A very special visitor

We had a very special visitor
to the House of Onion today.

He was small.

And gold.

And extraordinarily heavy.

And he came wrapped in an Ikea* pillowcase inside Shaun Tan's backpack.

So, of course, there was cake.

Oscar was very pretty.

And seemed to have a healthy appetite.**

But Shaun had all the good stories - about the lead-up to the big moment and the actual big moment and the moments after the big moment, and the Vanity Fair after-party,*** and Billy Crystal, and what it felt like to receive this rather exciting phone call.

An assortment of Pippi Longstockings were also in attendance,
to honour the Astrid Lindgren Award.

All in all it was a very pleasing morning.
Yes. A very pleasing morning indeed.

* Yes. Oscar was cloaked in a pillowcase of Swedish origin. As is fitting for the Oscar of an Astrid Lindgren Award winner.

** That's our story and we're sticking to it.

*** Apparently just like CBCA events... no really, actually just the same.

Agent Report: Bologna Children's Book Fair

PRIMARY MISSION: Fly to Italy and present yourself at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Soak up atmosphere. For about two seconds. Then attend eleventy-million appointments* each day for 3.5 days discussing books, books, books with lovely agents, publishers and rights managers, who all begin to blur into one unless they have a particular distinguishing feature such as:

(a) a cute accent

(b) stylish boots

(c) they are male

(d) all of the above.

Followed by evening functions which consist of much eating and drinking and lead to crawling into bed, exhausted, at midnight.

SECONDARY MISSION: After the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is announced: engage in the sport of Shaun Tan spotting.

STATUS: Accepted.

HEREWITH A PHOTO ESSAY FROM THE AGENT IN THE FIELD

FINAL MISSION: Locate some kind of motor vehicle that will convey you and your guests to end-of-day activities...

* When we say eleventy million here - we might mean closer to twelve, but we're sure you get the idea.

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

The 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award recipient is:
SHAUN TAN

From the jury:

Behind a wealth of minutely detailed pictures, where civilization is criticized and history depicted through symbolism, there is a palpable warmth. People are always present, and Shaun Tan portrays both our searching and our alienation. He combines brilliant, magical narrative skill with deep humanism.

Hooray for Shaun. So much hooray!

And the Oscar goes to... UPDATED

We're sure we were not the only ones squealing with delight when Shaun Tan & Andrew Ruhemann won the Oscar for The Lost Thing yesterday. As Shaun said: Wow! This is quite surreal.

Oh, how we loved seeing Shaun up there on that Oscar's stage accepting the award for the little Lost Thing that could. It's possible we got a little teary. And maybe even a bit over-excited when we saw the back of Shaun's head in the background of the red carpet segment.

For those of you who haven't seen it, here's the trailer.

Meanwhile, far far from the glitz and glam of Hollywood, Shaun was the recipient of another award. On Saturday night in the tiny hamlet of Riddells Creek, the children's book community gathered to celebrate the Dromkeen Medal, which is presented by the Governors of the Courtney Oldmeadow Children's Literature Foundation for "significant contribution to the appreciation and development of children's literature in Australia".

Unfortunately, Riddells Creek is a world away from L.A., so Shaun was unable to attend, but he was there in spirit and was indeed proud to have Ann James accept the Dromkeen Medal on his behalf.

Thanks ABC Central Victoria for sharing with us Shaun's Dromkeen Medal acceptance speech.*

Huge congratulations, Shaun!**

Now all this winning of items has put us in the mood for a competition.

A Shaun Tan*** related competition.

Stay tuned later in the week...

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Edited to add this photo of SHAUN standing next to JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE.

ST and JT = Best. Thing. Ever.

Photo via.

*It's a wonderful speech. It's possible we got a little teary again reading it.

**Now all we need are pics of Inari's dress, please.

***That's Academy Award Winner Shaun Tan

Hot! Hot! Hot!

For the last two weeks all the talk in this town has been tennis, tennis, tennis. But now the evenings of five-set matches that stretch long into the night (or not) are behind us and it's time to change the conversation.

So here is a list of items that are so HOT!* right now:

1) Melbourne. Melbourne is so HOT!** right now.

