Pages

Sunday 16 February 2014

Sunday 16th February

14:14 Picture Book revision. Day three. This is a wonderful learning activity for me as I read how others are doing their analysis of the books they are presenting. I am doing very basic reviews of the books and selected them randomly. I know that by reading as many books and reviews as I can I will increase my knowledge of the structure of good picture books. I already have a good instinct which I trust. I know when I am reading something good and when I read something that should have had more work before a cover and I want my own stories to zing when they are finally in the hands of developing readers.

Title Day Three: An Aussie Year




Author: Tania McCartney
Illustrator: Tina Snerling
Publisher: EK Books an imprint to Exisle Publishing Pty ltd
Year of publications: 2013
http://anaussieyear.com.au/



Readership. Children aged 6–10






Main characters: Ned, Lily, Zoe, Kirra and Matilda — Australian children 



Overview
This story is about twelve months in the life of Australian kids. Each page is filled with delightful illustrations representing the multicultural aspects of our population and cultural heritage and the things that many typically Australian kids encounter throughout the year.
I purchased a copy and sent it to my niece overseas so she and her Aussie Daddy can read about things that he is familiar with. 
 The pages are filled with bright and fun illustrations of the characters and with plenty to see to keep a child looking for new things to talk about. The text meanders around the pages adding to the interest.

  I found myself smiling as I read this book, partly from sentimentality and partly because the book is a lovely way to have a little taste of Australia. Linguists tell us that Australia has unusually not developed a vast variety of localised language accents and nuances in spite of the polyglot of language origins of the diverse people who make up the Australian population. We do have a few state to state differences as shown by the list of words for bathing suits. Queenslanders have a tendency to say 'ay' on the end of sentences and South Australian's pronounce words such as castle and grant in a more refined English accent. This book introduces some of those ideas and would be a terrific gift for relatives in other countries to know what their Aussie cousins are doing.


Would I recommend this book?

If this was a gift return it
or give it to the dog for a chew toy

Library copy borrow once

Library copy borrow again

Have my own copy
and bought it for others.  
Can’t stop talking about it, love it, lifelong favourite, bought it for others.       


my 52 week challenge upload for today.  

a magnolia and some stylised birds.
I was not happy with the magnolia leaves but these will improve with practice. The birds were in a dream I had and it took me several tries to get the wings the way I wanted. 
It is also ReviMo petite and I am working on revisions. Thanks to Meg Miller who keeps us focused.
I am intending to have a draft finished for my 12x12 February ms and ready to upload the first 250 to the forum. I also have my three ideas for Mini WOW and feel very confident that I will have plenty to submit for Sub 6. 
I had visitors today who admired my pirate scar and I am quite glad I didnt have the stitches out yet. I was worried that my face would not be its usual mobile self and I am incredibly grateful that it has not lost any of the flexibility I so enjoy.

4 comments:

  1. thanks for the magnolia

    ReplyDelete
  2. It sounds like an interesting book for children everywhere to learn about their Australian neighbors. I hope more copies of it make it to the US. Cecilia, I am enjoying your artwork. I took a basic art class and did pretty well, but feel I don't have the inborn talent that others do. Keep up the good work. Also, from reading your post, I can tell you are a very busy lady right now, participating in quite a few challenges. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was instantly interested in this book, as I haven't really thought about the differences between what Australian kids experience compared to American children. First of all, the cover is fantastic. Love the illustration style. Secondly, my first thought was, "...oh yeah....warm or maybe hot Christmas holidays..." Thanks Cecilia for the review.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I taught an Australian unit to 3rd graders once. They loved it! I did all kinds of stations, including a dictionary (more of a short list I found online) of Australian words and phrases and they had to write a short story using 5 of them. I find that your book here, which has an awesome cover (I love the style, too, Damon), fits into the dialogue element because of the different way people say different words.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to read my chatter and look at my pictures. I hope you found something to brighten your day. <3