who are you reading to on World Read Aloud Day on 7 March?

readitadmin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:50:30 +0000

World Read Aloud Day is a great day to celebrate, so think who you will read aloud to, and where you will do that reading. This day is to remind people about the importance of reading aloud for developing literacy, but also it is about fun. No one is too old to be read to.

Some of the folk behind this blog (NSW based library workers) will be having a read aloud event on the steps of the Mitchell Library at the State Library of New South Wales, starting at 4.15pm and continuing for about half an hour. We would like to invite you to join us – if you are in the area. Bring anything you would like to read aloud. We are suggesting My brilliant career, but you can read anything you like – perhaps Neil Gaiman’s twitter stream, or a post from Boing boing would also go well. We are hoping people will form small groups and read aloud to each other for about half an hour – but you are welcome to stay longer reading if you like.

If you can’t come along and join in our read aloud session, plan your own. Get together with friends or family and read aloud.

You might want to post your event on the World Read Aloud Day site (just so they know that lots and lots of Australians will be participating) and on the National Year of Reading event site as well.

The hashtag for World Read Aloud Day is #readaloud (and don’t forget to include #nyr12 as well) so you can tell others how you are planning on reading aloud on 7 March.

Book club books worth a chuckle

readitadmin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:08:41 +0000

The types of books we tend to read in book clubs are not usually funny. The books you can hold meaningful and sustained conversations about are usually on the serious side, sometimes to the point of being depressing. The Riverina Regional Library Book Club list of 148 books , however, isn’t completely devoid of laughs.

For some of the books, humour is not, perhaps, the first characteristic you think of. Jasper Jones, for example, deals with racism, abuse and broken relationships, so can hardly be called all sweetness and light, but the interaction between Charlie and Jeffery made me laugh out loud and certainly helped me (as it helped them) to cope with the darker issues.Other books are funny all the way through, even if the humour is rather black. Catch 22, as satire, takes very pointed swipes at all sorts of things while being absurdly hilarious and David Sedaris is so self-deprecatingly amusing about even serious topics.

If you are looking for books that are great to discuss at book club and will also have you laughing, these are the funny books we have available for our book clubs:

Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

When you are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Join our twitter conversation about books that make us laugh on Tuesday 28th February, 8pm AEST til 10pm AWST. Use #NYR12.

Amy

Children’s Books to Make You Laugh by Tania McCartney

readitadmin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:34:44 +0000

One of the very best ways to encourage literacy in children is by using humour. Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and Andy Griffith’s phenomenally successful line-up of books (among a kabillion other talented authors including Michael Wagner, Morris Gleitzman, Wendy Harmer, Andy Stanton, Colin Thompson, Dave Hackett, Andrew Joyner, Tedd Arnold and Babette Cole) are testament to that.

In a world of perpetual virtual entertainment, many modern kids are becoming short on focus, particularly where reading is concerned. Like the instant spell check on their computer screens, reading skills are becoming more ‘fed’ than self-taught and self-honed.

As a result, books are relying more and more on those ‘extra’ elements to reel in readers – everything from parallel websites, themed trading cards, games and other ancillary products. Whilst I would never poo-poo anything that got kids reading, in any capacity, my personal preference for reeling kids into a more self-driven literary world – is humour.

The following books have always made me laugh out loud. Sure, parts of the story may have been not so funny (sad, even), but there have been many a titter, a giggle, a smirk, even a guffaw whilst enjoying those fabulous tomes.

There’s something here to make your toddler laugh, your middle-schooler laugh, and your teen laugh – and most importantly – make them fall in love with reading.

Enjoy. And do leave a comment and let us know your funny finds!

Oh No, George! By Chris Haughton (Walker Books)

The Undys Series by Michael Wagner (Puffin)

The Brilliant World of Tom Gates series by L Pichon (Scholastic)

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth by Katz Cowley (Scholastic)

Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray (Orchard Books)

The Floods series by Colin Thompson (Random House)

The Twits by Roald Dahl (Puffin)

It’s a Book by Lane Smith (Walker Books)

Bumface by Morris Gleitzman (Penguin)

I Want my Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Walker Books)

Just Tricking! by Andy Griffiths (Puffin)

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (Walker Books)

Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire by Andy Stanton (Egmont Books)

The Daredevil Book for Cats by Nick Griffiths (Arcturus Publishing)

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French (HarperCollins)

Farticus Maximus: Bottomus Burps of Britannica by Felice Arena (Scholastic)

Feathers for Phoebe by Rod Clement (HarperCollins)

The Iddly Widdly Fiddly Poo by Daniel Corcoran (Daniel Corcoran)

