Sophie - Picture Book

*Isabella's Garden*

Isabella's Garden is a stunning picture book by Glenda Millard and Rebecca Cool. The illustrations are fantastic and incredibly unique sketch like pictures. They are beautifully bold and colourful and drew me to read this book. The story itself is unique also which adds a new line and then repeats the previous ones. The story begins,

'This is the soil all dark and deep, in Isabella's garden.
These are the seeds that sleep int he soil all dark and deep, in Isabella's garden.
This is the rain that soaks the seeds that sleep in the soil all dark and deep, in Isabella's garden.'

And so the story continues in this repetitive nature which allows young readers to join in the reading, and engage with the text. The text still follows a narrative structure as there is a complication which occurs and that is the beginning of winter. The conclusion is that once winter is over the garden grows again. Isabella's Garden shows the cycle of life that occurs in our gardens with the seasonal changes.

This is a lovely book that I would definitely encourage teachers to read to their students when analysing different narrative and writing styles. 

Sophie - Picture Book

*Little Humpty*

Written by Margaret Wild and Ann James, Little Humpty is a lovely picture book a mother camel and her child. Little Humpty wants to play all day long but Big Humpty eventually tires. She realises that Little Humpty is growing up and decides to take him to the Great Waterhole. They journey there together and Little Humpty is very pleased to see lots of 'little humpties' just like himself.

I think the authors try to relate the camels to a common parent child relationship where the child wants to play endlessly and the parent eventually runs out of energy. The mother realises that her child is growing up and needs some more social interaction and leads him to where the other children play.

The illustrations are lovely and the soft pictures capture the nurturing relationship between Big Humpty and Little Humpty. The background colour scheme represents the hot sandy desert where they live.

The authors use many adjectives and verbs to give the text more depth,
'He liked scampering under her tummy'. This makes it more engaging for the reader as the storyline is actually very simple. This text shows that a narrative does not need to be outrageous, complex or detailed to be considered valuable for children. Little Humpty was a short-listed book for The Children's Book Council of Australia and also an Honour Book.

As part of a creative writing lesson this text would be perfect to read and ask students to continue the storyline themselves.

Adolescent Novel - Sophie

*Diary of a Wimpy Kid*

Written by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid has taken off since being published in 2007. Kinney has since written five more books to the series with another coming out in November. Just this month a movie is being released for the title Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog days. Kinney's books have really taken the world by storm, the American author even has a website dedicated to this series at http://www.wimpykid.com/
What is unique about this novel is that it is a combination of cartoons and text. For the reluctant reader this might just be the draw card that gets them engaged and reading. If not for the cartoons, then children read these books for the humour that I'm sure most kids and adults alike can relate to.

'Whenever Dad says 'friend' that way, you know you're in trouble. The first time Dad ever said 'friend' like that to me, I didn't get that he was being sarcastic. So I kind of let my guard down.
I don't make that mistake anymore.
Tonight, Dad yelled at me for about ten minutes, and then I guess he decided he'd rather be in bed than standing in my room in his underwear.'

The book is written in diary structure as daily entries by Greg Heffley who has just started high school. He writes about daily events and problems, like being surrounded by morons, having a best friend who is detrimental to your popularity and being banned from listening to CD's with 'parental warnings'. The text is clever and witty, as are the cartoons. Even as stand alone comics some of the drawings are quite funny. I think young readers could relate to Greg's experiences both at school and at home. Such as his spoiled little brother blaming him for things he didn't do and being forced to participate in the school play. There is a great orientation to this story as Greg introduces the people in his life such as family, friends and teachers. There are several small complications and the largest being that Greg breaks his arm and loses his friendship with Rowley. There is of course a resolution but it ends in a way that the following novel can continue the storyline.

