Nim in Melbourne's Age newspaper

Island tale becomes hot Hollywood property - Entertainment - theage.com.au

Funnily enough, I hadn't ventured outside yet this morning to buy the paper - but when I checked emails, Kaione from gerardbutler.net had already spotted this and sent me the link. Quite funny to have someone in California reading our local paper before we did...

Nim Celebration Invitation for Brisbane

Unfortunately I can't flit over to North America for a launch of Mokie and Bik, but we will be having one for Nim at Sea, the sequel to Nim's Island.

Paula Mazur, the producer of the Nim's Island film, will launch the book at Riverbend Books, 193 Oxford St, Bulimba 4171, Queensland (Australia).

at 6:00 pm Tuesday 3 July

Adults $10, including wine and sushi. (Children free)

RSVP 07 3899 8555

Mokie and Bik at Henry Holt

Henry Holt and Company Books for Young Readers

Read an excerpt here - easier than my putting it in all over again!

Mokie and Bik set sail

A busy month for books coming out - now it's Mokie and Bik in the USA, with Jonathan Bean's energetic, very beautiful illustrations. In fact, the whole production of this book is quite lovely. I can say that, because that part of it is nothing to do with me. My part ended ages ago, about a year ago, I think. In fact, it's quite funny because the week my advance copies arrived in my mailbox, I was answering copy editing suggestions (usually with, 'yes, you're right,' or 'Rats! Why didn't I see that myself!' Which of course is exactly why copy editors were invented.) - and the following week I started the third in the series. It was a good time to do it, because I'd just been reading the second manuscript aloud, and the rhythm was strong in my head.

The stories are based on my dad and his twin sister's childhood on a boat in Vancouver harbour in the early 1930s. (The less likely the story seems, the more closely it's based on truth).

As my aunt said, when my mom told her I was working on the third book, 'Oh good! I can't wait to see what we did next!'

It's a green light for stand-up girls' roles - MOVIES - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com

This is a really interesting article on 'a new wave' of girl characters who are action heroes in their own right. I'm glad that I wrote Nim without ever dreaming that she would get so much attention; her character just evolved naturally as a response to the environment in which I'd placed her - but undoubtedly also drew on my own daughter's character. It's probably not a coincidence that all of us involved in taking her this far have daughters - Kerry Millard the illustrator, Paula Mazur the producer, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, the scriptwriters/directors...


It's a green light for stand-up girls' roles - MOVIES - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com

Another Nim's Island Page

Xenia is much better at summing up all the Nim movie news than I am - it's a very complete history! Once again I'm in awe of people's skill at putting websites together - there are several other Gerard Butler fan sites I've now seen, and they're all excellent. (Meanwhile I'm still struggling with adding links to the links list!)

Totally Hollywood Hunks News - Nim's Island Page

four years ago...

What a fabulous day I had on Sunday, when I visited Paula Mazur in Sydney, nearly four years to the day since she first emailed me to ask about the film rights. I quoted the email back to her - okay, we were both feeling a bit soppy about it all, but it was such a beautiful email that I'd have loved it even if a film hadn't come out of it. (Though even happier that it is!) Because she didn't just ask for film rights, she painted a picture of picking up the book from the library for her son to read, and then just starting to read it to start him off, and then not wanting to stop, till all the family came in, and over the course of a few nights, they all read the book. But maybe it was when she added the line about the two fat cats listening to, that clinched the start of the friendship...

Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival'

The NSW Premier's Award for Community Relations has been announced, and Shaun Tan's extraordinary, beautifully evocative book 'The Arrival' is the winner. Congratulations to Shaun on the award, but even more for the creation of this remarkable book. Have a look - or better yet, a proper read...

Picture books

First Aussie Children's Book as a Hollywood feature?

A bit of trivia:
I've been asked a few times whether Nim's Island is the first Australian children's book to become a Hollywood feature film.

Do any film buffs out there know the answer?