Prime Minister's Literary Award Winners!

Big huge congratulations to Cath Crowley who today won the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Best Young Adult Fiction for Graffiti Moon!

**happy dancing**

I totally fell in love with Graffiti Moon when I read it last year and I think everyone should read it. For those of you not in Australia, Graffiti Moon will be available internationally February 2012.


The Children's Fiction category was won by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod for Shake A Leg.

For the other titles that were shortlisted, visit here.
For the winners in the adult categories, click here.
My review of Graffiti Moon.

And in other news, Graffiti Moon was today announced as a finalist in the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards for Book of the Year for Older Children!
Click here to see the other nominees.

Cath Crowley, can you feel the love?!

Graffiti Moon US Edition Cover Revealed!

The cover for the US edition of Graffiti Moon has just been revealed!

So, everyone in the US who has been patiently (or not so) waiting for this awesome Aussie book to be released in February 2012, say hello to the stunning cover...!

Personally, I love the US cover. While I do like the Australian cover, it took quite a while to grow on me, whereas I instantly took a liking to the US cover.

Apparently there are a few changed to the content in the US edition so I am totally going to buy it as well to add to my collection :)

How pumped is everyone for this book???!!!
(who me? :P)



Read my review of Graffiti Moon
Read my interview with Cath Crowley

Pre-order Graffiti Moon via Amazon

2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Short-list

Today here in Australia, the 2011 short-listed titles for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced.


In the Young Adult Fiction category the titles are:
About a Girl by Joanne Horniman
Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds

I have read three of the five titles (click on the title for my review) and while I really liked all three, my vote goes to Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon.

In the Children's Fiction category the titles are:
April Underhill, Tooth Fairy by Bob Graham
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
Now by Morris Gleitzman
Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod
Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

I have only read Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, although Morris Gleitzman's Now has been on my TBR list for a long time.

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The winners will be announced in the first week of July. To view the adult short-listed books click here.

Graffiti Moon Love

Over the last week, the winners for The New South Wales Premier's Literary Award and the Australian Publishing Association Book Design Awards were announced.

The NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011
I am very excited because Cath Crowley won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature for her totally awesome YA novel Graffiti Moon. I am super happy about this because Graffiti Moon was one of my favourite books from last year and I highly recommend it.

To view the other category winners, click here.


APA Book Design Awards
We're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover right? Well that's exactly what this award is all about. There are nineteen categories but I'm only going to comment on the Best Designed Young Adults Book Award. The winner as you might have guessed from my post title was Graffiti Moon! Congratulations to designer Melanie Fedderson! The really funny thing is that I originally didn't like the cover but over the last 6 months it has really grown on me :)

For the full list of winners and commended titles click here.


Read my review of Graffiti Moon
Read my review of Cath Crowley's other book A Little Wanting Song
Read my interview with Cath Crowley

Author Interview: Cath Crowley

I am extremely excited to have Cath Crowley stop by today and answer a couple of questions for us!

For those of you in the dark, Cath is an Australian YA author who has written the critically acclaimed Chasing Charlie Duskin (published in the US as A Little Wanting Song) and the Gracie Faltrain series. Her latest book, Graffiti Moon, one of my personal favourites and considered one of the best 2010 YA titles by Australian bloggers, was published August 2010 in Australia and is soon to be published in the US.

Read my reviews of:
Chasing Charlie Duskin/A Little Wanting Song
Graffiti Moon

Your debut The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain was released in 2004. Could you tell us a little about the road to getting your first book published?
I studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT in 2001, when I was about twenty-nine. I loved the subjects Literary Non-fiction and Writing for Young Adults. Some of the articles and short stories that I wrote in class were published in newspapers and magazines.

While I was writing those smaller pieces I finished my novel and in 2003, Pan Macmillan published The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain. I had no idea of the editing process at that stage and the editors at Pan were fantastic. They guided me through the editing process and I learnt a lot from them. (I’m still learning). I’ve been published with them since then.

What inspires you to write?
Other people’s original images and sentences inspire me to write. Artists like Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Clare Bowditch, John Green, Raymond Carver, and Charles Bukowski send me to the computer because I want to put lines together like they do.

Why did you decide to change the title of Chasing Charlie Duskin to A Little Wanting Song for its US release?
Chasing Charlie Duskin suits the Australian version. In that book Charlie is chasing herself as much as she’s chasing the ghost of her mother. In the US version Charlie still wants things but she has a stronger sense of self. She’s a bit sassier, a bit cooler. A Little Wanting Song is the first song/poem that I wrote for the new version. (The first version doesn’t have her lyrics.)

