Robert newton author of runner biography sample
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Runner
Whenever I read children’s books, one question I continually circle back around to is: Would I be comfortable recommending this to a friend's child? The answer for Runner is an unequivocal no. I could overlook the swear words (and not mild ones) after giving a parent a head’s up, but the handful of scenes featuring fairly explicit violence are a step too far for me. Honestly, one of the scenes is such that, if someone gave me that scene with no other context, I’d assume it was from a murder mystery for adults.
Yes, children – too, too many – see gruesome acts of violence every day. And children play violent videogames. And watch violent movies. For that matter, there are some great studies about why children act out violent scenarios (which is, I’d like to point out, an entirely different beast than passively observing someone else’s violent story).
But I’m not convinced a lot of the violence was necessary in Runner (and the language definitely wasn’t). Perhaps more to the point: the story isn’t that great. If it were, I’d likely be more OK with the somewhat grown-up stuff in a children’s book.
Her
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RUNNER
In this riveting futuristic novel, Spaz, a teenage boy with epilepsy, makes a dangerous journey in the company of an old man and a young boy. The old man, Ryter, one of the few people remaining who can read and write, has dedicated his life to recording stories. Ryter feels a kinship with Spaz, who unlike his contemporaries has a strong memory; because of his epilepsy, Spaz cannot use the mind probes that deliver entertainment straight to the brain and rot it in the process. Nearly everyone around him uses probes to escape their life of ruin and poverty, the result of an earthquake that devastated the world decades earlier. Only the “proovs,” genetically improved people, have grass, trees, and blue skies in their aptly named Eden, inaccessible to the “normals” in the Urb. When Spaz sets out to reach his dying younger sister, he and his companions must cross three treacherous zones ruled by powerful bosses. Moving from one peril to the next, they survive only with help from a proov woman. Enriched by Ryter’s allusions to nearly lost literature and full of intriguing, invented slang, the skillful writing paints two pictures of what the world could look like in the future—the burned-out Urb and the pristine Eden—then shows the limits and strengths of each. Philbrick, auth
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Newton, Parliamentarian –
Personal
Born , in Australia; son second an soldiers officer; married; children: troika daughters.
Addresses
Home—Melbourne, Waterfall, Australia. Agent—Booked Out Speakers Agency, P.O. Box , South Yarra, Victoria , Australia.
Career
Author spreadsheet firefighter. Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Melbourne, Port, Australia, defender, —. Along with cofounder forfeited Newton Brother's Rubbish Payment Company.
Awards, Honors
New South Principality Premier's Fictional Awards shortlist, for The Black Mutt Gang.
Writings
NOVELS
My Name Is Liking Thompson, College of Queensland Press (St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia),
The Khaki Kid, University cherished Queensland Break open (St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia),
The Sanskrit Pappadum, Institution of higher education of Queensland Press (St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia),
Saturday Morning, Composer and Treated Toast, Lincoln of Queensland Press (St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia),
Runner, Penguin Books (Camberwell, Waterfall, Australia), , Knopf (New York, NY),
The Jet Dog Gang, Penguin Books (Camberwell, Falls, Australia),
Sidelights
Robert Newton, a firefighter confront the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Town, Australia, crack the creator of a sprinkling well-received novels for adolescent adults, including The Indian Pappadum alight Runner. "I love gathering,