2) Shaun Tan. Shaun Tan is so HOT! right now. Was it only last month we announced that it was finger-crossing time because Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing had been short-listed for an Oscar nomination? Why yes, it was. And unless you've been hiding from the heat under some kind of rock, you'll know by now that all that finger-crossing was worth it - behold! Herewith the list of nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards featuring in the category of Short Film (Animated) is:

"The Lost Thing" Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

Go little Lost Thing, go!

3) Tarte tatin. Tarte tatin is so HOT! right now.

Well, not so much right now, but the little shallot, potato and goat's cheese tarts, they were HOT! and OH SO UNBELIEVABLY TASTY! when the Cake-Maker Virtuoso brought them into the House as a special birthday treat for an Onion who swings savoury rather than sweet. Oh my, you can tart it up any time, C-MV!

* We are, as ever, grateful to BOM and to the good folk who have installed their weather-reading instruments on the roof of McCoy Building School of Earth Sciences at Melbourne Uni for enabling us to be up-to-the-minute informed about all things of vital weather-related importance.

** That UVB rating is forecast to get all the way up to...12. That's one more than 11, people, so all - especially you fair-skinned folk - are advised to hide under your hats, or stay inside and amuse yourself with some kind of reading material, a book perhaps?

*** And for those of you who fancy trying your own hand at a little HOT! tarte tatin, here is a recipe that nomify prepared earlier.

Spotted in the House

A late nomination for our Top Ten 2010 Happenings in the House list: that time an Oscar-shortlisted* author visited the House. We remember it as though it were yesterday. Possibly because, well, it was yesterday.

Shaun didn't have a big white beard and a red suit, but he did have a bag of goodies. So it was a little like Christmas morning.

And there was cake (of course).

So it was also a little like a birthday.

Christmas and birthday at once! What could be better?**

Come back any time, Mr Tan!

* Shaun Tan's gorgeous animated short film of The Lost Thing is shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination. Not quite a nomination, yet, but it's definitely finger-crossing time.
** Well, maybe quite a few things if 25 December is actually your birthday, because that's more like one-for-two than two-for-one.

Wednesday Stuff and Items

1) The Keepers series has its own website! www.keepersbooks.com.au It's so pretty! There's interesting info about Lian Tanner, and the characters in Museum of Thieves, and there are heaps of extras and fun stuff.* There is a report that the quiz is so fiendish that the editor of the book may have not exactly completely passed it, as such.** We challenge you to do better!

2) Penguin books in Malaysia have produced beautiful print ads for their 'unputdownable' classics. Absolutely gorgeous, especially The Railway Children.

3) The Guardian is putting together a dedicated books site for young readers - and they've put out a call for actual real live young readers to help run it. Awesome.

4) We have already noted that Readings had the inspired idea of teaming Nicki Greenberg and Shaun Tan together as the inaugural artists in their Working Art Project. It seems that they are not the only ones who recognise that Nicki and Shaun are a match made in artistic heaven. The Wheeler Centre has paired them up for an event as well. Genius!

5) Maralinga - The Aṉangu Story by Yalata and Oak Valley communities, with Christobel Mattingley has been shortlisted for the Young People's History Prize in the NSW Premier's History Awards. We're so pleased and proud! Big congratulations to everyone involved in the making of the book!

*Very Nice Work, Sydney Onions!
**Unconfirmed report!

A match made in...Readings

So Readings have some items that are extremely relevant to our interests.* Bags! Or more-specifically Working Art bags! Featuring Nicki Greenberg's Hamlet and members of Shaun Tan's Tuesday Afternoon Reading Group from Tales From Outer Suburbia.

Not only do they look very fine indeed, but they come in either a short-handled or a long-handled version - because, you know, some people prefer their bag-handles short and some prefer their bag-handles long. We don't know about you, but we are fans of the long-handled bag. So much easier to sling over one's shoulder - and if your bag is full up with your very own copy of Nicki's Hamlet, you are definitely going to want to sling it over your shoulder. It's a big book, people. Huge.

We did mention some time ago that Hamlet was not out until October and that October was a long time to wait. And now the wait is over, dear readers - Hamlet is out in the world and will be officially launched on Thursday by the always dapper and ever entertaining Mr Bernard Caleo.