Adolescent Novel - Sophie

*FAT CHANCE*

Fat Chance is a great fictional novel for adolescents by Margaret Clark. Despite being initially published in 1993, the adolescent themes addressed; such as social status, body image and hormones are still equally relevant today. The story is narrated in first person by Lisa, a fourteen year old teen who lives with her mother, father and brother in Australia. Lisa is a pretty girl who is overweight due to the unhealthy habits of her family. She dreams of being a model and becoming 'the face', but can't seem to get a handle on her eating habits. How can she when her Mum endlessly serves her greasy fatty food? When her parents surprise her by announcing they have bought a fast food van to set up at the beach, Lisa is mortified. Especially since she has to work as part of the hot dog squad. How will she ever lose weight surrounded by all that food, not to mention be popular when she has to wear an embarrassing pink t-shirt. But funnily enough, Lisa finds she is so busy over the summer working hard in the family business that she loses weight without thinking about it. And her weight becomes the last thing on her mind when Lisa and her friends are part of a freak accident on the beach and wind up in hospital. Lisa makes new friends, learns about responsibility, what is important in life, and even gets offered a modelling contract.
The narrative structure involves several complications, such as the hot dog squad, the beach accident, fights with her best friend and Lisa's brother running away. All of these complications are resolved in the end but in a way that is realistic. We know that Lisa is going to have other obstacles ahead as we all do in life, such as pursuing her modelling hopes and developing the family business.

This is a great read, even as an adult reader I could relate to the feelings and events Lisa describes, remembering what it was like being her age. I think middle to senior school students would really engage with this text given that they are experiencing similar issues in their lives. It is a great story to encourage reluctant readers to read because it is funny, honest and relative. There were several messages for readers to draw from the text. I think Clark wanted teens to worry less about their image and what peers think of them, which is shown by Lisa admitting she likes 'Mike the midget'. Lisa realises that her parents aren't so horrible and that the more responsible she is, the more respect and trust she earns.

Adolescent Novel - Sophie

*Mahtab's Story*

Based on a true story, 'Mahtab's Story' was published in 2008. Libby Gleeson tells the story of a young girl who's family flees Afghanistan due to persecution. It follows their traumatic journey to Pakistan, Indonesia and on to Australia by boat. 'Mahtab's Story' tells the refugee story in a way that is appropriate for children and young adults to read and empathise with. It also tells the story of being an outsider, which is a common theme in Gleeson's work and in adolescent fiction. This narrative is told in third person which is a common narrative style. It allows the author to describe the protagonist's emotions and what they are experiencing, while also addressing other characters in the story.

This a complex topic but Gleeson portrays the refugee experience in an honest way. She admits she carried out a lot of research and interviewing with young refugee girls in Australia before writing this novel. This text would be ideal to use with middle or senior school students when studying the topic of refugees and asylum seekers. This issue is very topical in Australian politics and media and should be addressed as part of the Society and Environment curriculum.

Picture Book - Sophie

*Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack*

The Hairy Maclary series by New Zealand author Lynley Dodd have been popular for many years. The first in the series Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy was published in 1983 and later turned into a children's television series. I remember the books and T.V series from when I was a child and am lucky enough to have this book at work to share with young children.

I think what makes these stories so enjoyable is that, similar to the Dr Seuss stories, Dodd creates a repetitive rhyme within the narrative. This allows children to engage with the text when they can predict what is going to happen and participate. Not only is the writing structure engaging, but the fact that the stories are about a mischievous dog make them easily relate-able for most children. Children love the illustrations also which are textured and unique. Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack is about Hairy wanting to have a snooze in the shade, but he is disturbed by Zachary Quack. He tries to run away from Zachary and ends up stuck in the river. Once Zachary saves him, Hairy realises that instead of running away, they can be friends and snooze together. An example of the repetitive sequence fore mentioned is below;

Pittery pattery

skittery scattery

ZIP

round the corner came 

Zachary Quack 

Any of the Hairy Maclary titles would be great to use with primary school students when focusing on rhyme in an English and literacy lesson. They are lovely to read to young children and I have had children as young as 3 trying to read along.

Adolescent Novel - Sophie

*THEN*

Morris Gleitzman has been writing books for adolescent audiences for years, mostly quirky funny stories such as Puppy Fat and Misery Guts. But Gleitzman's latest work is a series including titles Once, Then, Now and After. I came across Then in the library and not realising it was the second in the series, was drawn to read it after reading the blurb,

I had a plan for me and Zelda
Pretend to be someone else
Find new parents
Be safe forever
Then the Nazis came.

