Erika’s Story

I discovered this book when I was looking for picture books to go along with our Year 8 novel and film study of The boy in the striped pyjamas, by John Boyne. It’s titled Erika’s Story and is authored by Ruth Vander Zee, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti.

Our boys are going to have a Holocaust survivor as their guest speaker shortly so this is a book well worth pointing out to them. Erika’s Story is also about the Holocaust, but it is also about the love a mother had for her child, and the extraordinary act she performed to ensure that her baby was given the chance to survive.

It is a biography of Erika, whose parents were Jewish and the book tells of what Erika imagines might have happened to them. She really doesn’t know. In fact she knows very little of her background at all. What she does know is that her mother was on a train, heading to a concentration camp, when she threw tiny Erika, bundled up in blankets, off the train, no doubt hoping that someone would find her and care for her. Vander Zee writes:

“On her way to death, my mother threw me to life.”

Looking at Ruth Vander Zee’s website I discovered that she has written several interesting other books, including one I own, Mississipi Morning, which explores the memories of young white boy who gradually comes to realise the racial hatred within his town and the role of the Ku Klux Klan. Her other two books are Eli Remembers and Always With You.

There are Teacher’s notes for Erika’s Story and you can find them here.

The illustrations are beautifully drawn by Roberto Innocenti, who illustrated Rose Blanche. Most illustrations in Erika’s Story are sepia toned, almost as if we are looking at a snapshot and reminiscing. The illustrations Erika appears in, however, have some colour. She is represented by pink. A full page colour illustration at the beginning of the book shows Erika telling her story to the author. Later we see a pink bundle being thrown from the train, and finally there is a double page colour illustration showing Erika as a child, looking at the train going past her home. Perhaps the use of colour represents hope and a future. In the sepia toned illustrations, the Jewish people do not have faces shown. We are shown the very crowded conditions they had to travel in though, and the belongings they brought with them for their journey. Their clothing is not the warm clothing they would have needed by the time the train reached its snowy destination.

You can view the illustrations over at the Children’s Book Illustration Blog.

Queenie – One elephant’s story

I came across this book in our school library recently and it’s a great one. I was drawn to the book for two reasons. One is that I remember going to the Melbourne Zoo as a youngster and loved watching the elephants and actually riding on them, although I must have been very young because apparently elephant rides were stopped by 1962. In the early 1960’s it seemed that every year we visited the zoo with the school and one of the highlights was a ride around the zoo on an elephant. Certainly something that wouldn’t be done today, but it was great fun. The second reason is that, as a family history researcher, I often visit the Public Record Office of Victoria website and came across a document relating to this story.

The story of Queenie was written by Corinne Fenton and is beautifully illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe. It’s a very nostalgic look at the Melbourne Zoo in the first half of the 20th Century, and the illustrations show just how different the animals were treated at that time and the types of enclosures they had. Today no elephant in the Melbourne Zoo would be expected to walk around taking children for rides, and the enclosures are much closer to their natural habitat. We can watch them live and play today, as they would in the wild.

Queenie was brought to the zoo from India and by 1905 she was old enough to carry passengers. She patiently gave rides to many people over the next decades, and she was a much loved animal to visit at the zoo. Sadly Queenie crushed her keeper in 1944. An inquest followed, and its a piece of correspondence from this inquiry that is now with the Public Records Office. You can view it here, along with several original photos of Queenie.

When reading this story with older children, you might like to have a lesson on the use of Trove. Children might like to research some of the older newspaper stories about Queenie, and there are many. Some are about the death of her keeper, but there are other photos and general stories about Queenie as well. Here’s an example of one such story from the Cairns Post, 20 September 1944.

There is a podcast over at the ABC site which would make a great lead in to the story. Corinne Fenton discusses her book and some of the Queenie stories she has come across. Several older listeners rang in to tell of their memories of Queenie and these can be a lovely lead in to oral story telling. This podcast also explores whether Queenie really meant to kill her keeper or whether it was accidental. That is something that could also be discussed with older children. Just be aware that the interview is a little way into this podcast.

Corinne Fenton has a website which will lead you to her other books. You can visit it here. Teaching notes and activity ideas can be found here.

Finally you can find a review of the book, published in The Age here.

