Category: cyber bullying

Posted in Books, cyber bullying, literary appearances, writing

All Saints’ Festival Over For Another Year!

Posted on by katemccaffrey

WOW! That was exhausting! A lot more exhausting than I ever imagined. For those of you who have never attended this Gala event it is a Children’s Literature Festival run every year on the grounds of All Saints’ College in Bull Creek WA. What an amazing experience! As a presenter, the festival organiser (Kris Williams) ensures your every need is met. The whole operation is seamless and professional, for each session a student is assigned to take you (the presenter) to and from your venue. These venues range from theatres in the school (and there are a few), to gigantic air-conditioned marquees. The student introduces you to your audience and concludes the session for you, along with offering you water and coffee (like I said your every need is met) and food. The school puts on amazing food- including a wonderful coffee shop erected for the occasion- great coffee, thanks guys!

Between sessions we get to kick back and talk to other authors, illustrators and people in the industry. A great sharing experience, I learnt a lot of ways to present a ‘meet the author’ session in the future (courtesy of Julia Lawrinson and JC Burke) and heard some amazing stories of other author’s roads to publication (thanks Barry Heard).

The most rewarding aspect of the whole experience is meeting the readers of your book face-to-face and getting feedback from them. In one of my sessions a group of kids, who had read Destroying Avalon as a class sat in the front rows and bombarded me with questions. Hello students from Tranby (Baldivis WA). You guys were fantastic- I loved the opinions and the ideas that you had. I especially loved the fact that all of the feedback about Marshall was so positive. I love that Marshall is finally being accepted.

Would I do it again?

It’s a long way- I get on the freeway at Joondalup, drive through peak hour traffic to exit at the Leach Highway. It’s mentally draining- standing in front of a crowd of people, who may or may not have read your book, ranging from 80 – 300 and talking constantly for 45 minutes. It requires a lot of organisation (I still have 2 children who attend school and extra-curricular activities and a partner who sometimes would like to spend time with me). But it’s so rewarding.

So YES! I would and I think the school -All Saints and Kris (in particular- along with Adam and there were other key people whose names I’ve forgotten- sorry) deserve a pat on the back for creating such a festival and providing West Australian students with a terrific opportunity to meet with living authors!

And for those of you who attended I hope you found it as rewarding as I did!

Well done!

Posted in Books, censorship, cyber bullying, writing

Teaching Young Adult Readers to Swear

Posted on by katemccaffrey

My mum always said if we don’t put boundaries on our language, it’s difficult to put boundaries on anything. I guess, in a way, she meant that language is our first attempt at self-censoring. If we are able to speak in a polite and respectful way- even when we are faced with abuse (think road rage) it in turn manages to control the rest of our behaviour. This sounds like a sermon. It’s not. It’s about the power of language and its place in YA lit.

Language is able to bring down empires and destroy lives. All you have to do is cast your mind back to Hitler’s Germany. He created a frenzy in people through rhetoric alone. Slurs and insults are difficult to shrug off- even for the more self-assured and confident of us. “Ignore it” we say, which of course is what we should all do- but it’s difficult. Negativity seems to outlast positive comments. Marshall writes, “Sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you- bullshit- they do hurt.” 

In Destroying Avalon language is critical. Words are powerful, as Avalon and her friends realise. The internet and mobile phone allow the quick transmission of these words, where their damaging effects then take hold. Interestingly enough Avalon comes from a home where “obscene language is a capital offence, along with murder,” and it is the result of her use of that f-word that brings the novel to its climax.

Not being as computer savvy as her has meant she has managed to hide the cyberbullying from them, but her breakdown, in front of her father, is what alerts her parents to the constant harassment she has been experiencing. Comments about this book often focus on the ‘colourful language’ (I’m thinking red and yellow and pink and blue) and it was something I knew would create strong reactions. I’m not advocating swearing, but I think we have to be real. If we want teenagers to read this book, empathise with the characters and make decisions about how they want to live their lives we have to talk to them. Not down to them.

Young adults are discerning readers. Let’s give them a bit of credit. They know that reading swearing doesn’t give them permission to swear. They know about audience and moderation, like we do. If I face a room of students I carefully chose the language that’s appropriate (not the language I might use on a Friday evening at the pub!!) And I think Destroying Avalon uses language to clearly demonstrate the power of words. That in itself is cause for lively discussion!

Posted in Books, censorship, cyber bullying, literary appearances, teacher librarians, writing

All Saints’ Literature Festival 2007 is coming!!

Posted on by katemccaffrey

Yep, it’s not far away! We kick off this Wednesday 21st March at All Saints’ College for three fun filled days of author talks and book signing. Truthfully, like any other engagement I’ve been a part of, I don’t really know what to expect! I’m trying to organise how these “Meet the Author” sessions will go. But if you could see inside my head (quell horreur!!) you would see the disorganised chaos!!

I’m in the process of negotiating an inter-state trip to Melbourne mid-year to discuss Destroying Avalon and cyber bullying. Watch this space for further details!

