Today, September 5, is the birthday of some writers I greatly admire. Two of them who are no longer with us are Arthur Koestler(The Gladiators, Darkness At Noon, The Thirteenth Tribe, etc.) The other is Frank Yerby, author of many historical romances, some of them made into Hollywood movies.
But today I want to wish a happy birthday to a wonderful Melbourne writer whom I have actually met - Kate Constable(At Allen and Unwin parties and, I think, State Library events).
I first discovered her writing through her Chanters Of Tremaris trilogy, which were the sort of fiction which I, as a teacher-librarian, would recommend to kids who had enjoyed Tamora Pierce's fiction. For some reason, I had mostly boys reading that trilogy - the sort of boys who had read and enjoyed Garth Nix's Old Kingdom novels and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. There was a sort of sequel to the trilogy, The Taste Of Lightning. The world building in this series was great and the ending ... Well, I won't tell you, because spoilers.
But today I want to wish a happy birthday to a wonderful Melbourne writer whom I have actually met - Kate Constable(At Allen and Unwin parties and, I think, State Library events).
I first discovered her writing through her Chanters Of Tremaris trilogy, which were the sort of fiction which I, as a teacher-librarian, would recommend to kids who had enjoyed Tamora Pierce's fiction. For some reason, I had mostly boys reading that trilogy - the sort of boys who had read and enjoyed Garth Nix's Old Kingdom novels and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. There was a sort of sequel to the trilogy, The Taste Of Lightning. The world building in this series was great and the ending ... Well, I won't tell you, because spoilers.
But after these, she started writing some Australian-themed fiction for a younger audience. Two of them are time slip novels - Crow Country and Cicada Summer, both wonderful.
The girls at my school were discovering those by word of mouth. There were also some Girlfriend Fiction novels for them to enjoy, my favourite being the very funny Dear Swoosie, which she wrote with Penni Russon.
More recently, there was New Guinea Moon, which was a CBCA shortlist book.
Kate is a wonderfully versatile writer who deserves to do well. I hope he has been having a fabulous day - it was warmer and sunnier than my own birthday on September 3. Happy birthday, Kate!
Thank you Sue, that's very kind of you! I had a lovely day.
ReplyDeleteBut I must correct you on one point: New Guinea Moon wasn't shortlisted for the CBCA awards, in fact it wasn't even a Notable Book. I'm happy that you misremembered though :)
Really? I'd swear it was! Oh, well, it should have been. I try, every year, to read my way through the list and that involves downloading the book versions and somehow I have so many there I mix them up.
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