There are several other books which would go along with this picture book. Elephant Baby by Tania Cox and Ann James comes to mind. Zoo by Anthony Browne would also be useful to look at particularly the enclosures, comparing them with today’s enclosures and obtaining some understanding of a zoo from an animal’s perspective. There may be non fiction books based around zoos that give some history of animals within zoos. Children could explore the role of zoos, both now and in the past. They may find historical photos of zoo enclosures to give them some insights into how ideas have changed.

Further research into elephants, especially Indian elephants, could also be encouraged. The social structure of elephants has been the subject of many documentaries and children would probably find it intriguing, particularly in light of the fact that little Queenie refused to leave the ship without the bull elephant which accompanied her.

I mentioned Peter Gouldthorpe’s illustrations early on. I love how he has given us a colour photo of scenes with Queenie, but the outside edges have been drawn like pencil sketches. Have a look at the two examples below. This is something I would be exploring with children, and perhaps they could model their own drawings on Gouldthorpe’s style, particularly if this book is read following an excursion to the zoo.

Brian Selznik

I have spent some time over the holidays exploring the books of Brian Selznik recently. He’s written The Invention of Hugo Cabret and more recently Wonderstruck. You might know Hugo Cabret because the film Hugo is based on this book. It’s a wonderful film and a great book.

In both books Selznick has created an amazing mix of picture book, graphic novel and film, resulting in books to treasure. The illustrations in Hugo Cabret are wonderful and you can see much of the story unfolding through these black and white illustrations. Along the way there are chapters of text which tell the reader more of the story. Blended together they tell us about Hugo and we can piece together the mystery that surrounds Hugo, the old man, a young girl and the automaton that Hugo is trying to restore.

Set in Paris, this is a book to read and explore, then read some more. If you can see the movie then do so. It’s wonderful.

Watch this video to hear how the author got his ideas for writing The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Head on over to the Hugo Cabret website for lots more information about the book too. It’s at http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/index.htm and there’s lots of things to explore there.

Selznick’s latest book is Wonderstruck. It’s structured in a very similar way to Hugo Cabret, in that there are chapters of text then chapters of black and white illustrations telling more about the story. There are two stories running along side each other here, one set in New York in 1927, the other in 1977. The story set in 1927 is told completely through illustration, whilst the 1977 story is told in text. Eventually the two stories come together.

As with Hugo Cabret, there is a website devoted to the book. You can find out heaps more about the story by visiting: http://www.wonderstruckthebook.com/

Have a look at this video to see more about Selnick’s ideas that led him to write this book.

NOTE: This post has been cross posted at the MClibrary blog, which I also run.

Jeannie Baker – Mirror

Jeannie Baker is a well known artist and children’s book author/illustrator. Her most recent book is Mirror, which today was announced as the joint winner of the Picture Book of the Year. Well deserved it is too.

Some of our students will be like me and love it from its design point of view. The cover opens and we see two stories, each one mirroring the other. The left hand side introduction is written in English, and the family depicted, through collage, is from Sydney, Australia. The right hand side has the same introduction, but written in Arabic and the young boy in this part of the story lives in Morocco with his family. We are told that each of the stories are designed to be read side by side.

Jeannie Baker’s books are quite often wordless, and this one is no exception. Apart from the initial introduction telling readers that the two families, although different and in different parts of the world, still have some things that are the same. As we open each of the stories, we can explore the illustrations to see just how different, but how similar, these families, and indeed families all over the world, are.

Visually there is much to explore as readers move through a day in Sydney and Morocco with these two boys and their families. Baker’s collage work is stunning, and the original pieces have been touring Australia, visiting many art galleries around the country. I particularly love her artwork in the Morrocan part of the story. The landscape is wonderful, and we can see red sand and rock in some spreads, with lush green crops growing for the family’s food. The market scene is another that I love. One has his seeds and spices set on the ground in sacks, which another has vegetables spread out ready to sell. The visual literacy that could be developed as students, or indeed adults, pore through each of the stories, is endless. There is always something new to find.

The video below might help you to understand the design of the book better, and it certainly gives you a taste of the illustrations you will find.

You might enjoy reading a review of Mirror, and also a blog post chatting with Jeannie Baker. There’s also an ABC radio podcast where you can hear an interview of Jeannie Baker discussing Mirror. Finally go to Jeannie Baker’s website to get further information about her and her books. Dates and venues for the travelling exhibition of Mirror are listed here too.

Please note that this post is cross posted on my school library blog, at http://mclibrary11.wordpress.com/.

