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Led by a little girl named Stella, a city neighborhood fixes up an abandoned bus. It becomes the center of the social life of this multicultural urban setting. This whimsical tale of neighbors coming together shows that anything can happen with determination. There are hints to its Australian setting (e.g., ethnic makeup of the group, driving on the left, fish and chips shop) but this will appeal to primary students everywhere. This book is on the shortlist for the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year.
Eileen Schroeder
When Grace turns 8, her mum and dad decide it is important that the family take a trip around their country, Australia. So, along with her siblings Luke and Billy, Grace takes the winter term off of school for this adventure. The family packs up the camper trailer, leaves the pets with Nan and Poppa, and sets off! They live near Melbourne, so they first head west toward the Barossa Valley, Coorong, and the Flinders Ranges. The family continues their trek around the country visiting places such as the Nullarbor Plain, Eucla, Turquoise Bay, Broome, Uluru, Katherine Gorge, Darwin, Kakadu, Far North Queensland, Cow Bay, Cairns, Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Canberra, Wilsons Promontory, and the Twelve Apostles.
The author and illustrator, Australian Alison Lester, does a wonderful job of including illustrations of the wildlife, local people, landforms, and natural habitats, And, throughout, there are maps showing the family's progress. At the end of the picture book, the family has had a wonderful adventure, yet they are happy to be back home and reunited with their grandparents and pets!
There are many possible extension activities to do with this book. It can be broken up and read over several library periods. Project a map of Australia onto a SmartBoard and have the students draw the family's journey on it. Pull books on various Australian topics that tie-in with the book - animals, landforms, cities, biomes - to name just a few. Either read sections of these to the class or have them available for checkout. Find short video clips or DVDs of the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, or native Australian animals to show. These topics perfectly complement what the family experiences on their voyage.
Not only will students learn a lot about Australia from this book, but they will also enjoy the story, especially at the end of each section when Grace's little brother asks, "Are we there yet?"! Australia is definitely a big country, as we are all learning!!
-Ellen Rehn
Rabbit Proof Fence is a true story about three aboriginal girls who are forced to leave their homes and are taken to a settlement during the 1930's. They are children of mixed-marriages whom the whites thought would be better brought up white than any other culture. The story takes place in Australia in a little village called Jigalong where a group of aboriginal people lived peacefully until the invasion of the European settlers. Much like the invasion of the European settlers with our own Native Americans, the aboriginal people's land was taken from them, they were forced away from their original homes and the European settlers felt the need to try to change them. The three girls were taken to the Moore River Native Settlement and placed in overcrowded wooden buildings with chains and locks on them. Living conditions were horrible, overcrowded, pails were used as toilets, and the food was lousy. The girls were forced to speak only English and were told that their other culture was behind them.
Molly, Daisy and Gracie plan a daring escape back to their homeland of Jigalong. Their plan was to follow the rabbit proof fence that was constructed in 1907. The fence was constructed to cover 1,837 kilometers (1,139 miles) and ran from the Southern Ocean near the port of Esperance in the south to the tropical Eighty Mile Beach north of Port Hedland. The purpose of the fence was to keep rabbits out of the Western side of Australia. This plan did not work. It did, however, help the girls to find their way home. Molly's father had shown her the fence and this helped the girls determine their way home. They were skilled hunters, and people shared food with them and they were able to hide in the woods from the many trackers and white men chasing them and successfully made their trek home. What is so unbelievable is that these three girls were young, Molly was the oldest at 15.
I chose this book because everyone talked about it at our first discussion and I had never heard of it. I thought that I had better catch up and this would give me a look into the aboriginal life. I found it to be very interesting and informative. I had a hard time at the beginning with much of the native language, but the glossary in the back of the book was very helpful. I also thought before reading this book that there were only one type of aboriginal people. I know, a little naive, but I learned so much from this book. It gave me a start to understanding a little of the culture. I am also planning on watching the movie, as I've heard that that is good as well.
~by Colleen Galich
A small free kiss in the dark by Glenda Millard
Trade Binding | 192 pages | 5 1/2 x 8 1/4 | US$ 16.95
ISBN: 9780823422647
Grade: EIGHTH | Age: 12 up
Awards:ALA Best Books for YA, 2009 honour Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel, 2010 Older Readers honour Children’s Book Council of Australia.
Skip isn’t his real name. He just uses it when he runs away. The end of the semester is here and Skip makes plans to leave another abusive foster home. Plans are important. He doesn’t have much to take, just his dad’s singed overcoat. Skip heads to the city where he can blend in and go unnoticed although he knows no one will come looking for him anyways. The soon to be twelve year old planned for travel and food, but forgot about a place to sleep. In A small free kiss in the dark, Glenda Millard pulls us into Skip’s story. With lyrical prose and the first person connection to Skip we feel a part of Skip’s world. This is the beginning of a captivating story.
