Kristen Hilton: 'This novel that is delicate in its detail and strong in its message', When the Lyrebird Calls launch - 2016

27 October 2016, Readings Kids, Carlton, Melbourne, Australia

Kristen Hilton, far right, is a Commissioner at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission

Acknowledge traditional owners of the land

Because this is a time slip novel I am going to go back about 20 years when Kim and I crossed paths in the ‘Tower of Babylon’ also known as the John Medley building at Melbourne University studying German. A few years later we ended up at the same law firm – not the spiritual heartland for either of us as it turned out and some years later found ourselves sitting side by side at the Professional Writing Course at RMIT. It was during that course, maybe a decade ago that I first heard the voices of Gert and Madeline and it is cause for celebration that those words and ideas now find themselves in this beautiful book, in this lovely new shop (Readings Kids) and I hope, in the future, on school syllabuses.

Because the story is not just a one of imagination, rich character development and intrigue - it tells, in part the story of the development and maturation of our country. As the golden, serious and disappointingly sleazy Master Williamson drafts the laws of the federation, his sister leads the suffragist movement from a clandestine printing press set in Drummond Street not far from here. I wondered as I read of the volatile relationship between these siblings how our country might be different today if Master Williamson has listened more closely to his sister – if the women were at the drafting table instead of holding séances.

The book also points to the other critical civil rights movement which took place around the time, as Percy returns to Corranderk, a thriving Aboriginal enterprise and place of activism. When I go to talk to students about the history of social justice movements and human rights many of them refer to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parkes – this is right and true, but what goes shamefully undervalued is the strong Aboriginal rights activists who have positively shaped our national narrative – people like Peter Coppin, Margaret Tucker, William Cooper – there is enough defiance and spirit in Percy to imagine that he might have belonged to this kin.

In addition to When the Lyrebirds Calls I read another lovely piece of literature this week. It was by a little known writer, Tom Schroeder. He sent me a letter – compelling and brief. In it he wrote:

“Dear Commissioner, it is unfair that women don’t have the same rights as men. If they have the exact same job, they should have the exact same rights. For example, did you know that women don’t get the same payments as men in some jobs. Here is a fact: women were not allowed to vote until 1908. Isn’t that crazy?

Men and women should be treated the same and fairly.’

Yours sincerely

Tom – Grade 2, Wembley Primary School.'

This letter resonated with me for lots of reasons. It is a letter of which Aunt Hen would have been proud, unlikely for her to imagine maybe that it was written by a young boy, and like many of Madeline’s sharp observations, it reminds us that while much has changed - the unbinding of corsets, celebration of the physical prowess of women, greater understanding of gender equity - our progress is not linear and not complete. At one point Nanny scolds Madeline telling her that ‘forthrightness is terribly unappealing in the female sex.’ Today, even in our national discourse, strong women with ideas and assertion are described as ‘shrill.’ Nanny’s hard line did not die with her. If you a woman in this country you are four times more likely to be subject to violence, you are more likely to be poor, you are likely to be discriminated against and the picture is even bleaker if you are a woman of color.

I also used the letter to goad my own grade 2 boy into doing his homework. I read it to him and he said “He is lying Mum.”

I said, “What do you mean? I have been talking to you about the gender pay gap all year.”

 “No,” he said. “There is no way that kid is only in Grade 2.”

But back to this author – when my 5 year old daughter finishes reading Ginger Green I will give her this book. This novel that is delicate in its detail and strong in its message. This novel within which you find characters across centuries of spirit, humour and passion – this book that is about ideas, loyalties and friendship – the collision of cultures and times. A work of lovely literature but also a girls’ handbook for activism.

Kim will tell you this book took 10 years to write and much has changed in her life in ten years and then again, maybe as Madeline reflects, not so much after all, because here we are a stone’s throw from Melbourne Uni, the RMIT writing class just around the corner, hanging out in Readings talking books.

It is a pleasure to commend your book Kim.

You can purchase 'When the L:yrebird Calls' here.

Click here for Sofie Laguna's launch speech.

Sofie Laguna: 'Your book, just as you describe the Lyrebird itself, is a keeper of history', When the Lyrebird Calls launch - 2016

27 October 2016, Readings Kids, Carlton, Melbourne, Australia

Sofie Laguna is an award winning author for children and adults. She won the 2016 Miles Franklin Award for 'The Eye of the Sheep'.

First of all, Kim I want to say how beautiful the book looks and feels. Lovely sepia tones and like the story it takes me back to another time. I love the lyrebird in the centre, as you must, as the books central image – a keeper of the past, a symbol from the natural world, an enchanting, elusive and clever bird.