I was curious to see how Gleitzman would approach the topic of the Holocaust, and how he would create a narrative for adolescents about it. Then explores themes of friendship, family and persecution through the eyes of Felix, an eleven year old Jewish boy living in Poland. The language, the sentence structure and perspective all reflect the purpose of the text, which is to teach children about the Holocaust. Then does not follow a typical narrative structure because we are presented with the complication before we are orientated with our characters. There are many complications throughout the story including being chased by Nazi soldiers and almost being discovered as a Jewish boy pretending to be German. The main characters of this story are Felix and six year old Zelda, who escaped a train headed for a Nazi death camp. They consider themselves family and this is reflected in the tenor of the text, as is their age. Then is told through the innocence of a child's eyes as Felix and Zelda are faced with death and violence everyday. Often Felix starts a sentence with, 'You know when...' and then tells of a horrific experience that few people could relate to, such as burying your friend 'under some ferns and wildflowers'. The field of the text is Poland where Nazis have taken over and all Jewish people are persecuted and send to death camps. Then is narrated in first person by Felix and this reflects the mode of the text. Gamble and Yates discuss that one of the challenges of '...using a first-person child narrator is that the relative inexperience of the narrator makes it difficult for them to reflect on the big themes and issues'. Granted there is minimal reflection on why Hitler and the Nazis treated the Jewish people the way they did, but this may be explored in the previous book (as I have not read it yet I do not know). This is why I recommend this text be used as part of guided reading, so that the teacher can facilitate discussion about these complex issues. I believe the narration style used is imperative to the text as it would be far to grim if the story weren't told through a child's eyes. 

Gletizman himself says, 'this story is my imagination trying to grasp the unimaginable'. On his website he says that these stories came from his imagination, but that he could not have written them without reading many books about the Holocaust first. It would be interesting to study this series as guided reading texts as they would raise many questions for students. They would also provide a cross-curricular connection to a topic about this period in history.
While it is a very confronting text, I could not help but keep reading. The narration style is critical to this text because it draws the reader in. You become so attached to the characters and dread what the story holds for Felix and Zelda. Then would be appropriate to use with students year seven onwards.

Picture Book - Sophie

*Yellow-Eye*

Written by David Spillman and Mark Wilson, Yellow Eye is a story about communications between Aboriginal and white communities. It is written in first person and told through the eyes of a young aboriginal boy. The white community wants to work with the aboriginal community to find out why the Yellow-eye fish are becoming scarce and we learn that each has different ways of viewing the world. While the white community members use technology to discover what has caused the Yellow-eye numbers to drop, the aboriginal elders can tell what has caused the change because they know the land so well. They have seen the effects of the weir, copper mine and cattle grazing introductions and are able to predict that it is in fact the forestry plantation which have caused the issue. This story is beautifully told with the purpose of teaching the reader about how aboriginal communities respect and know the land and the values they uphold within their community. It follows a narrative structure with the complication being the dropping numbers of the Yellow-Eye and the resolution being the clearing of the plantation, allowing the cycle of life to continue and fish numbers to rise. This text would be valuable to use with students as an introduction to aboriginal studies or a SOSE topic about sustainability, the effects of development or life cycles in Science.

Picture Book - Sophie

*One Hen*

One Hen is written by Katie Smith Milway and illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes and is about 'how one small loan made a big difference'. Set in Ghana, this story tells of how young Kojo has had to leave school to help his mother since his father died. They never have much money or food, that is until they get a small loan. Kojo himself loans a small portion from his mother and buys one hen. From that, he sells eggs, saves his money to buy more hens, and pays to send himself back to school. It follows the story of Kojo's success and how he goes on to help other families.

This text is different to those others I have reviewed in the way it is structured and it's purpose. It is still a narrative because it has an orientation, complication and resolution; but it serves to teach readers about micro-credit and is based on a true story. It has only one complication which is introduced with one sentence, 'they never have much money or much to eat' and is not elaborated on much further. So the story shape of this text would not appear to have too many events, however it continues to tell the effects of this small loan on the entire village and generations to come. It is narrated in third person in an objective manner which reflects the purpose. It is not the main character that the story is focused on but the loan and series of events that follow.