Revisiting – Refugees

David Miller’s books are always a delight and Refugees is one which has a very powerful message.  It tells a very simple story of two ducks whose habitat is destroyed by progress.  With huge earth moving equipment coming in to develop the land, the ducks are forced to move out of their home in the swamp and its island. In fact one illustration shows the bull dozer destroying the swamp and the water pouring away. The ducks move around to different locations but are unable to find a suitable new place where they will have food and fresh water. After many possible, but unsuitable places, the two ducks are finally found, rescued and relocated to another swamp where they can live safely.

The book has a strong environmental message. We see the habitat being destroyed to make way for development, forcing the wildlife to find another home. It is not easy finding just the right place though and the story follows the little ducks through their misfortunes as they look for their new home. Duck hunting is mentioned in one double page spread which could lead the way into a discussion of hunting as a sport: a debate could be set up to ensure that both sides of the argument are heard. Alternatively, a letter could be written to the government expressing a view.

Paralells will be made with refugees travelling from their own country to live in Australia. The blurb of the book says:

“Their journey in search of a new place to live exposes them to danger, rejection and violence before they are given a new home.”

It is worthwhile exploring the story in relation to real life stories of refugees. Is Miller’s story of two ducks similar to those of human refugees looking for a new home?

Any of Miller’s books might be used as inspiration for art lessons. His artwork is in the form of paper sculpture and is exquisite. Looking at the illustrations of the birds in the book we can clearly see their individually cut feathers.  One page shows a dog peeking through the reeds and the amount of work which must have been put in to cut all of the dog’s fur so finely, would have been phenominal.

One of my favourite illustrations is the one below, where Miller has imagined that the ducks might have taken the place of the yellow ducks moving across the top of a fairground entertainment. Some creative writing might explain why the ducks chose there to spend the night and how they were woken in the morning.

Miller has collaborated with others on books, such as Boo to a Goose with Mem Fox, and has written and illustrated alone. Many of his books are illustrated by using his paper sculpture technique and they are all well worth exploring.

Teachers Notes for Refugees can be found here.

An interview with David Miller can be found here.

Possum Tale

This gorgeous picture book came across my desk recently, and I’m thrilled it did. Possum Tale is a picture book, written and illustrated by Lucienne Noontil, and it’s just charming. The story begins with a family of ringtail possums, all cramped up in their nest in a gum tree. Mum tells Rusty that it’s time he looked for his own space, so he packs his backpack and heads out into the world to find a home of his own.

Poor Rusty finds that many places that seem to be perfect for his home, are really not quite what they seem and there’s a surprise or two along the way, both for Rusty, and for the readers who travel along with him.

The illustrations are lovely. The flowering gum trees, so important for our Australian wildlife, are beautifully drawn. There’s a lovely double page spread of Rusty, on the branch of a pink flowering gum, looking closely at a hole in the tree trunk, thinking it is a possible nest. 

I really like the close up illustrations of those “surprises” that pop out of several hiding spots, frightening Rusty away.  They are big and bold, and the message for Rusty is very clear.

My favourite illustration though, is one of Rusty crouched underneath his blue umbrella on the roof of a house, sheltering from the rain. As the rain drips off the umbrella, it looks like poor Rusty is just so sad, with nowhere to call home. Very poignant, but as the reader explores the illustration, they can see that a possible solution might not be too far away.

One of the reasons this book appealed to me is that I live in an area where possums share our habitat. Currently we have two, mother and baby, residing in our garage, and we are preparing a possum box for them, hoping that they will be like Rusty, and move out into it. We see them coming out each night, and whilst they can be a nuisance at times, we love seeing them around our yard, and quite often have them climbing our deck near our back door. Many children reading this book will have their own possum stories to tell, I’m sure.

Suburbia has taken away much of the habitat needed by wildlife.  Houses are larger, and trees are being removed. We need to work out how we can live harmoniously with our native animals, and this story depicts one solution.

I think children will adore this story. Rusty the ringtail possum is adorable and they will love following where he, with his little blue backpack, looks for his new home.  You can find out more about Lucienne Noontil here, or contact her at luc.noontil@optusnet.com.au for more information about Possum Tale. There’s also an interview with Lucienne here, where she gives some information about the processes she went through to get her book published.  There’s some great advice for young authors there too!

Congratulations Lucienne.  I look forward to the next book!

