Asian Novels

I recently ordered some books by Asian authors or with an Asian perspective suitable for Grades 7-10:

Global Tales - Selected and edited by Beverley Naidoo, Chris Donovan and Alun Hicks
Everything Asian - Sung J. Wo
Yell-Oh Girls - Vickie Nam
Children of the River - Linda Cre
A Singing Bird will Come - Karmel Schreyer
The Missing White Dragon (graphic novel) - Park, Young Ha
Eyes of the Emperor - Graham Salisbury

But here is a great post from Dianne McKenzie via Oztl_net:

It is an exciting time in Asia as new authors are breaking through and they are being loved for their own style and stories rather than the traditional "victim of oppression" stories written in the 'popular style' that have been the norm until recently. Asia is full of so many different cultures, people and stories, such an exciting place to read about and see this change.

http://www.paddyfield.com.hk/authors/
Asia Bookroom
http://www.asiabookroom.com/AsiaBookRoom/

Paper Tigers (US based)
http://papertigers.org/
http://papertigers.org/reviews/USA/papertigers.html

Asian Literary review - will give a broader range of titles from different parts of asia, however, many titles will be written for the adult market.
http://www.asialiteraryreview.com/web/en/magazine/currentIssue?&localeId=en

There is also a list on Amazon - we have most of these titles in our school collection
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-favourite-Asian-authors-books/lm/3D6WJQ0S6MLZ2

Goodreads has collected a shelf
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/asian-authors

Red Hot curry - books by asian authors
http://www.redhotcurry.com/entertainment/books/index.htm

Authors asia
http://www.authors.asia/

Diversify your reading
http://diversereading.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/east-asian-authors/

Austral Ed also has a list
http://www.australed.iinet.net.au/books_about_asia.html

CCBC Book List -
http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=280

For other international resources visit this wiki set up by Katie Day for PYP school libraries.
http://sites.google.com/site/pypresources/home/international-mindedness

Koala Book Awards

Kids Own Australian Literature Awards are annual awards made by young readers in NSW to the Australian books they have most enjoyed reading during that year. The Shortlist is a good source of titles.

http://www.koalansw.org.au/index.html

CMIS Resource Bank

Lists all types of curriculum (WA) related materials for teachers and students - a great resource which can be limited by educational levels and learning areas:

http://amlib.det.wa.edu.au/webquery.dll?v20=1&v22=1M

Libraries Australia/Trove

One of the best places to go when you're stuck and can't find titles to order on a particular topic. I usually use a Subject search and find the appropriate subject heading from our own library catalogue.

http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/

or

http://trove.nla.gov.au/

SchoolStore.com.au

Although intermitently slow at the time of access this site looks like a terrific resource for both fiction and non-fiction for children of all ages. There are a couple of supplier catalogues and lists of titles by subject.

http://www.schoolstore.com.au/Pages/Default.aspx

YALSA's Top Ten Teen Reads

From http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/teenstopten.cfmThe 2010 Teens' Top Ten is:

1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
2. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
3. Heist Society by Ally Carter
4. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
5. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
6. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
7. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
8. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
9. Fire by Kristin Cashore
10. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Fantastic Fiction

For young adults (and older) this site has everything you need to know about sci fi and fantasy:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

Points of View

A list of books from OZTL_NET which portray points of view/different perspectives:


There's a wolf in my pudding - familiar stories told from the protagonist's point of view

The magic Beach - Alison Lester

The Listmaker - Robin Klein

The Franklin stories -

A fine fine school by Sharon Creech

Voices in the Park by Antony Browne

The Enemy - Serge Bloch and Davide Calide

Luke's Way of Looking by Matt Ottley

Books with tiny creatures, like 'The Borrowers' could provide another point of view.

Another great one is Jez Alborough's "Watch out, Big Bro is coming!"

and the new one from Bruce Whatley and Andrew Daddo, "Monsters"

Jasper McFlea Will Not Eat His Tea and Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair

The wrong book nick bland

The little red hen

The story of the three pigs

Earrings - Judith Voirst

Hey little ant - phillip hoose

Old henry - joan w. Blos

I wanna iguana - Karen kaufman orloff

laRue for mayor - mark Teague

Voices in the park - Anthony Browne

My place - Nadia Wheatley



Plus some parodies / different perspectives of classic fairytales:

Snow White: a classic tale; Rumpelstiltskin: a classic tale
Cinderella: a classic tale (all by Dr. Alvin Granowsky - look at the fairytale story from the points of view of two different characters)

The true story of the three little pigs; The frog prince continued (both by Jon Scieszka)

Mike Dumbleton, entitled Granny O'Brien and the Diamonds of Selmore.

