Boys blokes books

Ever wanted to be a sports commentator? Let Andy Griffiths show you how.

You can read Andy’s story Just Commentating, from The Age Summer Kids pages.

In seven days time, the world’s greatest bike race, Le Tour de France, kicks off in Monaco. Normally home the Monaco Grand Prix, F1 cars are giving way to the hundreds of cyclists next Saturday, 4 July as the great race begins. Over 23 days and 21 stages, over 400 riders will cover 3,459.5 kilometres. Up hills, down hills, on the flat, time trials, in peletons and breakaways. It’s totally intense.

In the last two years Australian Cadel Evans has finished second. Can he go all the way this year — or could returning legend Lance Armstrong make it eight wins? Or, one of the many, many talented and strong European riders?

SBS has a great website dedicated to the race.

In the meantime, the lead up to Le Tour de France has BBBB thinking about all things bikes and books. And of books with a French flavour. Here’s five of our favourites.

Nicholas series by Goscinny & Sempe (brilliant website, too!)

Toby Alone (and sequel) by Timothee Fombelle

Tintin by Herge (see here for the new museum dedicated to Herge)

365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet

The Book of Time Guillame Prevost

And some Australian titles with a French (or cycling!) connection:

Mr Chicken Goes to Paris Leigh Hobbs

Boys of Blood and Bone David Metzenthen (great book set in World War 1)

Joan of Arc Lili Wilkinson (history of the Maid of Orleans)

or two for the road:

The really, really epic mini-bike ride by David Metzenthen

Greasy Rider by James Roy

Okay, On yer bike!

Siggy has. With a girl called Amber. Who’s a bit goth. And has two mums. And Siggy and Amber go ghost hunting. And Amber is seriously grounded.

Siggy and Amber is the latest novel by Doug Macleod. You can see Doug talk about the book here.

But he’s a shy fellow, Doug. He doesn’t mention that he has worked on shows like Kath and Kim, The Comedy Company and Seachange. Doug is also very funny, as you will see, if you read Siggy and Amber.

Hi, it has been a while, how have you been?

We’ve been tied up organising a conference called Reading Matters. But that is done for now so it only remains to pick ourselves and get back down to boys, blokes, books and bytes business.

There were a number of highlights in the conference, including Tristan Bancks. His Mac Slater series is well worth checking out. But you can see what’s on Tristan’s mind at insideadog where he is writer-in-residence for a month.

Also pretty brilliant was the American author John Green. You can catch John’s take on Australia here. See John talk Nerdfighters, puppy sized elephants, Markus Zusak and more. John Green is an award winning writing for teenagers and one half of the Vlog Brothers.

And if that is not enough, check out this interview with Mal Peet, author of brilliant books including Keeper, Tamar and Exposure.

Other highlights of Reading Matters 2009 will be podcast at insideadog in the coming weeks and months.

Marc Jarvis is fifteen. He lives in Camberwell, a leafy Melbourne suburb. And like many boys, he spends a lot of time dreaming about girls and the future. When work experience brings him into contact with Electra, a brilliantly gifted runner, his quiet suburban life will never be the same. Jarvis 24 is a novel that hits the funny bone and the heart. Author David Metzenthen talks about the origins of Marc Jarvis.

What was the spark for Jarvis 24 ?

The spark that really got Jarvis going was a conversation that I had with a friend of mine about his two boys. One of the boys is super-confident about himself and the impact he has on the world, the other son worries about just about everything. I immediately wanted to write about the kid who worries, as I was always worried when I was at school – although I was a functional, left-wing type of a kid, who hid it pretty well. I’d already started Jarvis, but scrapped the first attempt, as it had no life in it until I heard about this under-age worrier….When I discovered Marc’s voice, and his way of thinking, I felt I could write his story with a real sense of truth. I also heard of a girl who won an inter-school 200 metre race by such a huge distance, a chant went up around Olympic Park…’How much she did she cost? da-da da-da da-dah!’ I’ve always been interested in sprinting, although I couldn’t run out of sight on a foggy morning, so it was great to write about someone who can really fly.

So, in my experience, it takes two sparks to make a story: and Marc and Electra provided them for me.

Jarvis 24 is a very funny story, but there’s also a lot of emotion beneath the surface, isn’t there?

There’s emotion below and beneath everyone and everyone’s story; everyone’s thinking, thinking, thinking – but generally they’re not telling, in my limited experience. I really wanted to tap into Marc’s ways of thinking, and his views on the world. Hopefully I could present an authentic young guy. I really turned the bullshit detector onto him (and onto myself) to give his world view… and although some of the things might not appear to make sense to some readers, they seemed to make sense to me and Marc…so they’re in, meaning if Marc’s thoughts don’t seem straightforward or rational, the reader (and my editor!) will just have to navigate them as best they can.

Did you do any research for Jarvis 24?

I did do research for Jarvis 24, although it wasn’t all that scientific. I walked up Glenferrie Road at dusk every Wednesday while my daughter was at basketball practice, and drank a coffee. I read Cathy Freeman’s life story and was truly inspired by photographs of her running; she was like a swallow and a hawk, totally focused, so graceful and powerful and fast. I also re-visited myself as a sixteen year-old maniac sitting under a tree in the dark thinking about stowing away on a ship or jumping onto a moving freight train… and meeting the girl of my dreams. I also spoke to quite a few car sales people about their work, which was really interesting…but generally I just tried to lock into my characters, and let them proceed.

