The CBCA Illawarra-South Coast Branch hosted an under five's Grug party on the 1st of July. The event was a huge success with over fifty children and their parents enjoying a morning of arts and crafts, games and storytelling. Every child also received a goodie bag with a Grug book inside.
The venue was the Thirroul Library and Community Centre where I felt extremely privileged to mingle with glittering princesses, delightful fairies and some of my favourite superheroes, like Batman and Superman.
But the best part of the morning was the arrival of our special guest: Grug! Everyone I talked to had been looking forward to meeting him. I am very, very close to Grug, so I was especially pleased he would be making an appearance at our party. Halfway through the morning, I began to peek through the windows and the doors to see if I could get a glimpse of him. I was so excited, I couldn't help myself.
At last Grug arrived, and he was so thrilled to meet all the children, he rushed forward and became stuck in the doorway. After a few anxious moments, with a shove from behind, he managed to squeeze himself through! Poor Grug - perhaps he's been eating too many biscuits at morning tea time!
Reported by CBCA Person on the Spot, Sandi Wooton (alias Grug)
Book Week Illustration Competition - August 2009
Over 150 entries were received from seven primary schools and home schools in the Illawarra. Professional artists Judy Bourke and Simon Thomas judged the entries in three categories.
Category 1:
1st Tiarna (homeschooler)
2nd Kasanni (Thirroul PS)
3rd Nicholas (Berkeley PS)
Category 2:
1st Aaron (Lindsay Park PS)
2nd Irene (Lindsay Park PS)
3rd Eden (Thirroul PS)
Category 3:
1st Jacob (Berkeley PS)
2nd Rhys (Figtree Heights PS)
3rd Tim (Thirroul PS)
Literary Luncheon
On Wednesday 31st July 2009 120 local school children and their teachers participated in the 2nd South Coast Illawarra CBCA Literary Luncheon at the Fraternity Club in Fairy Meadow. Guests were entertained by cartoonist 'Cartoon Dave' (Dave Hackett) who taught everyone to draw 'ELVIS'. It's hard to draw when you're laughing out loud!
Authors who shared lunch with us were - Bill Condon (Give Me Truth), Sarah Davis (Mending Lucille), Kate Forsyth (The Puzzle Ring), Sandy Fussell (Samurai Kids series), Richard Harland (World Shaker), Mo Johnson (Boofheads), William Kostakis (Loathing Lola), David Legge (Parsley Rabbit's Book about Books), Felicity Pulman (Willows for Weeping), Emma Quay (Cheeky Monkey), Lisa Shanahan (My Big Birkett), Moya Simons (Walk Right In Detective Agency series), Bruce Whatley (Diary of a Wombat) and Sue Whiting (Freaky).
Southside Festival
On the Southside Festival the Illawarra South Coast CBCA presented Fiction and Fun with authors Richard Harland, Sue Whiting, Di Bates and Bill Condon.
A star attraction was the readings including verse recitation by Grace, Meg and Maryanne, who are members of our branch Book Buddies Reading Club.
Deb Abela and Jobi Murphy Visit
On Wednesday 11 March a lucky group of adults and children gathered in Wollongong library to hear the author and illustrator of the best-selling Max Remy Super Spy series. The event was sponsored by the Wollongong City Council Library and funded by the CBCA ALOUD Program
This feedback sums it up best:
Thank you to Di Bates and her local CBCA group for organising Deb's talk at Woll Library yesterday afternoon.
I know we heard her speak at ISLA conference about 2 years ago.
With children in the audience, she was spectacular!!!! She worked to the students but not did not leave out the adults. The students lapped up her happy, animated, dramatic performance. Very inspiring.
I know she visited Flinders yesterday, I have no doubt she had every student wanting to read her books!!
A great author to have
Joan Hornig
Teacher Librarian
Berkeley Public
Creating Picture Books with Margaret Hamilton and Dee Huxley
On Saturday 28th February I attended Creating Picture Books and listened to Margaret Hamilton and Dee Huxley talk and present for five wonderful hours. Did I learn something? Lots. Did I enjoy it? Heaps. Would I recommend this course? YES.
Dee is passionate about her work and all those students in her art classes are very lucky indeed. As I watched Dee display and talk about her portfolio, I desperately wished for just a smidgen of artistic talent.
