The Island – Armin Greder

What a dark, disturbing but thought-provoking book. With the story being about an island I can't help but draw comparisons between the story and Australia. One morning the people of the island awake to find a man had come ashore on a raft and he was not like them. They suggest that they send him back to where he came from, justifying that he wouldn't like it so far away from his people. A fisherman sticks up for the man, as he realises that to send him away would be sending him to his death. They take him to a goat pen, tell him to stay there and go back to their normal lives. Days later he comes to town because of he is hungry, The man causes fear and panic and the people don't want to feed him because if they feed everyone who came along they wouldn't have enough for themselves. They can't find away he could work for his food as everyone assumes that the man had no skills and he would frighten people. So they lock him up in the goat pen and feed him scraps. Even though he is locked up fear among the people increases as people gossip and tell stories until the people are so frightened that they force the man onto his raft and out to sea.
However the story does not end here. Because of their fear they burn their own fishing boats, refuse to each fish from the sea that brought the man and build a great wall around their island and shoot any bird that come near so that no-one will ever find their island again.
I felt really sad after reading this book, about the depravity of people. How Xenophobia causes people to reject those that are different to them and to become selfish and leads them to cut themselves off from the world and the wonderful experiences that it has to offer. With the way Australia is so non-accepting of refugees it is both a timely and a cautionary tale. When we reject those in need, that often come be boat, and refuse to share the wealth that we have we lose something of our humanity and make the world a sadder and darker place. The illustrations lend themselves to this darker place with the sombre colours sketch in charcoal, especially the ominous sea that is the threat that brings unwanted people who are different.
Although a picture book it is aimed at older readers (12+) and evokes passionate feelings of unfairness, human rights, anger and sadness.
9/10.

Whoever you are – Mem Fox

This is a lovely book that introduces young children to the concept of cultural diversity. It is addressed to “Little one” and it has a simple message about little ones around the world. Children's skin, homes, schools, lands, lives, and languages may all be different from yours. They smile and laugh, hurt and cry just like you, they feel joy and love and have pain just like you. However inside their hearts they are just like you 'whoever they are, where ever they are all over the world'
It is easy for children (and adults) to see suffering and disasters in other countries, but to see that they look so different to us, and that their homes look different and their language is different and think that they mustn't think or hurt like we do. This book reminds us all that that isn't the case and on the inside we are not very different at all.
I am not very taken by the illustrations that were painted by Leslie Staub. The main storyteller is a man with a cloud suit and a Stetson hat that I find odd. However, she has included children from many nationalities in her paintings and I especially like the page with children around a painting of the world. I only had access to the board book, but in other formats the paintings are set into golden frames with jewels which would complement them well.
I love that the book has story poem feel to it without actually rhyming and children can join in with the repetition. It is aimed at young children and highlights the similarities between people rather than the differences. 8/10

All of us – Michael Lawrence

This week is Cultural Diversity week in Victoria so I thought I would go with a theme this week with my posts of “cultural diversity”. One of the things that I love about living in the northern suburbs of Melbourne is the eclectic mix on people, food and traditions that I see everyday. On my street alone there are people who were born in Australia, Lebanon, Italy, Greece, The Maldives, Malta, and England (and they are just the neighbours I know). I live close to Sydney Road are are able to enjoy food from around the world: Turkish, Chinese, Lebanese, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Italian, Greek, to name a few. I think I live in one of the best places in the world.
Michael Lawrence was inspired to start a photo expose of people who called Australia home after the racial riots at Cronulla beach in December 2005. He saw this as ugly and very un-Australian and wanted to understand more about Australia today and the people who lived here. His goal was to take a photo of at least one person of each nationality who now call Australia home. The person had to be born in their country of origin and chosen to make Australia their home.
Lawrence has included more than 220 photos in his book. The photos cover the whole page and are organized according to geographical location such as Europe, Oceania, Middle East etc. Each photo is taken in a place that is familiar to that person, in most cases their homes. Some have chosen to wear traditional clothing from their country of origin and others have chosen to be photographed in the style of their new home. Each person has a paragraph or two written about them which includes their name, their year and place of birth and their date of arrival in Australia. It also includes a little about the history of their choice to come to Australia and how they have create a place of belonging in Australia.

It is a lovely coffee table book which is nice and bright and can be read a little at a time. Most, if not all the photos have been taking in Victoria and I was surprise to recognize a few friends in the photos. I love multicultural Australia and I loved reading the stories of these people who share this wonderful country with me. 8/10

Note: All of us was used in 2008 as part of the Victorian Governments community harmony campaign. A video which uses Lawrence's photo can be seen here

The monster at the end of this book - Jon Stone

Tonight I read the kids this sesame street favourite and it had my 4 year old in stitches, giggling. Sesame Streets most lovable monster Grover is in shock when he hears that title of the book. You see Grover is scared of monsters and has worked out if you don't turn the pages of the book the reader will never get to the end of the book. But all reader know that to hear the story you need to turn pages. Grover tries everything to get the reader to stop turning pages from pleading, to tying down pages to building brick walls. Put as all reader do we continued to turn the page. Grover gets more and more frightened (and my son more and more excited) as we get the the next to last page........ But don't worry, since it is Sesame Street it does have a happy ending.

