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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
-
This is affiliated with Dr Laurel Cohn's Picture Book Diet because it contains representations of food and/or food practices.
Food depiction - Incidental
Food types - Everyday foods
- Everyday drinks
- Discretionary foods
- Discretionary drinks
- High sugar foods
- High fat foods
- Fast food/Takeaway
Food practices - Eating out - snack
- Eating out - picnics
- Parties and Entertaining
- Food serving
Gender - Food serving - female
Signage n/a Positive/negative value n/a Food as sense of place - Domestic
- Rural
- Normalising the fantastical
Setting - Domestic interior
- Rural landscape
Food as social cohesion - Family meals [picnic lunch]
- Social gatherings
Food as cultural identity n/a Food as character identity n/a Food as language n/a
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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What Are We Feeding Our Children When We Read Them a Book? Depictions of Mothers and Food in Contemporary Australian Picture Books
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Mothers and Food : Negotiating Foodways from Maternal Perspectives 2016; (p. 232-244)'This chapter explores how Australian writers and illustrators in the twenty-first century depict the act of mothering in picture books for young children in relation to cooking and serving food. It draws on the idea that children’s texts can be understood as sites of cultural production and reproduction, with social conventions and ideologies embedded in their narrative representations. The analysis is based on a survey of 124 books that were shortlisted for, or won, Children’s Book Council of Australia awards between 2001 and 2013. Of the eighty-seven titles that contain food and have human or anthropomorphised characters, twenty-six (30 percent) contain textual or illustrative references to maternal figures involved in food preparation or provision. Examination of this data set reveals that there is a strong correlation between non-Anglo-Australian maternal figures and home-cooked meals, and a clear link between Anglo-Australian mothers and sugar-rich snacks. The relative paucity of depictions of ethnically unmarked mothers offering more nutritious foods is notable given the cultural expectations of mothers as caretakers of their children’s well-being. At the same time, the linking of non-Anglo-Australian mothers with home-cooked meals can be seen as a means of signifying a cultural authenticity, a closeness to the earth that is differentiated from the normalised Australian culture represented in picture books. This suggests an unintended alignment of mothers preparing and serving meals with “otherness,” which creates a distancing effect between meals that may generally be considered nutritious and the normalised self. I contend there are unexamined, and perhaps unexpected, cultural assumptions about ethnicity, motherhood, and food embedded in contemporary Australian picture books. These have the potential to inscribe a system of beliefs about gender, cultural identity, and food that contributes to readers’ understanding of the world and themselves.'
Source: Abstract.
-
Tales from the Waterhole by Bob Graham
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Buzz Words , February 2014;
— Review of Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
Imagination is the Key
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 September 2004; (p. 10)
— Review of An Aboriginal Story 1983 series - publisher picture book ; Our New Baby 2004 single work picture book ; The Bubble 2004 single work picture book ; Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
[Review] Tales from the Waterhole
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 19 no. 2 2004; (p. 27)
— Review of Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
For Kids
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 April 2004; (p. 6)
— Review of Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book
-
Sweet But Not Prissy
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 10 April 2004; (p. 6)
— Review of Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
For Kids
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 April 2004; (p. 6)
— Review of Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
[Review] Tales from the Waterhole
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 19 no. 2 2004; (p. 27)
— Review of Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
Imagination is the Key
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 September 2004; (p. 10)
— Review of An Aboriginal Story 1983 series - publisher picture book ; Our New Baby 2004 single work picture book ; The Bubble 2004 single work picture book ; Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
Tales from the Waterhole by Bob Graham
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Buzz Words , February 2014;
— Review of Tales from the Waterhole 2004 single work picture book -
What Are We Feeding Our Children When We Read Them a Book? Depictions of Mothers and Food in Contemporary Australian Picture Books
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Mothers and Food : Negotiating Foodways from Maternal Perspectives 2016; (p. 232-244)'This chapter explores how Australian writers and illustrators in the twenty-first century depict the act of mothering in picture books for young children in relation to cooking and serving food. It draws on the idea that children’s texts can be understood as sites of cultural production and reproduction, with social conventions and ideologies embedded in their narrative representations. The analysis is based on a survey of 124 books that were shortlisted for, or won, Children’s Book Council of Australia awards between 2001 and 2013. Of the eighty-seven titles that contain food and have human or anthropomorphised characters, twenty-six (30 percent) contain textual or illustrative references to maternal figures involved in food preparation or provision. Examination of this data set reveals that there is a strong correlation between non-Anglo-Australian maternal figures and home-cooked meals, and a clear link between Anglo-Australian mothers and sugar-rich snacks. The relative paucity of depictions of ethnically unmarked mothers offering more nutritious foods is notable given the cultural expectations of mothers as caretakers of their children’s well-being. At the same time, the linking of non-Anglo-Australian mothers with home-cooked meals can be seen as a means of signifying a cultural authenticity, a closeness to the earth that is differentiated from the normalised Australian culture represented in picture books. This suggests an unintended alignment of mothers preparing and serving meals with “otherness,” which creates a distancing effect between meals that may generally be considered nutritious and the normalised self. I contend there are unexamined, and perhaps unexpected, cultural assumptions about ethnicity, motherhood, and food embedded in contemporary Australian picture books. These have the potential to inscribe a system of beliefs about gender, cultural identity, and food that contributes to readers’ understanding of the world and themselves.'
Source: Abstract.
Awards
- 2006 shortlisted KOALA Awards — Picture Book
- 2005 shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Book of the Year: Early Childhood