Margaret is a wealth of information on every aspect of picture book publication and presentation. Listening to her stories is both informative and encouraging. Not that she said it was easy but seeing a publisher's love for a book they 'just had to publish' - well, it doesn't get more inspiring than that.
So often I attend courses - and no matter how interested I am in the subject matter - I find myself bored part way through. Not this time. This course is entertaining and Margaret and Dee make a great tag team. The hardest thing for me was letting go of the original Stephen Michael King sketches from Janeen Brian's Where Does Thursday Go? It's one of my favourite picture books and it was exciting to hold those drawings in my hands.
If anyone is interested Creating Picture Books course information can be downloaded here. - Sandy Fussell
Feedback from attendees:
I really enjoyed learning about the technical aspect of picture book production: colour printing, page lay-out and design, and so on. I also found the presenters obvious preference for much shorter picture book texts enlightening. I have several picture book texts which are far fewer than 450 words; I now feel more confident to run with these rather than feeling the pressure to flesh them out. - Kathryn
It was particularly interesting to learn about the illustrators experience and to see the samples of books in various production stages that Margaret offered - Lili
It was encouraging to see both Marg and Dee being so enthusiastic and passionate about such a treasured part of the publishing industry - that of picture books - Anke
2008 Christmas Dinner
On 3 December fifty members and friends of the CBCA gathered at the Villa D Oro, Wollongong to celebrate Christmas and a wonderful year of children's literature.
The guest speaker was author, editor, educator, lobbyist and former national CBCA president, Mark McLeod. Mark entertained the gathering with a range of stories, anecdotes and advicebased on his life in the children's book industry.
Mark's latest release Tomorrow (ABC Books) was the subject of heated bidding at the fund raiser auction which followed.
The food was wonderful and the company even better. If you couldn't make it this year, don't miss the 2009 dinner.
Lady Cutler Award presented to our President
Authors are good with words. And when Di Bates referred to the group of friends and well-wishers who had gathered to celebrate her Lady Cutler award as a family, she had chosen exactly the right word.
How do you celebrate over 25 years of devotion and commitment to children’s literature? With a lot of laughter, plenty of applause and just a few tears. On 18th December CBCA members did just that. We toasted Di - author of 100 books, founder ot two branches of the CBCA and one of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, magazine editor, staucnh industry advocate, mentor, Buzz Words compiler, Radio show host, educator, performer and friend.
Viva La Gong Author Readings
On 11th October CBCA members Di Bates, Bill Condon, DC Green, Sandy Fussell and Mo Johnson (pictured) read from their latest releases in the Crown Street Mall.
Literary Luncheon
On Wednesday 30th July 70 local primary school and their teachers participated in the inaugural South Coast Illawarra CBCA Literary Luncheon at the Salvation Army Hall in Wollongong. Guests were entertained by cartoonist Dave Hackett who taught everone to draw 'fish bits'. It's hard to draw when you're laughing out loud!
Authors who shared lunch with us were - Bill Condon (Give Me Truth), Tony Davis (Roland Wright series), Sandy Fussell (Samurai Kids series), Suzanne Gervay (That's Why I Wrote This Song), D C Green (Erasmus James series), Richard Harland (Wolf Kingdom series), Jeni Mawter (Freewheeler series), David Mulligan (Angels of Kokoda),Lisa Shanahan (My Big Birkett), Moya Simons (Walk Right In Detective Agency series)
1st Tiarna (homeschooler)
2nd Kasanni (Thirroul PS)
3rd Nicholas (Berkeley PS)
Category 2:
1st Aaron (Lindsay Park PS)
2nd Irene (Lindsay Park PS)
3rd Eden (Thirroul PS)
Category 3:
1st Jacob (Berkeley PS)
2nd Rhys (Figtree Heights PS)
3rd Tim (Thirroul PS).jpg)
(World Shaker), Mo Johnson (Boofheads), William Kostakis (Loathing Lola), David Legge (Parsley Rabbit's Book about Books), Felicity Pulman (Willows for Weeping), 
Emma Quay (Cheeky Monkey), Lisa Shanahan (My Big Birkett), Moya Simons (Walk Right In Detective Agency series), Bruce Whatley (Diary of a Wombat) and Sue Whiting (Freaky).
Southside Festival
d Fun with authors Richard Harland, Sue Whiting, Di Bates and Bill Condon. 
