Archives

Boomerang and Bat: The story of the real first eleven

May23

Boomerang and Bat: The story of the real first eleven

 

Boomerang and Bat: The story of the real first eleven

Mark Greenwood

Terry Denton

Allen & Unwin, 2016

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

9781743319246

It’s the 1860s in the Wimmera district of Victoria and Aboriginal stockman Unaaarrimin (aka Johnny Mullagh) is watching the white settlers play “a curious game called cricket”.  When he is invited to play he hits the ball so hard he splits the redgum bat!  And so begins the remarkable story of the first Aboriginal cricket team and the first Australian team to tour England.  Johnny introduced his fellow stockmen to the game and they were so good that soon they were beating the local white settler teams and invited to play in the city at the MCG!  An English cricketer, Charles Lawrence spotted them, recognised their potential and proposed a tour of England.  But his plans were thwarted when the Board for the Protection of Aborigines refused to let them go claiming “These men might not survive the voyage.”

Undaunted and driven by the money-making opportunity of the novelty of such a team, Lawrence did not give up, continuing to coach them and all the while hatching a secret plan to smuggle Johnny and his mates to England.  After eight days of sneaking through Victoria to Queenscliff, they were taken by longboat to a steamer bound for Sydney and from there, under the cover of darkness they boarded the Parramatta bound for England. 

The tour of England was both triumphant and tragic.  Viewed initially with fascination and later admired for their ability, the team played 47 games in six months with 14 wins, 14 losses and 19 draws.  Mullagh scored 1,698 runs and took 245 wickets.  But racism reared its head, Bripumyarrimin (King Cole) got sicked and died, the players were tired and they were all homesick.  And so they returned to Australia, but unlike today’s teams, “there was no triumphant welcome” – and each, apart from Mullagh,  went their own way back to the bush and anonymity, at home in their country.

Mark Greenwood is the master of telling the back story, the unknown or unheralded truth of those who should be Australian heroes, and this book is no different.  Once again he stands up for the Aboriginal people who were denied their identity, their heritage and their dignity to shine a light on our original cricketing heroes, and bringing to life a team of characters and personalities, not just facts and statistics.  Who knew they had to sneak out of the country like criminals? Who knew they donned traditional gear at the end of the match to entertain crowds with their “tricks” so they could make a little extra money?

Terry Denton also brings each of the players to life with his iconic illustrations.  Double page spreads, vignettes – each one helps the reader picture the action as well as the emotions. Even though the text is written in the third-person in a ‘reporter-like’ fashion, the astute reader marries both words and pictures to get to the purpose that drives this story-telling.   The endpapers are poignant – showing the delight and excitement of the cricketers as they leave on their long sea voyage to the individual portraits that gives each a name and an identity, going a little way to restoring the dignity they deserved but didn’t get 150 years ago.

This book is rich in so many areas for discussion and investigation and comprehensive teaching notes are available.    

Stories for Simon

May26
Stories for Simon

Stories for Simon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stories for Simon

Lisa Miranda Sarzin

Lauren Briggs

Random House Australia, 2015

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

9780857987440

 

Simon lives with his family in a little house in a big city near a famous beach and he loves to collect things.  When his uncle sent him a beautifully painted boomerang wrapped in an old newspaper, it is not the boomerang that captures the attention of his teacher during Show and Share but the newspaper itself.  For it has a large headline…”For the pain, suffering and hurt, we say SORRY.”  The teacher tries to explain what the headline means – the apology by Prime Minister Rudd on February 13, 2008 to all those affected by the Stolen Generations saga – but the word SORRY burns itself into Simon’s brain and that night he dreams he is in the middle of a stone storm, with each stone having SORRY imprinted on it. 

The next morning he finds himself surrounded by the stones and he decides to take them to the ocean to throw them in because that’s was the only place he could think of that would be deep and wide enough for them.  But as he starts to do so, he meets Vic who suggests that Simon has been given the stones for a reason and if he throws them away, he will never know why.  He suggests they take them to his Nan who will know what to do.  And Vic’s Nan, Aunty Betty, suggests that they swap each stone for a story.  Simon doesn’t believe that anyone could know so many stories but Aunty Betty has many and so she begins to tell Simon and Vic the stories that stretched way back into the very beginning of creation, about animals and people, the land, the sea, the sky and the rain.  And when she comes to the last stone, she tells Simon that the last story is about her and what happened to her as a child.

And so Simon truly learns what it meant to be one of the Stolen Generation, taken away from parents and brothers and sisters with only loneliness and fear for companions.  And he learns how that word that captured him – SORRY – is the start of the healing after all this time.  And while there was a long way to go on the journey, at least the journey had begun.