This text would be fantastic as an introduction to the topic of micro-credit in SOSE, or to use in an English lesson to explore the text structure and purpose. As discussed and demonstrated in our workshop this week; this text would be perfect for shared reading so that the facilitator can highlight key aspects of the text which are different to those previously studied. For example, this text contains a glossary at the back which the teacher should model how to use. It also contains 'The Story of a real Kojo' at the back, which tells of how a boy from Ghana did exactly as Kojo did and grew a business from a few hens. There is also a double page spread about how we as readers can help and learn more about micro-finance or micro-credit, which would be a valuable resource in a SOSE focus.This text would be appropriate to use with students year five and older based on the content and the vocabulary and I would definitely recommend it as a teacher resource.

Picture Book - Sophie

*Belonging*

'Belonging' is a picture book by Jeannie Baker which is clever, unique and illustrated with great detail.  It is a fantastic text to use with students to highlight that a story can be told through illustration as opposed to only text. 'Belonging' doesn't follow a typical narrative structure as outlined by Gamble and Yates (2008) as exposition, complication, climax and resolution. Rather, Baker uses thirteen double page illustrations and no written text or dialogue to narrate this text. The illustrations are each from the same window in a house that overlooks the front garden and street. With each page turn several years pass and we can follow along by looking at the fine detail of the illustrations how much time has passed. For example we see pictures that the little girl Tracey draws and writes her age on, or see the letter she has written to a friend. The first picture shows a couple bringing home their new baby and from then on advances so that we see the child growing into a woman, who attends university, gets married and has a child of her own. What we also notice in the foreground is the changes that occur to the stores and buildings on the adjacent street, the changes the family make to their own garden (including planting a tree) and the communities efforts to create a small park. In true Jeannie Baker style the illustrations are unique with such great texture it looks as though you are looking at a collage.This book takes several reads to really take in all that it has to offer, and the authors note explains the message Baker was illustrating. Baker points out that many people live in urban communities there they don't feel a strong connection to the land they live on. But some communities are making efforts to bring back native plants and realising how dependent we are on the land that feeds and supports us. Baker says, 'we can choose between just having a place to live or belonging to a living home'; hence the title, 'Belonging'.

Baker has written other books in this style, such as 'Windows'. Either of these texts could be studied in the classroom with a myriad of activities that could derive from reading them. This text would be great to study as a whole class and discuss what the illustrations are telling us as a reader, paying close attention to the detail. Students could write a narrative to accompany the illustrations, or use the book as a starting point to create a similar book of their own. 'Belonging' also provides a good introduction into a SOSE unit on sustainability or conservation. 'Belonging' was an honour book for CBCA Picture Book of the year in 2005.

Sophie - Picture Book

*Ziba came on a boat*

'Ziba came on a boat' was written by Liz Lofthouse and illustrated by Robert Ingpen, published in 2007. It covers what I believe is the untold story of a very topical issue; the journey of families who are seeking asylum. The story is told through the eyes of Ziba, a young girl who is at least school age, journeying on a boat, to what we can assume is Australia. The story depicts the frightening boat journey and reflects on Ziba's life in her home country. We can presume she is from Afghanistan or another middle eastern country, based on the illustrations and details about her life.


The illustrations depict the story, through the colour and the texture Ingpen uses. The pictures are mostly dark reflecting the mood, except for those where she is with her father or mother. The pictures are drawn in a sketchy fuzzy way, which I think reflects the characters feelings and future. Often those seeking refugee status in other countries can't speak the language, so they are unsure of what is going to happen when they arrive, or even along the way. Not only that, on a boat such as the one Ziba came on, they often do not know if they will ever make it to their destination. It is a sad story but one that needs to be told. I think it is especially important for students to know what refugee children endure and to form an educated opinion about the topic given the way it is presented in the media.

