Australia: Bush Fires and Books

I find it more than a little bit ironic that as I’ve been thinking of the Australians battling the heat and fire deaths, we here in eastern Pennsylvania have just begun to experience a couple days of heavy rainfall and gusts of wind up to 50 miles per hour.  

Relief efforts are already underway, so now’s my chance to showcase Aussie talent.  Margaret Mahy is one of my must-read authors I have been following for over twenty years.  She is one of the few from anywhere who succcessfully writes for all ages, those each title often is clearly a favorite of a certain age group.  For grown-up reads, nothing beats Markus Zusak, who though often labeled “Young Adult writer,” captures the attention of every adult reader I know who has read one of his books.  One of my newer Aussie finds is Judith Ridge, whose comments I have followed for a couple years on CHILD_LIT.  Now I’ve been enjoying her blog westword. 

Judith has done an awesome job of collecting relevant and interesting literary references for all things Australian.  One of my favorite links she shares is Inside a Dog.  Created by the Centre for Youth Literature of the State Library of Victoria, the site offers young readers loads of thoughts and opportunities to share.  Inside a Dog is a reference to the famous Groucho Marx quip about the advantages of reading and dogs. 

Laurine Crausdale is the site’s current writer-in-residence, who is blogging regularly, including personal experiences with the bush fires as well as literature.   I chuckled through her list of one-liners based on books, including one I know some of my reading friends will recognize:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

By the time I was finished, the sky was yellow, like burning newspaper.

 

Some of the one-liners are enticing enough to make me want to buy the book right now!  Laurine invites readers to share their own to be posted.  Try one!  I’ve never been a great headline writer (too wordy I guess), but I admire the talent in others.  Successful posters will no doubt want to try the Hemingway contest next.  I think that one brings in a load of money!

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