Page Turners with Katja | Julian Sedgwick: | On Writing Tsunami Girl @PageTurnersWithKatja | Uploaded May 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
I had the pleasure of speaking with author Julian Sedgwick about his novel Tsunami Girl, which is shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal Award (the winner will be announced 16 June 2022)
We covered several topics in our discussion, and so the title comes back to Julian's point about the scale and suddenness of the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster; creating a distinct before and after point.
Tsunami Girl is a brilliant read, and is currently rated 4.08 on Goodreads.
Quote: "Never forget the power of imagination" (p.20)
Summary from the Carnegie Medal Website
Fifteen-year-old Yuki goes to Japan to stay with her beloved grandfather, a well-known manga artist. But during her visit, a Tsunami occurs – and her beloved Grandpa is lost. Yuki, and her friend Taka, must make sense of the terrible situation and come to terms with immense loss – and see that through renewal and with resilience, they can emerge from this tragedy with optimism for the future.
Tsunami Girl leads the non-Japanese reader into an examination of Japanese life and culture, weaving in Manga to illuminate and add layers of understanding. The mixture of folk tales, modern-day ghost stories, and the creation of her very own vibrant manga hero, adds veracity to Yuki’s struggles to overcome the traumatic events of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. Sedgwick’s compelling language conveys setting, atmosphere, and tone effectively. The distilled, descriptive moments at the end of sections are as atmospheric as haiku. The explorative writing blends cultures, traditions, beliefs, and genres, accumulating into a piece of writing that is tragically and beautifully finite.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:47 Journey to Publication & Research
06:22 A touch of Manga with the Prose
11:54 Anxiety and PTSD
15:02 Plot; Side characters; Inspiration
23:18 Juggling time and keeping focused
25:17 Survivors
32:15 Ghosts
39:20 Publicity / School Talks
41:41 What’s Next?
About Julian Sedgwick:
Julian’s the author of books for children and young adults, and co-author of the graphic novel Dark Satanic Mills and illustrated novel Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black. On the way to realising his childhood ambition to write, Julian read Chinese Studies and Philosophy at Cambridge, before working as a bookseller, painter, researcher and script developer for film and TV, and shiatsu therapist. In his spare time he draws as much as possible, juggles torches and knives, tries his best to learn Japanese – and waits for the weather to get cold enough to go fen skating. For more information visit Julian’s website, juliansedgwick.co.uk.
Twitter: @julianaurelius
About Chie Kutsuwada:
Chie’s a Japanese manga artist based in Brighton. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, she is the creator of King of a Miniature Garden and Moonlight. She also provided the illustrations for The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto and Warrior Kids, a children’s book by Mark Robson. Kutsuwada’s books are widely available in English and have been translated into several other languages. Aside from her comics work, she regularly leads manga workshops at institutions across the country, including the British Library, the British Museum and various schools.
Twitter: @chitanchitan
MORE VIDEOS
🎬 Review of The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (Historical Fiction)
youtu.be/VxxmW_QZe94
🎬 Reviews for 3 graphic novels - Grass; Forget Me Not, and Fangs youtu.be/YVCG0F0nkEc
🎬 Review of D.*P. (Deserter Pursuit) Netflix Original Kdrama youtu.be/7cQqKarucNQ
SOCIAL LINKS 👇
📖 app.thestorygraph.com/profile/katja_weinert
📸 Instagram: katja.r.weinert
🌍 Website: katjaweinert.com
📖 Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/62129981-katja-weinert
If you'd like to support me in my book-loving, I have an Amazon wishlist: amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1TQ0EJW0AZDAY?ref_=wl_share
Happy reading! 📚📖
#booktube| #fiction | #reading
I had the pleasure of speaking with author Julian Sedgwick about his novel Tsunami Girl, which is shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal Award (the winner will be announced 16 June 2022)
We covered several topics in our discussion, and so the title comes back to Julian's point about the scale and suddenness of the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster; creating a distinct before and after point.
Tsunami Girl is a brilliant read, and is currently rated 4.08 on Goodreads.
Quote: "Never forget the power of imagination" (p.20)
Summary from the Carnegie Medal Website
Fifteen-year-old Yuki goes to Japan to stay with her beloved grandfather, a well-known manga artist. But during her visit, a Tsunami occurs – and her beloved Grandpa is lost. Yuki, and her friend Taka, must make sense of the terrible situation and come to terms with immense loss – and see that through renewal and with resilience, they can emerge from this tragedy with optimism for the future.
Tsunami Girl leads the non-Japanese reader into an examination of Japanese life and culture, weaving in Manga to illuminate and add layers of understanding. The mixture of folk tales, modern-day ghost stories, and the creation of her very own vibrant manga hero, adds veracity to Yuki’s struggles to overcome the traumatic events of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. Sedgwick’s compelling language conveys setting, atmosphere, and tone effectively. The distilled, descriptive moments at the end of sections are as atmospheric as haiku. The explorative writing blends cultures, traditions, beliefs, and genres, accumulating into a piece of writing that is tragically and beautifully finite.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:47 Journey to Publication & Research
06:22 A touch of Manga with the Prose
11:54 Anxiety and PTSD
15:02 Plot; Side characters; Inspiration
23:18 Juggling time and keeping focused
25:17 Survivors
32:15 Ghosts
39:20 Publicity / School Talks
41:41 What’s Next?
About Julian Sedgwick:
Julian’s the author of books for children and young adults, and co-author of the graphic novel Dark Satanic Mills and illustrated novel Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black. On the way to realising his childhood ambition to write, Julian read Chinese Studies and Philosophy at Cambridge, before working as a bookseller, painter, researcher and script developer for film and TV, and shiatsu therapist. In his spare time he draws as much as possible, juggles torches and knives, tries his best to learn Japanese – and waits for the weather to get cold enough to go fen skating. For more information visit Julian’s website, juliansedgwick.co.uk.
Twitter: @julianaurelius
About Chie Kutsuwada:
Chie’s a Japanese manga artist based in Brighton. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, she is the creator of King of a Miniature Garden and Moonlight. She also provided the illustrations for The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto and Warrior Kids, a children’s book by Mark Robson. Kutsuwada’s books are widely available in English and have been translated into several other languages. Aside from her comics work, she regularly leads manga workshops at institutions across the country, including the British Library, the British Museum and various schools.
Twitter: @chitanchitan
MORE VIDEOS
🎬 Review of The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (Historical Fiction)
youtu.be/VxxmW_QZe94
🎬 Reviews for 3 graphic novels - Grass; Forget Me Not, and Fangs youtu.be/YVCG0F0nkEc
🎬 Review of D.*P. (Deserter Pursuit) Netflix Original Kdrama youtu.be/7cQqKarucNQ
SOCIAL LINKS 👇
📖 app.thestorygraph.com/profile/katja_weinert
📸 Instagram: katja.r.weinert
🌍 Website: katjaweinert.com
📖 Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/62129981-katja-weinert
If you'd like to support me in my book-loving, I have an Amazon wishlist: amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1TQ0EJW0AZDAY?ref_=wl_share
Happy reading! 📚📖
#booktube| #fiction | #reading
