Margaret Dunkle
Margaret Dunkle is a writer, reviewer and bookseller with Melbourne’s specialist children's bookshop, The Little Bookroom.
Ship Rockby Ted GreenwoodHutchinson Publishing Group$12.95
Clive Eats Alligatorsby Alison LesterOxford University Press, $11.99
Felix & Alexanderby Terry DentonOxford University Press, $11.99
Prisoner Of The Mulligrubsby Nan Hunt, Noe/a Hills (lllus.)Collins, for children, $11.95
1 Is For One: A Counting Bookby Nadia WheatleyOxford Uni Press, $6.99 pb, 20p
Mouse’s Marriageby Junko Morim ... (read more)
When, or if, children and young people get around to reading books they do so for one of only two reasons: as the response to adult (teacher or parental) pressure, or in the expectation of enjoyment. The pleasure principle is therefore of paramount importance to the writers, illustrators and publishers of juvenile literature, many of whom seem not yet to have grasped the fact that they are in a hi ... (read more)
New themes, new variations on older ones, and new directions for established authors and artists characterise this selection of picture books. Publishers are to be commended for their willingness to support experiments; if the result is not always wholly successful, the very fact that new talent and new ideas are encouraged is of far greater ultimate importance.
Stories of giants and midgets belo ... (read more)
Clare Bradford is an Associate Professor in Literary and Communication Studies at Deakin University. She writes from within her discipline, and addresses other academics. Reading Race, despite its broad title, is principally a discussion of forms of racism that the author identifies in books published in colonial times, compared with contemporary examples.
Bradford’s thesis is that the sins of ... (read more)
With Gift of the Gab, Gleitzman continues the saga of Rowena Batts, the feisty twelve-year-old who previously appeared in Blabber Mouth (1992) and Sticky Beak (1993). Ro is the daughter of an apple farmer, a child with character, immense energy, and several problems: chiefly her inability to speak (she was born with 'some bits missing' from her throat) and her loving and much loved Dad. She copes ... (read more)
The Stone Swan by Helen Bell Cygnet Books, $22.95 hb
Swans are said to mate for life and The Stone Swan (Cygnet Books, $22.95 hb) builds on the love and anguish of such a relationship as the focus for a lesson in environmental responsibility. A pair of swans, lagging behind the rest of their flight, take solitary refuge in a wetland adjacent to a new housing estate, unaware that it is targe ... (read more)
I know nothing of David Martin’s childhood or family, but I think that he must come from a long line of slayers of dragons, and that somewhere during the formative years of his childhood he listened to many adult conversations on social justice and human dignity. At any rate, his adult life has been spent dealing with dragons, in one way or another.
David Martin arrived in Australia in th ... (read more)
Q: What is the most outdated, boring genre in children’s literature?A: The boys’ boarding school story, a fossil left over from the last century.
Q: Would it be possible to revive it?A: Out of the question. And anyway, who would want to?
Miracles can still happen. Robin Klein and Max Dann, two of the most popular and successful contemporary children’s authors, have combined forces ... (read more)
