, should I choose to comment on an article (I won’t) is somewhat qualified. If anyone ever says to me, ‘Well have you actually read the book?’, I can say, ‘Yes, I read it within a day of release,’ and then I can…
Interviews with our work experience students
Over the next few weeks we’re participating in a work experience program with students from high schools across Melbourne. Here, Jemma Sbeghen tells us why it’s important to read the classics, and why she loves All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.
How would you describe your taste in books?
I’m all for this new wave of YA books that have begun focusing more on mental illness and personal problems, books like The Impossible Knife of Memory and This Song…
On the importance of pictures to encourage young readers
Writers write too much. This is not a revelation but it keeps occurring to me whenever I open a new book that claims to be aimed at new readers of around 5-years-old and over, or what we refer to as ‘Junior Fiction’. My first thought is usually: too many words, too few pictures. And my second is to imagine the children who will look at those pages; to see their little shoulders roll forward in defeat as they decide that…
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