The Incredible Journey of Pete McGee by Adam Wallace (JoJo Publishing)

My Dad Thinks He’s Funny by Katrina Germein (Black Dog Books)

Never Use a Knife and Fork by Neil Goddard (Macmillan)

Some Dads… by Nick Bland (Scholastic)

UFO: Unavoidable Family Vacation by Dave Hackett (Puffin)

You Will Be My Friend by Peter Brown (Little, Brown)

Tania McCartney is an author, editor and founder of Kids Book Review. She is an NYR12 ambassador for the ACT and has a fixation with paper and anything that’s put upon it (particularly if it’s done by kids or FOR kids). www.taniamccartney.com

The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey

readitadmin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:38:13 +0000

Perhaps I would love any book that begins with ‘A is for Amy’ but somehow I think that I would find a book where Amy has a tea party with her dolls less interesting and certainly less amusing than The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Like Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes or Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales for Children, Edward Gorey’s abecedarium (such a wonderful word) of children who meet unfortunate ends is darkly funny and so beautifully illustrated.

I learnt it off by heart so that I can amuse myself with it at any time and although not everyone is as lucky as I am to have a sticky end all of my own, it is so easily adapted eg. A is for Adolf who fell down the stairs.

You can enjoy it all here. My favourite is Neville, who’s yours?

Join our twitter conversation on Tuesday 28th February, 8pm AEST til 10pm AWST. Use #NYR12.

Amy

Happy 200th birthday to Charles Dickens

readitadmin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:05:42 +0000

Today is the two hundredth year since Charles Dickens was born. As the theme for this month is laugh, the focus will be on the humour in his stories, rather than the parts of his stories which make you weep (for example the description of the death of David Copperfield’s mother).

Much of Dickens humour is gentle, rather than laugh out loud as he encourages us to laugh with his characters, rather than at them. Nicholas Nickleby contains many bleak descriptions of life, but is lightened by the traveling theatre company the title character joins.

Philip Hensher writes about Charles Dickens, the comic crusader. You can follow this link to explore his ideas.

Charles Dickens work has featured in numerous adaptions including Doctor Who. The Museum of London has created an app which is a series of graphic novels about Dickens Dark London. This image from a skateboard park shows a modern interpretation of his portrait.

You can participate in local Dickens Society events such as a birthday celebration in Centennial Park or with Playing Miss Havisham (in Sydney), and you can find out what is happening in Melbourne and Adelaide.

If you have read Charles Dickens, let us know in the comments, or by tweeting, what your favourite title or character is? If you haven’t read anything by this author, it is time to start today.

Ellen

Laugh kookaburra…

readitadmin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:00:47 +0000

Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, gay your life must be! Oh the memories of singing that song sooo many times in my childhood. Over and over again, much like the memories of my dad’s dreadful jokes. I remember thinking how could anyone of sound mind publish such awful things (I don’t however remember thinking how could anyone write them in the first place!). Dad always expected us to find them the height of entertainment and I guess he wore us down, or got to us in a weak moment because laugh we did. We giggled at nonsense poetry, snickered and snorted when he read and re-organised both plot and endings in picture books (I was confused for years) and guffawed at his irreverant and often politically incorrect takes on our childhood adventure stories. Now, I’d like to sneak into the garden to read, but because I was hopeless at keeping quiet in the funny bits, I’d be found giggling in the bushes and promptly returned to whatever chores I’d skived away from. I’m still hopeless at keeping quiet in the funny bits which is why I don’t take Janet Evanovich to read on public transport. Her descriptions of Bob the dog regurgitating socks or Lula’s lurid close fitting lycra outfits and their forays into funeral viewings of the recently deceased bring out the laugh in me. Loud and probably embarrasing, but rewarding. It’s fun, remembering reading and laughing as a kid. Has my humour reading age matured along with my actual age? Not sure, but I think everyone needs a good laugh and in fact the kid in me insists on it! Loads to choose from, I’ll probably run out of time but thanks Dad, thanks for reading to me and thanks, thanks for the laughs.

So what brings out the laugh in you? Join our twitter conversation on Tuesday 28th February, 8pm AEST til 10pm AWST. Use #NYR12.

