CELEBRATING WITH FRIENDS - Sally Murphy Wins 2009 IBBY (Children's Book)

My writer friends are doing wonderful things lately and I have decided it's time I did something to help them celebrate. So tonight I'm throwing a party. **polite clapping** The Guest of Honour is Sally Murphy and we're celebrating the announcement of Pearl Verses the World as Independent Booksellers Children's Book of the Year 2009 **thunderous applause**

First a reading.

There are three people at my house

And that's the way it should stay

Forever

Me

My mum

And my granny.

If you take one away

We won't be whole

Any more

Like a shoe without a lace

Or a flower with no petals.

It takes three

To make our family

Never one or two.

And for our meal let's sit with Sally and have swordfish steaks (because they sound exotic), strawberry cheesecake (because I like it) and a semillion (very expensive of course). This is a literary dinner brought to you by the letter S - for Sally and Sensational and Spectacular.

Now I am going to make a speech. ** polite clapping and who was that who dared to groan? ** This is one I've already made in a number of places because I have long been one of Pearl Verses the World's loud friends.

Pearl Verses the World by Sally Murphy. Illustrated by Heather Potter Walker Books Australia. Paperback rrp $14.95

Reprinted courtesy of The Reading Stack

Pearl Verses the World is a wonderful introduction for children who have never encountered a verse novel before. Verse novels are ideally suited for middle to upper primary readers. The reader becomes personally involved in a stream of consciousness conversation with the main character and the story quickly becomes very real.

Pearl feels alone. She doesn’t fit in at school. ‘My class is made up of groups. I am in a group of one.’ At home, her grandmother is very ill and the close family unit of grandmother, mother and daughter is unravelling.Pearl’s teacher wants her to write poems that rhyme but Pearl hears a different rhythm. When her grandmother dies, she finally finds the words to express how she feels.

Her world has changed but she discovers a new place to belong and her group of one is slowly expanding.I read this story to my primary school son and it opened his eyes in many ways. We talked about death. About belonging. About ‘poem books’. Reading Pearl Verses the World aloud together was a rich, rewarding experience.This book is special. A beautiful story about coping with grief and loss, expertly written for younger readers. A gentle and uplifting life lesson for all ages.

Leave a comment to 'sign the guestbook' if you dropped in. And if you would like to call in on Sally at home and offer your congratulations you can find her here http://www.sallymurphy.net

MONKEY FIST BLOG TOUR Day 6 - Sally Murphy's Writing for Children

It's blog tour day 6 and I'm doing two things at once. Isn't cyberspace wonderful? Today I'm visiting Sally Murphy’s Writing For Children Blog to talk with Sally Murphy (author of many books for children including the verse novel, Pearl Verses the World) about book promotion and how to harness cyber resources.

I'm also speaking in the evening at Canberra's Asia Bookroom. More details about that here.

Visit the Samurai kids website to find media related information or click here to visit the Samurai Kids Forum.

Tomorrow you will find me at Writing Children’s Book with Robyn Opie where Robyn Opie, author of more than 75 books including "How to Write a Great Children's Book" and the novel “Black Baron” and I will be discussing Zen and the Art of Writing for Children – my view on why the series has been so successful. The complete tour schedule is here.

INTERVIEW with Sally Murphy

Today I'm thrilled to be sort-of interviewing Sally Murphy about her recently released verse novel for middle grade readers. I say sort-of because I didn't actually do any interviewing. I feel very strongly that Pearl Verses the World is a book which speaks equally well to two very different audiences - older readers (such as myself) and younger readers (such as #2 son). So after reading the book together, I asked #2 to think of some interview questions he would like to ask Pearl and Sally.

What transpired was an eye-opener for me personally - not only an insight into how a young person interacts with Pearl Verses the World but also how my own child, who has had little experience of illness and death, reacted when confronted with such big issues in narrative.

However, I couldn't convince him it was a verse novel. 'Poem book' he insisted.

Pearl Verses the World is a sensitive and skilful look at greif, loneliness, illness and death. But at the same time it is hopeful and uplifting, a celebration of family and friendship. But I digress. I'm not reviewing today, I'm introducing Pearl and Sally through nine-year-old eyes.