And in behind-the-curtain news, slip on over to this post on the Readings blog for some inside information about how Nicki went about creating this sumptuous version of Shakespeare's play, staged on the page. And we are very pleased to report that it has already won many fans including New Yorker cartoonist and all-round amazing artist Drew Dernavich who posted this rather fabulous review.

So off to Readings with you! Quick smart! Lickety split! And snaffle yourself some books, some CDs, some DVDs, some bargains and a limited edition Working Art bag (or two) to carry them home in.

* Well, Readings always have a goodly number of items that are relevant to our interests. We're sure we are not the only ones who always leave this store a little heavier in the bag region and a little lighter in the wallet region.

Friday stuff and items

1. Fresh from last weekends Graphic festival at the Sydney Opera House, for your viewing and listening pleasure herewith a 13-part interview with the ever-popular author and storyteller Neil Gaiman.

2. Regular readers will remember that recently we issued a warm and appreciative shout out to Margo Lanagan's 'Singing my Sister Down'. Well, for all you Sydneysiders (or even for folks visitng Sydney in the next week or so), LOOK! LOOK! 'Singing My Sister Down' has hit the stage! Margo advises you take a hankie - we concur. We completely concur.

3. Fiction Focus has alerted us to some very good news indeed. Two years of WA Premier's shortlists for the price of one, featuring Shaun Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia and Justine Larbalestier's Liar. Hoorays and hurrahs!

4. The French edition of Celine Kiernan's The Poison Throne gets some mighty royal book-trailer treatment.

Le Royaume empoisonné, Les Moorehawke*, de Celine Kiernan
Uploaded by Orbit_Books.

5. And speaking of All Things Moorehawke and Otherwise: Onions! On the internets!

Friday stuff and items

This time last Friday we were flying up to Sydney for our PARTY (more photos on our facebook page). This time THIS Friday we are preparing a list of excellent stuff and interesting items:

1) The Mothership has a beautiful new website design. It's clean and spacious and easy to navigate and quick to load. www.allenandunwin.com We think you should go to there*, look around, put your feet up, make yourself at home. While you're there, you should check out the beeyotiful Alien Onion linky button right there in the left-hand sidebar. How cute is it? We are well pleased.

Big cheers for everyone involved in the remaking of the website. It is a Known Fact that cockies fly bettter with new plumage.

2) If you are a fan of either Lois Lowry or Scott O'Dell (Author of Island of the Blue Dolphins. See item number 1 on this list.), then you should go and read Lois's lovely letter on Amazon. (You'll need to scroll down the page a bit.)

3) There is MUCH excitement in the House as we eagerly anticipate the welcoming of Joss Whedon into our fair city as a keynote speaker at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

4) And speaking of our fair city and its festivals of genius... Quick, quick, snap up a ticket for Animation Shorts 1 at MIFF where you can see the short film of Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing. A thing of beauty it is.

5) The Twilight Saga: Eclipse as told through lolcats. Entirely too too good. (via Bookshelves of Doom)

6) Speaking of cats. Look at this bookstore in Venice**...

*Unless, of course, you have just come from there. In which case, hello and welcome! Lovely to see you.

** Onion 1: 'Oh did I mention I was just in Yoorup? *carefree laugh* 'And there was--'

Onions 2-11: 'Dear colleague, enough now. Shhh. Ssshhhh.'

The State Library of Victoria is Where It's At

I believe we *ahem* mentioned how Shaun Tan won the Premier's Award and the Children's Literature Award last week at Adelaide Writers' Week. Well now, thanks to Read Alert, you can read his lovely acceptance speech. Go forth and be amused and moved.

But that's not all, the good people at the SLV have also done something else: they have put Karen Healey Inside a Dog.

Karen is the writer in residence for this month. She promises that she will be writing about all sorts of high-minded topics like Roxette, Creme Eggs and adverbs. Go forth and let her entertain you.

BONUS EXTRA
The two writers who preceded Karen in the residence were our very own Celine Kiernan and Garth Nix. You can scroll back to read Garth's and Celine's posts as well. It's like a three-for-one deal!




What's that you say? Oh yes, now that you mention it, that is a picture of real live copies of Guardian of the Dead in the wilds of the House of Onion. Pardon? When is it available for buying? April. That's next month. NEXT MONTH!

