Champions read. Book Week 2012 book trailer presentation by Jane Moore
Book Bubbles, 2012. 1 DVD. 25 mins. $35.00.
Order form.
Recommended. The enticing Champions Read book trailer
contains highlights of all the books for the Early Childhood,
Picture Books, Information Books and Younger Readers in the 2012
short lists for Children's Book Week. It is a very useful tool to
promote the short listed books in a primary school and is sure to
attract attention and comments. The Picture book and Information
sections would also be useful in a secondary school, as would some
of the books in the Younger readers section, like Crow Country
by Kate Constable, Nanberry: Black Brother White by Jackie
French and Brotherband: The Outcasts by John Flanagan.
Champions read starts with many images of champions and children
enjoying reading. Then each book is introduced with some interesting
and pertinent questions. For example the introduction to The
runaway hug by Nick Bland asks the question, 'Who do you give
your hugs to?' and has more questions with some gorgeous
illustrations that made me want to read the book again. In fact
really good illustrations have been selected to go with each book (a
long bibliography is available at the end) and appropriate music
sets the mood for the individual books.
I particularly loved the trailer for Crow Country by Kate
Constable, with its stark black and white images and eerie music,
and believe that it would certainly entice a child to want to read
the book.
The site licence allows the loading of the DVD onto as many
computers on the school campus as is desired. Because the DVD is
able to be viewed in sections, it is ideal for the whole of the
primary school, with the older children watching the Younger readers
section and the Information section and the younger children could
watch the Early childhood and Picture book section. Classroom
teachers could run it before school and while the children are
having their lunch. Having the whole DVD run before and after school
in the school library on a whiteboard is sure to get children
wanting to read the books and it would make an excellent
introduction to the books. In fact I would suggest that this DVD
will stimulate a lot of requests for the books, so be prepared to
have multiple copies, or short loans!
Pat Pledger
Crow Country by Kate Constable
Allen and Unwin, 2011. ISBN: 978 1 74237 395 9
Highly recommended. When I began the novel Crow Country I
had no idea what to expect. However I soon learned that Crow
Country is one of those rare great Australian mythological
novels tying in not only with the original land owners but with the
war and the Australian football culture as well. This book is one I
would highly recommend to young people with an appreciation for
culture.
When Sadie Hazzard and Her mother move from their Melbourne home to
the town of Boort in rural Victoria she didn't expect to like it.
Boort was a strange place full of even stranger people who all
seemed to know her mother. Feeling lonely one day Sadie decides to
find the much-talked-about second lake of Boort. But what she finds
there is enough to turn anyone's head.
The Mortlocks and the Hazzards have lived in Boort ever since anyone
can remember. They grew up together, worked together and even went
to war together. Clancy Hazzard knows this and he full appreciated
the position Mr. Mortlock puts him in coming into his home with
blood on his hands.
The story must be told, what was lost must be found and what is
sacred must be protected by those who know. Sadie teams up with her
friend Walter, an aboriginal boy, to try and solve this mysterious
puzzle all the while being watched by one particularly auspicious
crow. Crow Country is a very engaging book made even more so with
the links to aboriginal mythologies and WWII. Kate Constable has
previously been labelled as 'the time-slip queen' and I can see how
she earns her title. This compelling book recreates voices of the
past in a superb manner and it seems a shame that the book had to
reach an end. I am looking forward to reading more of Kate
Constable's novels.
Kayla Gaskell (Student, 16)
Crow country by Kate Constable
Allen and Unwin, 2011. ISBN 9781742373959.
(Ages 12+) Highly recommended. Crime, racism. When a valley
near the town of Boort in northern Victoria was flooded to make a
dam, secrets were buried under the water, but now, with 10 years of
drought, things have been uncovered. The secret is revealed by the
crows of the area to newcomer, Sadie, lately moved to Boort with her
mother, who remembers the place from her holidays as a child. But
Sadie finds the crows talk to her, they direct her feet to the place
where the secret lies buried, and when they are about, she time
slips, returning to the 1930's when her great grandparents owned a
shop in the town's main street. Here she learns of the three mates
who fought together on the Western Front during WW1, vowing to keep
together when they return home. But one is black, and the resultant
racism leads to his death.
The landowner, Mortlock wants to inundate his land, but Jimmy knows
the land to be special to the local people and so objects. Sadie, in
a different time, sees what happens and how her family is involved.
The crows tell her that only she can discover and reveal this secret
to give it peace.
This is an amazingly complex story, not only are there brushes
with problems of rural Australia, drought, use of water, lack of
jobs, the slow demise of rural communities, but Constable has
included racism in a way that provokes thought and discussion. The
theme of racism is an integral part of the whole, neither overstated
or muted but a distinctive and major element of the story.
Sadie's relationship with the Aboriginal boy, Walter, and the
resultant racism aimed at her, is masterfully told, as is the
relationship of her mother and her old flame. The racism that
existed three generations before might have been buried but has
never gone away. Alongside this stunning story, we see Sadie's
developing maturity, of making her own way in the world, of making
up her own mind in the narrow confines of a small country town.
This is an evocative story of modern Australia, linked with the
past. WW1, the depression of the 1930's, land rights and the
treatment of Aboriginal people, particularly those who fought for
Australia and returned home unheralded, all mix to make a story well
worth the read, both as a class text and a book to read for
leisure. Teacher
notes are available on Allen and Unwin's
website.
Fran Knight