In Flanders Fields

A lovely story about a young digger who, on Christmas Day during World War 1, steps out of the safety of his trench to release a robin, trapped in barbed wire. All the while the enemy looks on with many rifles aimed at him, but they allow him to return to his trench unharmed. As he walks away from his German enemies he hears them singing “Stille nacht, heilige nacht…” and when he nears his own trench he hears his own fellow soldiers continuing the Christmas carol with “all is calm, all is bright…”. 

The illustrations are wonderfully drawn in blacks, greys and browns, depicting the starkness of the war landscape, whilst a touch of red and orange come from the tiny stove in the trench and the trapped robin. We can see the cramped quarters of the men sitting around in their respective trenches, with both rats and bodies prevalent.  There is much to explore in each of the illustrations.

The author comments that this story was inspired by the 1929 film version of All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Remarque) so In Flanders Fields would be a great book to read and investigate when studying either the film version, or the book of All Quiet on the Western Front. 

It would also be fascinating to pair the book with a reading of the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae.  Students would be able to see the similarities between the picture story and the poem.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

You can read some reviews of the book here and there’s an article here. Here’s another great review.

An online visit to the In Flanders Fields Museum would be interesting for students too.  There is a timeline of events there, McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields, and lots of other things to explore.

You can read more about Norman Jorgensen at his website.

Teaching notes for In Flanders Fields are available here.

Revisiting – The Great Escape From City Zoo

One of my favourite picture book author/illustrators is Tohby Riddle. I have been a fan of his work for a long time, but my favourite of his books is The Great Escape From City Zoo. It’s a glorious book, black and white illustrations, with a very cinematic quality. Not surprising given that in Riddle’s notes on the book he states that his “idea demanded to be expressed in black-and-white – like a classic old movie actually”.

The story is a simple premise of four animals, an anteater, an elephant, a turtle and a flamingo, breaking out of the City Zoo. Riddle then takes the reader on their journey as they try to stay a step ahead of the Zoo keepers. We see the animals as misfits, trying to cope in an alien world.

What I especially love about the book is that Riddle has cleverly used well known images of the 20th Century to create his illustrations. Being a classic musical film buff, I very quickly spotted that the sailor suit, worn by the turtle in the New York scenes, paid homage to the film On the Town, starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshon. A great inclusion in my opinion, given that this movie was Kelly’s first time in the Director’s role and quite a landmark film in that it was the first ever to be shot on location.

Anyone of my age, a child growing up in the 1960s, would also quickly recognise Riddle’s nod to the Beatles album cover of Abbey Road, with that fantastic photograph of the Beatles crossing the zebra crossing in a line, one behind the other.

I also spotted at least two illustrations based on the black and white photography by Ansel Adams. Riddle comments in his notes that he can see why photographers use black and white for their photos. “It dispenses with extraneous or distracting information that full- colour can bring, and deals only in the essentials of light and shade”.  Here’s a couple of photos by Adams which Riddle seems to have drawn upon for his illustrations:

The Tetons and the Snake River

I suspect that the peaks of these mountains can be spotted in the double page illustration where the elephant, turtle and flamingo are riding a train cart.  Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Aspens by Ansel Adams

An illustration resembling Adams Aspens is also included as the flamingo and the turtle flee from trouble through trees.  It’s a fantastic illustration, great for using as a basis for art.  This photo comes courtesy of http://connect.in.com/ansel-adams/wallpapers-22773-8021737.html.

Have another look at this book. It makes a fabulous springboard for students to delve into artwork, media and imagery of the 20th Century.  Have groups investigate the background to some of the images.  Compare the original images with those in the book.

An investigation on the changing nature of zoos would also be an interesting challenge.  Look at the history of zoos.  Why were they originally set up and how have the ideas changed?  Just looking at the first illustration shows how stark zoos once were.  Not at all what we expect today when we visit.  A debate on zoos, and whether we should keep animals in captivity, could also make an interesting activity.

Further information can be found in Tohby Riddle’s notes on the book at Notes on The Great Escape From City Zoo.

More on Tohby Riddle, including his many books, can be found at his website.  There are lots of more resources for his other books to explore here as well.

Victorian School Readers

I went to school during the 1960s, and remember fondly the Victorian School Readers. These were in the throes of being revamped as I was entering school and so some of the readers I had for each year level were not the same as my brother, 3 1/2 years older, had. His were always handed down to me though, and read avidly.