I love the way this title was chosen – it was very collaborative. I wrote down a list of my favourite titles and Allison Wortche (my great US editor) wrote her list and some other people at Random wrote their favourites. There were a lot of titles in the mix but that was great because I knew in the end we had the right one. And the whole book is written like a song or a wish – because Charlie’s voice is quite lyrical. So to name the new book after a song seemed right.

You've been editing Graffiti Moon for its US release. Are there many differences between the two editions?
Graffiti Moon is essentially the same. There’s a little more about Ed’s mum, and a little less about Lucy’s parents. There are two more poems by Leo and a little more about Jazz. I really like the two of them so it was fun to add some more scenes.

In Graffiti Moon, Shadow is a graffiti artist and Lucy is a glass blower. Did you set out to include these art forms or did they evolve with the characters?

I set out to use glass-blowing. I’d seen some beautiful pieces in an exhibition of an artist called Bethany Wheeler. She was generous enough to invite me into her studio and talk to me about her craft. I liked the metaphor and I liked her story. A glass artist had helped her when she was in Year 12 and I thought that was a great idea for a character.

Ed began as an artist who worked on paper. In the first draft of Graffiti Moon he was quite playful and he didn’t have problems reading. It wasn’t working, though, so I changed his character. While I was rethinking him, I met a student who told me about a boy who had hands stained by blue paint. At the same time I met a man who had an interest in graffiti and he was generous enough to share what he knew. Ed took off from there.

In Graffiti Moon, we get fabulous descriptions of Shadow's graffiti. Where did your inspiration come from for creating these works of art?
I knew his character so well by the time I started writing the second draft that his artwork appeared on the page without me having to think much about it. I looked at a lot of graffiti but none of it was exactly right for Ed because his paintings had to show his journey.

The artists mentioned in the novel inspired me: Bill Henson, Michael Zavros, Mark Rothko, Rosalie Gascoigne, René Magritte and Vermeer.

Both Graffiti Moon and Chasing Charlie Duskin are written from alternating perspectives. Is this way of writing something you will continue with in the future?
I’ve almost always written books with more than one narrator. I enjoy it so I know I’ll keep working that way, at least for a while. I love the way that characters like Ed and Lucy bounce off each other, tumbling around each other towards morning.


If you were to write sequels, where would your characters be now?
I’ve only ever wondered about one character in terms of a Charlie Duskin sequel, and that’s Luke. I’d write about what happens to him after Rose leaves town. He’s never known life without her and it’d be fun to write about him working out who he is and what he wants from the world. I think he works out that Rose is right. There’s more to life than his small town.

If you were to team up with another YA author, who would you like to collaborate with?
There are so many writers that I love but I wouldn’t want to collaborate with them. I work best alone for lots of reasons. My process is slow and muddled and there doesn’t seem to be any way for me to speed it up or make it more logical. Part of what I like about writing is that it’s solitary.

Do you have any favourite current YA releases?
They’re not all current but my favourite books that I read last year were…
*Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell
*Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood
*On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
*Five Parts Dead by Tim Pegler
*Little Paradise by Gabrielle Wang
*The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
*Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

What can we expect from you next?
I’m working on a book that was called The Howling Boy but I think now will be called The Velvet Highway. Crow and Audrey narrate the story. They go looking for Audrey’s lost brother in a world that’s strange and beautiful and new for Audrey. It’s a mystery and a love story.

A massive THANKYOU to Cath for stopping by! I am looking forward to reading The Velvet Highway, whenever that may be!

Cath Crowley's website and blog.

A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley

Title: A Little Wanting Song (also published under Chasing Charlie Duskin)
Author: Cath Crowley

Release Date: 1st April 2005

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Charlie Duskin loves music, and she knows she’s good at it. But she only sings when she’s alone, on the moonlit porch or in the back room at Old Gus’s Secondhand Record Store. Charlie’s mom and grandmother have both died, and this summer she’s visiting her grandpa in the country, surrounded by ghosts and serving burgers to the local kids at the milk bar. She’s got her iPod, her guitar, and all her recording equipment, but she wants more: A friend. A dad who notices her. The chance to show Dave Robbie that she’s not entirely unspectacular.

