Apply for a Reading Matters scholarship!

21st March 2017  |  By

rm-authors-imageThe Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library Victoria is pleased to be able to offer 10 early-career scholarships for the 2017 Reading Matters professional conference. The scholarships are intended to support emerging professionals in fields related to youth literature, including librarians, teachers and publishing professionals. Applicants must be in their first three years of a career within the library sector, education or publishing, or be studying towards a degree in these fields.

Each scholarship will cover the cost of a ticket to the Reading Matters professional conference (value $550).

The 2017 Reading Matters conference will be held on 2-3 June at the Arts Centre Melbourne.

For more information about the program see www.slv.vic.gov.au/reading-matters.

To apply: Complete the online form detailing the benefit of this scholarship to your professional development and email your curriculum vitae (CV) to the CYL team at youthlit@slv.vic.gov.au.

Terms and conditions of application:
• Successful applicants will be required to attend both days of the Reading Matters conference – Friday 2 June and Saturday 3 June 2017.
• Tickets are not transferable.
• The ticket value excludes travel costs. Successful applicants will be responsible for their own travel to and from the conference and any other related costs incurred .
• Successful applicants will be required to submit a one-page reflection on their experiences at the Reading Matters 2017, and participate in associated promotional opportunities as requested by the Centre for Youth Literature.

Submissions close: Monday, 10 April 2017 at 9am (AEST)

Applicants advised via email: Friday, 14 April 2017

Apply now!

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Some exciting news about Inside a Dog

19th January 2017  |  By

Inside a Dog is getting a makeover! The website is currently in redevelopment, with a new site scheduled to launch in mid-2017.

At the moment we are consulting with young people around the country to determine what kind of functionality the site will have in the future. As a result, we don’t know exactly what the new site will look like yet.

Please be aware that some features of the current website may be significantly changed as a result of the redevelopment, and may not look the same or function in the same way on the new site. Teachers should be wary of relying too heavily on the availability of the current site functionality in the second half of 2017.

One thing is for sure: Inside a Dog will still be the place for young people to come to post about books, writing and culture, and to connect with likeminded peers Australia-wide.

Subscribe to our e-newsletter to stay up-to-date with all of the news about the Inside a Dog redevelopment.

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SLAV Presentation – US YA Observations

25th November 2016  |  By

Resources shared by Program Coordinator, Adele Walsh, at the School Library Association of Victoria conference. Her visit to the US to observe young adult programming was supported by the Melbourne City of Literature. Any questions can be directed here.

Adele’s Big Four

  1. Reading Matters conference – early bird closes 30 November – information here
  2. LoveOzYA website and free downloadable posters
  3. The Centre for Youth Literature’s enewsletter
  4. 2017 Inky Awards dates:
  • Longlist- 23 February at Perth Writers Festival
  • Judge call out – 23 February to 22 March at insideadog.com.au (will be relaunched in 2017)
  • Shortlist – 15 August
  • Winner announcement – 3 October.

Free downloadable Inky Awards resources for schools and libraries.

Texas Library Association Conference

All conference powerpoints can be found via this directory.

 

Program ideas:

  • HungerFest (8 hour Hunger Games party)
  • Hola! Bonjour! Hello! A Foreign Language Study group
  • Exam Peer Study Groups
  • Teen Job Skills fairs

RT Booklovers Convention

Program ideas:

  • Cinema Craptastique – live commentary over truly awful movie
  • Social media book fair
  • New Adult – more information on this podcast (NSFW)
  • Teen Day Party

Free and cheap tools online:

  • graphic design – Pic Monkey, Canva and Stencil
  • live blogging – Periscope and Snapchat
  • Organisational helpers – open live writers for writing online content, Evernote, Desk, Blogos, Kompozer and Pxlr
  • Free images and good image deals via Shuttlestock subscription, Flickr (change settings to Creative Commons), Deposit Photo, Getty Images (blogger program) and PhotoPin. Also, Death to Stock Photos and Gratisography.