This is a most powerful and most important story as we try to help our younger generation understand this part of Australia’s history.  When Simon’s mum explains that we are saying sorry not because the people of today have done anything wrong or to feel sad or guilty, but to always remember bad things and ensure they don’t happen again, it puts into perspective that train of thought of “What did it have to do with me?”

Accompanied by strong, dynamic and unique illustrations which support the text, this is a story of reconciliation and of hope for the future, with a stunning ending that is just perfect. Simon understands and we must teach our students so they too understand and the healing continues with meaning and sincerity, not just lip service to another day on the calendar. With a foreword by Vic Simms, an Aboriginal elder of the Bidjigal nation and a commendation by Adam Goodes, Australian of the Year 2014, this book meets the rigorous standards suggested for selection by Lorraine McDonald in A Literature Companion as both author and illustrator were guided through the process so the Aboriginal content is accurate, sensitive and respectful. As Suzy Wilson, founder of the Indigenous Literary Foundation says, “This book is an important and welcome addition to school libraries and bookshelves everywhere.” Colleagues Sue Warren and Susan Stephenson have both reviewed this book and endorse this opinion. 

As we recognise acknowledge National Sorry Day on May 26, this would be the perfect vehicle to help our students understand its significance with comprehensive teaching notes available.

 

Where is Galah?

May18
Where is Galah?

Where is Galah?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where is Galah?

Sally Morgan

Little Hare, 2015

hbk., 24pp., RRP $A24.95

9781921894466

Dingo is on the prowl.  He can see Emu, Swan and Turtle and he can hear Crocodile, Frog and Kookaburra.  But where is Galah?  From sunrise to sunset, we track Dingo’s quest for Galah across the Australian landscape in a burst of colour and pattern and delight that is so uniquely Sally Morgan.  Until Galah finally shows herself (although the children will have fun spotting what Dingo can’t) – but where is Dingo?

This is a superb book to share with our youngest readers as they use their eyes and their ears and join in with the sounds and the repetitive text. By tracking the movement of the sun and the colour of the sky as the day passes, the suspense builds up for surely Galah will be found before moonrise.  And the twist in the ending is very satisfying.

Every page of this book brings new things to explore and marvel at and there are so many opportunities for the listeners to interact from creating sounds to making movements.  If you go to this page and then click on the link to this title you will get teachers’ notes with lots more activities to do including getting students to write their own version substituting two new main characters and who they see and hear.

The visual impact of the book is stunning and there is much to investigate in the way that Morgan has, again, used colour and pattern to tell the story.

As well as our very young readers, this would also be a wonderful way to introduce new English language learners to our Australian wildlife.

Birrung the Secret Friend

Feb23

Birrung the Secret Friend

Birrung the Secret Friend

 

Birrung the Secret Friend

Jackie French

HarperCollins, 2015

pbk., 144pp., RRP $A12.99

9780732299439

 

Sydney Cove.  December 1789.  The new colony is 18 months old and Barney Bean is waiting in line for his share of the meagre rations doled out on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  He is so hungry he can taste the maggots in the cheese he is hoping for because they are extra meat.  He’s also hoping that there will be some cheese left because his pannikin was stolen the night his mother died and you can’t boil dried peas or rice without a pannikin.

In front of him in the line is a convict who, even with his arm in a sling, looks as strong as a bullock and Barney mentally dubs him Bullock Man watching him warily him because he knows that he and his rations are at risk the minute he is out of sight of the storehouse.  And he’s right… Bullock Man sees him being slipped some cheese (which he had been denied) and follows him.  Barney scarpers and scampers amongst the huts with Bullock Man in pursuit not knowing that this chase will change the course of his life forever when Bullock Man is stopped in his tracks by a stone thrown from a beautiful yet mysterious Aboriginal girl wearing European clothing. Even the fact that she is an “Indian” is remarkable because it was thought that they had all been wiped out by the plague that hit them so soon after the arrival of the Europeans, but for one to be wearing shoes and “a clean dress, all bright with tiny blue showers on it, not the nothing colour of convicts’ clothes”???

This is Abaroo, or Birrung (meaning ‘star’), as she calls herself, an Aboriginal girl taken under the kindly wing of Mr Richard Johnson, the colony’s first clergyman and this is the story of Birrung, Barney and the enigmatic Elsie who never speaks but whose eyes have clearly seen more than they should have.  Flourishing amongst the squalor and dishevelment that is Sydney in its first year is the oasis of Mr Johnson’s vegetable gardens, tended and nurtured to feed a colony that is virtually on the edge of starvation because none of the promised storeships have arrived from England and the inhabitants, reluctant residents at best, have neither the skills nor the inclination to help themselves by growing their own food. Even Barney doesn’t know that a seed the size of a speck of dust can grow into a magnificent carrot!  Mrs Johnson reads the children stories and Barney’s favourite is that of Jesus and the fishes and the loaves. “We could have used Jesus in the colony.”  Yet all around them are the riches of the bush – bush tucker – some of whose secrets Birrung shows Barney. But because of the times they live in, his friendship and all that he learns has to remain a secret forever.

