'Possum Magic' by Mem Fox

Possum Magic is an award-winning picture book by Australian author Mem Fox. The two main characters are Grandma Poss and Hush. Hush has been made invisible by Grandma to protect her from Australian bush dangers. The story details the duo's adventures as they tour Australia searching for the secret to Hush's visibility. It is a rhythmical story of Australia's varied landscapes and the animals in them.

Many cultural markers are included in this enchanting picture book. Young readers will enjoy the literary and visual references to Australia and the bush culture. Fox consciously uses language to evoke the essence of the country. The author’s description of Grandma Poss’ bush magic, which turns “wombats blue and kookaburras pink,” refers to a practice that is distinctly Australian. Her inclusion of native Australian animals places the reader firmly in this unique territory. The possums’ search for “people food” sends them on a culinary tour of Australia and readers discover cultural treats like anzac biscuits and minties.. The ‘Possum Magic’, the illustrations complement and extend the text to create a memorable literary and visual experience.

Look! A book! by Libby Gleeson

Look! A Book!

written by Libby Gleeson

& Illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Look! A Book! written by Libby Gleeson is a children’s literature picture book with hardly any text. The reader is given multiple perspectives to interpret this book from the illustrations. With each turn of the page is another vivid illustration capturing the moment the two characters are imagining.

The exposition/orientation is interpreted by the reader from the illustrations. The field is set within an unprivileged society, which are based upon stereotypes. The two characters within the book (unnamed) find a book on the ground. From this book the character’s imaginations transform their reality.

Since, there is minimal text the reader much interpret the complications and climax of the narrative through the illustrations. As the scenes become a magical journey it teaches younger readers about the magic of imagination that can come from reading a book.

For All Creatures by Glenda Millard

For All Creatures written by Glenda Millard and illustrated by Rebecca Cool

For All creatures written by Glenda Millard is a children’s literature book about all creatures big or small. The author sends the reader on a tongue twisting tale of describing words to describe animals of all sorts.

Instead of naming each creature, Glenda describes a different creature and uses imagery, adjectives and adjectival phrases to describe the creatures “For weavers and wisps. For silk spinners and spiderlings, lace and loveliness and for webs, we are thankful” (Millard, 2012).  Millard uses similes and metaphors to describe her creatures to create a vivid and life-like image in the readers mind. Each paragraph is a repetition from the previous with a familiar verse taking on a similar structure. Each paragraph ends with ‘we are thankful’ and begins with ‘for’.

Young readers will be introduced to new vocabulary within ‘For all Creatures’ and is a good engaging activity to introduce adjectives and adjectival phrases to children or for creative and expressive writing. This book offers a reminder to be thankful and appreciative towards creatures, big or small.

No Bears by Meg Mckinlay

'No Bears'

written by Meg Mckinlay

& Illustrated by Leila Rudge

No Bears written by Meg Mckinlay is a book about a child who wants to tell the reader about a story with no bears. Some narratives are structured differently from the traditional way of using plot, character and setting and this book is no exception. The author has made the narrative from the perspective of second person where the story is told to the reader. Within this story the child protagonist interrupts the story being read and addresses the reader directly by commenting on the characters and the events “On no it’s getting scary” (Mckinlay, 2012). This way the book is conveying multiple perspectives to the reader.

Multiple viewpoints are also seen as the illustrations within this picture book show a different story to the one being read. The illustrations are showing things which have not been written. The book is about ‘no bears’ so the bears are hidden behind the illustrations and popping up behind the pictures “I had lots of fun illustrating No Bears and have always loved the idea of images revealing an alternative story to the text” (Rudge, 2011).

The illustrations are also showing another perspective to the book as some of the illustrations are making direct links with popular fairtales. Within the illustrations red riding hood, Repunzel, three little pigs, Hansel and Gretel and other fairy tales can be seen.

Overall this book is a comical children’s book for lower primary students. Even though ‘no bears’ are in this book, one bear manages to find his way onto each page and eventually have one of the starring roles.

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French

'Diary of a Wombat'

Written by Jackie French

& illustrated by Bruce Whatley

The book ‘Diary of a Wombat’ by Jackie French is a delightfully humorous story about a wombat. The wombat has new neighbours move in (humans) and the wombat trains the humans to give him treats on demand. French (2003) does not write much text within the book, as the books viewpoints come from the perfectly illustrated pictures.

