Reading Matters 2013 - The Reception

This weekend it was my absolute delight to attend the 10th biennial Reading Matters, hosted by the State Library’s Centre for Youth Literature. For those who don’t know, Reading Matters is Australia’s leading youth literature event – where local and overseas authors mix with their young readers in school’s day events, followed by a two day conference with teachers, librarians, teacher-librarians and other industry professionals. It’s epic. 

This was my first ever Reading Matters and I honestly didn’t know quite what to expect . . .  I knew that I loved the author line-up and the topics to be covered (everything from gate keeping to gender identity) piqued my interest. But I went along to the reception on Thursday night a little bit nervous and timid, afraid people would think that, as a blogger, I was encroaching on a professional space (then I felt a bit pretentious, having ‘Alpha Reader’ on my name-badge, like I was throwing a gauntlet down amongst all these fellow bookish types. I’m surprised nobody challenged me to a read-off). 

But, actually, quite a few people chastised me when I introduced myself as “just a blogger.” And then any nerves I had dissipated when I started talking to the authors. 

I got to meet Ambelin Kwaymullina, who I've long admired since reading (and loving) ‘The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf’ and interviewing her for Kill Your Darlings. I got the low-down on ‘Ashala Wolf’ #2 (due out in November) – and have been promised big revelations and a wee bit of romance. 

And then there were my other favourite Aussie authors – Gabrielle Williams, Vikki Wakefield, Fiona Wood and Myke Bartlett. All four are currently working on new books and spoke a bit about them– everybody, watch this space because there are some amazing stories coming our way! 

It was also my great pleasure to meet Jess, of Tales Compendium fame and a fellow blogger who became my conference bestie (bloggers, unite!). If you haven’t already, do check out her blog for some thoughtful and killer reviews (and because I think she might have a few giveaways up her sleeve following Reading Matters. . . ) 

I also got to meet Libba Bray and Gayle Forman at the reception (after spending a good hour quasi-stalking them around the room, then eventually getting the nerve to ask someone to introduce us). You guys. You GUYS! – these two are like rock stars. I’m not kidding. They’re cool like rockers, and they swear like sailors (I do believe Tim Sinclair even taught Gayle Forman some special Aussie profanity – like she needed more?). And they are horrendously hilarious – I thought they were funny individually, but get them together and it’s awesome-sauce. They are like the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler of the young adult scene . . . .don’t even get me started on what they said after we introduced them to the word ‘spunk’ (in reference to an attractive individual). I'm such a huge fan of both Libba and Gayle - and it was just the best thing to meet them and become even bigger fans of them as people, not just authors. 

 

And it was pretty cool when Centre For Youth Literature Program Coordinator, Adele Walsh (also known as Persnickety Snark) offered Gayle Forman an ‘If I Stay’ casting idea – Australian heart-throb, Brenton Thwaites . . . and the very next day Gayle actually mentioned him in a movie-news tumblr post! Argh! It’s like we were present to hear (possible) movie magic happening!

So, that was the Reading Matters reception; swilling wine, hanging out with some formidable authors and feeling an electric buzz in the air for what tomorrow would bring . . . 

. . . Notes on the 2-day conference will be posted soon!

Reading Matters 2013

Christmas has most definitely come early for Australian fans of young adult literature.

Reading Matters is an event held by the State Library of Victoria’s wonderful Centre for Youth Literature (CYL) whose sole purpose is to promote reading for all young people. And in 2013, the CYL team have concocted quite a treat with Reading Matters – in which they bring beloved young adult authors to Melbourne for an event that celebrates all things YA.

 “Reading Matters is a Melbourne-based celebration of everything that’s unique and exciting in the world of youth literature: From storytelling impresarios to graphic novelists, insights into the narratives of games to debating the politics of YA fiction, this program is as diverse as the teen readers themselves.”   

So, have I piqued your interest? Well, hold on to your spectacles fellow bibliophiles – because yesterday the CYL team made the first of three announcements, revealing the author line-up for Reading Matters next year, and it’s a wee bit fantastic.

