Love Your Library

A week of literary treats

The Library is always a hive of activity, but Week 5 and Week 6 this term are exceptionally busy. Last week we celebrated Open Day and the Library had a wonderful time. There was an energetic collection of Year 10 English students working on Write a Book in a Day. Surrounded by our brilliant collection of fiction, the aspiring authors worked busily from 8.30am until 5pm. Countless numbers of visitors came through the Library during Open Day, but nothing distracted our writers. Visitors to the Library were captivated by their enthusiasm and the brilliant Lego models on display.

This week was Book Week. The English Department has a variety of book-centred initiatives for students to enjoy. One important activity is ten minutes of reading time in MESH subjects. We are perfectly positioned to support this with a wonderful variety of new fiction titles. These include many of the Children’s Book Council of Australia short listed titles, including the winning book, Grace Notes.

For Book Week the Library has some special literary treats. We have an inspiring e-board display of our Guild members and their favourite novels. We also have a Book Face competition and a quirky craft exercise for staff and students – building a miniature library. For staff we have Uber Reads, offering a wonderful menu of reads to be delivered to the expectant reader’s desk. Staff were invited to bring their tea or coffee to the Library during the week to enjoy a read and a special treat from us.

In honour of Book Week, I have been working my way through a number of our wonderful books. Favel Parrett’s Past the Shallows is a beautiful read. Set on the remote coast of Tasmania, the plot explores the lives of three brothers in the aftermath of their mother’s death. Despite the brutality of their father’s desperate actions and the grim reality of how fragile life can be, the novel is extraordinary. The warmth of simple joy manages to elide the chill of domestic violence and poverty. Parrett is a rare writer. Barry Jonsberg’s Dreamrider is also about a teenager’s struggle to survive a tough homelife and being different. Magic realism lifts this novel from a humdrum teen angst plot. On the Notable Book list for the CBCA awards list is Blind Spot by Robyn Dennison. Unlike Parrett’s and Jonsberg’s novels, the plot of this novel doesn’t rise above a long list of young adult tropes. Perhaps the point of the novel is, that given the opportunity, very few of us who graduate from adolescence would ever want to relive those years. It is tough being a teenager.

Over the last five years the first and second world wars have become fertile contexts for writers. Examples of this writing in our Library are novels from, for example, Tom Palmer and Phil Earle. A newcomer to our senior fiction collection of war stories is The Walled Garden, by Sarah Hardy. Against a backdrop of an English walled garden, this novel delicately untangles the struggles of returned servicemen as they attempt to find a place to exist in civilian life. Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad intrigued me as the plot revolves around two Palestinian sisters, one of whom is an actor based in London, the other an academic in Haifa. Given the current invasion of Gaza, a narrative weaving the play Hamlet into the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is utterly fascinating. The shifting focus from play, to actors, to a complex environment, to travel, memory and family, makes the novel engrossing and very difficult to put down. Similarly to Brotherless Night, by V.V. Ganeshananthan, the novel explores the lived experiences of conflicts that I am aware of but am totally unfamiliar with. All these novels are available in our Library.

Reading is totally magic! 

Together, let us read.

Dr Annette Pedersen

Library Coordinator