Although the Second Fleet finally arrives, it brings so many more problems than it solves…

Jackie French is a master of historical fiction for children and she tells fascinating stories of the not-so-well-known parts of our history, putting the reader right in the story so it becomes a personal experience not just a painting that has an historical backdrop. You are there, right alongside the characters with your tummy rumbling but feeling glad that there is a fridge with cheese and other goodies nearby!  While Barney Bean. Elsie and Sally are fictional characters, Mr and Mrs Johnson and Birrung were very real as were the circumstances in which the story is set.  Painted in less than flattering terms by others in Australia’s history such as Elizabeth Macarthur, and only tolerated by Arthur Phillip who had a different agenda, Birrung the Secret Friend shows a different side of Richard Johnson and the good that he did for the establishment of the fledgling colony.  He was revered by the convicts and those who benefited not only from the produce of his gardens but his ministrations in their hours of need. In fact, Jackie writes, “I had always taken the Johnsons at the valuation of most historians have accepted: well-meaning but ineffectual.  But as I read their letters and other writing, I became stunned that such an extraordinary and compassionate couple had been so misremembered,”

This is the first in The Secret Histories series from Jackie to be published by HarperCollins, a series that will reveal many more secrets at many levels.  There is an extensive teaching guide   explicitly linked to the Australian Curriculum, providing an even more compelling reason to have this in your collection – if you needed one!

 

Emus Under the Bed

Oct26
Emus Under the Bed

Emus Under the Bed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emus Under the Bed

Leann J Edwards

The Little Big Book Club/ Allen & Unwin 2014

hbk., 24pp., RRP $A19.99

9781743313459

On Saturdays I visit Auntie Dollo. ‘What would you like to do today?’ she says. ‘Do you want to help me make some feather flowers?’ Auntie Dollo has all kinds of feathers.  She has feathers from moorhens, magpies, galahs and cockatoos.”   But the greatest surprise is what is under Aunty Dollo’s bed – six little emu chicks! 

This is a vibrant story which shows how a modern indigenous child continues to connect with the traditions of the past through her family.  The relationship between the environment and the people is very clear as they make a headdress of feathers dropped by local birds, and as they create it, Aunt Dollo tells the story of its origins.  Written by a descendant of the Mara tribe from the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Wiradjuri tribe from central New South Wales, it celebrates the handing down of an ancient culture through its people and ensuring “They are the pool of inspiration all the time.” Having tried various ways of expressing her family history and culture, particularly through a career as an Indigenous artist, Leann Edwards was inspired by others to write and tell her story and this book was produced through the Emerging Indigenous Picture Book Mentoring Project, a joint initiative between The Little Big Book Club and Allen & Unwin, assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.  The artwork is most striking and has many of the elements we associate with indigenous art, and shows the artist’s experience both in Australia and overseas, with colour and pattern predominating against blocks of solid colour.

Most importantly, this book ticks all the selection criteria for acquiring and using indigenous literature that Lorraine MacDonald identifies in A Literature Companion for Teachers (p122-123).

There has been a number of books produced recently which feature our first peoples celebrating their landscape, culture and heritage in the most exquisite ways.  How wonderful if we could use these as models for our non-indigenous students to tell their own stories so they could leave a similar legacy. 

 

Kick With My Left Foot

Oct6
Kick with My Left Foot

Kick with My Left Foot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kick with My Left Foot

Paul Seden

Karen Briggs

Allen & Unwin, 2014

hbk., 24pp., RRP $A19.99

9781743313442

 

I pull the sock on my left foot

I pull the sock on my right foot

I lace up the boot on my left foot

I lace up the boot on my right foot …

It’s time for footy!

This is a charming story of a little boy who loves his footy and can do everything well with his right and left hands, except for when it comes to kicking.  When the tries to kick with his right foot, the results are less than great.  But kicking with his left foot is a totally different matter!  In a place where footy is an integral part of life, being able to kick well is an important skill and there is great excitement when his left foot kicking is the clincher.