This book would be a perfect engagement book about Australian animals as the wombat is an Australian animal.

This book is using the week days to indicate time and features of a typical day such as morning, afternoon and evening. As this book is essentially a wombat’s diary it is written in first person from the perspective of the wombat.

Throughout the book the reader has multiple perspectives as the illustrations show more than the text reads. Essentially the story is told from the viewpoint of the illustrations. There is more of the story being told in the illustrations then there is in the text. Within the illustrations, rather than being a visual reference for the events described in the text, is instead essentially a new story being told.

'The lost thing' By Shaun Tan

The Lost Thing, first published in 2000, is both simple and complex - depending upon how the reader chooses to interpret it. Characteristic of Tan’s literature, the story is strangely familiar and yet completely bizarre. When a young boy discovers a lost “animal” whilst collecting bottle tops on the beach he is compelled to find out who owns it or where it belongs. As the boy attempts to place this huge tentecaled monster, which is not quite animal or machine, the reader is taken on a whimsical guided tour through the, un-coincidently, grey, industrial and unfriendly society in which the boy lives.

The text’s casual and dry first person narration give little away. “That’s the story,” the boy tells us at the end. “Not especially profound, I know, but I never said that it was. And don’t ask me what the moral is.” (Tan, 2000) The reader is left to discover meaning, and in the absence of explanation one cannot help but ask questions. Why are the colours limited to industrial greys and browns? What is that strange place glimpsed through a doorway at the end of an anonymous alley? Is this the future of the present? Why doesn’t anybody notice the lost thing? Why are all the citizens so unhappy? It is Tan’s ability to provoke the readers’ curiosity which makes his works valuable resources when attempting to develop critical, visual and deep literacy skills within students.

Under the strand Literacy, Sub-strand Interpreting, Analysing and Evaluating, the Australian Curriculum requires year six students to “Analyse how text structures and language features work together to meet the purpose of a text” (ACARA, 2012). Working with The Lost Thing, students could question how and why the young boy’s narration has been constructed to give the impression of disinterest and nonchalance. Students could be asked ‘What is the purpose of this text?’ and encouraged to give reasons to support their response.  The teacher may choose to read the text aloud without showing the illustrations to emphasise the relationship between visual and textual literacy within the book.

 Shaun Tan redefines the typical audience parameters of picture books, no longer are they simply the literature of children, but complex and layered narratives which readers, of all ages and literacy-levels, can get as much or as little of as they wish from. Tan supports his point by suggesting that;

“Simplicity certainly does not exclude sophistication or complexity; we inherently know that the truth is otherwise. “Art,” as Einstein reminds us, “is the expression of the most profound thoughts in the simplest way.””(cited in Macintyre, 2002, p.46)

'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye, first published in 1951, is a fictional novel narrated by sixteen year old Holden Claufield, which touches on some very real adolescent issues. “The content of the modern adolescent novel has always been focused on the controversial social issues seen to be pertinent to youth” (Nimon & Foster, 1995, p.52). Some sixty years on themes such as loneliness, relationships, belonging & not-belonging, intimacy, sexuality, deception and mental illness remain inherent to the genre of adolescent literature.

Salinger explores these themes in the first person which draws the audience in and pressures them to question the trials and tribulations of ‘the teenage experience’.

Salinger’s contradictory, colloquial and cynical writing style constructs protagonist and narrator Holden, as self-absorbed, violent, disconnected and disengaged from society and his family in particular. At the beginning of the novel, Holden indicates that he has been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, the story of which is revealed over the course of the novel. ‘I got pretty run down and had to come out here and take it easy’ (1951, p. 1), he says. Whilst the underlying influences such as lack of stability, family breakdown and mental illness are hinted as the root of Holden’s ‘issues’, the overall construction of adolescents is explored in a fairly negative and thought provoking manner. Holden seemingly has problems, both psychological and sociological which weigh heavily throughout the text.