I remember having quite a discussion once with my father about these Readers. They certainly left an impression on him and he was able to quote stories and poems from memory. No doubt this was the result of the rote learning that was imposed on us at the time, but his bookshelf contained lots of Australian poetry books, and he loved Australian stories and ballads. I believe that his love for this type of literature was fostered from his days of reading the Victorian School Readers. During his final months, we would often talk about, and read, different stories and poems.

There is very little written about these books on the internet, but did come across a couple of articles of interest. This article by Clare Bradford, one of my children’s literature lecturers, comments that “well over half” of the pieces are British in origin. The Readers certainly did promote the British Empire, and Bradford compares the text of three different passages in the Readers with the original text, to demonstrate how the reading material virtually eliminated any thought that Australia was inhabited by our indigenous Australians before European discovery. She also makes comment that Amy Mack was the only Australian woman author to be included in the Eighth Book. How times have changed.

It would make an interesting exercise to compare all of the Readers for female representation and also for how women were presented to young children studying these Readers. Another interesting examination would be to look at how indigenous Australians are represented. I suspect that neither group would emerge particularly strongly.

Jane McGennisken is another academic who has investigated school Readers. Her paper can be found here and it, too, makes for fascinating reading.

According to Desmond R. Gibbs the first published of the Readers was the Eighth Book, with the others modelled on it. He says that they reflected “a high moral and literary tone in combination with a strong sense of Australian nationalism”. His paper details sexual sterotypes which occurs throughout the Readers, and the emphasis on religion which filters through many of the stories and poems. [Taken from: Victorian school books: a study of the changing social content and use of school books in Victoria, 1848-1948, with particular reference to school readers., sourced through AustLit.]

 

Looking through the books I remember fondly many of the stories and poems. I like that many of the stories involve retellings of traditional literature. The Ugly Duckling features in the Sixth Book, along with a selection from King Lear and a couple of selections from Charles Dickens. The stories would make a wonderful introduction to classic literature, something that seems no longer taught in junior schools.

I also love the playfulness of the language that appears in many of the books. In the Second Book we can read about Ducks which are “a-dabbling” in Kenneth Grahame’s The Duck’s Ditty. And that’s just one example.

Certainly in a unit of work about past Australia, parts of these Readers would be very interesting to read and study for our students of today. It could be good pick a few stories which do display stereotypical points of view and examine just what values children of the past were presented with, and how that differs today. I think students could come up with many.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I am a Teacher Librarian and have a Masters degree majoring in Children’s Literature. Picture books have always fascinated me. They entertained me for hours when I was young. I was drawn into the gorgeous illustrations in books. 

I remember some of them very vividly. The Little Swiss Miss was gorgeous. I must have had a thing for Switzerland because Heidi became a huge favourite when I began reading indepentently. I was always drawn to the mountains, and the Swiss Alps sounded so wonderful.

I had lots of pop up books which were always quite special. Many of these were presented to me at the end of each Sunday School year. What a fabulous way to encourage a love of books and reading. Sadly this doesn’t seem to be done any more.

Fairy tales featured in my book collection too. I had many. I recently introduced fairy tales to a group of Year 9 students and discussed some of those I remembered from my childhood. Some were quite gruesome. The Pied Piper of Hamelin was one that really scared me. My imagination went wild at the thought of rats infesting a town and then a rat catcher getting so mad that he opens a mountain and takes a whole town of children, bar one, through and they were never seen again! Amazing stuff.

I have just come across an Onomatopoeia poster featuring a part of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. I wonder if it was the playing with words that attracted me to the book? “Muttering”, “grumbling” and “rumbling”. Beautiful words.

Puss in Boots was another favourite. What a wondrous travelling companion he would have been.  You can view lots of versions of this book and many different illustrations at the Sur La Lune site. It would be a very interesting exercise to investigate and compare how different illustrators treated this traditional tale over the years.

Little Golden Books also found their way into my bedroom. Four Puppies was a favourite, with illustrations by Lilian Obligado. Three Little Kittens was also well loved, as again were many of the fairy tales in Little Golden Book form.

How inquisitive are these little pups? From The Four Puppies.

I love the feeling of movement as they go sliding in the snow. From The Four Puppies.

Well that’s a bit of an introduction to my childhood reading of picture books. Pop back to the blog for introductions to some of my highly recomended picture books to use in classrooms and some ideas on how to use them across the curriculum.