I'd love to see this book in a larger format as the version I have is in the 'Little Golden Book' series. I wonder if it would work without the sesame street characters as it is a lovely interactive story that kids really get involved in. There's a thought for anyone out there wanting to write a kids book. Who would be a good illustrator. Maurice Sendak's monsters are too scary, but perhaps Mo Willem with Leonado the monster

I had lots of fun reading this book and putting some Grover like qualities into my voice. But you can hear Grover reading this book here. 9/10

Knuffle Bunny - Mo Willems

When I was growing up we had words that we used that were Dutch but we never knew it. They were used with such frequency in our house that I just assumed they were English, so when I talked to my friends about sitting near the kachel when it was cold or sitting in the kamer they had no idea what I was talking about. Knuffel is one of those words that I remember my Oma using. It means hug or cuddle in Dutch, so when I saw Knuffle Bunny I immediately translated it into Cuddle Bunny.
Knuffle Bunny is a very special toy. Trixie is very attached to her Knuffle Bunny but when it gets left behind she doesn't have the words to let her Daddy know. When they get home Mummy knows exactly what the matter is, and there is a mad dash around town to find Knuffle Bunny.
I love the illustrations in the book. The backgrounds are black and white photographs and the characters, including Knuffle Bunny are bright and comic-like and while reading the story my children knew what was going to happen and were excited that they were right and knew where Knuffle Bunny had been left.
I, like many parents, was able to relate to this story as I have a child who has their own 'Knuffle Bunny'. For my oldest daughter it was a cute stuffed Dalmatian called “Dukey”. He came everywhere with my daughter and was forgotten a zillion times in shopping centres and in parks. Then 20 minutes down the road my daughter would realize that Dukey was missing. And we will always find him, until an ill-fated trip to the Melbourne zoo. Dukey was left on a rock near the platypus enclosure but when we went back he was gone. Daily phone calls to the lost property office gave no success and finally my daughter had to accept that Dukey was gone forever. We did try and get a replacement but she never bonded with the new toy. Luckily Knuffle Bunny has a happier ending. 8/10

The Lost Thing – Shaun Tan

Well I must admit I didn't realize this book existed until it won an Oscar for Best Animated Short film. The book was first published in 2000. It is told from the perspective of a boy and reads like a story of what he did on the holidays. While collecting bottle tops for his collection he comes across a large red thing that definitely looks lost. He tries to find where it belongs but most people really can't be bothered helping, even his parents loss interest in helping when he brings it home. He finds a advertisement in the paper for The Federal Department of Odds and Ends (with the Latin inscription (sweepus underum carpetae) which has a place for everything. As he fills in the reams paper work he is given a business card with a twisty arrow by a mysterious looking thing. The boy forgets the paper work and follows the twisty arrow signs and arrives at a marvellous place with many happy weird and marvellous things. Since the lost red thing made approving noises the boy leaves it there and went home to classify his bottle-top collection.
Illustrations are brilliant reminding my a little of steampunk. The story is very bland but it is the illustrations that bring humour and colour to the story. For example in the story the lost thing is never described, other than it is friendly, but it is a huge red pot shaped object with tentacle-like arms and legs. The illustrations of the Federal Department of Odds and Ends are very witty. No wonder it makes a good animation. You can see the trailer here.
The story is rather nonsensical but can seen as a metaphor for social concern. It raises issues of people who don't fit in, noticing them and finding a place for them to fit in as well as apathy toward strange lost things/ people. I love the boys summary at the end.... “I still think about that lost thing from time to time. Especially when I see something out of the corner of my eye that doesn't quite fit. You know, some with a weird, sad, lost sort of look. I see that sort of thing less and less these days though. Maybe there aren't many lost things around anymore. Or maybe I've just stopped noticing them. Too busy doing other stuff, I guess it reminds me that it is easy to get too busy and to slip into apathy.
9/10

The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain – Cath Crowley

So....I've started reading my daughters novels for Year 7 English. Not sure if this is the done thing, as my parents didn't do this for me, but then again they aren't readers. Are their other parents out there that do this?? Surely they are. I don't know if my daughter wants to talk about the books, but IF she does then I have some idea of what is going on. At the moment getting her to answer questions about school is like pulling teeth (unless it is time to go to bed and suddenly she is chatty).
Grace Faltrain is a Australian teenager who loves soccer. Ever since her father took her to a game and she saw the school soccer team she has wanted to play. She has pushed and got a position on the boys team and she is good, real good. But thing are not going according to Gracie's plan, shooting goals has become so important to Gracie she has lost touch with the team and they have lost trust in her; she had a disastrous date with Nick a boy she has liked forever; and her Dad has been absent for a long time and it looks like he might not be coming home. Gracie needs to pull something special out of the hat to get her life back on track again.
The book is written from the perspectives of the characters in the book. Gracie; Martin(the soccer captain); Helen (Gracie's Mum); Bill (Gracie's Dad); Nick; Annabelle (Gracie's rival for Nick's affections); Alyce (a classmate); and various soccer team mates. The book has an interesting format where each character's perspective is told on a separate page and sometimes it may only be one line. Sometimes they are speaking to the reader and other times they are responding to another character.
The book is at times humorous but also poignant as Crowley addresses themes of friendship, love, family relationships and self-esteem which are issues that effect teenagers. I'm glad that my daughter is reading this book and hope that she can take on board some of the lessons in the life and times of Gracie Faltrain.