Heart-burstingly proud

So Adelaide Writers' Week is in full swing and there's plenty of swanning about and graceful fanning happening under the plane trees at this wonderful festival.

And yesterday one Onion was fortunate enough to be there to see Shaun Tan collect the Children's Literature Award (woohoo!) AND the Premier's Award (woohoot!) for Tales from Outer Suburbia.

It is the first time the winner of the Children's Literature prize has won the Premier's Award.

Oh my, you should have heard how hard I clapped!

Congratulations to all the short-listed authors and the winners in other categories and THREE MILLION CHEERS to Shaun.

*does delighted Onion dance*

Sea World!

Bob Graham & Shaun Tan bring their books to a whole new audience.

World Fantasy Awards Ahoy!

And the nominees are...

Look!
It's our Margo and our Shaun (twice!) and our* Neil (again with the twice!).

HOORAY! WOOT! HURRAH!



* Okay, so he's not officially ours, but as we do with Harry, we are ever-delighted to usher him into the always-welcoming hands of Oz readers on Bloomsbury's behalf.

Bragging, bestowing, baking, browsing

1) The Guardian is saying nice things about Shaun Tan!
(But they failed to add that Shaun is a master at Wii Tennis and Wii Skiing. A fact that we, with our competitive natures dented somewhat, know to be true.)


2) The Scarygirl competition prize will be awarded tomorrow so get your entry in - because who knows there might be a second prize...


3) In exciting cake news: there were a record number of entries in the mothership's Annual Sydney Bake Off. Nom nom! Drool, drool!



Unfortunately neither the Cake-maker-in-waiting nor the Cake-maker-in-waiting's understudy were able to enter as the courier company could not guarantee the cakes would arrive at their prize-winning best. So we could only drool from afar.

Looks like they would have had some stiff competition, and the judges from How To Shuck an Oyster* had a tough task deciding on a winner (possibly hampered by a sugar-induced coma).


4) Books I Done Read has a hoot interviewing Margo Lanagan about Tender Morsels.



* We believe that no actual oysters were shucked in the course of preparations of bake-off items.

Hooray for publication day #3*

In the wonderful world of Oz, we've been lucky enough to have Shaun Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia on our shelves since June last year, and only last week it won an Aurealis Award - WOOT!

And the Canadians got their Suburbia fix in October (published by the fine house of McClelland & Stewart).

UK readers will have to wait till March when the Templar edition is published, but the USians get their opportunity today to be swept away on the Tan wave of wonder, thanks to the good folk at Arthur A Levine books. The US edition looks a little different on the outside - but the inside is filled the same Shaun Tan goodness, much to the delight of a whole host of reviewers including these two:

"Deep sea divers. Little leaf men. Suburban water buffalo and lost dugongs. Giant mechanical penguins and getaway cars filled with turtles ... simply not to be missed."


"...one of the reasons I like Tales so much in comparison is that it really allows Mr. Tan a chance to bust a move when he feels like it."

HA! How can you not love a review that busts a move?

And speaking of reviews, there's a nice round-up on the Shaun Tan watch over at Matilda.

And if you haven't already heard Shaun talk about his work (and even if you have), we highly recommend you scoot over to his website and read what he has to say about the Making of Suburbia.

Getaway cars filled with turtles... sigh.

*We are hopelessly enamoured of Shaun's work, so please forgive us for being a little prideful.

Let off all the fireworks, ring all the bells, blow all the trumpets...

There is manifold Celebration in the House of Onion.

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan has won the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated/Graphic Novel.

The Judges said:
'Tales from Outer Suburbia was a standout that was chosen unanimously by the judges as this year's winner. The writing and artwork are tremendously accomplished and come together magically. A truly marvellous example of how text, image and layout can come together to make up a great deal more than the sum of their parts.'

We say: Well done, Shaun!



Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan is a 2009 Printz Honour Book.

The judges said:

'In utterly original language, Lanagan re-imagines “Snow White and Rose Red” and explores the brutality and beauty of life.'

We say: Hooray for Margo! *



The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman has won the 2009 Newbery Medal .

The judges said: 'A delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing, the tale of Nobody Owens is told in magical, haunting prose.'

We say: Three cheers for Neil!

* And well done Melina Marchetta for winning the Printz. Go Aussie!