And just for the record, I love teacher librarians! With the recent furore over Destroying Avalon– its language and sexual connotations- the teacher librarians of WA have proven how open and accepting they are! So to all of you who defend Destroying Avalon and believe it has a position on the shelf of your library I thank you.

Thank you all!

Posted in Books, censorship, cyber bullying, teacher librarians

Destroying Avalon and the f-word

Posted on by katemccaffrey

I’ve checked the final text of Destroying Avalon. The notorious ‘f-word’ appears 5 times.

5 TIMES!!!!!

Do you get that? In a novel of 56 393 words, 5 of them are that bad word! Reason enough to ban it? I guess so, for some schools that’s obviously five times too many. I get it. But what about what those other 56 388 words are doing? What about the impact those words deliver?

The messages in Destroying Avalon (I think- and so does my editor and publisher- and my Mum) are important. It’s about cyber bullying- something so terrible and soul destroying we need to deal with it. It’s a book for kids who are alone, who feel they can’t take it anymore, who need to reach out. And maybe Destroying Avalon will encourage them to take that first step.

It’s a book for kids who maybe engaging in that behaviour without realising the ramifications of their actions. Maybe reading Destroying Avalon will remind them of the fundamental human kindness they so eaily shed when they hide behind the anonymity of the web.

It’s for parents who are giving their kids 15 inch LCD monitors, high speed broadband access and a passoport into the cyber world- without knowing where their kids are actually going.

It’s a book that is meant to send a timely reminder to us all. We live in a fantastic, technologically advanced world that provides us so much more than ever before. But let’s not blind ourselves to the dark side because it’s an inconvenient truth (thanks Al Gore!)

So it’s official Destroying Avalon has the f-word (in the most crucial pages of the novel) appearing five times. Do you think that should be reason enough to ban it???

Posted in awards, Books, censorship, cyber bullying, teacher librarians, writing

Destroying Avalon Embroiled in Controversy

Posted on by katemccaffrey

Today a friend forwarded me some of the discussion librarians are having about Destroying Avalon and its WAYRBA nomination. Well, pardon me if lil ole Avalon aint caused a bit of a ruckus!! Apparently it has been withdrawn from the shelves at a Catholic SHS for its language and ‘sexual connotation’. I didn’t think there was any sexual connotation! But there you go- there were issues with sexuality- but that wouldn’t cause a book to be banned. Would it?

In this discussion a librarian (who I think must have heard me speak at something lately) defended the 11 appearances of the notorious ‘F-word’, I think there were only 7 (but I’ll check that and report back) and also made mention of how I’d reduced it from 144! So there- tis true! I was a very foul- mouthed author before the good people at FACP made me moderate my language!! But let’s discuss language and censorship at another time!!!

Thankfully it’s being embraced by the masses (pardon the pun) with that lovely old “it’s the best book I’ve ever read” being bandied around! I love it, I do!! So thank you kind readers and defenders of Avalon! If we could look past some naughty four letter words to the great messages beneath!!!

Posted in Books, cyber bullying, writing

The topic is cyber bullying

Posted on by katemccaffrey

For those of you who live in a cave- or don’t have, know, or chat to teenagers cyber bullying is the twenty first century’s answer to schoolyard torture. I chanced upon this phenomenon as a high school teacher at the end of 2000. I say ‘chanced’ wryly- it was already then proving to be a problem. When I pursued writing full time I researched cyber bullying as the background of my novel Destroying Avalon. These are some interesting facts I thought I should share:

– a 2006 survey by the National Coalition Against Bullying and teen magazine Girlfriend found 42% of girls aged between 12-15 reported being intimidated or denigrated online or via mobile phone messaging(Aus)

-according to National Law Enforcement in Vermont 13 million children between the age of 6 -17 are victims of cyber bullying

-70% of all text messages are received at home

-a 2002 British survey found one in four teenagers aged 11 -19 had been threatened via mobile phones and computers- and that included death threats (National Children’s Home UK)

-Bill Belsy author of http://www.cyberbullying.ca/ calls our teenagers the “Always On generation”, he also illuminates quite clearly the importance of this technology to teens. Mobiles and internet access are their ‘social umbilical cord’ – to sever it is to exclude themselves from their social group.

 It gets pretty ugly!

Now brace yourself- another problem with this form of bullying is the anonymity it provides. It allows kids, who probably wouldn’t engage in this behaviour an opportunity to hide behind the faceless nature of the internet and torment others. These are the sort of kids who probably wouldn’t bully face to face because they wouldn’t like to see the pain on the victim’s face, or because they don’t want to get caught. Cyber bullying- particularly in chat rooms, takes on a Lord of the Flies mentality- it whips the kids into frenzy. They find themselves sucked in because everyone else is doing it and no one knows who they are!

What they don’t know is they can get caught. Stomp through the world wide web and you will leave footprints. Make death threats and the police can charge you. It’s as simple as that!

Now, I must get off my soap box for today. But there will be more on this topic later. And ideas for what we can do about it!