Kampung Boy ’sparkles’: Read Alert

A very positive write-up of Lat’s cartoon/graphic novel Kampung Boy from Mike Shuttleworth on Read Alert, the blog of the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria:

Kampung Boy by LAT is an illustrated story of village life in 1950s Malaysia. This autobiographical story sparkles with vivid memories of family and friends, of tradition and change.

LAT, the author/illustrator, is a master of the form. The tight connection between text, image and page makes this a joy to read. There an impish humour throughout, with pictures frequently undercutting the text.

Kampung Boy is one of those books that has almost no age limit. Children, teenagers and adults can all find delight here.

The mission of Australian publisher Wilkins Farago is to bring the best international picture books to English language readers. They have certainly done so (again) here. To a generation growing up on Diary of a Wimpy Kid, LAT’s Kampung Boy has a lot to offer.

The CYL does a great job promoting books and reading to young adults and yesterday hosted the Inky Awards, which are the only ‘teenage choice’ book awards in Australia. Thanks, Mike.

‘The Red Piano in ‘Summer Reading Guide’

'The Red Piano' is on page 23.

Book lovers all over Australia are currently receiving a copy of the Summer Reading Guide inserted into their weekend newspaper. This year, we’re delighted to see our title The Red Piano is in it.

The Summer Reading Guide is a bit of an institution. Produced for many years now by two of Australia’s leading independent booksellers, Melbourne’s Readings and Sydney’s Gleebooks, it is also used by quality independent booksellers across Australia, such as Brisbane’s Avid Reader, Coaldrakes, Folio Books and Riverbend Books. (I’ll try to get a complete list.)

Quoth the guide:

The Red Piano is a retelling of the story of Zhu Xiao-Mei, a concert pianist who was ‘reeducated’ as a child in the camps of China’s Cultural Revolution. After long days toiling in the fields and undertaking self-criticism classes, the small girl slips away to illicitly practise the piano. Music brings some humanity into her life, in a system that has none. It brings happiness and a hint of freedom. Barroux’s stark artwork highlights the poignancy of this tale of human resilience in the face of oppression. Published in association with Amnesty International. Ages 9+

For an independent publisher, there’s no better place to have your books featured this close to Christmas. You can’t buy The Red Piano on Amazon, so the best place to buy it from is an independent bookshop like the ones mentioned above (or see our Google map of  ’The Red Piano’ stockists).

Under the bonnet of our new website

The new all-singing, all-dancing WF website. We're already talking about the next one.

When we started Wilkins Farago back in 1998, the web really wasn’t that big a deal. Most publishing businesses had some kind of web presence (mostly because we’d been hyped into it) but sites were mostly online catalogues or glorified business cards.

No-one really knew how to drive traffic to their sites, and e-commerce was expensive to do. And who was buying online anyway? (Amazon.com had only listed the previous year and Australians at least had yet to trust their credit cards to online shopping carts in a big way.)

Over four and a half years later, we’ve finally got a proper website, launched this week.

For years we did without a website altogether, mostly because we weren’t publishing much. Then, in March 2005, I ‘borrowed’ a simple design from a site I’d designed for a client, switched around the colours, put our logo on it, whacked in some content and lo, we were online. That’ll do for now, I thought, intending to put something more permanent together soon thereafter.

Over four and a half years later, we’ve finally got a proper website, launched this week.

‘The Red Piano’ on Radio New Zealand

The Children's Bookshop's John McIntyre

John McIntyre of the Children’s Bookshop in Wellington reviewed The Red Piano on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan show today.

John makes the well-observed point that the book is part of a European tradition in which quality illustrated books (those about Asterix and Tintin, for example) are as much for adults as they are for children.

You can listen to a podcast of the review (and those of two other books broadcast at the same time) here. André Leblanc’s and Barroux’s book is mentioned at about 3′ 40″ into the 5′ 15″ segment.

Incidentally, if you ever want find out what books are being talked about on New Zealand’s mainstream TV and radio, Booksellers New Zealand’s website is a good place to start.

Red Piano ‘incredible’: Bendigo Advertiser

Another rave review for The Red Piano, this time from one of Victoria’s leading regional papers, the Bendigo Advertiser:

This is an incredibly powerful children’s book. It tells the story of a little girl living in a labour camp in China during Mao’s reign.

She loves playing the piano, but it is seen as a criminal act under the regime, so with the help of an old lady she keeps her playing a secret.

The message is conveyed beautifully in Barroux’s amazing illustrations, which are all done in red and black using linocut, painting, pencil and collage.

This book is a based on the true story of a musician called Zhu Xiao-Mei. An incredible book, but definitely to be shared with the older child.

Thanks to reviewer Kate Griffiths for the good notice.

Meet André Leblanc, author of ‘The Red Piano’

Canadian André Leblanc, author of 'The Red Piano'

Below is an interview with the author of The Red Piano, Canadian Andre Leblanc. It forms part of extensive teacher’s notes for the book that can be downloaded free from the Wilkins Farago website.

1. What inspired you to tell Zhu Xiao Mei’s story?

I was working on another project (not published) on the childhood of J.S. Bach (who used to steal and copy at night, in great secrecy, the music sheets that his brother kept from him in a locked cabinet), when I read an interview of Zhu Xiao Mei in Le Monde French newspaper. She was explaining how they were organised in the camp to copy secretly the sheets of music received by a companion. There were many parallels with Bach’s story and the passion of music which is mine too.

2. What contact did you have with Zhu Xiao Mei during the writing of the book?

I was very lucky to be received by Zhu Xiao Mei, in Paris, in April 2007. She told me the story of her camp years and showed me her tiny little notebooks from the camp with Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier reproduced in her childish handwriting. It was profoundly moving and