From the CYL website:

 

Gayle Forman is a Brooklyn based, award winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in Seventeen, Cosmopolitan and Elle. She burst onto the scene with the bestselling, contemporary titles If I Stay and Where She Went, books that are infused with passion, music and memorable characters.  

Libba Bray is the New York Times bestselling author of The Gemma Doyle trilogy; the Printz Award-winning Going Bovine; Beauty Queens; and The Diviners series. She is originally from Texas but makes her home in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, son, and two sociopathic cats.  

Andrew McGahan debuted on the literary scene with The AustralianVogel Literary Award-winning Praise. In 2004 he won the Miles Franklin Literary Award for The White Earth. The Coming of the Whirlpool was the first title in his move into youth literature –the beginning of a swashbuckling series full of action and adventure.

Alison Croggon has published award-winning poetry, plays and an opera or two. She started writing fantasy in the late 90s, was nominated for two Aurealis awards in 2002, and reimagined the spooky moors of Brontë in her 2012 YA release Black Spring.  

Myke Bartlett was born in Perth, and spent his first twenty years trying to escape. A trained journalist, Bartlett writes on politics, movies, pop culture and rock music for Australia’s best known cultural publications. His debut young adult novel Fire in the Sea won the 2011 Text Prize.

I am so, so, so excited by each and every one of these authors (and I'm crossing my fingers that Libba Bray attends at least one event in her infamous cow suit!). They represent some of the best that young adult has to offer – from the Miles Franklin-nominated to Printz-winners – covering a range of genres; from contemporary, fantasy, historic and everything in between.

These are some of the current Rock Stars of young adult literature – and if you don’t believe me, check out this post, in which Persnickety Snark recounts her American trip to the YA Lit Symposium & YALLFest last month, and includes a ridonkulously cool photo of the signing queues Gayle Forman attracts!

I am so excited for Reading Matters. Nothing compares to meeting your favourite authors face-to-face, waiting in line with a mixture of thrilling anticipation and crippling nerves for the chance to present a well-worn and beloved copy of their book for signing. To get a couple of seconds with them just to say; “Hey, you write like you’re in my head and while that’s sometimes unsettling it’s also unparalleled in its awesomeness. So, thank you.” And to also hear our favourite authors speak, at length, about what makes them and their characters tick, how they hone their craft and what else they have in store for us. 

Reading Matters is to young adult readers what Woodstock was to hippies and music-lovers, if you will. It's going to be an extraordinary opportunity to congregate with fellow fans and YA-worshippers, meet your literary idols and take your reading to the next level.

I. Can’t. Wait!

This is the current schedule for Reading Matters:

Tickets are on sale now, so hurry up and book your place for the young adult Rock-Fest of the year!

'The Diviners' The Diviners #1 by Libba Bray

 Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

1920s New York. 
A teen clairvoyant. 
An old evil. 

It has begun...

Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old home town and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City - and she is pos-i-tute-ly thrilled! New York is the city of speak-easies, rent parties, shopping and movie palaces, and soon enough Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfeld girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult - also known as 'The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies'.

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of it. Even Evie's new pals - hoofers, numbers runners and activists, but all swell kids - are drawn into the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn't catch her first...

Evie O’Neill has gone and done it now. She has always been that girl of her small town in Zenith, Ohio. She’s been that girl since her brother, James, went to war and never came home. She’s been that girl since she realized her parents would never stop missing James and neither would she. Evie is the wild-child – the ones old ladies tut-tut over, mothers tell their daughters to stay away from and boys follow with their eyes. But when Evie uses her unique talent of reading inanimate objects to out a popular young lad for the lout he is – Evie finds herself on the outs with the whole town. Evie’s parents have no choice but to bundle her onto a train and send her to Manhattan, to live with her uncle William Fitzgerald at his Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult (affectionately called Museum of the Creepy Crawlies by local New Yorkers). 

Evie’s just fine with moving to New York for a stint. She’s seventeen-years-old with a bob of hair and a kick in her step – she’ll be the talk of the town! Except a hustler by the name of Sam Lloyd douses her excitement when he pick-pockets her at Grand Central Station; leaving her with nothing but a smile and stolen kiss.

