2024 Week 30: You’ve got (more) mail.

I mentioned in a recent post that I’d had surprising emails from a German school in Mexico and a French school in Vanuatu. In both cases their students were reading Don’t Call Me Ishmael. Since then I’ve had more writing related correspondence.

One email I received was from a primary school teacher who was having touble getting hold of copies of Rodney Loses It. It looks like it’s out of stock. Unfortunately I’ve had other emails like this.

But if you are in the same boat looking for a copy of the first Rodney the good news is that the good folk at Scholastic Australia informed me that a reprint is on the way – however it probably won’t be in stores until later in the year.

In the meantime, to ease your pain and frustration, why not buy multiple copies of RODNEY FORGETS IT instead?

Another email was from the International Youth Library in Munich.

Back in 2010 I was invited to be part of their White Ravens festival and it was one of the best experiences of my life. As well as being on panels I got to perform a concert with the awesome German band Gone Fishin’ where we played the songs I’d written for Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs. Germany has been a terrific market for my writing and Ishmael books have been best sellers there.

In the email I received from the IYL they were asking if I would read and record a poem by the Australian poet Max Fatchen called “A Short Summery Thin Thong Song” for their new exhibition about poetry – or more specifically about sounds in poems. I love the poem and also the IYL so of course I said YES!

The final email was from a school teacher in Victoria. She wrote to tell me that a small group of students in her Literacy Enrichment program had ‘read and dissected’ my book The Running Man over the past term and that they loved it.

That of course was lovely to hear. But the really amazing thing for me was that the students were very young – from grade 5 and 6. Many schools have studied The Running Man since it was published 20 years ago but the year levels usually start at grade 8 and range all the way to 12.

All those years ago when I sent the manuscript of TRM in it was as a YA novel but I always saw it as a book equally suitable for adults. I certainly wrote it that way. Although I hope it is ultimately an uplifting read, there are a number of very sad and tragic events in the novel along with adult themes. I remember one email I got from a student which left me with somewhat mixed feelings. It went, ‘I just read your novel The Running Man. I really loved it. When I finished I cried for three hours.‘

So initially the thought of grade 5 and 6 students reading the story took me back a little. I wondered how they would cope with it and how much they would take from it. Fortunately the teacher included lovely letters from her students in the email in which they expressed their feelings about the novel and asked questions.

The quality of writng and insights shown in their letters definitely reassured me. These were clearly very bright and perceptive kids and they were obviously getting close and expert guidance from their amazing teacher.

I’m looking forwarded to emailing them back.