Review of No Matter Who We're With

No Matter Who We’re With

Robert Vescio

Cheri Scholten

IP Kidz, 2013

Hbk, RRP $A 26.00

Ebk RRP $8.00

9781922120212

This is a sensitive story about two children who are dealing with an issue that so many of our students do – their parents are separated and they spend time living at both houses.  Even though they do different things with each parent, like growing their own vegetables in mum’s splendiferous garden or helping dad make Spaghetti Bolognese, there’s a joy that shines through and the most important message that regardless of who they’re with they know they are loved and that will never change.

Cheri Scholten’s colourful illustrations are the perfect accompaniment as they manage to portray the fun and joy and love the children have, reaffirming and reassuring the young reader that even monumental events like your parents separating can be overcome.

So many children struggle with their parents’ separation, and often blame themselves.  They believe that if they had been better, then their parents would not have split. And then, on top of that guilt, comes the perceived difficulties of spending time with both parents which often leaves them confused and conflicted. The beauty of this book is that it demonstrates that they can have fun with both parents and celebrate the spontaneity and pleasures of childhood, making the most of what is rather than regretting what was or what should be.  It’s a book that needs to be in the library’s collection so that our young readers can read about other children just like them, which in itself, can be a powerful healer. It might even be the catalyst for getting a troubled child to write their own story about the good things they do with each parent and realise that they are loved by both and that won’t change, no matter what.

Barbara Braxton

Teacher Librarian

M.Ed.(TL), M.App.Sci.(TL), M.I.S. (Children's Services)

COOMA NSW 2630

AUSTRALIA

barbara.288@bigpond.com

Together, we learn from each other

500 Hats http://500hats.edublogs.org

The Bottom Shelf http://thebottomshelf.edublogs.org/

Help My Planets out on MakeItHappen

MakeItHappen has posted My Planets Reunion Memoir as an idea that might get a micro grant to enable me to present it at an international conference in Banff, Canada next May. Please connect to the page and "like" the idea to give it the best chance of being funded (costs you nothing): http://makeithappen.schusterman.org/idea/738

 
MakeItHappen is the site of Schusterman.org, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to assisting creatives to share ideas and experiences with Jewish content. The organisation provides grants of $1,000 - $5,000 annually to "make it happen" for projects they are enthused about.

 
The conference David has been invited to is that of the IABA (International Autobiography and Biography Association). In 2014, it will be hosted by the University of Alberta (where David completed his Master's degree) and located at the Banff Centre for the Arts, where My Planets was composed in 2012. Talk about the stars coinciding!

 

The presentation will showcase the project by showing segments from the online site and also promote discussion about how digital media can be used to enhance memoir.
 

Once again, please click on the link above and "like" the idea to MakeItHappen.
 
Cheers!

A poem about leeches

This is for Anne Morgan, on Bruny Island, who asked to see my poem about leeches, which appeared in The Cave After Saltwater Tide, p. 97 (Penguin, 1994). Happy to oblige, Anne!

Snakes and Leeches

she’s an islander

she teases leeches 

cuddles tiger snakes

at low tide or when 

she’s between men

i’m not an islander

though i’ve assaulted 

leeches with salt before

and tapped tiger snakes

moulting behind glass

i bring no frills free

running table salt

for the leeches

i have an eye for snakes

i have an eye for her

there’s a snake dead

at the head of the track

will ours be a one day

stand?  she flicks it away

like unwashed foreskin

my boot barely misses

the first tiger branch

yellow belly hissing off

through the undergrowth

‘hello stranger’ she croons

like a marianne faithful

and i nearly bite her tongue

when i see the first leeches 

maggot up my laces i spill

over-salt my haste 

‘for every snake you see’

she says ‘a hundred more

are coiling in the bush

with their scaley lovers

but no French champagne!’

when we’ve finished

with rainforest we wash off 

our sweat in a tidal pool

and her sock’s all bloody

with the dark love of leeches

Latest reviews of I Love You Book and Sawdust

This week we feature the latest reviews of our titles I Love You Book by Libby Hathorn and Heath McKenzie and Sawdust by Deborah Kay with Barry Levy.

I Love You Book is a charming picture book about the reasons why children (and adults!) love reading stories in books. It was inspired by a play that Hathorn's adult students in PNG put on to celebrate their excitement over learning to read for the first time. A great Christmas present for young children!

Sawdust is a moving memoir of child abuse that ends not with a broken victim but with a brave woman who has transcended her past and now urges us to protect future generations. It was launched by Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale for National Child Protection Week (October). A gift to make you think.

