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Are We There Yet? 20th Anniversary Edition

Nov4
Are We There Yet? 20th Anniversary Edition

Are We There Yet? 20th Anniversary Edition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are We There Yet?  20th Anniversary Edition

Alison Lester

Puffin, 2024

32pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

9781761620416

The year I turned eight, Mum and Dad took us on a trip around Australia. Luke, Billy and I missed school for the whole winter term….

So begins the story of Grace and her family as they begin a journey around Australia in a fold-out camper van – a journey  that began a little west of Melbourne, took them to all sorts of places as they explored the coast, the bush and the outback, and which became an instant classic when it was first published 20 years ago because it opened up this country to children who didn’t know much of what was beyond their immediate environment.  

Along with Possum Magic, this was a story that could be used to initiate so many lessons and learnings about the diverse landscapes, lives, and livelihoods in the days when the internet was not as accessible and affordable to all – for many dial-up connections  for the family computer were all they had, and the first iPhone was three years in the future.  While television was a staple, travelogues were not the choice of little ones so here was a story that featured a relatable family taking off on an adventure that was told with engaging characters, story-telling and illustrations and the familiar refrain of, “Are we there yet?”  Grace’s journey was tracked on large wall maps and young readers would delight in declaring that they were familiar with a particular place and relating their adventures.  

Now, in a different gold-foiled livery and a different world, parents can share this story that delighted them with their own children and plan and plot their own journeys as many take to the roads post-pandemic, particularly as taking children out of formal schooling is not as drop-jaw now.  

And it hasn’t lost its relevance for the classroom as students could explore their own neighbourhood and identify the places, people and events that make it a unique attraction for visitors even if they take them for granted, or they could set up a challenge based on the family’s adventures for others to identify significant places around Australia based on clues such as this on from Backpack Bear, (an online quiz about Australia and Australians that I developed over 20 years ago and which is still available for free), encouraging a variety of research and presentation skills.  

I am at the top of a mountain, first climbed by a European in 1840 and named by Polish explorer Count Paul Edmund Strzelecki. He named it after one of his country’s heroes because he thought it looked like his tomb. While it stands in Ngarigo land, it is yet to be given an official indigenous name although Kunama Namadgi has been proposed.

The climb to the top was quite easy – a 6.5 kilometre walk along a raised walkway after I got off the chairlift from Thredbo and a short stop at Australia’s highest public toilet at Rawson’s Pass. The walkway protects the fragile alpine environment.

The summit is 2228 metres above sea level, making it Australia’s highest mainland mountain and from it I can see other mountains of the Main Range of the Great Dividing Range, including Mt Townsend which is the second highest mountain, Mt Carruthers and Mt Twynam. They are all part of a national park which shares the name of this mountain.

If you wish to follow in my footsteps, you need to come here between November and April, although if you are skier you can come during the winter..

Where am I?

Because it is a classic and so well-known, winning many awards, including being selected as a key focus book for the National Year of Reading 2012, there is a plethora of resources available online to support other activities including this one from Reading Australia. Our world may be smaller and different from that of Grace and her family, because although the book is 20 years old and its foundations began 10 years before that, it is still as relevant and refreshing now as it was then.  And I can hear parents saying, “I remember this” as they see it on shop shelves and pick it up to share with their own little ones and make more memories. 

11 Ruby Road: 1925

Oct19
11 Ruby Road: 1925

11 Ruby Road: 1925

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 Ruby Road: 1925

Charlotte Barkla

Walker, 2024

176pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9781760657956

It is 65 years since Millie and her mum moved to 11 Ruby Road and began Millie’s Store, and 25 years since Dorothy wrote her play inspired by the fight for the rights of women, and now it is the turn of the Muellers, a German-Australian family who have moved from Ipswich. to begin their life there where there is opportunity and jobs for his mother and older siblings, even though they have had to change their name to Miller.   Ten-year-old Bert’s father has been deported back to Germany following the conclusion of World War I, but there is still deep suspicion and distrust of anyone with connections to that country and so as well as trying to fit into a new school where cricket is king but your love is music and reading, Bert also has to contend with the attitudes of those whose lives have been so profoundly affected by the conflict and who hold all Germans responsible. –

