Mirror – Jeannie Baker

Mirror is a collage picture book, the type that Jeannie Baker is renown for. It mirrors the lives of two boys and their families one who lives in a city in Australia and one that lives in Morocco. Their lives are very different but there are some things that connect them.....some things are the same for all families no matter where they live.
The book is a visual feast! So many things too look at, marvel and compare. There are pages on mealtimes, travel, and shopping, baking, and home routines. Linking the two stories together is a carpet that is woven by the family in Morocco, is sold, and makes its way to a shop in Australia where it is bought by the other family.
The collages are constructed layer by layers using a combination of natural and artificial materials such as sand, dirt, plant material, fabric, wool, tin and plastic. They are then photographed to collate into the finished book.
The book is wonderfully presented. Both sides of the book open out. The left side of the book opens like all English books and shows the pictures of the Australian family. The pages on the right hand side of the book depict the Moroccan family and opens how most Arabic books are read, from back to front from right to left. This allows both sides to be opened simultaneously so that the families can be compared.
This book was always out of the book box and my children would keep returning to it to look at the pictures and to find something new. It was my 9 year old how pointed out that the carpet appears in both sides of the story.
A fantastic book for all ages that is short listed for the Australian Children's Book Association's: Picture Book of the Year and I think it is almost a certainty to win. 10/10

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