We learn that Skip’s mom left many years ago and Skip tells us that his father was a damaged man when he came back from a war. Skip is bullied and called stupid because he isn’t good at math. The last foster parent left bruises and burned his dad’s coat to help him move on. This isn’t the first time he has skipped. While watching artists draw on the sidewalks, Skip meets Billy, a homeless man. With a piece of chalk, Skip proves that he is a gifted artist too. Billy helps Skip find a safe place to sleep. Skip and Billy have a tentative relationship, observing careful boundaries between two homeless people. Seeing Skip’s artistic ability, Billy and Skip begin visiting the library so that Skip can learn and make something of himself. While Skip is asleep in a dumpster and Billy is at a shelter, bombs strike and create havoc in the city. As bombs continue to fall and tanks enter the city, the two head for the library where others have gathered to find shelter from the war. This is where the third character enters the story. Six year old Max joins the twosome in a war created family.
Max was left under a table in the library by his mother and told to wait for her return. Two days later and she still hasn’t appeared. Max thinks the bombs are weapons of Max destruction. When the city becomes too dangerous, the three head to no man’s land a neutral, safe area. Skip gets to borrow three books to take with him, one a coveted Monet. On the way they decide a safer place would be the amusement park on the beach. There Skip enjoys having a family for the first time in his life. They set up camp in a carnival ride and discover a young girl with a baby. Tia and her baby nicknamed Sixpence complete the family unit. Tia visits the soldiers on the hill and dances on the empty stage. She too has bruises. Skip takes much of the responsibility of caring for Sixpence. The war finally closes in on them and Skip decides he isn’t going to let things happen to him. He makes plans. Millard brings the story to an exciting, bittersweet end.
Skip reflects a lot about war. His father wasn’t the same when he came home. When asked to play with a group of boys they demanded that Skip chose a side the Americans or the enemy. Skip knows there is a third option, no war. The true casualties of war are the people and that is evident in Skip’s story. But Millard has written more than a story about war, A small free kiss in the dark is a story about hope. Through the war Skip has gained a family and possibly a future.
Here is a link to an interview with Millard.
http://www.flutteringbutterflies.com/2011/04/review-and-interview-small-free-kiss-in.html
I read a two of Shaun Tan's books and Stories from the Billabong, but I reviewed this one because it was really good. Not that the others weren't - it's just that I really liked Skip. The kids in my school would like it. I enjoyed Millard's writing - weapons of Max destruction. When I do reviews I like to check out the author and blogs. One of the blogs suggested this was Americanized because they played baseball instead of cricket - that makes sense to me, but they could have left it cricket! I thought it was interesting that when the kids played war it was the Americans against everyone else. It will be interesting to learn what Australians think about us. It's tricky being an ambassador for America. At least Bush isn't President!
Lisa Evey
In order to understand my review, I need to explain a few things. 1) When I hear I have to read a non-fiction book, I groan like an elementary kid who has their recess cancelled. 2) I read primarily to escape. 3) I totally waited to the last minute to read In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. After reading this book, I need to change my thinking. What a great book!!
Bryson’s stories completely bring Australia to light. His ability as a writer is astounding. The amounts of superlatives I need to use to describe this book are maxed out. Thankfully, I have a thesaurus readily available. His descriptions of the places he travelled to and the people he met are vividly laid out in this book written over ten years ago. Even though this book might seem slightly out dated, I think his observations might be relevant today. I can’t wait to arrive in Australia to see if my thinking is correct.
Before reading this book, I had no interest in seeing the outback or the ubiquitous “bush.” How could the sun beating down on a red, flat and desolate terrain be an attraction to anyone? After reading about his adventures in the outback, I wanted to rearrange my travel plans to include an adventure to the real outback and meet the people he met because he makes the land and the people beautiful and entirely enjoyable, but maybe that’s all Australia. I want to stay in the White Cliffs hotel and take the Indian Pacific railroad across the barren outback to Perth following his journey and stops.
If others haven’t read this book or always wanted to visit Australia, read it. However, I feel the need to warn other fiction biased readers that this is completely different beast. First, this book is cohesive, but not in the traditional fiction sense. Every couple of pages is a new story and insight about Australia. I have the attention span of a three year old and I had a hard time picking up this book at the random times I read this book and continue on without having to reread the last few pages to pick up where I started. Secondly, read the footnotes. They are just as entertaining and humorous as rest of the book.
I am so glad I “read” this. Unfortunately, this book needs to be savored and like a great coffee or a brilliant novel. Consequently, I need to reread this book to that I am sure I have missed out on.