But, in a time where entertainment and good times are pursued as an antidote to the horrors and restrictions of the previous decade,  Bert’s love of jazz and his ownership of a gramophone offer him an opportunity to make new friends, and although his plans are thwarted at first, following the near drowning of his younger brother Friedrich there is a chance for a second chance – one that reveals that Bert’s is not the only family with overseas heritage, and sets a few lives on paths very different to that which they anticipated. 

With some references to the past story including the reappearance of the pink ribbon given to young Millie back in 1860 as it binds the inhabitants together, but otherwise a stand-alone story, this is the second in this series  tracing the stories of the occupants of this house in Brisbane, introducing young independent readers to the lives of those who lived in the times, as well as the genre of historical fiction.  As with the predecessor it opens up avenues for discussion about how children lived – and there are notes at the back that expand on this – and extensive teachers’ notes support a more in-depth study for more mature readers, particularly the treatment of Germans post-war.  As the daughter of one who was held in captivity in Stalag VIIB for many years and then force-marched across Poland as part of a human shield and the daughter-in-law of another who knew Changi and the infamous Burma Railway first-hand,  I understand the prejudices that adults  like Mrs Purcell hold, but like Bert, younger readers might find this difficult to grasp particularly as both he and his siblings were born in Australia. Perhaps it is the children’s unity through playing cricket without regard for life through the adult lenses of what was and what should be which Hildegard is encountering, that can be the lasting legacy and set up the next chapter in the series as well as new friendships and understandings applicable even today.

The Kelly Gang Kids

Sep20
The Kelly Gang Kids

The Kelly Gang Kids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kelly Gang Kids

Coral Vass

Deb Hudson

MidnightSun, 2024

32oo., hbk., RRP $A29.99

9781922858375

School’s out and four rambunctious boys chase each other through the streets of Avenel. a tiny town in Central Victoria, causing havoc as they run through clotheslines, accidentally let Peterson’s sheep out of their paddock, and are oblivious to the chaos they cause at the blacksmith’s where they temporarily seek shelter.  But their escapade is cut short when they get to the old billabong and they spy a young boy in trouble in the water, clearly unable to swim and in danger of drowning.  Without thinking, the eldest, Ned, dives in and saves the boy, and suddenly the town’s rascal becomes the town’s hero, awarded a green silk sash by the boy’s family as thanks…

For many, such a story might make the local nightly news and then be forgotten by those not directly involved, but this one is different – perhaps there is a clue in the title – because it is 1865 and Ned is Ned Kelly who grew up to the THAT Ned Kelly who is such a prominent figure in Australia’s folklore, and the other three are his brother Dan, and his friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, all of whom also have their place in the stories of the infamous Kelly Gang.  And the green sash  is still on display at the Costume and Kelly Museum, retrieved from beneath the famous metal armour worn during his last battle with police at Glenrowan in 1888.

The green sash on display in Benalla, Victoria

The green sash on display in Benalla, Victoria

Author Coral Vass has a number of children’s books including Sorry Day and Jørn’s Magnificent Imagination that help young readers understand the people, places and events that have shaped this country and this one is no different.  With its rhyme and rhythm that rollicks along like the four boys themselves, the story brings to life another side of Ned Kelly, one that shows a boy pretty much like so many others of his generation but who did an extraordinary thing, both then and later.  It might spark questions, not only about Kelly himself, but what life was like in those days of no internet, social media, television, organised sport or cultural pursuits, and where attending school wasn’t even compulsory until years later. How would today’s kids entertain themselves?

