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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
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Includes lift up flaps and glossary.
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Included in the 2007 White Ravens Catalogue compiled by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. Special mention; easily understandable.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Fine Focus : Rachel Tonkin, a Life in Art and Illustration
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books For Children , November vol. 31 no. 5 2016; (p. 4-8) 'Art, to the artist, is inevitable, but the rest of us want to know: what are the whims, accidents and resolutions that shape a career? How does each artwork come to be just like that? What colour was the telegram delivery bike in South Melbourne during World War II? And what is that chimp doing over there? Like a good biography, Rachel Tonkin's retrospective steers us through her five decades in book illustration and writing, botanical art, and fine art and sculpture, and lets us make some connections' (Introduction) -
Picturing Sustainable Futures
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Picture Books and Beyond 2014; (p. 25-40)This chapter considers how children’s picture books represent the contemporary environmental position of sustainability to socialise young readers into becoming environmentally aware adults, who appreciate the interconnectedness of natural systems, recognise that sustainability has local and global implications, and identify actions that support sustainable futures.The chapter directly aligns with the cross-curriculum priority (sustainability) and suggests ways for engaging with texts in the classroom that draw on the general capabilities of critical and creative thinking.
- y Reading The Environment : Narrative Constructions Of Ecological Subjectivities In Australian Children's Literature Kelvin Grove : 2009 Z1792849 2009 single work thesis Ways in which humans engage with the environment have always provided a rich source of material for writers and illustrators of Australian children's literature. Currently, readers are confronted with a multiplicity of complex, competing and/or complementing networks of ideas, theories and emotions that provide narratives about human engagement with the environment at a particular historical moment. This study examines how a representative sample of Australian texts (19 picture books and 4 novels for children and young adults published between 1995 and 2006) constructs fictional ecological subjects in the texts, and offers readers ecological subject positions inscribed with contemporary environmental ideologies. The conceptual framework developed in this study identifies three ideologically grounded positions that humans may assume when engaging with the environment. None of these positions clearly exists independently of any other, nor are they internally homogeneous. Nevertheless they can be categorised as: (i) human dominion over the environment with little regard for environmental degradation (unrestrained anthropocentrism); (ii) human consideration for the environment driven by understandings that humans need the environment to survive (restrained anthropocentrism); and (iii) human deference towards the environment guided by understandings that humans are no more important than the environment (ecocentrism). iv The transdisciplinary methodological approach to textual analysis used in this thesis draws on ecocriticism, narrative theories, visual semiotics, ecofeminism and postcolonialism to discuss the difficulties and contradictions in the construction of the positions offered. Each chapter of textual analysis focuses on the construction of subjectivities in relation to one of the positions identified in the conceptual framework. According to the analysis undertaken, the focus texts convey the subtleties and complexities of human engagement with the environment and advocate ways of viewing and responding to contemporary unease about the environment. The study concludes that these ways of viewing and responding conform to and/or challenge dominant socio-cultural and political-economic opinions regarding the environment. This study, the first extended work of its kind, makes an original contribution to ecocritical study of Australian children's literature. By undertaking a comprehensive analysis of how texts for children represent human engagement with the environment at a time when important environmental concerns pose significant threats to human existence, Massey contributes new knowledge to an area of children's literature research that to date has been significantly under-represented.
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The Children's Book Council of Australia Judges' Report 2007
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 51 no. 3 2007; (p. 5-12)
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The Children's Book Council of Australia Judges' Report 2007
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 51 no. 3 2007; (p. 5-12) - y Reading The Environment : Narrative Constructions Of Ecological Subjectivities In Australian Children's Literature Kelvin Grove : 2009 Z1792849 2009 single work thesis Ways in which humans engage with the environment have always provided a rich source of material for writers and illustrators of Australian children's literature. Currently, readers are confronted with a multiplicity of complex, competing and/or complementing networks of ideas, theories and emotions that provide narratives about human engagement with the environment at a particular historical moment. This study examines how a representative sample of Australian texts (19 picture books and 4 novels for children and young adults published between 1995 and 2006) constructs fictional ecological subjects in the texts, and offers readers ecological subject positions inscribed with contemporary environmental ideologies. The conceptual framework developed in this study identifies three ideologically grounded positions that humans may assume when engaging with the environment. None of these positions clearly exists independently of any other, nor are they internally homogeneous. Nevertheless they can be categorised as: (i) human dominion over the environment with little regard for environmental degradation (unrestrained anthropocentrism); (ii) human consideration for the environment driven by understandings that humans need the environment to survive (restrained anthropocentrism); and (iii) human deference towards the environment guided by understandings that humans are no more important than the environment (ecocentrism). iv The transdisciplinary methodological approach to textual analysis used in this thesis draws on ecocriticism, narrative theories, visual semiotics, ecofeminism and postcolonialism to discuss the difficulties and contradictions in the construction of the positions offered. Each chapter of textual analysis focuses on the construction of subjectivities in relation to one of the positions identified in the conceptual framework. According to the analysis undertaken, the focus texts convey the subtleties and complexities of human engagement with the environment and advocate ways of viewing and responding to contemporary unease about the environment. The study concludes that these ways of viewing and responding conform to and/or challenge dominant socio-cultural and political-economic opinions regarding the environment. This study, the first extended work of its kind, makes an original contribution to ecocritical study of Australian children's literature. By undertaking a comprehensive analysis of how texts for children represent human engagement with the environment at a time when important environmental concerns pose significant threats to human existence, Massey contributes new knowledge to an area of children's literature research that to date has been significantly under-represented.
-
Picturing Sustainable Futures
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Picture Books and Beyond 2014; (p. 25-40)This chapter considers how children’s picture books represent the contemporary environmental position of sustainability to socialise young readers into becoming environmentally aware adults, who appreciate the interconnectedness of natural systems, recognise that sustainability has local and global implications, and identify actions that support sustainable futures.The chapter directly aligns with the cross-curriculum priority (sustainability) and suggests ways for engaging with texts in the classroom that draw on the general capabilities of critical and creative thinking.
-
Fine Focus : Rachel Tonkin, a Life in Art and Illustration
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books For Children , November vol. 31 no. 5 2016; (p. 4-8) 'Art, to the artist, is inevitable, but the rest of us want to know: what are the whims, accidents and resolutions that shape a career? How does each artwork come to be just like that? What colour was the telegram delivery bike in South Melbourne during World War II? And what is that chimp doing over there? Like a good biography, Rachel Tonkin's retrospective steers us through her five decades in book illustration and writing, botanical art, and fine art and sculpture, and lets us make some connections' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2007 winner The Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children's Literature — Non-Fiction
- 2007 shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Eve Pownall Award for Information Books
- 2006 commended Whitley Awards — Best Children's Book