Jacqy Peterson
As soon as I told some friends that I am heading to Australia this summer, they highly recommended this book to me. I had read some other work by Bryson and enjoyed it, so I was excited to get into this book! Written in 2000, Bryson chronicles his attempt to thoroughly travel and experience the land down under. During his travels, he managed to visit quite a number of remote places, meet local people, experience the hot weather, drink lots of beer, and ask questions everywhere he visited. I thought the book was wonderful!
Throughout, Bryson weaves in facts about Australia, some of the history of the country, the name origination for various places, information about the native animals, and much, much more about Australia. He traveled thoroughly around the country and, as we are just learning while making our own travel arrangements, does a spot-on job of expressing the vastness of the country and just how long it can take to get from one city to the next. He also interjects humor throughout as well as his opinions on various topics. At the front of the book are several maps of his travels, which I enjoyed referring to while reading. I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys reading travelogues or who wants to learn more about Australia. I know I won’t remember all of Bryson’s facts and historical information about the country while there, but In a Sunburned Country has given me an appreciation for Australia and a great desire to travel there with an open mind and a sense of humor!
http://www.billbryson.co.uk/books_downunder.html
This Young Adult novel takes place during the course of one night. It involves a young girl named Lucy who is celebrating her senior year being over. She decides to spend the evening searching for a boy who paints graffiti on walls throughout the city. He paints beautiful, artistic walls with vibrant colors and underlying meaning. He signs his work "Shadow". Lucy truly believes that she could fall for someone so artistic. A boy named Ed tells her he knows Shadow and offers to take her throughout the city seeking Shadow. They spend the evening getting to know each other as they search for Shadow (they dated once, but she punched him in the nose when he grabbed her "arse").
The story is told in alternating voices, which makes it flow quite well. The search for Shadow has a limited time as Ed has promised to help his friend Leo rob the school in order to pay off a debt to a loan shark. During the course of the evening, Leo and Ed have some tough decisions to make. It is an adventurous story and packed with humor, risk and personal feelings and growth.
I chose this book after I searched award winning YA novels in Australia. It has won the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Award. The reviews were very good for this particular book. There were several Australian words that I jotted down that were new to me like "yankers" and "year twelve" and "arse". There was an overabundance usage of the "f" word as well, which might make this difficult to have in my K-8 library. It is a well-written book, however, so I would probably keep it in my back room where my mature books are for junior high or I might donate it to our local high school library.
~by Colleen Galich
I read Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country in January when we first found out about the class. I had not read Bryson before. He packs a ton of information into a travel book. History, trivia, little known facts interspersed with information on the places he visits. His admitted fear of the deadly animals, insects, and fish in Australia was the first point I noted. I thought at the time, I won’t have to worry about the jelly fish, because we’ll be going in the winter and won’t be going to the beach. Australia’s unique plants and animals are an interesting study. There are more kangaroos than people. I hope that means I have a good chance to see one in the wild. Another point that was well taken when reading Bryson’s travel diary is the vastness of Australia. Not just that it is an island that is a country and a continent, but how really big it is and the extremes in the land; the Australian Alps, the Gold Coast, the Great Barrier Reef, the rainforest, the outback and desert. I especially enjoyed the stories about the first explorers and the attempts to cross the outback. Bryson is vivid storyteller. He does enjoy a cold beer and good food. He has quite a constitution to be able to travel hung over! We are not as fortunate as Bryson to be able to travel by car for weeks to experience Australia, so reading his book is the next best thing. Reading In a Sunburned Country, we have the opportunity to see Australia through Bryson’s eyes even if we cannot visit all the places he does. You realize that travel in Australia, because of it size is challenging both in time and money. So as we are finding out, decisions have to be made about where to go and what to see. I hope I am more successful than Bryson was at snorkeling in the GBR.
Any book about Australia has to include a conversation about its native people. Bryson gives us some background, but a topic that includes race, culture, and society requires additional study. His notes about the Aborigines and how they were treated by whites was helpful. One can easily see the similarity of our own history and Native Americans. Bryson says that he didn’t see any Aborigines working anywhere in his travels and states that he found it odd. The Aborigines are only a small percentage in Australia, around 3% of the population. So if you are on the tourist track, it probably is not uncommon not to see Aborigines among the general population. This is one topic that will be interesting to observe in our travels.
In a Sunburned Country was an entertaining, informative introduction to Australia. Wouldn’t we all like to be Bill Bryson’s travel companion.
After going through the bibliography I bought American Journeys by Don Watson. I'm interested to learn what he thinks about us as he travels across the U.S.- by TRAIN (his first mistake!) On the cover it says, "The best book written by an outsider about America . . forever! by David Sedaris. Humm- I'm only 40 pages in.
Lisa Evey
I have this book in my library because it was part of the Illinois Lincoln Award reading list and Printz winner. I always wanted to read it after reading the review when it was selected and because of Ellen’s love for Zusek. This spring it was chosen by my kids’ book club in March and conveniently it worked for this class.
