Community and Service
Picture Books
For Every Child The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in words and pictures text adapted by Caroline Castle
A beautifully illustrated picture book which restates in simple language fifteen of the most important Rights of the Child. Each Right of the Child is illustrated in a very different style by a different artist from round the world. There is much to discuss. (7 – 12 years)
My Dog by John Heffernan illus by Andrew McLean
A very moving understated story in picture book format of terrible suffering as a consequence of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. Seen through the eyes of a young boy, the story is illustrated sensitively illustrated in water colours by Andrew McLean. It would be a moving introduction to discussion on human rights. (8 – 12 years)
Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say
A beautifully illustrated picture book for older students. Allen Say’s grandfather made the journey from Japan to the United States when he was a young man and this story beautifully describes through text and illustrations the love that he and his grandson feel for both countries. Many students will relate to the feelings of longing expressed. (9 years up)
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
This extraordinary book has amazed and delighted everyone I have shown it to. It is textless and depicts many strange things and a world that we do not understand and yet at the same time it is not difficult to understand. It shows the experience of an immigrant when he or she comes to a country where they know no one and understand very little. Shaun Tan wants us to understand the feelings of apprehension as a young man leaves his young wife and daughter and his country to travel a vast distance to a completely different country where he can’t speak the language or read any signs. A country where the landscape and the creatures and even the pets are very different and where he doesn’t understand how things work or what is the purpose of so many strange things. However on his arrival in this new land, he meets new friends who show him how to get to places and how things work and they also tell him the stories of how they too came to this new land. And so we get the very moving stories of a number of immigrant families. The illustrations are meticulously drawn in detailed panels of illustrations or sometimes full page illustrations in black and white or various shades of grey and sepia. It is a very evocative and moving book. It could be used with children from about 9 years up I think but it would be especially effective when used with older students in upper elementary and middle school. It is especially helpful for discussion with any study concerning immigrants. (9 years to adult)
Fiction and Autobiography
Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer pb
Benny is devastated when he has to leave Ireland and his hurling friends and go and live in Tunisia. He is a rebel and finds the unthreatening friendly atmosphere of the international school very strange and feels more at ease with a young homeless Tunisian boy who is forced to live life on the edge. Colfer succeeds in giving a believable, unsentimental portrayal of poverty and homelessness. (10 – 15 years)
Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman
Gleitzman has succeeded in writing a comic/tragic account of a refugee family from Afghanistan. Jamal and Bibi are ordinary kids who love soccer and kids will relate to their plight as they are forced to flee Afghanistan, because their mother has been running a school for girls, which was of course forbidden. Their lives are often in great danger but amazingly enough it is often very funny. There is much that can be discussed. In the sequel Girl Underground, pb $14.95, the children are now in a detention camp in Australia. Two Australian children attempt to help them to escape. Again humour and tragedy mixed and much to discuss regarding action which can make a difference. (9 years up)
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
This story has an assuredness and depth of compassion and of reality in character portrayal beyond any of Jamila Gavin’s other books. The book won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award in 2001. Set in eighteenth century England, the story is woven around the “Coram Man” who collected unwanted babies or children for a fee while assuring their desperate mothers that they would be taken to the Coram Hospital and Orphanage where they would be cared for. However the children were often sold into slavery and the babies were disposed of. A number of absorbing interlocking stories are woven around this horrific backdrop making a novel of great intensity, emotion, love and courage. (12 years up)
Deadly Unna? By Phillip Gwynne
This is a perceptive and highly entertaining book describing the growing friendship between Blacky, a white teenager and Dumby Red an Aboriginal young man from out of town and how it is affected by the narrowness and pervasive racism of a country town. In the sequel Nukkin Ya, Blacky falls for Dumby’s cousin but it seems that the whole town has objections to them going out together. Blacky does succeed in making a statement to the town on how he feels about racism. (13 years up)
