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Golvan Arts Management

Literary and Artists Agency

AGENCY NEWS

August September 2010

See our Agency News of October November 2009 for information on Golvan Arts Management prize winners in 2009.

Sarindi and the Lucky Bird - cover

Watch out for Janine Fraser’s most recent novel for children, Sarindi’s Dragon Kite, published in September 2010 by, HarperCollins; the sequel to Sarindi and the Lucky Buddha and Sarindi and the Lucky Bird. All three stories are set in Indonesia.

It’s Sarindi’s birthday and he thinks he is the luckiest boy in the world when he wakes up to see at the end of his bed the multi-coloured Dragon Kite he wants more than anything else in the world. But later that day Sarindi wonders if luck has deserted them all. An earthquake has flattened the nearby town of Bantul, where Sardini’s cousins live. Have they survived the earthquake? And will it ever be time again to fly his beautiful kite?

Sarindi and the Lucky Bird - cover

Sarindi and the Lucky Bird was short listed for the 2002 Children’s Book Council Awards in the Younger Readers category. It was also awarded a Highly Commended Award; in the Younger Readers Category in the Australian Family Therapists Book Awards, as well as being short listed in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for 2002. “Sarindi thinks that luck is like a mischievous monkey, playing hide-and-seek, and it seems to be hiding from Sarindi and his family. When Sarindi’s father has an accident and loses his job as a becak driver, he says they must go to the bird market and buy a Lucky Bird. Then perhaps their luck will change. So does the magical song of the Lucky Bird change their luck? ...Or do they make their own luck in the end?”

Don’t miss MICE by Gordon Reece and published in Australia by Allen and Unwin in August 2010. International rights have already been sold to the USA, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Brazil and Taiwan. Sixteen-year-old Shelley and her mother move to Honeysuckle Cottage in the middle of the countryside, fleeing their fears and anxieties and hoping to put behind them years of suffering at the hands of others. Shelley has endured terrible bullying from the girls who used to be her friends; and her mother has been left reeling following a divorce from her selfish, demanding husband. For Shelley and her mother are ’mice’, timid, nervous and obliging. And for a while, in their cottage-haven, the women flourish. But one night their fragile peace is shattered when Shelley wakes to hear a creak on the stairs. Someon has broken into the house.

In the shocking, chilling events that follow, Shelley's world is turned on its head, as the women find themselves tested as never before. And as their lives spiral out of control, the tension reaches fever pitch. Shelley begins to wonder; if she and her mother are not mice after all, then what are they?’

The Women Behind the Roses - cover

The Women Behind the Roses by Tilley and Andrew Govanstone was published by Rosenberg Publishing in March 2010. The authors spent 25 years on and off researching this book which is a celebration of the sixty-five women to whom Australia's most prodigious rosarian, the late Alister Clark, chose to dedicate Glenara Seedling roses. As the authors’ knowledge and understanding of Alister’s rose-namesakes has grown over time, so they have come to appreciate that his choices were, in most cases, his way of acknowledging the women themselves and their achievements in a range of endeavours. Andrew and Tilley will be touring New Zealand in November 2010, visiting Auckland on 18 November, Hawkes Bay on 21 November and Timaru Rose Show on 26 November.

Dancing in the Dark - cover

Dancing in the Dark is Robyn Bavati’s first novel and was published by Penguin Books in February 2010. Ditty was born to dance, but she was also born into a strictly Orthodox Jewish family. When her parents won't let her take ballet lessons, Ditty starts to dance in secret. But for how long can she keep her two worlds apart? And at what cost? This dramatic and moving story is about a girl who follows her dream, and finds herself questioning everything she believes in. See the review at The Book Gryffin.

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