-
Possum Magic by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas
Possum Magic is a classic Australian picture book by Mem Fox. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BboBeS-vhjg WHAT HAPPENS IN THE STORY OF POSSUM MAGIC Grandma Poss uses bush magic to make a child possum (Hush) invisible so that Hush won’t be eaten by snakes. (I’m going to put aside the fact that snakes seem to ‘see’ via vibrations, so an invisibility superpower wouldn’t necessarily…
-
Tough Boris by Mem Fox and Kathryn Brown Analysis
Tough Boris is an Australian-American pirate picture book published in 1994. As fodder for stories, ocean piracy has never been out of fashion. Especially in stories with an implied readership of boys, the pirates of modern picture books are often comical rather than scary; jovial rather than evil. Pirate stories bear little to no resemblance to the actual crime of…
-
Mr Chicken Goes To Paris by Leigh Hobbs Analysis
Mr Chicken Goes To Paris is a carnivalesque picture book about a chicken who goes to Paris on holiday. For a whiff of the Foreign, film makers often turn to France and especially Paris. The same is true in children’s films, from “Ratatouille” to “Hunchback of Notre Dame.” And the same is true in children’s books. Jerry Griswold, Paris in…
-
Where Is The Green Sheep? Picture Book Analysis
A very popular Australian picture book. Looks so simple. But what’s the secret sauce?
-
Asian-Australian Children’s Literature
There are only a small number of Asian-Australian authors writing about Asia in children’s/young adult fiction and there are very few books where the first-person narrator or main character is Asian or Asian-Australian. Also surprisingly, there are very few Australian works with Asian content that have been translated into an Asian language – translations are primarily made up of award-winning…
-
The Rainbow by Gary Crew and Gregory Rogers Analysis
Published in 2001 by Lothian Books (an imprint of Hachette Children’s Books specialising in Australian tales), The Rainbow is an adventure story about three boys who find something gruesome in the wild. I was reminded a little of Stand By Me. This story is written from first person point of view, and the reader is therefore encouraged to identify with this…
-
Norton’s Hut by John Marsden Picture Book Analysis
Norton’s Hut is an out-of-print Australian picture book, the second picture book written by John Marsden, and illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe. The following notes are from Genres In Children’s Literature: Lecture 04: Author and Illustrator Devices presented by David Beagley, La Trobe University, podcast available on iTunes U. PARATEXT When a young group of hikers gets lost in a blinding…
-
The Colour Of Sky In Art And Illustration
In Western cultures at least, little kids first learn to draw with a blue or (black for night-time) sky, and a yellow orb for the sun. In reality, sky can be many different colours.