The illustrations bring the text to life as the boys go on their merry way adding humour and drama as their exuberance leaves a trail of destruction, but through the repetitive refrain of the victims, the reader gets the impression that their antics are not uncommon. 

“You rascals! What mess!”
the old Blacksmith said,
chasing behind
and shaking his head. 

But WHIZ out of sight
and swift on their way,
the Kelly Gang kids
skedaddled away.

An entertaining and engaging story that could well send the budding historian down many rabbit holes as they seek to find out more about this larger-than-life character and decide, as in this story, whether he is hero or villain.

For those wanting to know more, they might be able to track down Ned Kelly and the Green Sash by Mark Greenwood and Frané Lessac from 2014.

 

 

The Opal Dinosaur

Aug19
The Opal Dinosaur

The Opal Dinosaur

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Opal Dinosaur

Yvonne Mes

Sylvia Morris

CSIRO Publishing, 2024

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781486316793 

Gondwana – 100 million years ago and a little dinosaur is chased into a swift-flowing river by the ferocious Lightning Claw and drowns. 

In many stories, that would be the end but for this little one, it is just the beginning… it is a story that spans aeons moving from the middle of the Cretaceous Period to the present day as the little dinosaur continues to give insights into a life lived so long ago.  For while the dinosaurs themselves were obliterated when an asteroid hit the Earth 65 million years ago,  and the land and landscape gradually changed as Gondwana broke up and continental drift isolated this continent, and eventually humans walked over the place where the little dinosaur died, far below the surface a sort of magic was happening – a magic that was not discovered until 1984 when an opal miner in Lightning Ridge saw something glinting 10 metres below the surface of the soil…. And once again, that little dinosaur comes to life.

Beginning with endpapers that show Gondwana and where the little dinosaur lived on that fateful day, using imagination and information it tracks the story of how her bones survived to tell the story that they do today – and not just her story, but that of others of her kind as well as shaping the stories of the miner who found her remains, the scientists who examined them, the visitors who come to see her and even the writer and illustrator of her story.   What an amazing legacy. Fostoria dhimbangunmal was so much more than an iguanadontid chased into a river by a megaraptorid. 

Parents and teachers know the fascination that little ones have with the creatures of that long-ago time, so this story that is not only grounded in fact but continues to continue as modern scientific techniques elicit more and more information and paleontologists, miners, volunteers and visitors are acutely aware of the possibilities that the landscape hides, can inspire them to learn more.  Reading is, indeed, magic.  

 

 

The Girls Who Changed the World (series)

Aug13
The Girls Who Changed the World (series)

The Girls Who Changed the World (series)

The Girls Who Changed the World (series)

Ming & Flo Fight for the Future

9781460760208

Ming & Marie Spy for Freedom

9781460760215

Ming & Hilde Lead a Revolution

9781460763445

Ming & Ada Spark the Digital Age

Jackie French

Harper Collins, 2022-2024

288pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

If ever there were a series that encapsulated the 2024 CBCA Book Week theme of Reading is Magic, then this would be it.  By opening any of these books and reading the stories, the reader is transported to a different place and time in history to meet real people, largely unacknowledged because they are female, and to learn about the significant contribution they made then that still impacts our lives today.  What could be more magical than that?

When Ming Qong puts up her hand in Mr Boors’ history class and asks him why they only ever learned about men in history, never girls, she has no idea the chain of events that she was about to set off.

Suddenly the class is silent and still, as though frozen in the moment, except for a strange, almost ethereal woman dressed in purple sitting in the window sill -someone Ming feels she knows but doesn’t.  The woman introduces herself as Herstory, the sister of History, a woman passionate about the part women have played alongside men as the centuries have rolled past and is as frustrated as Ming that those stories have not been told because “men wrote the history books and they mostly wrote them to please kings or generals or male politicians.” Even though the women’s stories are there in letters, diaries and even old newspapers waiting to be discovered, the past has always viewed through a male lens.  She then offers Ming a way to travel back to the past for just 42 days, to see it for herself (even though it wouldn’t always be pleasant, pretty or comfortable) and be part of it although she, herself, would not be seen or heard and she couldn’t change anything that happened.

