WAYRBA | diannewolfer

It’s been a very long while between blog posts, apologies!

The good news is that I’ve been busy writing and have some exciting projects in the pipeline. More about those soon.

In the meantime, I’m thrilled to share that Scout and the Rescue Dogs has been honoured with a Children’s Book Council of Australia shortlisting. For those not working in KidLit, it’s a huge and wonderful thing.

In the buildup to Children’s Book Week, schools across Australia make amazing library displays that will include Scout. Young ‘shadow judges‘ will discuss the stories, choose their own winners, and do fun activities based on each book.

But that’s not all… Scout and the Rescue Dogs has also been shortlisted for the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards. And, one of my favourites, Granny Grommet and Me, is back.

Fremantle Press has brightened the cover and published this story about surfing grannies in a smaller format that’s perfect for small hands. Since it was last in print, there are dozens more Granny Grommets braving the surf in Kinjarling Albany, and dozens more young grommets as well. Check out some of the clips and photos of the real GGs on this page.

Between all this excitement, I’ve been writing and editing, and early next year, I’ll have three new titles coming out. Two picture books, each with an amazing illustrator, and a biography/novel about an inspirational Australian. I’ll be posting about them soon.

In other news, I’ve jumped on board Shepherd, a great site where authors recommend five books linked to a topic. My first list is called The Best Books with an Important Octopus Character. It’s inspired, of course, by the octopus characters in my novel The Shark Caller. One is a giant gatekeeper, and the other is Izzy’s frightening adversary. Browsing Shepherd is addictive, in that one link leads to another and another and another … I’ve added so many titles to my reading stack!

Well, back to the editing for me. My next post will focus on Anzac books and activities. All the best for now.

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The West Australian Young Readers WAYRBA have announced their three shortlists and I’m thrilled that The Shark Caller is included amongst the 16 titles in the 2016 Older Readers’ category. I’m in good company; the list features six international books, nine from Australia and one fellow West Australian title; Norm Jorgensen’s fun The Smuggler’s Curse. There are also lists for Younger Readers and Picture Books with terrific Australian titles on both.

Being shortlisted for a children’s choice award is a wonderful thing. Committed teachers and librarians make up many judging panels, but when the power to choose is handed over to kids it makes being selected such an honour. Young readers make honest critics. As part of the judging process they’re asked to read titles on the lists and evaluate them as ‘terrific’, ‘good’, ‘okay’ or ‘awful.’ Fingers crossed that my ‘Shark’ doesn’t receive too many of the latter!

For WA creators there are still challenges involved in bringing a book to the attention of readers – there are so many other great books from interstate and overseas. The annual WAYRBA lists help ensure that Australian settings such as ‘Abalone Cove’ (Greens Pool) and Broome, which appear in The Shark Caller, reach a wider readership. Thank you to the organising committee for their hard work behind the scenes and teachers, please help your students access the WAYRBA titles, encourage them to vote – and to be gentle with the ‘awful’ slips…