This narrative is essentially a quest but given that it does not end with any event or arrival, it could be considered somewhat of a tragedy. The story ends 'And the boat rose and fell, rose and fell, across an endless sea..'. To use this text in a classroom setting I think it is appropriate for students years 6/7 onwards and could be used to begin a topic about refugees in SOSE.

Sophie - Picture Book

Silly Billy

Silly Billy is written and illustrated by Anthony Browne (2006) and is a lovely picture book about a young boy who is, 'a bit of a worrier'.  Billy worries about all sorts of novel things such as hats, clouds and shoes and despite his parents best efforts to reassure him, he still worries. When he has trouble sleeping he speaks to his Grandma who gives him worry dolls. She explains that if he tells each of the worry dolls his worries before he goes to sleep at night and puts them under his pillow they will do the worrying for him.

As always Browne's illustrations compliment the story with colour playing an important role. The colouring used in each illustration highlights Billy's mood and feelings.

Browne explains in an after note that worry dolls come from Guatemala and are a tradition to help children sleep easy and wake feeling less troubled. They are made of tiny pieces of wood and scraps of cloth and thread. Worry dolls are still used in Guatemala to this day and the tradition is said to have spread around the world.

In the classroom this could be the introduction to a Geography lesson where students could research where Guatemala is and find out more about the country and culture. It could be further connected to Art, or Design and Tech where students could design and make their own worry dolls. Worry Dolls could also lead to a cross curricular topic incorporating Health, where students could learn about other effective ways to cope with worry and stress.

Sophie - Adolescent Novel

Written by Libby Gleeson and illustrated by Ann James, Hannah Plus One is a novel for young readers about seven year old Hannah and her family. Hannah sees herself as an outsider within her family of five; she has older twin sisters and her mother and father. She starts questioning where she belongs, her identity and her future when her mother is heavily pregnant. Hannah is convinced her mother will have another set of twins and that she will remain the odd one out.The story is told in a third person mode and is quite an objective narrative. The text reads as concise and direct without many adjectives or thinking or saying processes. Gleeson uses short and sharp sentences to create effect.
"Baby.
Babies. She cannot ask. She cannot think.
They are in the car, driving towards the birth centre.
'I bet it's a boy,' says Lena.
'Girl,' says Sue.
'One or the other,' says Grandma.
Maybe both."

The storyline is one that many children could relate to, perhaps any child who has a younger sibling. The months before the arrival of a baby brother or sister can be stressful for children and cause strange behaviours. Hannah starts blaming an imaginary friend when she acts out due to her stress about the new baby. She doesn't know how to talk to her parents about her concerns so they cannot understand her actions.

Hannah Plus One was shortlisted for The Children's Book Council of Australia awards and is a good read for young students beginning novels.

Sophie - Picture Book

*Franklin has a sleepover*

Written by Paulette Bourgeois and illustrated by Brenda Clark, Franklin has a sleepover is a picture book from the 'Franklin' series. 

I chose to read this book because it was published when I was a child (in 1996) and the character of Franklin is still recognisable to children today. The stories were made into animation and shown on ABC when I was a child, and are still a regular ABC program. I read the story aloud to two young children to get the full effect of the book. The illustrations play a huge role in these stories as they are so detailed and really highlight the relationships between the characters. The pictures are soft and very colourful, capturing the attention of even the two year old I was reading to. A combination of illustration styles are used including half page and below is an example of a full page illustration.

One of the reasons the Franklin stories are never outdated is that the stories are always centered on a particular event that most, if not all children experience. Other titles include, 'Franklin Fibs', 'Franklin wants a pet' and 'Franklin goes to school'. This particular book is about Franklin having his friend Bear over for a sleepover, and like all first sleepover experiences, Bear is upset and homesick during the night. Franklin comforts his friend and the sleepover is a success. The way the Franklin narratives are written are always very gentle and happy. The relationships between the parents and children always have a community feel about them and there is always a moral to be learned from the stories.

I would recommend the Franklin stories to children of all ages. Young children such as those I read the book to, enjoyed the story and the illustrations and older children can learn from the morals and experiences.