In this bumper issue packed with review, author interviews, news and special features there are many stands of information that I would really love to pick up on and investigate further and over the next year through the Blog and the magazine I think you will see many themes appearing.
For example in News we mention the fourth annual Old Possums Poetry competition which is wonderful. Yet at the same time Daniel Postgate comments in his interview that many publishers won’t publish rhyming books as they are hard to sell abroad. Not only does this prompt me to feel a campaign starting it also prompts me to find out more about publishing abroad and with my first meeting with the Australia Reading Group in January I hope to be able to find out more about this interesting area. Please keep reading the Blog for regular updates between editions.
This brings me to the newest feature – the Soapbox. The intention of this area is to allow contributors to the magazine a space in which they can discuss, freely, issues surrounding children’s books and related areas that are close to their hearts. Whilst this area is currently only filled with my own thoughts for the end of the year I hope that we will be able to feature the thoughts and opinions of authors, reviewers and others over future issues.
Another new feature is our Spotlight with its focus on the work of our many author reviewers. With this issue being the last of 2009 and the last of my first year as editor with a new team I thought it would be a great opportunity to acknowledge the work of the magazine’s founder Mary Hoffman who is continuing as a reviewer and roving reporter. Take a look at the Spotlight to find out more about Mary and her work.
The number of reviews is a testament to the variety of publishing that has been taking place since our last issue and the willingness of the reviewers to continue to contribte their time and thoughts. We have a special ‘Christmas and Gift Titles’ area for this issue reflecting some of the very special, seasonal titles available. Above all I think that this issue reflects the variety of reading materials available to children and young adults and I hope that this is an inspiration to all our readers this Christmas.
Finally I would like to say a huge thank you to the new team, this has not been an easy year for any of us for a variety of reasons yet we have managed to produce a wonderfully vibrant and exciting publication that I hope will continue to move from strength to strength.
Editorial