More from Melina
Melina Marchetta, well known as the author of ‘Looking for Alibrandi’ and ‘Saving Francesca’, remains busy with teaching, speaking engagements and writing. Winning the Older Readers’ category of the Australian Children’s Book Awards last year with Saving Francesca, Melina now presents a new novel called ‘On the Jellicoe Road’.
Unlike her previous novels, this one is set in rural Australia, and deals with the struggles of Taylor Markham, the leader of boarders at Jellicoe School. Again, Melina investigates the trials and tribulations of growing up as students at the school (boarders, cadets and townies) battle to take their place. This story is also more complex and detailed than her previous stories with appeal to those who enjoy mystery and adventure. It will be interesting to see how well it is received by her past readers.
In an interview in the Courier Mail recently, Melina admitted that her work as a teacher has greatly influenced writing enabling her to write the talk of teens:
“You’d have to be an idiot not to be able to capture those voices when you hear them all the time,” she says. “You get the smartest of their lines, you put them together and you get a winning character – that’s being a writer.”
On previous occasions, she also alluded to the interesting situation of having her book (Alibrandi) studied by the HSC students at her school. Students, of course, remain keen to identify themselves or others known to them in her writing. What great luck for those students to have the author in their midst!
For more interesting insights to Melina’s writing and ‘On the Jellicoe Road’ see the Courier Mail article, ‘Change of Pace’, from September 9, 2006. Melina is to be interviewed on Life Matters on ABC National tomorrow, Monday September 11, about her new book and her passion for teaching English.
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