Ed Kennedy is a loveable loser who is just getting by until one day his life changes when he goes into a bank with his other loser friend. The bank gets robbed and Ed becomes an unwitting hero. After stopping the robber, he starts to receive playing cards with addresses and clues on them. What is Ed supposed to do with the cards? Ed discovers the cards are clues to help people and Ed is the messenger sent to help this people out. The messages are calls for help for a cast of characters that are seemingly more interesting at first than Ed. The story comes together as Ed’s messages become increasingly personal as he must come to terms with his dad’s death, his unlikeable mother, his ragtag, aimless friends and his unrequited love. Ed must also try and find out who is behind the messages. However, like the ending says, Ed is the message himself.
I loved and hated this book. I love Zusek’s characterization and story. It was refreshing to read a young adult book with that makes you take a deeper look at yourself and the world around you. The bad part for me was the ending. I was left confused and dissatisfied. I like my books to end clearly with a nice bow to the complete story, and I felt disappointed because I didn’t get the sense here. I reread the ending multiple times and I still felt lost. On the other hand, my students loved the ending and wanted to talk about it a lot. In the end, I guess your ideas on how a book should end will greatly affect how you view this one.
Did I learn anything about Australia after reading this book? Nope. The only real clue I remember is Ed’s Christmas taking place when it was summer there. However, this book was never meant to do that. I am the Messenger is thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking. I am a better person for receiving this message.
Jacqy Peterson
I very much enjoyed reading the book, In A Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson. It offers a regional tour around Australia chapter by chapter. I especially liked the chapters that discussed the places that I would like to visit.
Mr. Bryson offered a look at the history, geography, people, and places around Australia. He has cunning wit that was embedded into the story. This added to the shear enjoyment of the book.
The novel was packed with historical factual material. The accounts of early practices of sending criminals from Britain to live in Australia portrays a blend of honesty and humor that is appealing in Bryson’s book. He also compares the government in Australia to the government in the US. Their Parliament is comprised of two houses – the House of Representatives and the Senate. Their leader, the Prime minister is like that of Britain. The fact that they have had 24 Prime Ministers since 1901 is a bit unusual. This was mixed with the humor of the disappearing prime minister.
Bryson’s tour around Australia has shared the geography of the country with the reader. The country totes beautiful mountains, hot arid deserts, lush rainforests, and beautiful water. All areas are abundant with wildlife that can be strange, beautiful and deadly. I especially enjoyed the section near the Great Barrier Reef. The country has many, many varieties of flora and fauna. This seems to be associated with the fact that Australia is so isolated that many species are protected from outside forces. The outback was traveled by car and often described the morbid but honest facts of being stranded out in the HOT desert. His candid comment about drinking urine in the desert added to the humor in the book. I enjoyed how the author traveled little known places as well as well-known places. He seemed to be drawn to the out of the way pubs and hotels.
As one travels Australia, one can see some 60 large objects posed along highways in various shapes. There is a giant banana, lobster, koala, oyster, and orange to name a few. These objects usually mark a gift shop or eatery.
I took great solace in the fact that Bryson described the people as friendly, helpful, and courteous. It was very apparent that the major population lived in the large cities with few people inhabiting the central region. Bryson mentioned 6 people per square mile. People near Adelaide were described as self-critical. I also read about the Aboriginal people, which I find fascinating. This is part of the reason I want to visit Ayers Rock.
This overview of the sites and sounds of Australia entices the readers to visit and enjoy the continent, country, and island of Australia.
By Noreen Lamsam
Are We There Yet by Alison Lester is a children’s book about a journey around Australia. It is a story about a family vacation which starts out in Binnu, South Australia. Grace, the narrator of the story is 8 and takes a trip with Mom, Dad, and two brothers. They travel by car with a camper pulled behind for three months. They traveled the perimeter of the country except for and inland trip to Alice Springs. It was extremely enlightening to see the vastness of the country from a child’s point of view.
The book has colorful illustrations and maps to help the reader understand the content. The first page has a large map of Australia and the path of the trip with labels of cities and sites. The reader gets a glimpse of the major attractions and cities along with the geography and wildlife of the area. The Great Barrier Reef was described as and underwater carnival of fish and coral.
As they traveled, they encountered hot, warm and cold weather all in the same winter season. The family was able to swim, fish, sled, hike and explore caves. This makes me excited to think I will be able to explore the country in a few weeks.
As the title stated, Billy always asked “Are we there yet?” The book ended there which was really the start. (Their home) The family was happy to return to their grandparents and animals after their long trek.
The book was written and illustrated by Alison Lester. The pictures would appeal to children along with the story. My students could relate to the camping experience portrayed in the book. I think it would lead to some good discussions and geography lessons.
By Noreen Lamsam