Hi

I’m Tristan Bancks, author of the Mac Slater and Nit Boy series’. I’m always on the lookout for incredible reads for boys and, over the next three months, I’m going to be guest-blogging at least twice a week here at Boys, Blokes, Books and Bytes. I’d love you to get in on the conversation and share your thoughts on amazing boys’ books, too.

To kick things off, I’ve asked a handful of Australia’s favourite children’s writers to give their tip on the best book for boys ever. And here they are:

James Roy: The Machine Gunners (by Robert Westall)

David Metzenthen: The Really Nearly Deadly Canoe Ride (by David Metzenethen)

Pat Flynn: Holes by Louis Sachar and Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs (by Gerard Michael Bauer)

Nick Place: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams)

And my tip? My Side of the Mountain (by Jean Craighead George)

What’s your tip on the best boys’ book ever?

Tristan.

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.

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.