Nathan Luff's Blog, page 11

It’s National Literacy and Numeracy Week

I’ve been out and about and seen some great Literacy things happening this week, though I do feel sorry for Numeracy. People never really get as excited for numeracy events, do they? I do my best – today on my way to visit years 5 and 6 at Al Noori Muslim School in Greenacre, I counted all my wrong turns, and calculated how late I would be if my GPS system didn’t get me out my pickle. See how fun maths can be!!!

The Al Noori students were such a fantastic group with really interesting questions and comments – I could easily have spoken with them for twice as long. At the school there were two lots of authors (me plus the lovely Jess Black) doing talks, AND a book fair. That’s my idea of a perfect school day!

Later this week I’m teaching film skills to students in Year 9 at Magdalene Catholic High School. It should be a heap of fun though it will be hectic writing, shooting and editing a film in 2 hours. The challenge is on.

Hopefully in-between all these activities I’ll find some time to write! Speaking of which, Bad Grammar has gone through its second structural edit … slowly it is coming together. Only 4 months now until it will be out! I know you’re all super excited, as am I.

An upcoming event for the diary:

For kids out there in Sydney, I’m working with the Sydney Story Factory to run a 1-act comedy script workshop during the next school holidays. It’s on the 25th September & the 2nd of October, 10am – 12pm This is part of the Sydney Children’s Festival. You can check out their entire program here. Come along.

Book Week Costume Help

It’s book week next week!! This is a very exciting time for everyone. The awards have been announced and you can find them here. One of the most exciting things about Book Week is the Book Parade. A lot of people come to me for advice on lots of things, like for instance, what they should name their children (Tetris is my favourite choice), or what flavour gelato is best (all the flavours combined is the best flavour). I’m full of wisdom. Today I thought I would impart some of that wisdom for people facing the daunting problem of what to wear for the Book Parade.

What to Wear for Book Parade: a helpful advice column by Nathan Luff

Today I will take you through 3 simple choices:

The first, is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Method: This one is very simple indeed. You get striped pajamas and you put them on. That’s it!

The second, is a little more complicated. It is The Invisible Man, from the book of the same name by H.G Wells.

Method: You have a few options. 1) Dress up exactly like the background you are standing in front of as I have done above – I bet you can’t even see me. This is important – you can’t move all day. 2) Spend the whole day hiding behind plants and inside cupboards. Throw your voice so people think you are really there standing in front of them. 3) Stay at home and when the teacher asks, ‘where were you?’ say, ‘I was here, miss. I was dressed as the Invisible Man.’

The third is Percy Jackson, Lightning Thief. I had some problems with this one. I haven’t read the book, so I didn’t know what Percy looked like, and lightning was really hard to find, so I decided no one would notice if I took one of the letters out of lightning and dressed up as: Percy Jackson, Lighting Thief

Method: Wear a lot of black including a beanie or balaclava and put some black paint on your face so you look like a thief. Next, take as many lighting devices (lamps, torches etc) as you can find and run around with them in your hands.

So, as you can see, 3 brilliant costumes. I hope they come in handy. And I hope everyone has a great Book Week!!!

Author Spotting Season

The Author spotting season is upon us. As many of you probably know, the deep dark winter is not only a good time to spot migrating whales, but also the perfect time to spot authors. With National Literacy & Numeracy week coming up, as well as Book Week, authors are all over the place doing author visits.

How to spot an author in the wild:

Authors are easily spotted because of their pale skin. They spend a lot of their time indoors.
Authors talk a lot. They speak quickly and often they don’t make sense. This is because they spend a lot of time alone.

An important note: the best way to befriend an author is to get them to sign a book – authors love this! Please don’t get them to sign a book that someone else has written – authors don’t love this! Also, unlike zoo animals, feel free to feed an author – many are poor and will appreciate a free feed. Please note though that when feeding an author, this will not stop them from talking – be prepared to be hit by projectile bits of sandwiches or cake (or better still, caramel slice… yum!!!!!)

So where can you spot me?

Last week I visited the lovely kids at Bomaderry Public School, down on the South Coast. This was as part of the Carpet Court Storybook Challenge. You can read more about this initiative here.

This week I will be at St Marks’ Drummoyne as part of an Author Afternoon Tea. Joining me will be Susanne Gervay, Ursula Dubosarsky & Oliver Phommavanh. Sounds like a great line-up to me.

For those NSW schools taking part in the Wakakirri National Story Festival this year, I am the Head Judge of the Story-Dance category. The NSW season kicked off in Sutherland last week and there were some fantastic performances. Coming up in August there are shows in Wollongong and Castle Hill.