The Future of YA recommendations for big blockbusters:

  • The Problem with Forever by Jennifer Armentrout
  • Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell
  • The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia
  • The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

Email management tips

  • action require email stays in the inbox, everything else should be filed or deleted
  • filing: keep to 5-10 folders and no sub-folders
  • use colour coding and flagging
  • be responsive – respond to every email by end of the day (whether expectation setting or full response)
  • 2 minute rules – if it can be done in 2 minutes, do it! If you focus, get all two mminte emails completed in under 15 mins.
  • Set aside 15 mins at the end of the day to clean up your inbox and reset for the morning

People and organisations to get familiar with:

Events mentioned:

Authors mentioned:

  • Kwame Alexander – Crossover and Booked verse novels and Surf’s Up PB
  • Matt de la Pena
  • Jason Reynolds
  • Veronica Roth
  • Victoria Aveyard
  • AS King
  • Siobhan Vivian’s The Last Boy and Girl in the World
  • Drag Queen by Jeffrey Self
  • Tru and Nell by G. Neri – fictionalised MG novel regarding Truman Capote and Harper Lee
  • George by Alex Gino
  • More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

The Hunger Games Exhibition

  • Darling Harbour from 20 December to 4 February 2017

Adele’s Powerpoint can be accessed here.

* I was able to negotiate an international rate.

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Reading Matters 2017 – Conference

24th November 2016  |  By

EARLY BIRD CLOSES 30 NOVEMBER 2016

In June 2017, the 12th biennial Reading Matters will bring together a sparkling array of guest YA authors, illustrators and publishers to discuss, debate and celebrate books for young adults. The program will feature a two-day conference and one-day student program.

Date: Friday 2 June and Saturday 3 June 2017
Venue: ANZ Pavilion, Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road
Price: $500 (early bird price – 30 Nov), $550 (or $520 per ticket for organisation booking over 2)

Book here

The conference offers a well-structured and informative program with stimulating content and thought-provoking themes, delivered by international and local high profile authors and emerging talents.

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Our speakers include: A.S. King (USA), Rick Yancey (USA), Mariko Tamaki (Canada), Lili Wilkinson, Rachael Craw (NZ), Randa Abdel-Fattah, Alison Goodman, Nevo Zisin, and Lance Balchin. We also have Jennifer Niven (USA), Jay Kristoff, Jane Harrison, and Dougal MacPherson (our artist in residence) joining us. More information on the speakers can be found here.

Delve into topics including:

  • the rise and future of YA
  • YA’s expanding readership and appeal to readers, writers and publishers
  • best practices in teen engagement
  • the direction that YA fiction is headed.

Secure your spot at the Reading Matters 2017 conference and boost your expertise in the sector! The escalating popularity of the genre ensures that YA literature can only grow stronger. At the conference, you will:

  • discover emerging authors and inspiring books to recommend to libraries, schools, readers and book clubs
  • unearth and forecast trends and issues in YA
  • network with experts and colleagues in the sector
  • meet YA authors, readers and publishers from across Australia.

The conference is recommended for librarians, teachers, book sellers, publishers, YA authors and YA fans.

 

 

Book your Early Bird tickets now for this two-day professional conference, available exclusively until Wednesday 30 November 2016.

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Reading Matters 2017 – Student Day

17th November 2016  |  By

rm_authors1Reading Matters’ student day is one of the most anticipated events of the year by teen readers and YA fans. Committed to a fun and diverse schedule that looks deeply at how young people engage with the world, the student program offers two concurrent sessions featuring six Australian and international writers and illustrators. Championing young voices as well as established names in YA literature, the student day will host Jay Kristoff, Rick Yancey, Jennifer Niven, AS King, Dougal MacPherson and Mariko Tamaki as they share their insights, knowledge and experiences.

Choose one of two jam-packed programs over two hours, for students aged between 12 and 16 years old. Participants will have the chance to partake in a live illustration demonstration, enjoy a slam poet performance and learn from a range of talents presenting on illuminating topics including inclusive storytelling, authentic writing, world building and graphic novels.

Book now by downloading and completing the student booking form at the bottom of this page. Don’t miss this chance to engage your students with writers, creators, enthusiastic peers and all that YA literature offers.

Date: Thursday 1 June 2017 10am – 2pm
Venue: State Library Victoria
Price:

  • $375 for 25 students (2 teachers) + $11 per student/teacher thereafter (inc GST).
  • For groups of 25 people or fewer, cost is $15 per student/teacher (inc GST).

Book online

Downloadble booking form – purchase order number can be indicated if paying by invoice.