And so the reader is transported back into times past to experience what life was like for girls and women when men were viewed as superior beings in all ways, and females were merely appendages to cater to their whims.  Few had the courage, the independence of spirit, the opportunity and the wherewithal to stand up to make a difference but when they did, they began the changes that have led to the life we lead today.  Whether it is having a say in the governance of the country; putting the contribution and sacrifice of women in war in the spotlight; the contribution that they made to developing Australia’s  wool industry allowing the nation to “ride on the sheep’s back for so long; fighting the scourge of racism and letting a female’s intelligence shine, this series tackles so many issues that women have been confronted with and challenged over centuries. And, just as we are currently discovering the stories or hardship, perseverance and endurance behind our Olympians, so the reader learns that there is much more to the stories of the women that we hold as heroes – it is their hidden histories of facing and fighting convention, prejudice, opinion and oppression, that helped them become who we see them to be today.  

However, as well as telling the stories of these remarkable but very ordinary (in the beginning) people, there is also Ming’s own story unfurling and there is a sense that for her too, there is something more to come, that these adventures and revelations are all leading to something momentous for her.  

Jackie’s meticulous research and her ability to tell a story that is so engaging that the reader wants to learn more once again shines a spotlight on the women on whose shoulders we all stand and for whom we owe a strong debt of gratitude.  

And there is still one more to come in the series.  Bring it on.  

 

Jack’s Island

Jul21
Jack’s Island

Jack’s Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack’s Island

Norman Jorgensen

Fremantle Press, 2024

224pp., pbk., RRP $A17.99

 9781760992958

World War II, and following the bombings of Darwin, Broome and Onslow, the threat of a Japanese invasion of Western Australia looms large.  Jack’s father, with his specialist skills in road-making, is one of many required to go to Rottnest Island to construct an aerodrome as a first line of defence should Perth be attacked.  

As the local ferry Valkyrie hits turbulent seas on the journey there, with all but Jack hanging over the side in dire straits, it does not presage well for this to be a smooth period in young Jack’s life, and as he himself says, “I’m not that bad – I just get caught a lot.”  Jack soon teams up with Andrew “Banjo” Paterson and together, they find themselves in all sorts of strife as they just do the things that boys of that age in that era did – being in school where corporal punishment at the hands of stern schoolmasters was the norm, building billy carts and canoes, being where they shouldn’t because they are fascinated by what’s going on around them, climbing cliffs and trees with the inevitable consequences….

But as much as this story is about the derring-do of lads who find reserves of courage and resourcefulness they didn’t know they had, it is a story of friendship and loyalty and the acceptance of people for who they are as they are that only seems to happen amongst children.  This is particularly true when it comes to protecting the intellectually-challenged Dafty, and when he is lost overboard at sea, the boys are devastated. 

Norman Jorgensen has delved deep into his family’s past, particularly his father’s adventures on Rottnest during the war, and from this has created something unique – a story that shines a light on a past time when life was much more carefree in some ways, but also so much more restricted in others, not the least being the continuing prejudice towards those who are different in any way as well as rationing, conscription, and the threat of invasion hanging overhead especially when the boys find the helmet and rifle of a Japanese soldier at the base of a cliff. But for all that, there are times when it is LOL funny, and tear-in-your-eye serious, with endearing characters that took me back to my own childhood in post-war years when we roamed our local shoreline freely told to return only “when the tide turned or it got dark”. 

When this was first released, it won the WA Young Readers’ Book Award 2009 and was a CBCA Notable for that year, awards that were thoroughly deserved.  Now, re-released in a new livery, it remains an excellent read, one that will entertain and engage a new generation, including all those young lads who will see themselves in Jack and Banjo.    