Like somebody else I know.

That was cheeky. I promised myself I would focus entirely on Kim’s book and not tell stories of how I first met Kim and things like that because its not a wedding it’s a launch. I do want to say that when I first met Kim it was through Tony Wilson and it was all about books and writing and it was another launch and Kim was wearing long striped socks – and I was impressed. With heels mind you! That was years ago and I have been impressed many times since then, and not more than I am impressed by this latest addition to her ever-growing body of work for children.

Kim this book, ‘When the Lyrebird Calls’, is wonderful.

I think a book is a kind of transaction between writer and reader. The writer plays her part in the transaction first; she travels with her character, establishing a world, developing relationships, suffering the pain of change alongside her characters. It is the writer who does the imagining first, she must pioneer the territory, chart the waters. Then it’s the reader’s turn, to imagine and travel and experience change and if the writer does her job well, imagines fully enough, goes to the places that the story requires with authenticity, with heart, and with skill, then the transaction is enriching and meaningful and the reader is expanded by it. That’s what happened to me when I read When the Lyrebird Calls; I travelled with the novel’s gutsy heroine, Madeleine, back through time, and I experienced what life was like in a very vivid and sensual way. And I felt expanded by it. This happened to me, because of Kim’s writing.

Kim describes pale yellow dresses as hayseed light, fish swim in a braid of silver, their scales shiny as coins and a lake is as muddy as caramel. Kim draws my attention to these ordinary things – dresses and fish and lakes – so that I consider them in unexpected ways. I see the world through a new lens. She draws my attention to them with elegance, and originality. The strength is in the detail, and Kim’s details are beautiful and they give life to the writing and the story. And they seem effortless, they are cleanly drawn, without a line out of place. Kim uses language, relishes language, its musicality and its playfulness and its possibilities, and that’s what I responded to in ‘When the Lyrebird Calls’.

But it wasn’t only the language, nor was it the playful and compelling young voice of its narrator. Kim’s book made me think. It’s good when a book does that, isn’t it? We take it for granted, but the artist suffers for her story, works the words to within an inch of their lives (and her own!) and because of this work, all this powerful imagining, the reader is given a new awareness. The reader thinks, and asks questions.

I think I have gotten away with taking a great deal for granted, so many years caught up in imaginary worlds, with made up characters – I had the right to vote so what did the past mean to me? When the Lyrebird calls didn’t let me get away with it. It made me think about being a girl, about education, about girls in sport, the media, and body image. It made me ask why is it like this? How has it changed? Why must it take so long? What is it like to be a girl now? What made it happen this way in the first place, why this inequality? This unfair representation? And it made me ask is there some way I can hurry up the change? How can I contribute to something more positive? It’s good when a book can do all this, don’t you think? It’s magic.

All this sounds serious, and it’s true that the questions are serious, but Kim’ writing is funny. Warm and funny. Madeleine’s grandmother watches renovating programs on telly and rushes out to stock up on tools, and Madeleine can’t stay at her best friend, Nandi’s house, because Nandi Mum just had a make-up baby with Nandi’s dad so the timing isn‘t right. And she couldn’t stay with her dad because he is on a cycling trip and nothing ever gets between dad and a bike except his bike pants. Humour, clever comical moments are everywhere in the story and I appreciated every one of them.

Humour brings the story to life, endears me to its characters and their struggles. When there is humour, there is life. It helps me to tackle the story’s more serious questions, it gives the story its humanity. Because life, and human beings attempting to live it, is funny.

Kim, your book, just as you describe the Lyrebird itself, is a keeper of history. Congratulations to you, I am thrilled for you, and I can’t wait for the world to read it.

It is now my great pleasure to declare this book launched.

To purchase 'When the Lyrebird Calls' click here

Kristen Hilton's launch speech

Kim Kane: Launch of 'The Cow Tripped Over the Moon' by Tony Wilson, ill Laura Wood - 2015

7 June, 2015, The Little Bookroom, North Carlton, Melbourne, Australia

Good afternoon!

Hey Diddle Diddle is 250 years old. It’s actually its anniversary this year. The rhyme was first published in Mother Goose in 1765 (although there are possibly earlier references to it).

A quick wiki search discloses that there are many theories including that it:
– describes the flight from Egypt;
– depicts the relationship between Elizabeth lady Katherine Grey and the earls of Hertford and Leicester; and
– deals with anti-clerical feelings over injunctions by Catholic priests for harder work.

Does that make any sense? What do you think kids?
[Answer] No!

Well that is perfect because most scholars think the verse is probably just nonsense – just plain silly fun.