Accompanied by illustrations that depict the emotions of both the boy and his dog perfectly, this story really appealed to the younger readers in my family who are struggling with left and right, as well as with throwing and kicking.  In fact, Miss 3 and a half immediately went outside and practised with both feet to see which one worked best for her. Many times the results were those shown in the pictures but with practise she began to improve, and now has also sorted out that left/right confusion.

The book is one of the Emerging Indigenous Picture Book Mentoring Project a partnership between the Little Big Book Club and Allen & Unwin in which six previously unpublished Indigenous writers and illustrators will have their work showcased in four picture books during 2014.  Each creator has been partnered with a renowned mentor in children’s publishing including Nadia Wheatley, Ken Searle, Nick Bland, Ann James, Bronwyn Bancroft, Boori Monty Pryor and Ali Cobby Eckermann to share ideas, techniques and inspiration for their first published work. The project has been funded by the federal government through the Australia Council and it means that not only will our cohort of children’s writers be enriched but our students will have access to authentic texts that will work towards the understanding and harmony between our cultures that is at the heart of so many of the Australian Curriculum outcomes.  Even though it is written for an early childhood audience, there is a lot that offers scope for comparing and contrasting lifestyles and landscapes that would enable younger students to continue the development of their critical thinking skills.  Even determining which code of football is being played requires observation and justification!

Our Island

Jun28
Our Island

Our Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Island

The children of Gununa, Alison Lester and Elizabeth Honey

Penguin 2014

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

9780670077687

Our island lies beneath a big blue sky,

surrounded by the turquoise sea.

Turtles glide through the clear salt water.

And dugongs graze on the banks of seagrass…

And so begins the text of a most stunning pictorial book about Mornington Island, the largest of the Wellesley group in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the result of a collaboration by the children of Gununa – the main township- and Alison Lester and Elizabeth Honey. Focusing on the stunning wildlife that inhabits both land and sea, the illustrations have been done by the children of Mornington Island State School using wax crayons and food dye wash.  This makes the focal point of the pictures stand out against the background which blurs and blends as dyes do and the landscape does. Beginning with the sunrise and following through the day until the ghost crabs make patterns on the sand, the local dogs sing to the moon and the island finally sleeps, this is a celebration of life in a unique environment where the connection between the land and life is almost indivisible.  Even though the text is kept to a minimum, the choice of words has been carefully selected to match the pictures giving the whole thing a poetic quality that echoes the rhythm of the day, emphasising the gentle passage of time. Overall, a sense of peace and pride just exudes from this book.

The stories of both the island and how this book came about are fascinating in themselves –all royalties and a dollar from each sale are going back to the school to fund community art projects – and provide another layer to what is already an amazing book.

Each of us lives in a unique community, whatever its geographical setting, that has its own special undercurrent of life that goes on and on providing a continuity that might be interrupted by humans but not destroyed.  How fascinating it would be to have students look beneath the surface of their everyday lives to discover what is there, how it is sustained, how it is impacted by us and then use Our Island as a model to share the findings.  Students would have to draw on all their senses and cross all curriculum boundaries to discover and portray the daily, unchanging routines of nature that cycle on through their lives.

A wonderful work that will probably make the reader want to book a trip to an island paradise immediately!   

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

Rivertime

Apr11
Rivertime

Rivertime

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rivertime

Trace Balla

Allen & Unwin, 2014

hbk., 80pp., RRP $A24.99

9781743316337

 

Clancy is 10.5 years old or 3832.5 days or 91 980 hours old, and is obsessed with numbers.  He lives with his mum who is an artist and his uncle Egg, a very keen bird-watcher.  Egg has been waiting for Clancy to grow as high as his chest so they can go on a paddling trip up the river together.  Clancy isn’t so sure that it will be much fun, especially when he discovers that it is an extended camping trip – ten days, 240 hours, 14 400 minutes – and in a canoe, not a hovercraft, and only essentials are allowed.  He writes, “Day 1: After a lumpy, bumpy night, I’m grumpy…” and watches Egg load the canoe grumbling and mumbling and knowing he is not going to like this adventure and an encounter with a brown snake in the water just as they’re contemplating a swim doesn’t change his view. But as the journey goes on, Clancy sees and experiences new things – things that are more interesting than his television and other toys left behind – and learns much about life in all its colours, shades and hues, including rivertime, the tidal gap between breathing in and breathing out and which offers such peace and tranquillity and reflection.

