Best Read with Vegemite: One Shot World Tour – John Marsden and “The Rabbits” (Part One)
You can’t talk about Australian authors for youth without the name of John Marsden coming up. Sorry. Can’t be done. If we are to believe Something About the Author (Vol. 146) it is because, "First, he is known for not talking down to his audience, fully aware that for many teenagers, life is bleak, challenging, and dangerous. Second, he is applauded for his ability to craft exciting adventure stories in while the young protagonists are called to adult action – with all its moral and ethical implications." Authors that find success in the critical and commercial realms alike live the dream in a lot of way. Best known, perhaps, for this Tomorrow, When the War Began series, Marsden’s work extends from YA novels to picture books to the creation of his very own school.
Fun Facts:
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He is the son of Eustace Culham Hudson, which is (let us face it) a magnificent name.
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The Journey was adapted into an opera by the Australian Music Centre in 1999.
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In 2006 Marsden opened his own school by the name of Candlebark. The article discussing the matter says that he has books in, "one of every 12 Australian households." Oh my. It makes me wonder what would happen if J.K. Rowling were to do the same.
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In Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS) he wrote, "Growing up in Australia wasn’t a matter of kangaroos, surfboards, and the wild outback. Not for me anyway. My childhood was spent in the quiet country towns in the green southern states of Victoria and Tasmania. It was peaceful, secure, and often very boring."
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Marsden has had at least thirty-two different jobs.
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According to Wikipedia (notoriously unreliable) "In 1982, he was arrested while on the blockade attempting to stop construction of the Franklin Dam. As all the prisons in the region were full due to the number of people arrested, Marsden was placed in the high-security Risdon Prison for a night. He later wrote that he used the experience to help him write scenes in Letters From The Inside and parts of the Tomorrow series."
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Of Catcher in the Rye in SAAS, "I’d never dreamt you were allowed to write like that . . . For the first time I was reading a genuine, contemporary teenage voice. If I’ve had any success at capturing teenage voices on paper, it’s because of what I learnt at the age of fifteen from J.D. Salinger."
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Of what may be remembered as his most outstanding book, The Rabbits, the Horn Book review said, "This book is a title to jolt readers . . . There is no doubt as to the writer’s intentions: to sober , sadden, and provoke."
He has a truly beautiful website that requires an enormous screen to view it properly. He also keeps a blog with titles to his posts like Alice: an unsolved mystery, Go ask Alice, and The Elusive Alice, down in the garden, possibly eating cucumbers. It is also notable in that this blog began with the following statement: "I can feel a blog coming on. I am about to blog. I’ve never blogged before but when a blog forms in your stomach and starts to work its way through your system, you know what it is. Blog. Oh God, sorry, that was a big blog, and now I’m about to blog all over the room."
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(CONTINUED IN PART TWO)
Filed under: Uncategorized
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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God, that blog quote is simply fantastic.
Ooh! Link-a-riffic!
His site IS awesome! Wow.
Heh. I, too, am about to blog…
In highschool, we’re currently studying your book. We’re trying to find the meaning of the pictures and the book itself. Is this book trying to mock us? In what way is it mocking us? Positive or Negative?
Really! I’m just thrilled to hear that a high school is tackling this title. I was under the impression that it was a lost classic.
hello
John’s father’s middle name is spelt
Culham, not Cullen
hi. i am Aleksandria and for my english assignment i have to write about one page this page is rthe black page which says” where is the rich, dark eath, brown……..gun trees? I need help can you help me. P.S. i love the way you had told the story in this book
We’re using this book to demonstrate how meaning is created in relation to the concept of the Odd One Out for english. I am currently writing an essay on it and have already written a speech. A moving picture book with amazing illustrations and demonstrating the concept we are learning very clearly!