At least Evie has her old friend, Mabel Rose, to keep her company. Mabel lives with her socialist parents at the Bennington apartment building. Poor Mabel is just nuts over Uncle Will’s assistant, Jericho Jones – an absolute giant of a boy who Evie thinks is dull as ditch water but Mabel’s just a little bit crazy over. Also residing at the Bennington is Theta Knight and her ‘brother’ Henry Bartholomew Dubois IV – Theta is a Ziegfeld girl and Henry plays the tunes for the show, but both of them have stars in their eyes and hopes for the bigger and the better.

All these bright young things are crossing paths and making friends, and there’s a heady sense of possibility twinkling in the New York skylight. 

Over in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Memphis Campbell is a numbers-runner for the illegal lottery, which funds his poetry writing. He used to be miracle Memphis who could heal with his hands – until the one person he wanted to save died. Now Memphis lives with his Aunt Octavia and looks out for his little brother, Isaiah. But his brother is special – so special Memphis takes him to Sister Walker to read the cards . . . but lately, Isaiah has been seeing dark things and warns of what’s to come. . . 

On the lonely streets a man whistles an eerie tune as he stalks his victims. “Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells ’em off for a coupla stones.” He calls himself The Beast, and he’s only just begun.

‘The Diviners’ in the new paranormal young adult series from Printz Award-winning author, Libba Bray.

I hate to point out the obvious, but ‘The Diviners’ is simply divine. Here is a clever, creepy and unique new paranormal novel that’s so fascinating and delightful for basing its fears partly in reality and possibility and gives us a cast of bright young things on the fringe of New York’s Jazz Age.

Libba Bray sets the stage perfectly in the opening chapter, involving a Ouija Board at a party with curious flappers and gents who do not know what they unleash on the night. From there we meet our cast of curious cats – starting in Zenith, Ohio with Evie all the way to Harlem, and a Broadway stage right to a beautiful, old occult museum. Each of these characters has secrets and abilities to hide and unfold throughout ‘The Diviners’ – and as an occult serial killer creeps ever closer to the night that Solomon’s Comet will streak across the skyline, each of our characters will cross paths and realize they are not alone in their unusual abilities.

Elsewhere in the country, there were similar stirrings: A mother dreamed of her dead daughter and woke, she could swear, to the chilling sound of the words Mama, I’m home. A Klansman who’d left his meeting in the woods to piss by an old tee jumped suddenly, as if he’d felt hanging feet dragging across the tops of his shoulders, marking him. There was nothing there, but he brushed at his shoulders anyway, scurrying back towards the fire and his brothers in white. A young Ojibway man watched a silvery shimmer of a hawk circle overhead and disappear. In an old farmhouse, a young boy nudged his parents awake. “There’s two girls calling me to play hide-and-seek with them in the cornfields,” he whispered. His father ordered him sleepily back to bed, and when the boy passed by the upstairs window, he saw the incandescent girls in their long skirts and high-necked blouses fading into the edges of corn, crying mournfully, “Come, come play with us. . . ” 

The setting of ‘The Diviners’ is brilliant. New York is the perfect stage for this paranormal murder mystery to unfold – and 1926 New York is particularly clever. I've seen a few reviews in which people have suggested that this series is a steampunk one, an alternate history of America. That wasn’t my impression of the novel, although I do think Bray is offering us a more fantastical version of American history. I was just under the impression that 1926 was a small window in history as an age of great opportunity and possibility. The Great War has been over for eight years, The Great Depression is four years away and World War Two is thirteen. This time period of 1926 was a very small window of opportunity in which America could feel optimistic about the future – that they’d survived the war and been victorious – but at the same time were none the wiser about what devastation lays ahead. I mean, that’s why it was called the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age – it was a time when many women were granted the right to vote, Russia was moving towards socialism, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein were among the great thinkers and music became daring. It was, quite literally, the age of possibility. And supernatural exploration seems to be the most delightful, chillingly-exciting “what if?” of this modern age.