I Love You Book:

"The inspiration for this book could have been the sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning which begins “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” because it is an ode to the pleasures and delights of the book – its sights, sounds, smells and the remarkable places it encourages our imagination to visit and the amazing creatures we meet when we get there.

From the “rustle-bustle” of the pages to the “dots and commas, question marks Performing every page” to the “happily-ever-afters, packed-to-the-rafters”, this is an enthusiastic, energetic romp that reaffirms the joy that reading provides and why books are here to stay because they are the perfect format. On each page, illustrator Heath McKenzie has created fantastic artworks (hand-drawn using a digital tablet) which match the energy of the text and help us recall some of the most magic moments in our reading lives. And even if we haven’t yet met the centipede being rude or visited those lands at the top of the tree, it inspires us to find those books so we can.

We ask our students to express why they love books, not just as an exploration of the senses but also as a way of having them recommend books to others. Which books make you “dreamy and sometimes quiet and slow”, and which books make you want to “go, get up and go!”? Similarly, how do those “short-long words” make the story move, and what role do those dots and commas have?

If you’re planning to start 2014 off with a focus on reading and books and the pleasures the children are going to be in for as the year with you progresses, this is a must-have."
- Barbara Braxton, The Bottom Shelf, OZTLNet (Australian Teacher Librarian Network)

Sawdust:

"This book is an excellent read - such a tough and terrible subject told with such optimism and hope. It helped me to understand how a young child normalises this situation. Deborah Kay is an amazing woman and so brave to tell her story. Her own children should be very proud of her. Well done!"
- Judy White, reader

Commentary on latest US court ruling for Google Books

The American Authors Guild seems intent on throwing good money after bad by pursuing Google for publishing excerpts from digitised books and then making them available on Google Books. In the latest court decision in the ongoing battle, a US court has ruled that Google Books is operating within the constraints of "fair use" in publishing extracts from whole books.

I've never understood the problem. IP signed up for Google Books back in the days before Google sold books because we saw the site as offering our titles greater discoverability amidst the millions of titles published each year. We never saw it as an infringement of copyright, although I can understand the objection of authors who never volunteered to have their work posted this way.

We routinely offer a link from the dedicated mini-sites for our books to the Google Books page featuring the title. This allows us to provide a short sample on our site, then give people the option to connect to Google Books to read a longer sample. Our Store is always the top link on the Google page for people who decide to buy the book in print or digitised version.

Surely, posting 15% of a work does not constitute piracy, especially since authors and publishers can choose to opt out of Google Books in part or in whole. These days, when authors offer their ENTIRE books for free on Amazon, that is a greater potential threat to their copyright if the freebie is then passed on.

Google Books is all about discoverability and enticing people to buy your work after sampling it. To see how it works, have a look at The Snow In Us (2nd edition)

IP eNews 60 (our last newsletter) is online!

Our last ever issue of IP eNews is now online, so please check it out if you haven't already: IP eNews 60

We've enjoyed the 15 years that eNews has been online and were pleased that the National Library has been archiving it as 'a significant cultural feature' almost from the start. The newsletter evolved over the years, reflecting the growth of IP, adding columns on imprints like IP Kidz as they came on stream, as well as fascinating interviews with our authors.

The only problem was that it was a quarterly. In the early days that was fine, but recently we've had so much news to share that we've increasingly relied on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for posting breaking news and events. eNews became more of a summary of information that had already been released on our social media sites, so readers would likely skim over much of the content.

The big advantage of newsletters, though, is covering issues in greater depth than the "grabs" one expects from Twitter and even Facebook. So we're hoping this new blog will be a more efficient and timely replacement for eNews, however sad we are to see it go!

And we also hope that you will "write back" to us in response to our postings, even prompting us for postings that you would like to see here. Here's your chance to shape the direction of our blog at the outset, so do let us know!

Welcome to Interactive Publications Australia's Blog!

From 2014, we'll post items here that hopefully will interest you about IP, Australia's most innovative independent publisher.

Our blog will replace IP eNews, which we wound up after its 60th issue, 15 years after it went to air. eNews was a quarterly and had an engaging mix of news, interviews, how-tos and editorials. But we think it's time for a more immediate means of communicating with you. So this blog will coordinate with our Facebook and Twitter sites, providing more depth. And of course it will be easier for you to chat with us here, and at length. We're looking forward to 2014, and beyond!