Boys blokes books

One of the things we did during the Boys, Blokes, Books Bytes program is give free books to everyone involved. Readers were offered six books from the list below. They chose three at the first evening event and three more at the finish when we staged a Bookgig at the State Library of Victoria.

We had multiple copies of all books, though not enough for one of everything for everyone. If you see what I mean.

Titles are listed from younger to older readers, approximately.

Michael Wagner Maxximum Maxx Rumble

Too Cool Phil Kettle

It’s True series (Allen & Unwin non-fiction titles)

Pat Flynn Tuckshop Kid

David Metzenthen The Really, Really Epic Mini-bike Ride (Chomp)

Doug MacLeod Kevin the Troll

Justin D’Ath Spider Bite (Extreme Adventures series)

Michael Hyde Change the Game series (two titles)

Eyewitness Pirates (DK Press)

Archie Fusillo On the Mat

Richard Franklin Digger J Jones

Michael Panckridge The Cursed

Anthony Horowitz Snakehead (new Alex rider title)

Anthony Horowitz Point Blanc, graphic novel

Scot Gardner Gravity

I had also intended to have Gareth Hinds’ Beowulf on the list but couldn’t obtain it at the time.

Thanks to the Little Bookroom for helping us track them all down.

If you like cars, you will love this book! Are You for Wheel? by Tony Davis is a collection of the most jaw-droppingly strange and amazing cars ever put on the road.

How about four-wheel drive Mini? It was called a Twini Mini:

or a Ford Seattle-ite XX1

or the Briggs & Stratton hybrid, an early petrol-electric car like today’s Prius:

Of course you would want it to have six wheels, right?

All these and more amazing motors in Are You for Wheel?. The book comes out in February. Pester your local library today!

Tony is also the author of You Must Be Skidding and Roland Wright, Future Knight.

Have you noticed just how many versions of the Beowulf story are around right now? The story, part history and part myth, is over 1,500 years old. It started life as a spoken story and was later written down. The only surviving manuscript is in the British Library. Think about that. A manuscript that is a thousand years old and that survived revolutions, rats, the Great Fire of London, time itself.

The original manuscript looks like this:

Now there is the movie with Ray Winstone and another one being made. There are numerous graphic novels and text versions. There is a poetry version by Semaus Heaney. The story of Beowulf was one of the inspirations for The Lord of the Rings.

Beowulf is a story of three mighty battles fought by the hero against the monster Grendel, Grendel mother and a nameless serpent. Recently, this graphic novel edition by Gareth Hinds was published. I love this book. It’s exciting, dramatic, has amzing pictures and that old world language is a fresh as the day it was written down.

You can see more pages at Gareth’s website, along with sketches that he made in creating the characters. It’s well worth exploring. Have you read a graphic novels that you want people to know about? Tell us in the comments below.