Posts by Judith

Sydney, October 2003 Lauren Child was in Australia for a publicity tour and the bi-annual Children’s Book Council of Australia conference. I interviewed her in her hotel room overlooking Sydney’s Botanical Gardens. The interview was published in Good Reading Magazine in January 2004. This is the full transcript of our conversation. _________________________ I first came…

I conducted this interview with David Almond in May 2003, after I heard him speak at the Reading Matters conference at the Australian Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria. I hope this transcript captures the conversational tone of the interview, which was for me, both fun and informative. I realise that…

This interview first appeared in Magpies: Talking about Books for Children in 2003 Artemis Fowl has brought international success for author Eoin (pronounced Owen) Colfer. But before Artemis there was Meg, dead heroine of The Wish List, and before Meg there was Benny, rascally hero of Benny and Omar and Benny and Babe. A great…

This interview was first published in Viewpoint: On Books for Young Adults Spring 2000, Volume 8 Nº 3 It was published on the occasion of the release of Nukkin’ Ya, the sequel to his award winning debut novel Deadly, Unna? Go here for a review of Deadly, Unna? _________________________ In 1998, I was asked to…

This interview was first published in Australian Women’s Book Review in December 1994. Libby Gleeson is not just the author of numerous picture books and novels for middle year and young adult readers, she has been a true force in promoting the status of Australian children’s authors and illustrators in the wider literary community. Libby…

This interview with Lynne Reid Banks was published in SCAN in October 1994,  Volume 13 Nº 4. This was one of my earliest published pieces, and when I interviewed Ms Banks, I was unaware of the controversy surrounding her depiction of Native Americans in The Indian in the Cupboard series. Ms Banks is a formidable…

Full transcript of interview with Terry Pratchett in 1994. The interview formed the basis of a “Meet the Author” feature in The School Magazine, where I was working at the time of the interview. _________________ Given the success the Discworld books have had with younger readers, in my experience, particularly boys around 12, 13 years…

This interview with Margaret Mahy took place in 1994 when she was in Australia for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Conference. This is the full transcript; an edited version was published in Viewpoint: On Books for Young Adults. ___________________ In your teenage novels, there are the ones with a heavy supernatural element, and the…

This interview was first published in Viewpoint: On Books for Young Adults Volume 1 Number 2 (Winter 1993) “I carry a gun,” Juan said, “so that when I talk, people will listen. So that when I want something done, people will do it. Never again will I be treated like dirt, like sucios. If I…