Program A

10.00am – Jay Kristoff: Space out (presentation)
10.20am – Slam Poets
10.30am – Mariko Tamaki: The whole picture (presentation)
10.50am – Dougal MacPherson: Draw attention (live demo)
11.10am – A.S. King: Reality check (presentation)
11.30am – Rick Yancey and Jennifer Niven: State of mind (panel)
12.00pm – Book signing

Program B

10.00am – Rick Yancey:  Never fear (presentation)
10.20am – Dougal MacPherson: Draw attention (live demo)
10.40am – A.S. King: Reality check (presentation)
11.00am – Jennifer Niven: Think twice (presentation)
11.20am – Jay Kristoff and Mariko Tamaki: Worlds apart (panel)
11.50am – Slam Poets
12.00pm – Book signing

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Sally Gardner on her childhood, dyslexia and imagination

7th November 2016  |  By

The UK’s Sally Gardner (The Door That Led to Where) presented a raw insight into her childhood at Reading Matters 2015. In this segment from that keynote she shares the impact dyslexia and the education system had on her formative years.

Registration for the 2017 Reading Matters conference is now open. Discover information on the amazing writers who will be speaking and the incredible early bird offer (closes 30 November.)

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Laurie Halse Anderson on ‘The Hard Stuff’

21st October 2016  |  By

The Reading Matters conference is Australia’s leading youth literature conference. We host a multitude of youth literature writers and experts to share their knowledge and insight with our professionals. Over the next few months we’ll be sharing a range of content from the previous conference but first, here’s Laurie Halse Anderson’s fantastic keynote on The Hard Stuff: Courage and Real Conversations:

Registration for the 2017 Reading Matters conference is now open. Discover information on the amazing writers who will be speaking and the incredible early bird offer (closes 30 November.)

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2016 Inky Awards Winners

4th October 2016  |  By

bookmarksThe Centre for Youth Literature at State Library Victoria is proud to announce the winners the 2016 Inky Awards for young adult literature today, celebrating a decade of the national teen choice prize.

The Inky Awards were established in 2007 as Australia’s first, and still only, national teen choice awards for young adult literature. The Inky Awards have recognised the best and brightest in global youth literature from Melbourne’s own Simmone Howell, Randa Abdel-Fattah and Will Kostakis, to the international talents of John Green, Maggie Steifvater and Jenny Downham.

This year has seen many achievements;
• 50 % increase in applicants for the teen judge positions
• The launch of the Ambassador program in four schools across the country – Somerset College (Qld), Wilderness School (SA), Taylors Lakes Secondary College (VIC) and The King’s School (NSW).
• The distribution of 40k longlist bookmarks in over 150 bookstores, libraries and high schools nationally.
• Thousands of downloads of the resource toolkits
• Awards judges, past and present, presenting on stage at the Sydney and Melbourne Writers Festivals.
• The most number of votes in the Awards history –  an 18% growth on 2015.

But we know what you’re here for….. Read the rest of this entry »

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2017 Inky Awards – Get involved!

3rd October 2016  |  By

inkyawards2016All about the annual awards for youth literature – as chosen by teens:

The Inky Awards recognise high-quality young adult literature, with the longlist and shortlist selected by young adults, and the winners voted for online by the teen readers of InsideaDog.com.au. There are two awards: the Gold Inky Award for an Australian book, and the Silver Inky Award for an international book.

The Awards are named after Inky – the Inside a Dog mascot and all-round wonder-dog.

How to get involved:
* Consider becoming a 2017 Inky Awards Ambassador school. If you’re keen – get in touch with our team.
* Encourage your teens to apply to be a judge! Applications open in March 2017.
* Sign up for our monthly enewsletter to be the first to catch next year’s celebrated YA titles, submit judge applications, and access our free resources.

The 2017 Inky Awards calendar will be announced in the November enewsletter.

 

 

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Comics 101: reading graphic narratives

27th September 2016  |  By

abc

Previously: Comics 101: a brief history

Diagram: Key: A (pink) – panel, B (lilac) – borderless panel, purple – gutters, green -tier

Comics are a series of panels that work together on the page. Sometimes they have frames or borders separating them but that’s not always true, it pays to look carefully at the pictures to get a sense of the style – artists may have unique ways of grouping and separating their images. Borders can be suggestive of what’s happening in the text – dream sequences might have wavy borders, while powerful scenes might break through the borders to demonstrate the force of the action.

The space between panels is known as a gutter. Comic experts know the significance of the gutters – those spaces are where the story’s time passes by. That little white space between pictures could be standing for seconds, years, even decades. As a reader you will need to look for clues in the image to be sure. Read the rest of this entry »

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