 “As social commentators, authors have in effect provided a snap shot of [adolescent] life based on what they understand the situation to be” (Foster, Finnis & Nimon, 2005, p.72). Therefore the depictions of adolescents and their lives are based heavily around the ideologies and perceived normalcies held by the author. A critical stance must be taken when considering social texts; we as the reader must consider “what choices have been made in the creation of the text” (Janks & Ivanic, 1992, p.316). It is through this reflective/ critical approach that adolescent ‘constructions’ can be recognised and thus compared with personal experiences.

The text presents readers with new models of adolescent behaviour that rejects and modifies those common in the 1950’s which remained more innocent and childlike in nature. Holden is portrayed not completely as a child, neither as an adult; he possesses the characteristics of both. Whilst he drinks heavily, has sexual desires and exerts a large degree of freedom, he is also uncomfortable talking to girls, disregards authority figures, and is dependent on adults.

You can see him floating in the no man’s land of adolescents, wanting freedom and independence, yet dependent on adults for financial as well as psychological support. He lacks respect for the ‘phony’ adult world and hence is determined, even by the end of the novel, to not ‘grow up’. Holden’s silent contempt for adults and the adult ‘world’ is highlighted in chapter two, when his History teacher tries to make him play by the rules:

“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”

“Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.”

Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.

It is clear that Holden identifies with those on the “other side” of the game. He feels alienated and angry beneath his compliant veneer. Holden learnt early on in life, from the trauma of his younger brother Allie’s death, that the cards in this particular “game” are not evenly stacked. This critical awareness of adult imperfection, positions Holden as sensitive and intelligent, he no longer sees the world through the innocent eyes of childhood but rather as an overtly cynical young man.

'Soraya the story teller' by Rosanne Hawke

Rosanne Hawke explores cultural identity, ideas of social inclusion, exclusion and racism in a way that allows and/or pressures the audience to question the trials and tribulations of ‘the asylum seeker experience’. The reader is positioned to empathise and in some ways relate to the participants, in particular with the story’s protagonist, twelve year old Soraya. This corresponds with Ferrarelli’s idea that children’s literature can be used ‘to promote sensitivity to culture, gender and ethnic differences’ (Ferrarelli, M 2007, p. 63).    

    

Hawke creates a glimpse of the trauma suffered by a broken family who escaped the upheaval of Afghanistan. Soraya and her now small family have seen and experienced terrible things under the rule of the Taliban. Having lost four members of her family and for fear of losing more, they were forced to flee Afghanistan, risking their lives in order to escape those who persecuted them. Soraya arrived in Australia with surviving family members, her mother, younger brother and sister only to be met with, not a place of freedom where they would be welcomed, but a detention centre where depression and post-traumatic stress compound there negative experiences. Granted a three year temporary protection visa, Soraya tries to adjust and adapt to her new country and longs to stay there in safety. “Through her storytelling we learn about the bravery and the reality of Soraya’s life, the fear and terror she and her family have left and the shocking uncertainty that they now face, still not knowing what the future holds”(Hawke 2011). This medium provides children with a text that is accessible and meaningful to the intended audience. 

The use of lead character which corresponds with the intended primary school audience leads to increased identification and empathy with the characters. Children are able to identify with Soraya’s familiar family dynamics at a level which helps to breakdown pre-existing cultural boundaries. For example an ‘annoying’ younger brother for whom Soraya wishes she knew “how to make him shut his mouth” (Hawke 2004 p.61) and a grandma who reads her bedtime stories. The familiarity of playing in the park and making new friends is set against the unfamiliarity of severe post traumatic stress and depression experienced by the mother due to the trauma of losses and relocation. This juxtaposition of familiarity and unfamiliarity allows for the reader to place themselves in the characters ‘shoes’.

Hawke portrays the non-Anglo-Celtic protagonist as misunderstood and scrutinised; positioned as the victim, Soraya constantly reminded she does not ‘belong’. “You’re not like us, and this is all some people notice” (Hawke 2004 p.130).

Hawkes’ intent is to highlight the naivety and ignorance which forms the foundations of intolerance, and how it promotes a cultural void between Anglo-Celtic and non-Anglo-Celtic Australians. Throughout the text adjectives such as different, strange, foreign, wog and weirdare commonly used by other school kids to describe Soraya and her family (Hawke 2004). It is made clear that these descriptions are to be seen in a negative light, reinforcing the sometimes brutal and harsh environment with which she must contend.