Here's where I found some good dvds about teaching Creative Writing and Grammar in the classroom. Unfortunately, although the sites are Australian, none of the dvds are:

marcom.com.au
vea.com.au
classroomvideo.com.au

UKLA

UK Literacy Association (UKLA) Children’s Book Awards longlist has been announced. A great list of books to order:

http://www.ukla.org/awards/ukla_childrens_book_award_2011/
From Random House: "The prestigious longlist has traditionally been a major indicator of the best children books for inclusion in classrooms and schools."

YA biographies

From OZTL_NET a list of YA biographies. I think I've got them all except for the pop stars and American actresses:




Lionheart - Jesse Martin
Open - Andre Agassi
Nine lives - Adam Ramanauskas
It's not about the bike - Lance Armstrong
Boy, Going Solo - Roald Dahl
Off the Rails - Tim Cope
Getting a Grip - Monica Seles
Between a rock and a hard place - Aron Ralston
Boy called It (series) - Dave Pelzer
Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin
Eli's wings - Elizabeth Best
Born to run, my story - Cathy Freeman
Rock Chicks (Steven-Taylor)
Miley Cyrus' autobiography Miles to Go
Hannah Montana (two different bios by Janic and Magid)
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have a big glossy book called Influence in which they interview designers
Princess (Sasson)
Not without my Daughter (Mahmoody)
Asylum (Heather Tyler)
The Glory Garage (Jamal and Chandab)
Married by Force (Leila)
Sold (Muhsen )
My forbidden Face (Latifa)
Wild Swans (Chang)
Falling Leaves (Mah)
Concubine's Children (Chong)
Read Scarf Girl (Jiang)
A long way gone - memoirs of a boy solider - Ishmail Beah
Facing up : a remarkable journey to the summit of Mt Everest - Bear Grylls
The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
Little Girls Lost (Story of some murdered girls including two local girls at
Bega)
Chinese Cinderella
Burned Alive
Anna's Story -story of the first death from Ecstasy in Australia in 1996
Romulus My Father
Layne Beachley: Beneath the Waves
Stick figure: a diary of my former self (Lori Gottlieb) - eating disorders
Soul Surfer (Bethany Hamilton) - survivng a shark attack
Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt (Natalie Jane Prior)
Desert Flower: the extraordinary life of a desert nomad (Waris Dirie)
Soldier Boy: the true story of Jim Martin the youngest ANZAC (Anthony Hill
Just don't fall / Josh Sundquist
Marley & Me / John Grogan
Bad boy / Walter Dean Myers
Three cups of Tea / Greg Mortinson - this and its sequel 'Stones into Schools'
The black dress - Pamela Freeman - this is about Mary McKillop
Cross and the switchblade - David Wilkerson
My complete, illustrated career - Shane Warne

The Last Thylacine

On this day in 1936 the last thylacine died in her cage at Hobart Zoo. We've got a few good titles on this popular subject:

Crew, Gary,
I saw nothing : the extinction of the Thylacine / Gary Crew & Mark Wilson.
South Melbourne, Vic. : Lothian Books, 2003.

D'Ath, Justin.
Infamous / by Justin D'Ath.
Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2003, c1996.

Hartnett, Sonya,
Stripes of the sidestep wolf / Sonya Hartnett.
Ringwood, Vic. : Viking, 1999.

Chauncy, Nan,
Tiger in the bush / by Nan Chauncy.
Sydney : Pan Macmillan, 2001.

Isham, Marion.
Tiger tale / Marion & Steve Isham.
Margate, Tas. : Bandicoot Books, c2002.

Top 100

I came across a useful list of the Top 100 Australian books for children based on the Educational Lending Right School Library Survey 2009-10. I'll only have to order ten of them!

Guess which is No.1