New York really is a stand-out in this novel – and it’s quite clear that this is Libba Bray’s hometown. As much as she casts a sinister shadow on street corners with Naughty John, Bray also shows her big love for the city that never sleeps through Evie’s fresh eyes. I’m actually visiting New York for the first time next year, and I felt a lovely little thrill down my spine when Evie describes stepping out into the city and taking it all in; 

She craned her neck to take in the full view. Far above the busy streets, men balanced daringly on beams of steel, erecting new buildings like the ones whose tops already pierced the clouds, as if even the sky couldn’t hold back the ambition of their spires. A sleek dirigible sailed past, a smear of silver in the blue. It was like a dreamscape that could change in the blink of an eye.

I do believe ‘The Diviners’ is intended as a trilogy (and I should note that movie rights have already been sold to Paramount Pictures!). It is certainly set on an epic scale, if the 578-pages weren’t enough to tip you off along with the strong ensemble cast. Libba Bray makes sure to leave plenty of breadcrumbs in this novel, pointing towards a larger arching story set in this alternate America universe. So while the mystery of Naughty John the occult killer is a delicious one (which scared the bejesus out of me!) I was also vastly interested in the clues Bray peppers throughout, indicating what’s in store for Evie, Jericho, Sam, Mabel, Theta, Memphis and Henry; 

The music had stopped. The record hissed with a few seconds of silence, and then a man on the record began talking. “Been able to see the dead all my life,” he drawled. “Some of ’em just wants peace and rest. Not all of ’em, though. Not by a long shot. There’s evil in this world, evil in the hearts of men, evil that live on –” Evie scraped the needle across the record and ran from the room without turning out the lights.

Libba Bray’s ‘The Diviners’ has been a hot book from the moment film rights were bought before it even hit shelves. Bray’s impressive track record as the Printz-winning author of ‘Going Bovine’, along with her bestselling ‘Gemma Doyle’ debut series was sure to entice fans both new and old. But Libbra Bray really outdoes herself with ‘The Diviners’. This mammoth book is spectacularly creepy with a large cast of characters who have twisting stories and cutting secrets – that this is a supernatural series set in the Roaring Twenties is particularly delicious for the heady sense of possibility and starry-eyed hope that fills the character’s hearts and tints the air alongside investigations into death and never letting go. This is a favourite book of 2012 and it has certainly set the bar very high for all other paranormal YA from here on in. 

5/5 

'Beauty Queens' by Libba Bray

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Teen beauty queens. A lost island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives deep in the heart of every girl, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.

Join Libba Bray in this wicked satire of beauty pageants, reality TV and teen pop culture.

Little girls want to be them. Boys want to bring them home to Mama. And dirty old men want to ogle them from the comfort of their couches ... they are the Teen Dream contestants. Competing for the title of ‘Miss Teen Dream’ in the beauty pageant that stops a nation (or at least it used to, when ratings were better).

On their way to film the opening dance number for the pageant, a terrible accident befalls these teen dreamers. Their plane crashes on a deserted island. Half the contestants, their handlers and the camera crew die in a fiery grave. There’s no cell phone reception. No radio contact. Nobody knows where they are . . . and their makeup is waterlogged!

There’s no polar bear on this mysterious island, but strange things are happening. Like giant, girl-eating snakes and men in black running around, not to mention a discovered supply of Lady StacheOff exploding hair removal cream . . . and reality-TV boy-band pirates.

It’s up to these teen dreamers (self-named ‘Sparkle Ponies’ and ‘Lost Girls’, for awesome effect) to beautify the island and carve out some survival tactics, while also practicing their question-and-answers and working on a killer tan.

‘Beauty Queens’ is the new young adult book from Libba Bray.

I was a little sceptical going into ‘Beauty Queens’. Sure, putting pageant misses on a deserted island is bound to offer up a few laughs. But I was doubtful of reading a running-gag for 390-pages. So it’s a good thing that Bray has written a book that’s jam-packed with hilarity, social commentary and fabulous feminism.