To add an essential extra to the read, complete with actual photos of the time, be sure to watch and share this  remarkable book trailer

 

The Vanishing

Jul15
The Vanishing

The Vanishing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vanishing

Mark Greenwood

Fremantle Press, 2024

112pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9781760993962

October 21, 1978.  A clear Spring night perfect for flying and a small Cessna plane takes off from Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne bound for King Island, a trip that should take just over an hour to complete.  At the controls is a young pilot Frederick Valentich  whose intention is to land at King Island, pick up some crayfish and return home to his parents.

With a full fuel tanks giving him five hours flying time and a range of 800 kilometres, Fred checks in with Melbourne Flight Service, and hugging the Victorian coastline, advises them when is over Cape Otway before heading over Bass Strait to the island.  But six minutes out from Cape Otway, Fred contacts them again asking for information about any other aircraft in the area because there is something mysterious flying below him.  What follows is a six-minute conversation in which he remains calm but confused about this other craft, which ends in a series of strange sounds followed by silence but which begins one of Australia’s most baffling aviation mysteries.  For no trace of Fred or his aircraft has ever been found…

Another in the History Hunter series, this is an intriguing story made all the moreso because not only is it true, but it is also recent and there will be many parents who remember the publicity surrounding the disappearance.  Complete with the transcript of the conversation between Steve Robey of Melbourne Air Traffic Control Flight Service, the story details the flight of the Cessna and the subsequent search for it, including the many theories and sightings of what were then known as UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) and what are now labelled UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). What was the strangely lit, cigar-shaped craft that seemed to be travelling faster than any known aircraft at the time, and able to come at him from every direction, turning almost at whim?

The plaque commemorates the landmark of the disappearance of Frederick Valentich.

As with The Dragon’s Treasure, this is a compelling read that raises more questions than it answers -because the mystery has never been solved – and while it is written for a younger readership, it is one that is going to appeal to anyone with an interest in real-life mysteries, aviation and UAPs. As well as the more-to-explore pages, a simple online search offers lots of avenues to find out more and rabbit-holes to wander down.  Teaching notes can guide these explorations but the one question that remains unanswered, apart from what happened to Fred that night, is are we alone in the universe?

The Dragon’s Treasure

Jul12
The Dragon’s Treasure

The Dragon’s Treasure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dragon’s Treasure

Mark Greenwood

Fremantle Press, 2024

112pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9781760993948

Summer, 1931, on a remote Western Australian beach and four children are following fox tracks along the beach when they discover something much more extraordinary than the fox… 

And so begins the true story of a mystery that spans nearly 400 years, with still more questions than answers.  

Even though the existence of “The Great South Land” was probably known to Portuguese explorers in the early 16th century,  it wasn’t until a century later when  the the Dutch East India Company, the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) began trading with what was then the East Indies, now Indonesia, that landfall was actually made, with the legacy of Dirk Hartog in 1616 marking the first known visit.  But the West Australian coast seemed to be a hostile place, and a number of VOC ships were wrecked on their journey to Batavia, and so it was not settled permanently.  

Among those was the Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon), and once again, history hunter Mark Greenwood has brought a little known story to life, in absorbing tale that has all the elements to attract the young reader who enjoys real-life mysteries  – an ancient shipwreck, eight missing chests of treasure, a mysterious skeleton, the discovery of old coins, a strange circle of limestone rocks, and desperate castaways abandoned on a bleak, isolated coast.  Beginning with an old,  obscure article in a newspaper about children finding old coins, and drawing on a range of resources (many of which are listed for further reading), some real and imagined illustrations of the events and his own natural curiosity, Greenwood takes the reader on a journey into the past that explains some things but raises questions about others.

Like his History Mysteries series, and his picture books that delve deep into the stories of this country, this is a new series that is going to capture the imagination and perhaps inspire more history hunters like him.  To help this, there are teaching notes available, and The Vanishing, a much more recent mystery that even I recall, is already available and there are at least two more to come.  