Marc is a pretty easy-going guy. He doesn’t really have a particular goal or aim in life. Was that you as a teenager?

Marc isn’t that easy-going and neither was I. When I was young I was stubborn, pig-headed, had strange expectations of the world, and refused to listen to good advice. My goal in life then was to live some kind of adventurous life. I wanted to hit the road, but at the same time, I loved farms and animals and the country and ships and rivers. I misunderstood the world; I thought there were no consequences for people who wanted to buck the system, that you had forever to do whatever… you don’t! And then, because I wasn’t great at working for other people, I decided I wanted to write about this kind of imagined world of mine – and so live out these adventures one by one. Yes, I’m a mess!

Marc and his friend Trav are pretty obsessed with girls, aren’t they?

Marc and Trav are obsessed by girls. They love them, like them, and they are mystified by them. Marc sees each girl as a separate solar system, complex and intriguing, to be wondered at, and to hopefully be understood. He is fascinated by every thing about girls, and the very best of luck to him!

What’s the difference between reading about sport in a novel and in the newspaper?

Writing about sport in a novel allows me to control the outcome! Reading about sport in a paper is someone’s attempt to recreate the facts or analyse someone or some situation. I find writing sport scenes difficult, but when I watch sprinters, or great football teams, or someone playing something well, or with great passion, it offers a challenge to try and capture some essence of it. Sport can be utter rubbish or it can reach great heights; you just have to work out what you’re seeing!

You are well known for historical novels like Boys of Blood and Bone, Black Water and Wildlight. Is Jarvis 24 a conscious change of direction?

Jarvis 24 isn’t really a change of writing direction for me, as I simply do whatever project that seems to offer a trajectory. I’ve never intentionally concentrated on historical or contemporary settings; I simply write the story that I feel strongly about, and that might be interesting to other people. Let me just say, though, that I won’t be writing anything mythological or fantastical soon! I’m a realist writer. I love the real world. It’s the best place I’ve found, so far…if you combine it with your own imaginings.

What did you enjoy most about writing this novel?

I liked writing very much from Marc’s perspective; I liked it that he had a misinformed idea of his own self, that he didn’t really know what he was going to do next, or actually how he felt about things until he’d done them – but he was honest!

(David Metzenthen was an early supporter of the Boys, Blokes, Books and Bytes project. Thanks, Dave!)

A cool hunter is someone who discovers and then spreads the word on what is cool. Could be the way some people are wearing their clothes. Could be a new kind of dance, or an old dance done in a new way. Mac Slater is a cool hunter. And he’s also an inventor, an innovator.

Mac lives in Australia and along with his best bud Paul, flies to New York for a wild week-long adventure in cool. They have to find the coolest stuff possible and blog about it every day to stay in game. In New York they meet the kids at The Hive, a workshop of kids creating wild one-off inventions.

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This book has wicked plot twists, it’s funny and it’s smart. Catch the style of Mac Slater in these short, tasty videos. And more cool stuff besides.

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The Mac Slater books are a fast, easy and massively entertaining read.

The Finn Family Moomintroll books and comic strips are the kind of stories that you are never too young or too old for. The characaters, including Moomintroll, Moominmama and Moominpapa, were created by Finnish writer and artists Tove Jannson. They appear in books and comic strips and are among the world’s most famous stories. Philip Pullman, creator of the Golden Compass (or Northen Lights series if you prefer) says the Moomintroll are among his favourite stories ever.

Recently, the comic strips have been reprinted. But you can also read them free online. Here’s the first panel of a story. See what you think. Do you do Moomin?

Theodore Daniels, or to give him his full name, Theodore Erasmus Romeo Daniels, has a problem.

It’s called high school. Primary school was a breeze. Lots of friends, everyone knew each other, and if you didn’t, well, that was okay. But high school is a whole other thing. Theodore’s best friends all go to a different school. The new crew are not so friendly, but Theodore isn’t making things easy for himself, either.Suddnelly it seems a short step from Theodore to Theodork.

See how Theodore makes out in Year Seven in Theodork by Jessica Green. Can he survive his new school, and can he survive himself? I enjoyed Theodork. It’s pretty funny and it has the ring of truth.

If the scientist and explorer Charles Darwin was still alive he would celebrate his 200th birthday next week. On February 12, in fact. It was Charles Darwin who gave us the theory of evolution, sweeping aside the notion that seven days was enough to create the world. (That was a very nice story, but very poor science!)

Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species explained his theories and obversations, which he developed over many years, travelling to all parts of the world including Australia. Charles Darwin’s life and his discoveries changed the course of history.

If you want to know more about Charles Darwin, a great place to start is Tree of Life by Peter Sis. You can visit Peter’s website, which has a brilliant animated tour of Tree of Life.

The book has been a favourite of mine for a long time, as Sis is one of the world’s best illustrators. You will see that Darwin was very much more than a nerdy guy with a big beard.

(And there are teacher’s notes too.)

Happy birthday, Charles Darwin!

We are big fans of John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series at Boys, Blokes Books. But what we didn’t know is that he has branched out into books for adults. Storm Peak is the first book in the Jesse Parker series.

You can hear John talk about both sides of his writing life in this interview at ABC Radio’s Life Matters.

He explains how he came to write the Ranger’s Apprentice books, and what has drawn him into a life of crime. Crime writing, that is. And mentions an upcoming film version of the popular books.