First and foremost, ‘Beauty Queens’ is a total snort-fest. The kind of book that induces you to laugh with abandon until snot comes out of your nose and people on the train look at you weird. Libba Bray isn’t giving us subtle, tongue-in-cheek humour here. She revels in stereotypes (the Beauty Pageant circuit offers a plethora to choose form) and she writes big, goofy typecasts that are outlandishly funny.

“Ahem. Dear Jesus,” Taylor intoned more fervently. “We just want to thank you for gettin’ us here safe–”

There was a loud, gurgling groan. Somebody shouted, “Oh my gosh! Miss Delaware just died!”

“– for gettin’ some of us here safe,” Taylor continued. “And we pray that, as we are fine, upstandin’, law-abidin’ girls who represent the best of the best, you will protect us from harm and keep us safe until we are rescued and can tell our story to People magazine. Amen.”

But Libba Bray also mixes some surprises amongst her characters. There’s Sosie Simmons (Miss Illinois) a deaf contestant and avid dancer. Petra West (Miss Rhode Island) is a girl with a big secret. Jennifer Huberman (Miss Michigan) is doing the pageant as a part of a juvie-outreach program and coming to accept her homosexuality. Nicole Ade (Miss Colorado) and Shanti Singh (Miss California) are the token ‘black girls’ who are competing against their skin colour and bending to family pressure. And then there’s Adina Greenberg (Miss New Hampshire) who is a beauty queen spy, intent on subterfuge for the sake of journalistic integrity and feminism. These characters elevate the story above a running-gag, and despite there being so many to keep track of, each of their stories is memorable and funny enough to keep them all in line.

There’s a shadowy presence throughout the novel. ‘The Corporation’ own the Teen Dream pageant, as well as a number of beauty products and fashion lines, they also produce movies and TV shows aimed at the young and beautiful set. Bray hilariously incorporates ‘The Corporation’ into the novel with footnotes, advertising, ™ and © references which gives some idea of the real-world pressures these teen dreamers cope with, while also perpetuating the mock media machine. This side-story, like the caricature Pageant Queens, is not subtle and requires no reading between the lines. This is Libba Bray mocking and criticizing people’s fascination with being beautiful, having the latest and looking the coolest. The Corporation make TV shows like ‘Design This!’, which allows a girl to interior decorate her worst enemy’s bedroom. They make stuff like ‘DiscomfortWear’ which has been known to eliminate circulation while minimizing lumps and bumps! This is Libba Bray flaying consumerism with witty subterfuge – she makes a mockery of teen sensations and latest crazes, by holding up a fun-house mirror of truth for readers to stare into, horrified and cackling.

‘Beauty Queens’ is big on laughs and determined to mock empty pop culture. But there’s also a fair bit of heart to this novel. For all that Libba Bray teases the Beauty Queen stereotype; she also shatters it by getting to the heart of the matter and remaking these baton-twirling, high heel-wearing dreamers into strong, lipsticked Amazonian warriors;

“I've been thinking about that book about the boys who crash on the island,” Mary Lou said to Adina one afternoon as they rested on their elbows taking bites from the same papaya.

“Lord of the Flies. What about it?”

“You know how you said it wasn’t a true measure of humanity because there were no girls and you wondered how it would be different if there had been girls?”

“Yeah?”

May Lou wiped fruit juice from her mouth with the back of her hand. “Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one’s watching them so they can be who they really are.”

Adina gazed at the expanse of unknowable ocean. “Maybe.”

There was something about the island that made the girls forget who they had been. All those rules and shalt nots. They were no longer waiting for some arbitrary grade. They were no longer performing. Waiting. Hoping.

They were becoming.

They were.

‘Beauty Queens’ is what you’d get if Diablo Cody and JJ Abrams wrote a novel together – it’s full of biting sarcasm and ridiculous hilarity, with an awesomely complicated survivor-esque plot. There’s consumerist propaganda, singing reality-TV star pirates and a swimwear component. Libba Bray has written a mock-pop-culture extravaganza that should be on everyone’s must-read list this year!

5/5