Set on the Glenelg (Bochara) River which flows out of Gariwerd (aka The Grampians), parts of which are the traditional home of the Gundjitmara and Boandik peoples, and told in a graphic novel format, this is a story of Clancy’s journey – not just along the river but also the physical, mental and emotional journey of the transition from child to young man. His final triumph of conquering the jetty exit is perfect! And his victory dance shows just how far he has travelled.   Its gentle colours add to the atmosphere and each page is peppered with little bush creatures and their names, the things that the Clancy of the beginning wouldn’t see and couldn’t appreciate, but which the Clancy of the end values, even abandoning his obsession with numbers. Now, when a speedboat cuts through the water, Clancy feels sorry for the river’s creatures.   As David Suzuki says, “All children need an Uncle Egg to open up the magical world of nature.”

This is an extraordinary book – one to be read alone and savoured because there are so many layers and levels to it.  It’s not just the story of Clancy and Egg and their journey, but a calming, almost meditative, read for the reader.  Often when we pick up a picture book we just skim read it just as we can “skim read” our daily lives because we don’t think we have time to delve deeper and really appreciate and value what we have, but as you get into this story it drags you in, just as it did Clancy, until you become absorbed and oblivious to the distractions around you.  Just as the wallaby swimming across the river and the koala changing trees, it beckons you to try a new place just because you can. The handwritten font enhances the concept of it being a personal journey for both writer and reader. So while the younger student may read it as Clancy having an adventure with his Uncle Egg, there is much more that the older reader will gain from it too. In the penultimate frame, Egg says, “You’ve come a long way, kid”, to which Clancy replies, “Yeah, and I could keep going.” Sums it all up perfectly, in my opinion.

 

Yirruwa Yirrilikenuma-langwa When We Go Walkabout

Apr4
Yirruwa Yirrilikenuma-langwa When We Go Walkabout

Yirruwa Yirrilikenuma-langwa When We Go Walkabout

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yirruwa Yirrilikenuma-langwa When We Go Walkabout

Rhoda Lalara

Alfred Lalara

Allen & Unwin and The Little Big Book Club, 2014

hbk, RRP $A24.99

9781743314562

Yirruwa Yirrilikenuma-langwa, amiyembena yirrirringka yirruwa?
When we go walkabout, what do we see?

The beautiful landscapes are fauna of Groote Eylandt are brought to life in this unique dual-language picture book which introduces very young children to their unique surroundings.  There is the frill-necked lizard – dukwululuwawa – on the big rock; the green frog – dilyaburnda – in the billabong; the wallaby – yiburada – in the scrub and many more right through to the dingarrbiya and the yikurridangwa!! And then back home, after the walkabout is complete, there is someone special – the person who first introduced the author and illustrator to their environment and who inspired the book because they want to be able to share the wonders with their own grandchildren in time.

This is a remarkable book for many reasons…

Apart from the text written in both Anindilyakwa and English – the two-way learning that is the best way for indigenous children to become literate in both English and their mother-tongue – the artworks which are a collaboration between the illustrator Alfred Lalara and his wife Alice Durilla, are an integral part of passing on knowledge embedded in traditional stories and thus a critical part of the book as a whole.  The stories of how Alfred and his wife learned to paint in the traditional style, and Rhoda’s motive for writing When We Go Walkabout make fascinating reading at the end of the book.  Clearly it is one of those rare titles that entertains, informs and persuades at the same time.

The book itself is the first of the Emerging Indigenous Picture Book Mentoring Project a partnership between the Little Big Book Club and Allen & Unwin in which six previously unpublished Indigenous writers and illustrators will have their work showcased in four picture books during 2014.  Each creator has been partnered with a renowned mentor in children’s publishing including Nadia Wheatley, Ken Searle, Nick Bland, Ann James, Bronwyn Bancroft, Boori Monty Pryor and Ali Cobby Eckermann to share ideas, techniques and inspiration for their first published work. The project has been funded by the federal government through the Australia Council and it means that not only will our cohort of children’s writers be enriched but our students will have access to authentic texts that will work towards the understanding and harmony between our cultures that is at the heart of so many of the Australian Curriculum outcomes.

Even though the publishers suggest this is a book for the 0-5 brigade, Miss Nearly 8 and I shared and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It sparked a discussion about how other Australian children speak different languages and how much fun that could be and because we live where we do, we see some of the creatures like wallabies and cockatoos daily, we tried saying the new names we had learned.  It helped that we could listen to Rhoda Lara read it to us .  (There’s a QR code in the back of the book.) We also talked about how the story was written so the language and knowledge could be passed through the generations on Groote Eylandt and what she had learned from her grandmother (me) and what of that she might pass on to her own children.  That was a fascinating insight and showed that getting children to talk about such things is a critical way of helping them understand both their family history and their place in it.

Usually I give my review copies to a local school, but Miss Nearly 8 asked if she could have this one.  She wanted to read it again and think about it some more – and then write a story for her grandchildren!!  The best stories always go beyond the lines, and this has clearly done that.