This is a series that offers so many pathways to explore – digging deeper into the stories that Greenwood features; reading one to determine if it is a series that the library should ensure it gets the others; or even delving into a local mystery and suggesting to the author that it is one that he might like to follow up and extend the series.  All offer opportunities for further reading and reading with purpose.  

Mawson in Antarctica: To the Ends of the Earth

Jun14
Mawson in Antarctica: To the Ends of the Earth

Mawson in Antarctica: To the Ends of the Earth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mawson in Antarctica: To the Ends of the Earth

Joanna Grochowicz

A & U Children’s, 2024

272pp., pbk., RRP $A19.99

9781761180590

Sir Douglas Mawson. His face is on the $A100 note; he has streets, suburbs and places named after him scattered across the country; and  the longest continuously operating station south of the Antarctic Circle bears his name.

So who is he and what did he do to deserve these honours? 

To learn that we need to go back to winter in Antarctica in 1912, just months after Amundsen and Scott have reached the South Pole, and a young Australian driven by his passion to contribute to scientific knowledge leads the Australian Antarctic Expedition intent on establishing research bases on the continent and sub-Antarctic islands to explore and chart the east Antarctic coastline  and learn from it.  As disaster befalls his team and gradually they perish, Mawson finds himself alone but is so determined to take both data and specimens back to base that he struggles on alone for 30 days, arriving just a few hours after the ship sent to retrieve the party had left..

Mawson’s remarkable tale of determination, endurance and resilience is retold in this absorbing narrative non fiction, the latest addition to this series which includes the journeys of Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton . Using a range of primary and secondary sources, its polar historian author tells the stories of these early pioneers of Antarctic exploration in a way that brings them to life, with all their foibles and faults as well as courage and tenacity, engaging the reader in a way that facts and figures, bare statements and grainy photographs can’t.  

And for those for whom a 272page book might be a bit daunting, there is also Douglas Mawson in the brilliant Meet… series, so an  opportunity for all to know a little about this remarkable real here. 

My own connections to the Antarctic were outlined in my review of Into the White – Scott’s Antarctic Odyssey but these are stories of real-life heroes that don’t require that sort of legacy to inspire their reading – these are for any independent reader of any age who enjoys true stories of doing the seemingly impossible, particularly in times when it is the human endeavour rather than the technological wizardry that determine success or otherwise.  Who knows – introducing a young person to this series just might be the trigger for a lifetime.

Three Dresses

May10
Three Dresses

Three Dresses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Dresses

Wanda Gibson

UQP, 2024

40pp., hbk., RRP $A6.99

9780702266355

Three things are vivid memories of  the childhood of author and illustrator Wanda Gibson, Nukgal Wurra woman of the Guugu Yimithirr people – the harsh life on the Hope Vale on the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland; the annual two weeks holiday, the only time they got off the Mission, spent at the beach; and receiving three dresses and three pairs of undies from the Lutheran Church at Christmas time – “one to wash, one to war and one spare”.

But despite the hard life on the Mission – school in the morning, work in the afternoon, picking weeds out of cotton, pineapples and peanuts for no pay even in hot weather, – this is a story of the happy memories of those special two weeks spent with her family at the beach and the simplicity of a time shared and enjoyed just by being together,  

Taken at face value it is a joyful story of a holiday at the beach that could no doubt be contrasted to the holidays current students have at a similar location, or even the notion of being thrilled to get just three dresses a year, and even those were second-hand. However, thorough teachers notes help readers delve into the impact of  colonisation on our indigenous peoples and the various policies that governed their lives including extensive background information as well as points for investigation and discussion and classroom activities, making this a picture book to span all ages and aspects of the curriculum.  Indeed, there are links to further resources specifically for upper primary students. 

Whether it is shared as a story of the importance of a family making and sharing memories or one that opens doors to a different aspect of Australia’s history, this is one that has the potential to make a big impact.