Mao’s Last Dancer (Young Readers’ edition) by Li Cunxin
This is wonderful story about an eleven year old boy from rural China who was chosen to study ballet at Madame Mao's Dance Academy in Beijing. His mother told him to try hard to succeed because it would be his only chance of escaping the extreme poverty of his parents and his six brothers. At first Li Cunxin was intensely lonely and he hated the harsh regimen of the Academy but his struggle not to give up gradually developed into a strong determination to succeed as a ballet dancer. He finally became one of the top dancers in the USA and then in Australia. The adult edition (hardback $49.95 and pb $32.95) has been immensely popular in Australia. Li Cunxin has adapted the book himself for younger readers. The writing has been simplified a little and he has given a greater emphasis to his childhood years at the Academy and less to his adult years as a dancer when he defected to the US. This is an engaging and inspiring autobiography. It is being made into a film. (11 - 15 years)
My Forbidden Face Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story by Latifa is the true story of Latifa who was sixteen years old when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. She was studying to be a journalist and had enjoyed a liberal life when suddenly with her mother and elder sister, she became a prisoner in her own home. This is a vivid portrait of the days that followed the Taliban’s seizure of power and the desperate circumstances for many Afghanis, especially the women. Although written from a personal point of view, the book is also very helpful in giving some understanding of the complex political situation in Afghanistan. Latifa becomes very depressed and sick because of her enforced confinement, but when she, her sister and a friend set up a clandestine school for children they shake off their feeling of utter uselessness. (12 years up)
No Gun for Asmir by Christobel Mattingley
Set in war torn Sarajevo. A Muslim mother and two children escape to become refugees without knowing what has happened to the father left behind in Sarajevo. This moving story is told from the point of view of Asmir, the elder boy and is based on a real life story. (9 – 13 years)
The Other Facts of Life by Morris Gleitzman
Originally written for a television series called The Winners, this book is simply written with a racy text. However at times there is biting satirical humour on an environmental theme. (11 years up)
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
This is a moving story about a young girl and her brother who are smuggled into Britain after their mother is killed by gunmen because of their journalist father’s outspoken newspaper articles against corruption in Nigeria. Beverley Naidoo describes the bureaucratic procedures involved in becoming considered for refugee status and we start to understand just how traumatic the whole procedure must be for the children and their father. (10 - 15 years)
Parvana by Deborah Ellis
This novel describes life under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Parvana is an eleven year old girl who used to love going to school but under the Taliban ruling was forced to stay at home. When both her parents lose their jobs and then her father is arrested, their plight becomes desperate since girls and women were not allowed to leave the house unless accompanied by a man. In order for the family to survive, Parvana disguises herself as a boy. It is a disturbing story but the emphasis is on a young girl’s courage and determination. (The original Canadian edition is called The Breadwinner.) • The sequel is Parvana’s Journey (10 - 14 years)
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
Alem’s father is Ethiopian and his mother Eritrean and with both countries at war they are welcome in neither country. His father takes him to and leaves him there in the hope that Alem will be granted refugee status so that his son can escape the persecution that the whole family has been suffering. The tension rises as Alem and his father try to negotiate the tortuous bureaucratic process of trying to gain refugee status. Finally it is Alem’s friends who organise a demonstration in support of Alem and more compassionate treatment of refugees. This is a powerful story of courage and friendship. (11 - 16 years)
• To the Boy in Berlin by Elizabeth Honey and Heike Brandt
This is the story of an intriguing email correspondence between Henni who lives in Melbourne, Australia and Leo Schmidt in Berlin. The emails fly backwards and forwards providing much amusement and also glimpses of the difference and similarities between their lives. They both become involved in working on Henni’s school project which involves fascinating historical documentation about early German immigration to Australia and the treatment of Germans in Australia during the 2 World wars. We also learn incidentally about some of the problems of immigration in Germany and Australia today. I especially liked the humour, especially humour concerning the difficulties of translation and also some of the extraordinarily long German words that exist. This is an excellent book for discussion on a variety of topics. (10 – 14 years).
• Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung
Alice Pung gives a wonderfully evocative and comic account of her family’s first responses as they arrived in Footscray in Melbourne as immigrants. They were so amazed that they could buy clothes from St Vincent’s for next to nothing, that the supermarket shelves were packed with food that anyone could buy and that water came out of a tap. They were a family of Chinese background who had lived first in Vietnam and then in Cambodia during very difficult times. To come to a country where one could press a button to make cars stop was amazing. “The little green man was an eternal symbol of government existing to serve and protect. And any country that could have a little green flashing man was benign and wealthy beyond imagining.” This is the story of how her family adapts to their new life in Australia and the story of how their daughter Alice/Agheare grew up in both cultures, the old and the new. It is at times a hilarious account, richly comic in its descriptions but it also gives vivid and heartbreaking descriptions of the family’s previous life in Cambodia and also of the difficulties they encounter in adapting to their new life in Australia. This is virtuoso storytelling. It is always immensely entertaining giving us many insights into the lives and thoughts of this immigrant family. (12 years up)
For Every Child The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in words and pictures text adapted by Caroline Castle
A beautifully illustrated picture book which restates in simple language fifteen of the most important Rights of the Child. Each Right of the Child is illustrated in a very different style by a different artist from round the world. There is much to discuss. (7 – 12 years)
My Dog by John Heffernan illus by Andrew McLean
A very moving understated story in picture book format of terrible suffering as a consequence of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. Seen through the eyes of a young boy, the story is illustrated sensitively illustrated in water colours by Andrew McLean. It would be a moving introduction to discussion on human rights. (8 – 12 years)
Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say
A beautifully illustrated picture book for older students. Allen Say’s grandfather made the journey from Japan to the United States when he was a young man and this story beautifully describes through text and illustrations the love that he and his grandson feel for both countries. Many students will relate to the feelings of longing expressed. (9 years up)
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
This extraordinary book has amazed and delighted everyone I have shown it to. It is textless and depicts many strange things and a world that we do not understand and yet at the same time it is not difficult to understand. It shows the experience of an immigrant when he or she comes to a country where they know no one and understand very little. Shaun Tan wants us to understand the feelings of apprehension as a young man leaves his young wife and daughter and his country to travel a vast distance to a completely different country where he can’t speak the language or read any signs. A country where the landscape and the creatures and even the pets are very different and where he doesn’t understand how things work or what is the purpose of so many strange things. However on his arrival in this new land, he meets new friends who show him how to get to places and how things work and they also tell him the stories of how they too came to this new land. And so we get the very moving stories of a number of immigrant families. The illustrations are meticulously drawn in detailed panels of illustrations or sometimes full page illustrations in black and white or various shades of grey and sepia. It is a very evocative and moving book. It could be used with children from about 9 years up I think but it would be especially effective when used with older students in upper elementary and middle school. It is especially helpful for discussion with any study concerning immigrants. (9 years to adult)
Fiction and Autobiography
Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer pb
Benny is devastated when he has to leave Ireland and his hurling friends and go and live in Tunisia. He is a rebel and finds the unthreatening friendly atmosphere of the international school very strange and feels more at ease with a young homeless Tunisian boy who is forced to live life on the edge. Colfer succeeds in giving a believable, unsentimental portrayal of poverty and homelessness. (10 – 15 years)
Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman
Gleitzman has succeeded in writing a comic/tragic account of a refugee family from Afghanistan. Jamal and Bibi are ordinary kids who love soccer and kids will relate to their plight as they are forced to flee Afghanistan, because their mother has been running a school for girls, which was of course forbidden. Their lives are often in great danger but amazingly enough it is often very funny. There is much that can be discussed. In the sequel Girl Underground, pb $14.95, the children are now in a detention camp in Australia. Two Australian children attempt to help them to escape. Again humour and tragedy mixed and much to discuss regarding action which can make a difference. (9 years up)
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
This story has an assuredness and depth of compassion and of reality in character portrayal beyond any of Jamila Gavin’s other books. The book won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award in 2001. Set in eighteenth century England, the story is woven around the “Coram Man” who collected unwanted babies or children for a fee while assuring their desperate mothers that they would be taken to the Coram Hospital and Orphanage where they would be cared for. However the children were often sold into slavery and the babies were disposed of. A number of absorbing interlocking stories are woven around this horrific backdrop making a novel of great intensity, emotion, love and courage. (12 years up)
Deadly Unna? By Phillip Gwynne
This is a perceptive and highly entertaining book describing the growing friendship between Blacky, a white teenager and Dumby Red an Aboriginal young man from out of town and how it is affected by the narrowness and pervasive racism of a country town. In the sequel Nukkin Ya, Blacky falls for Dumby’s cousin but it seems that the whole town has objections to them going out together. Blacky does succeed in making a statement to the town on how he feels about racism. (13 years up)