Helen

Amazing Read wrap-up: Twitterchat reading recommendations

readitadmin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:15:13 +0000

Our first National Year of Reading Twitter Chat went for an Amazing 4 and a half hours. With nearly 200 Amazing reading suggestions from all our participants. Here they are for you to browse through:

Title/Authors:

It’s Always Been You by Victoria Dahl
Salt and Cod by Mark Kurlansky
Jamie Oliver – any
When we wre very young & Now we are six by A A Milne
Great Expectations by Graham Martin
Quilts 1700-2010: hidden histories, untold stories
Denyse Schmidt quilt books
Maggie’s kitchen by Maggie Beer
Anonymous was a woman by Mirra Bank
Belinda Jeffery’s Country Cookbook & Tried and true recipes
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
A spoonful of country: cooking from a Cootamundra farmhouse by Catherine Bragg
Girl in the steel capped boots by Loretta Hill
Paul Auster: New York Trilogy, Timbuktu
Spellbound by Blake Charlton
Game of Thrones by George R R Martin
Wonder by R J Palacio
Windvale Sprites by Mackenzie Crook
Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones
Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
Jasper Jones
Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
Narnia by C S Lewis
Broken Shore & Truth by Peter Temple
Phillip Pulman’s Subtle Knife
Fringe of Leaves (based on story of Eliza Fraser) & Twyborn Affair
Affection and Triptych by Krissy Kneen
Year of Wonders: a novel of the plague by Geraldine Brooks
The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak
Private Journal of a Voyage to Australia -James Bell
Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black
China Miéville’s City and the City, Kraken, Embassytown
Geraldine Brooks’ Nine Parts of Desire
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Jesse Blackadder’s The Raven’s Heart
Sulari Gentill’s Miles Off Course
Kate Grenville’s Secret River
The Devil’s Mixtape by Mary Borsellino
Beasts of Burden
Defiance by Lili St Crow
Gillian Mears A Foal’s Bread
Nicole Watson The Boundary
Y A Erskine The Brotherhood
P M Newton’s The Old School
Charlotte Wood Animal People & Submerged Cathedral, The Children
Melanie Joosten Berlin Syndrome
Gail Jones Five Bells
Alexis Wright Carpentaria
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Anathem by @nealstephenson
Charles Dickens
Catch 22 Joseph Heller
Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked
Jennifer Crusie’s Bet Me
Mark Leyner’s My Cousin My Gastroentorologist
Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey/Snobs & Past Imperfect
Nam Le’s The boat
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Agnes and the hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
The Old School by P M Newton
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Maralinga by Judy Nunn
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
Extremely Loud & Incredibly close by Jon Safran Foer
Conversations with myself by Nelson Mandela
Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust books
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
History of the World in 100 objects by Neil MacGregor
The time traveler’s wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Mystery of Hansom Cab by Fergus W Hume Crime
No Future without forgiveness by Desmond Tutu
Wheel of time by Robert Jordan
Who pays the piper by Mackenzie Smith
The last werewolf by Glen Duncan
Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter me
Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio races & Forever &Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy
Claudia’s big break by Lisa Heidke
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
King of the outback by Bill King
Life without the boring bits by Colleen McCullough
The Eyre Affair & The song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde
Among the Islands by Tim Flannery
How to fix copyright by William Patry
Dante’s Inferno
Bryce Courtenay’s Sylvia
Here be dragons by Sharon Penman
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Alanna by Tamora Pierce
Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi
The Yarn Harlot by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Homer’s Iliad
The Joys of Quantum Entanglement

Kids:

Wombles
Mo Willems Knuffle Bunny & Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
Jane O’Connor’s Fancy Nancy
Sandra Boynton’s Fifteen Animals
Go dog go by P D Eastman
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
Elizabeth Enright – any
Edward Eager – any
Eleanor Estes – any
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
The Princess Bride
Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book by Julia Donaldson
Harry Potter by J K Rowling
Neverness by David Zindell
Beatrix Potter
Famous Five by Enid Blyton

Poetry:

Keats’s Upon First Looking into Chapman’s Homer
A Poem a Day Blog – http://ozpoemaday.wordpress.com/

Web, Blogs, Bloggers, Tweet streams:

@whisperinggums
@anzlitlovers
@tony_malone
@FairDinkumCrime
@BSquaredInOz
@bookdout
@BoingBoing
@readreactreview www.readreactreview.com
@2nerdyhistorygirls http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com.au/
Mamma Mia Blog http://www.mamamia.com.au/
Material Obsession - http://www.materialobsession.typepad.com/
Trove – www.trove.nla.gov.au
Forever YA http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/
www.lettersofnote and www.listsofnote
@samuelpepys
@byleaveswelive
@IAMSHAKESPEARE
@chandlerisms
@Beathhigh
@neilhimself
@greatdismal

http://www.grandpurlbaa.blogspot.com.au/

Authors:

Gil McNeil
John Green
Stephanie Laurens
Michael Connelly
Nora Roberts & JD Robb
Kurt Vonnegut
Terry Pratchett
Brent Weeks
Anna Campbell
Anne Gracie
Kandy Shepherd
Jane Austen
Tolkien
Stephen Donaldson
Mary Webb
Thomas Hardy
Melanie La’Brooey
David Sedaris
Matthew Reilly
Sean Williams
Garth Nix
Michael Robotham
Gail Carriger
Peter Carey
Thomas Kenneally
Peter Temple
Tim Winton
Raymond E Feist
Nick Earls
Jasper Fforde
Peter Corris
Bronwyn Parry
Karly Lane
Fleur McDonald

Laughter and reading

readitadmin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:58 +0000

Flickr user: Corie Howell

Laughter and happiness is a basic emotion in all of us. From that first moment of joy parents experience upon seeing their newborn smiling, to children swapping jokes around the school playground, to people emailing funny quips to work colleagues or telling an amusing anecdote to cajole a smile from a sick and ailing grandparent, we all love to laugh and smile. Succeeding in making another person laugh is a prize that makes us happy too.

In reading, we can all find things to make us laugh. Starting with Sandra Boynton’s Blue Hat, Green Hat which has 18 month olds laughing uncontrollably, we move onto absurdism with Dr Seuss for older kids, and then to informative fart and poo humour to make history that little bit more palatable (thank you Mr Terry Deary). Choosing reading that pokes fun at the things we take too seriously can also help keep things in perspective.

So what gives you the giggles? Is it a chick lit novel describing hilarious takes on the pitfalls of relationships, life and love such as described in Lisa Walker’s Liar Bird.? Perhaps parody is your thing, with its playful twists on classic literature such as Aciman and Resin’s Twitterature or Jetlag Travel Guides for the undiscerning traveller.

Are you the person who can be found chuckling to yourself as you read something understated and witty, such as the Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G Wodehouse? Have you ever been known to burst into laughter as you read a joke book or a comical magazine be it Mad Magazine or Cracked.com? Maybe you’re the person found quietly smiling to yourself as you read tales of self deprecating comical memoirists from Gervase Phinn, Judith Lucy or David Sedaris, or snickering at the crowd-sourced humour from memes such as Failblog, Awkward Family Photos and Damn You Autocorrect.

Whatever you read that tickles your funny bone, making you crack-up, cackle, chortle, guffaw or just smile, this is the month to read it, as it is sure to lift your spirits and make you feel good!

The National Year of Reading is officially being launched on the 14^th February, Library Lovers Day! This will surely make you smile or even laugh as there is a whole year of reading and reading promotion to look forward to. And just as the Readers’ Digest would like us to all remember – Laughter is the best medicine.

Twitter discussion tonight for The Amazing Read

readitadmin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:46:34 +0000

Join us online tonight for a twitter discussion, starting at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (and lasting until about 10.00pm Western Standard Time).

Use the tag #NYR12 as you discuss your Amazing read.

You can find out what other people are saying by searching for #nyr12.

Come along for five minutes (or five hours) of reading discussion. You can talk abour any kind of reading, tweets, books, blogs…whatever is an #amazingread for you.

You can stay as long as you like, or pop in from time to time.

We really are starting at 8.00pm in Queensland and will be talking about amazing reads until at least 10.00pm in Western Australia. Join us at a time which suits you.

Colin Garland’s amazing read

readitadmin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:09:23 +0000

Colin's amazing read

The Melbourne Football Club are one of the National Ambassadors for the National Year of Reading. They have an exciting program called Read like a Demon.

You too can Read and write like a demon which is a perfect fit for The Amazing Read (as is the title which Colin has review below).

We are thrilled that Colin Garland has written the following review for us.

Book Title: Unbroken
Author: Laura Hillenbrand

This book details the extraordinary life and experience of lieutenant Louie Zamperini, an Olympic distance runner who was preparing for the 1940 Olympics, and closing in on the fabled four-minute mile, when World War II began and the Olympics were cancelled. Louie becomes an Army Air Forces bomber and in 1943 the young lieutenant’s plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean during the height of WWII. Louie and one other person amazingly survive the crash and go on one of the most extraordinary journeys of World War II.

I liked this book because of the courage shown by Louie and the amazing life he has lead from boyhood rogue, to Olympic athlete and then finally to one of Japan’s most brutal Prisoner Of War camps.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking to read a story about world history, it’s an amazing read that will stay with you for life. Unbroken is a story that is testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

Thank you Colin for this review.

You can find out more about the Read and write like a Demon program here, and some other amazing reads are listed on their blog too.