If you spot me, don’t be shy – come on over and say hello.

A New Anthology featuring Markus Zusak, Nick Earls, Melina Marchetta, William McInnes & ME

The Martians have landed. Many moons ago I spoke of contributing to an anthology for the Sydney Story Factory on the theme of Martians. Well with a lot of generous support from authors, editors, publishers and more, the book has finally been released and now you can read my brilliant story, The Weird Kid from Outer Space.

For those who don’t know, the Sydney Story Factory is a great not-for-profit creative writing centre for ALL kids, including children from disadvantaged, Indigenous or non-English-speaking backgrounds. Read more here. This Martian Anthology just released is part of a whole heap of Martian inspired products that will be sold at the Martian Embassy in Redfern to help raise money for this organisation (the other stuff they have is awesome, like starter kits for creating your own crop circles).

How can you get a copy? Well, I’m not sure yet. You can buy them directly from the Martian Embassy (176 Redfern Street, Redfern) as of next week when it is officially open, but I’m sure they will have online options etc, so when they announce that I will be sure to let you know. In the meantime, here is more info about the book to get you excited:

I Met a Martian & Other Stories

Martian tales from the best writers around, aged from ten to one hundred, collected in celebration of the Sydney Story Factory

The authors & illustrators are: Deborah Abela, Debra Adelaide, Sunil Badami, Jon Bauer, Larissa Behrendt, James Bradley, Alyssa Brugman, Martin Chatterton, Clare Douglas, Christopher Cheng, Claire Craig, Stephen Dando-Collins, Nick Earls, Terry Whidbourne, Jane Gleeson-White, Kate Gordon, Jacqueline Harvey, Ashley Hay, Andrew Humphreys, Linda Jaivin, Malcom Knox, John Larkin, Nathan Luff, Sarah MacDonald, Georgina MacDonald, William McInnes, Emily Maguire, Melina Marchetta, Sophie Masson, Belinda Murrell, Lachie Murrell, Caroline Overington’s twins, Oliver Phommavanh, Martin Plowman, Michael Pryor, Philip Putnam, R.A. Spratt, Kathleen Stewart, Colin Thompson, John Tranter, Markus Zusak & students from Alexandria Park Community School & Our Lady of Mount Carmel Primary School

The Martian reviews are good:

Quatlatani, from Planet Mars said, ‘Brilliant – I couldn’t put it down.’

Jakuyaz, from Planet Mars said, ‘Again, the Earthlings get us wrong. Fantastic book though.’

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Some holiday reading recommendations

For those still on school holidays, wondering what books you should read, wonder no more for I am here to help!!

I know Historical fiction and Dystopian future stories are really popular at the moment but unfortunately (for me) I write about the here and now! In order for my books to feature in either the historical fiction or dystopian future genres, you will need to find a time machine and either go back, or forward in time, depending on your preference. While I would prefer this, an easier option might be to check out my recommendations below:

LOOKING BACK (historical fiction):

I’ve met a lot of kids lately who love historical fiction. There’s a lot of good stuff out there – I know girls particularly enjoy books by Belinda Murrell (such as The Forgotten Pearl, a WW2 adventure). I was recently given The Secrets of Eromanga by Sheryl Gwyther, which delves into the ancient world of dinosaurs living in Australia – I look forward to reading that. Scholastic have a range of Our Story books for both boys and girls, depending on how bloody, or romantic, you like your history (personally, I like my history to have elements of both). Also check out David Metzenthen’s Blackwater, set in Australia at the end of WW1.

But my real advice for you is to never go past a classic – here are the Australian historical novels I read and loved when I was in primary school:

Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park (set 1800s in the Rocks, Sydney); The Sun on the Stubble by Colin Thiele (depression era); Baily’s Bones by Victor Kelleher (concerning an Aboriginal massacre); Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner (1890s, set in Sydney)

LOOKING FORWARD (dystopian futures):

It seems every man and his dog have read The Hunger Games Trilogy by now, though quite frankly most dogs miss the satirical themes. If you love dystopian futuristic stories, you should also check out Chaos Walking Trilogy (The Knife of Never Letting Go, Ask and the Answer, Monsters of Men) by Patrick Ness, and the numerically challenged Uglies trilogy (Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras) by Scott Westerfeld.

I hear good things about the Rosie Black Chronicles by Lara Morgan, though only the first two are out so far. A new series, called The Tribe, by Ambelin Kwaymullina, has just been released and looks good also – the first one is called The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf.

The classics you MUST read in this genre (though these are not specifically children’s books, so be warned) are:

1984 by George Orwell; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury; and one that I loved as a kid was Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien.

What are you waiting for? Get reading.