Mao’s Last Dancer (Young Readers’ edition) by Li Cunxin
This is wonderful story about an eleven year old boy from rural China who was chosen to study ballet at Madame Mao's Dance Academy in Beijing. His mother told him to try hard to succeed because it would be his only chance of escaping the extreme poverty of his parents and his six brothers. At first Li Cunxin was intensely lonely and he hated the harsh regimen of the Academy but his struggle not to give up gradually developed into a strong determination to succeed as a ballet dancer. He finally became one of the top dancers in the USA and then in Australia. The adult edition (hardback $49.95 and pb $32.95) has been immensely popular in Australia. Li Cunxin has adapted the book himself for younger readers. The writing has been simplified a little and he has given a greater emphasis to his childhood years at the Academy and less to his adult years as a dancer when he defected to the US. This is an engaging and inspiring autobiography. It is being made into a film. (11 - 15 years)
My Forbidden Face Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story by Latifa is the true story of Latifa who was sixteen years old when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. She was studying to be a journalist and had enjoyed a liberal life when suddenly with her mother and elder sister, she became a prisoner in her own home. This is a vivid portrait of the days that followed the Taliban’s seizure of power and the desperate circumstances for many Afghanis, especially the women. Although written from a personal point of view, the book is also very helpful in giving some understanding of the complex political situation in Afghanistan. Latifa becomes very depressed and sick because of her enforced confinement, but when she, her sister and a friend set up a clandestine school for children they shake off their feeling of utter uselessness. (12 years up)
No Gun for Asmir by Christobel Mattingley
Set in war torn Sarajevo. A Muslim mother and two children escape to become refugees without knowing what has happened to the father left behind in Sarajevo. This moving story is told from the point of view of Asmir, the elder boy and is based on a real life story. (9 – 13 years)
The Other Facts of Life by Morris Gleitzman
Originally written for a television series called The Winners, this book is simply written with a racy text. However at times there is biting satirical humour on an environmental theme. (11 years up)
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
This is a moving story about a young girl and her brother who are smuggled into Britain after their mother is killed by gunmen because of their journalist father’s outspoken newspaper articles against corruption in Nigeria. Beverley Naidoo describes the bureaucratic procedures involved in becoming considered for refugee status and we start to understand just how traumatic the whole procedure must be for the children and their father. (10 - 15 years)
Parvana by Deborah Ellis
This novel describes life under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Parvana is an eleven year old girl who used to love going to school but under the Taliban ruling was forced to stay at home. When both her parents lose their jobs and then her father is arrested, their plight becomes desperate since girls and women were not allowed to leave the house unless accompanied by a man. In order for the family to survive, Parvana disguises herself as a boy. It is a disturbing story but the emphasis is on a young girl’s courage and determination. (The original Canadian edition is called The Breadwinner.) • The sequel is Parvana’s Journey (10 - 14 years)
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
Alem’s father is Ethiopian and his mother Eritrean and with both countries at war they are welcome in neither country. His father takes him to and leaves him there in the hope that Alem will be granted refugee status so that his son can escape the persecution that the whole family has been suffering. The tension rises as Alem and his father try to negotiate the tortuous bureaucratic process of trying to gain refugee status. Finally it is Alem’s friends who organise a demonstration in support of Alem and more compassionate treatment of refugees. This is a powerful story of courage and friendship. (11 - 16 years)
• To the Boy in Berlin by Elizabeth Honey and Heike Brandt
This is the story of an intriguing email correspondence between Henni who lives in Melbourne, Australia and Leo Schmidt in Berlin. The emails fly backwards and forwards providing much amusement and also glimpses of the difference and similarities between their lives. They both become involved in working on Henni’s school project which involves fascinating historical documentation about early German immigration to Australia and the treatment of Germans in Australia during the 2 World wars. We also learn incidentally about some of the problems of immigration in Germany and Australia today. I especially liked the humour, especially humour concerning the difficulties of translation and also some of the extraordinarily long German words that exist. This is an excellent book for discussion on a variety of topics. (10 – 14 years).
• Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung
Alice Pung gives a wonderfully evocative and comic account of her family’s first responses as they arrived in Footscray in Melbourne as immigrants. They were so amazed that they could buy clothes from St Vincent’s for next to nothing, that the supermarket shelves were packed with food that anyone could buy and that water came out of a tap. They were a family of Chinese background who had lived first in Vietnam and then in Cambodia during very difficult times. To come to a country where one could press a button to make cars stop was amazing. “The little green man was an eternal symbol of government existing to serve and protect. And any country that could have a little green flashing man was benign and wealthy beyond imagining.” This is the story of how her family adapts to their new life in Australia and the story of how their daughter Alice/Agheare grew up in both cultures, the old and the new. It is at times a hilarious account, richly comic in its descriptions but it also gives vivid and heartbreaking descriptions of the family’s previous life in Cambodia and also of the difficulties they encounter in adapting to their new life in Australia. This is virtuoso storytelling. It is always immensely entertaining giving us many insights into the lives and thoughts of this immigrant family. (12 years up)
