BOOK LAUNCH!

Heath McKenzie will be at the Sun Bookshop to celebrate his latest Christmassy creation:

THE AUSSIE NUTCRACKER

on Saturday 4th December at 10.30 am (that's in the morning)

This is also going to be a bit of a Sun Bookshop Christmas Party - snacks and a bit of juice so come along to celebrate with us! Heath will also be signing books. Free, fun, fab - but please RSVP on 9689 0661 or info@sunbookshop.com

INKY WINNERS

Here at the Younger Sun we have been so very busy preparing for Christmas (just imagine Santa's Workshop but with more packing bubbles) that our Inky posts sort of fell of the radar.

The Inkys were awarded today at the Centre for Youth Literature in Melbourne.

The Gold Inky for an Australian book went to...

LUCY CHRISTOPHER for her book STOLEN

Congratulations Lucy!!
Read our review of Stolen here.

Apologies to Kirsty Eagar, whose great book Raw Blue we never got to put under the spotlight. I think it was a very strong contender for the Inky - but since it did win the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards I suppose it's fair to spread the love around a bit.

Raw Blue (Penguin Books) is a moving and atmospheric story about a young woman nursing a terrible hurt. Carly has dropped out of uni to live, work and surf the beaches of northern Sydney, where she meets fellow surfer Ryan and sets herself in motion for healing and future happiness. This one's a bit racy. 15+.

Apologies also to Maggie Stiefvater, whose book we also were saving until last. Apparently for good reason, too! Because the winner for the Silver Inky for an international book went to...

MAGGIE STIEFVATER for her book SHIVER

Shiver is a romantic and paranormal tale (with one of the best covers of the year). The wolves in the forest behind her house have always drawn Grace to them and when she meets yellow-eyed Sam, human during the warm summer months, and the two face the possibility that come winter Sam could become wolf forever. For those Twilight fans looking for something new.

Congratulations Maggie!

Contact the Bookclub

If anybody is interested in joining the Younger Sun Teen Bookclub, please send us an email at youngersunbookclub@gmail.com.

We are a lively group of girls and boys aged 10 to 16. It's always hilarious at bookclub, with laughing and talking and tzatziki. Bookclub will begin again in 2011.

The Hunger Games

For a great article about the bestselling series The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, go here. Written by the excellent Frances Atkinson, it tells you all about the series, and gives you far more succinct and well-put reasons to read the books than I ever could (err... they are AWESOME). It also discusses the phenomenal response the series has garnered all over the world, some reasons for this response, and just why it is that 'roughly half of The Hunger Games fans on Facebook are full-fledged adults'.

Destined for the classics shelves.

--clare--
(a full-fledged adult fan)

a silver Inky - Going Bovine

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

"The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World. I'm sixteen now, so you can imagine that's left me with quite a few days of major suckage." Cameron has just had some bad news: he's sick and is going to die. Which totally sucks. But then hope arrives in the form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel with a bad sugar habit who promises Cam there is a cure if he's willing to go in search of it.With the help of Gonzo, a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf, and a garden gnome who might just be the Viking god Balder, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America of smoothie-drinking happiness cults (and possible serial killers), parallel universe-hopping physicists, mythic New Orleans jazz musicians, whacked-out television game shows, snow globe vigilantes, and disenfranchised, fame-hungry teens and into the heart of what matters most.

I don't think I have to add anything, really. This is what would happen if John Green and Jaclyn Moriarty had a baby, which was then raised by Jack Kerouac (toted around in a backpack On The Road)...and then if that baby grew up to write a book about a young guy who gets mad cow disease and then heads off on a madcap road trip. I love it.

You can vote for it here.

--kate--

a gold Inky - Guardian of the Dead

Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin)

Set in modern-day New Zealand, Guardian of the Dead takes its reader on an imaginative thrill ride through Maori legend and fantasy. The main character, Ellie is a tough girl living at a boarding school where at first it seems her biggest problem is that her best friend Kevin (who is asexual - that's a first in YA, surely?) is spending a lot of time with the university theatre crowd and Ellie feels a bit left out...and there's a weird new girl who has her eye on Kevin.

Enter Mark: he's mysterious, Ellie is drawn to him - and him to her. Things happen when she's around him. And something BIG is going to go down. The gods are angry and the earth is shifting. Ellie is not a Bella, however. She's not going to sit around and wait to be rescued: she's off to save the world! The dialogue is great, the mythology spectacular and it is fabulous to see a clever and tough young woman out there defending herself.

Another strong contender for the gold Inky! Vote here.

What is new with you?

We take a quick break in our Inky overview posts to let you all in on a secret.
Well, it's hardly a secret...
The Younger Sun has received November new releases and the shop is BULGING at the seams with all kinds of amazing new books. Come and check it out!

Some new releases include:

Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (sequel to Leviathan)
Monsters of Men, Patrick Ness (third and final book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, now in paperback)
Rangers Apprentice: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja, John Flanagan (number 10 in the series!
Scarlett Dedd, Cathy Brett (remember Ember Fury? This is the newie from that author!)

Zog, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (they wrote and drew THE GRUFFALO)
Princess and Fairy Twinkly Ballerinas, Anna Pignataro (with glitter)
The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munsch and Michael Martenchenko IN BOARD BOOK.


and...
my personal favourite:

The Noisy Book, Soledad Bravi

With its gorgeous and quirky illustrations and fabulous descriptions of noises (the drum goes ratatat, the bottle goes mmm, the rabbit goes tntntnstn, the socket goes NO!) It's sure to be a Christmas fave.