So Tony has taken this fabulous nonsensical rhyme with its cat, a fiddle, a cow, a moon, a dog, and a saucy dish and a spoon and made it very much his own and I am here today to launch it.

Kids, stay with me because I have a few words to say which may be a little bit boring or possibly A LOT boring but I think it’s important to say them if we are to take picture books as seriously as they ought to be taken, for there is a tremendous amount of craft behind a successful picture book and this is indeed a successful book.

Picture books are an artful form. They are often done, but rarely done well. They rely on so many factors.

The language needs to be rich.

Unlike early readers, picture books give authors the opportunity to exercise their vocabularies – we writers get greater editorial freedom. This book is fun and it is funny in much the same way as Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes is funny, but like Dahl in his more reflective writing, it is also lyrical. Tony takes us back to the ‘scene of the rhyme’ and tells us that ‘the grass smelled like morning’ (isn’t that evocative?!). Because Tony is amusing, people forget the ‘great lug’ can also be poetic. It is this poeticism that makes Tony such a terrific writer.

If it’s a rhyme, the rhyme can’t be superfluous and it needs to well…rhyme!
This does. The meter is as consistent and the rhyme as effortless as that of Julia Donaldson. The rhyme is clever but it never makes the reader feel Tony is indulging an adult audience or including random facts just to incorporate two rhyming words.

The story must be well-paced
I love the way Tony has included 8 attempts at the moon jump – the double page silent-spread builds tension before the final crescendo as the cow tries for that last jump. Tony uses his rhyme to masterfully control the tempo of the story – indeed the reader slows and takes a big breath with the cow just before final takeoff.

Picture books need a perfect and satisfying end.
In this regard, picture books are much like short films and like short films, a number are let down by their endings. Tony is an elegant plotter and structurally this book is 32-page perfection. The return to the riddle at the conclusion delivers a punch-line that fully satiates the reader.

The illustrations have to be appropriate – they have to suit the tone of the story.

What a wonderful job Laura Wood has done here – her funny comic drawings are expressive and fun and she works tremendously hard with a very limited palette. Look at the gorgeous end papers – fields. But not only fields, fields by night. The other thing I love about Laura’s illustration is that they have their own narrative, supplementing the main story. Tony doesn’t tell us why the dish runs off with the spoon – it is perhaps another tale, but we certainly get hints of a blossoming relationship from Laura’s drawings.

Finally, I think picture books need to leave us with something.

By this I don’t mean bludgeon us with a lesson – I hate didactic books – but there does need to be something – no matter how tiny, that children can take from it. There is so much of my friend Tony in this book. I mean the man has taken a nursery rhyme and literally turned it into an Olympic sport. There is the Tony who never gives up. The Tony with unbridled grit who tried and tried to play league football. There is the Tony who for all his athleticism can also be a bit unco – a man who may indeed have tripped over his size 13 feet right up and over the moon. It is at its core, motivational fiction for children – the spoon hummed a tune, He called ‘Cow CAN Jump Moon’. This is a writer who went along to all his articled clerk interviews channeling Maria from the Sound of Music, literally singing:

I have confidence in confidence alone
Besides which you see I have confidence in me!

It is a tale of friendship written by someone who values his friends and knows how critical group support is — to play on a footy team, to study for a Con & Admin exam or to hack a photocopier to pieces with 20 of his fellow articled clerks. But finally, this is a story written by a father who looks at his gorgeous and gutsy son Jack who has to try so much harder to do things we all take utterly for granted. Like my friend Tony, this book is funny, but perhaps more importantly, it also has heart.

I was reading about a font that has been invented by a graphic designer with dyslexia. A font tweaked ever so slightly – with letters thickened in places so that it is easier for many people with learning disabilities to actually read. Such a simple idea but an idea that resonated because sometimes it is when we take something that is right in front of our nose and re-work it in a clever and different way, that the results can be most inspired. Like taking a riddle we all know as well as Vegemite on toast and completely re-imagining it.

It took the cow in Tony’s story 8 attempts to get over the moon. It is serendipitous that this is Tony’s 8th picture book. And like the cow, I’m quite convinced that it will be on Tony’s 8th attempt that he will reach dazzling heights. May it launch into at least 8 jurisdictions with the gusto of the cow on that final double spread, and we can all watch on as contentedly as the little dog Rover.

I am going to finish with my sons because they are among the intended target demographic for today.
‘This is a great book,’ I said this morning.
‘No, Mummy it’s not just a great book, it’s a very very funny book.’
In our household, there is no greater compliment.

‘Cow Tripped Over the Moon.’ I proclaim you duly launched. Reach for the Moon!

To purchase, click on cover