QUESTIONS FOR PEARL

1 How old are you? I am 9 and I think you are the same age as me.
Yes, I just turned 10, though I didn’t get to have a big party or anything because of Mum being so busy with Granny. Still, I didn’t mind – all I wanted was to spend time with Granny and see her smile.

2 At the start of the book, why don’t you have any friends? You seem very nice.
You know how sometimes when you feel sad or grumpy you tend to stick to yourself? And sometimes when you’re feeling that way, without meaning to you shut other people out. So you don’t smile at them, or talk to them, or even feel like sitting with them at lunch or recess. That’s what happened to me. I just stuck to myself because I was so sad, and then I felt like I had no friends.

3 Why doesn’t Lucy Wong like you any more?

We used to be best friends, but these days she wants to play out in the playground, and I just don’t feel like playing those games at the moment. And I haven’t been a very good friend to her – she has tried to include me in things but I haven’t joined in. I hope we will be friends again.

4 What is wrong with your grandmother? Does she have an illness or is she just sick because she is old?
Granny is pretty old, and when people get old they can have all sorts of illnesses. One of Granny’s problem is dementia – which is when you start to lose your memory. At first it was just little things – like he’d forget where she put her teeth, or she would put the milk away in the oven – but then she started to forget more and more things, and by the time she died she didn’t seem to even remember who Mum and I were. That was sad for all of us.

5 Are you scared other people might die? What if your mum died? Who would look after you?

Sometimes, yes, I worry about other people dying. And if I think about Mum dying it is really scary, because we don’t have a lot of other relatives, but Mum has friends so maybe one of them would look after me. I might ask Mum about that – she always listens to me when I am worried, so she might tell me what she thinks would happen.
But mostly, since Granny died I know that life does go on after someone you love dies. Sometimes I am really sad that she has gone – but I am glad that she was my granny and that I had a chance to know and love her.

6 Do you think Prudence will become your friend?
I think we might not be enemies any more. She was quite nice when I came back to school after Granny died, but I don’t think we will ever be best friends. She is a bit too goody-goody for me. I like to have fun.

7 What is your cat’s name?
Narelle. If you say it really fast it sounds like the sound a cat makes.

QUESTIONS FOR SALLY

8 I like how some of the words are like pictures – they wind and curve around. They are big and little. Was that your idea?
No, it wasn’t my idea. When I wrote them, I wrote them on separate lines to emphasise them, but it was the designer and editor who used the different fonts and shapes. I like it too.

9 Do you know anybody called Pearl? Where did her name come from?
No, I don’t know anyone called Pearl, but it is a name I like. I chose it because I wanted a name that was a bit different. Pearl is a different sort of a girl and deserved a unique name.

10 Are you a poet? My mum is a writer but she isn’t a poet.
I am a poet, but I don’t only write poetry. Most of the other books I have written are prose, but I have also written a picture book (called Pemberthy Bear) which was a rhyming poem, and a book of performance poems (called Assembly), which also mostly rhymed.

11 Are you going to write another poem book?
Yes! I have written another verse novel, called Toppling which Walker Books will publish in 2010. I have also written lots of poems about different topics which I have made into a collection, but I don’t know yet if that will be published or not. I have my fingers crossed. I think kids like reading poetry and I certainly love writing it.

Thank you for taking the time to think up such good interview questions. I really had to think hard to come up with clever answers.

TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

Introducing Pearl versus the World by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Heather Potter

She nudges me and hisses
That's for stealing my boyfriend.
Does Prudence have boyfriend?
And how could I steal him when I don't know who he is?
And would he let himself be stolen?

Now I am going to break the Teaser Tuesday rules. This was such an engrossing story I read it in one sitting. So I already know that to do it justice requires more than the above extract. While the book is a thoughtful glimpse into the life of Pearl - her problems with school, friends, the teacher and poetry - it is also much more than that. It is the heart stirring story of a young person coping with grief and loss. So if I just turn one page:

Where is the book
About a girl
Whose poems don't rhyme
And whose Granny is fading?
Pearl, says Mrs Rose
The bell has gone.

I go back to class
Empty-handed
Empty-headed
Empty-hearted.

Beautiful cover, beautiful words. A beautiful book.