Rose Butler lives next door to Charlie’s grandfather and spends her days watching cars pass on the freeway and hanging out with her troublemaker boyfriend. She loves Luke, but can’t wait to leave their small country town. And she’s figured out a way: She’s won a scholarship to a science school in the city, and now she has to convince her parents to let her go. This is where Charlie comes in. Charlie, who lives in the city, and whom Rose has ignored for years. Charlie, who just might be Rose’s ticket out.

My Review:

What can I say except WOW. I was completely absorbed from the first page (well actually the quotes on the back got me first) and read it in one sitting. Cath Crowleys' words flow so well, they are like a warm blanket wrapped around you in the middle of winter. They are comfort. This is a funny, beautifully written novel that will leave you desperate for anything else this fantastic author has written.

"There was this beat under my skin, a little disco weaving through me. That's how it is when I'm alone and playing the guitar, but that's never how it is in a crowd."

Rose and Charlie are both wonderful, real characters. They have hopes, fears and big hearts but their personalities are very different. Rose is trying not to suffocate in the small town she has grown up in and she will do anything to escape. Half the time she is rebelling, the other half she is the perfect student.

Charlie is a quiet, music-loving girl who is yet to come out of her shell. All she needs is a little confidence and friends who won't laugh at and ignore her. Her father no longer notices her and is a shadow of his former self. She talks to both her mother and grandmother in her head, taking advice from those she knows loved her. She spends her time writing songs and playing her guitar for no one but herself, scared of the rejection that she is sure will follow. As an added bonus for us readers, Crowley includes the lyrics that Charlie writes throughout the book.

Charlie and Rose's friendship develops slowly but is one where each girl realises the other is not how they always perceived them and they find they have someone they can really talk to.

Charlie's relationship with Dave should also be mentioned. For years, both watched the other from afar. Dave is caring and loyal and he never shared the same views towards Charlie that Rose and Luke had. This summer, they actually make small, embarrassed efforts towards asking the other out and they really are so sweet together. It's really cute watching them dance around each other until one of them actually finds some courage.

Go and find this book. Now.

Graffiti Moon is Cath Crowley's latest release and you can read my review here. It, of course, rocks. :)

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Title: Graffiti Moon
Author: Cath Crowley

Release Date: 1st August 2010

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers.

It's the end of year 12. Lucy's looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow's thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

My Review:
Love Love Love Love Love! This is one of my favourite books of 2010! I absolutely could not put it down.

It is the last night of year 12 and Lucy and her two friends, Jazz and Daisy, are aiming for an all-nighter. Lucy, as always, is looking for Shadow. Jazz wants to find a hot boy and Daisy wants to have fun while deciding if she should dump her boyfriend. It just so happens that the boy Jazz chooses happens to be hanging with his mates; Dylan, Daisy's boyfriend, and Ed, who Lucy has an embarrassing history with. And so an adventure all over Melbourne begins!

We are lucky enough to get to hear the adventure from both the perspectives of Lucy and Ed, as well as little snippets of Poet's poetry (Poet writes the words to some of Shadow's artwork). The story is funny, witty and breath-taking. It literally had me laughing out loud at one point (and I received some strange looks as I was on a train at the time)! It is really great to have both the girl and the guy's perspectives. As a plus, at some points the perspectives cross over and we get to see how each of them interprets what the other has said or done, which is not something you see often (usually it is a straight swap to the other person and on with the story rather than going back and seeing what has just happened from the other side).

The conceptual art that Crowley has imagined for Shadow is amazing and I would love to turn around a corner and see some of the pieces on a wall. As the reader, we are able to feel connected to the artwork, not only because it is described in detail but we also get to hear not only how Shadow's pieces make Lucy feel but also what her creative force and the emotions behind her own art are. It is this kind of personal touch that really reaches out to the reader.

Graffiti Moon will speak to art-minded people the same way Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist reached out to those who adore music.

I really liked the extra personal details included such as Lucy's family's quirky arrangement, Jazz's supposed psychic abilities and Ed's inner turmoil over his future, the end of a past relationship and the death of a close friend. There is so much depth to all the characters that you just can't help love them all. You can also feel the tingles of attraction between certain characters. ZING!

I have had one of Cath Crowley's previous titles, Chasing Charlie Duskin, on my TBR list for ages and I am definitely going to have to put it on order because if Graffiti Moon is anything to go by, I'll be reading a lot more of Cath Crowley in the future.