Australia
Special Mention
22
Base, Graeme (text/illus.)
The waterhole
Ringwood, Victoria [et al.] : Viking, 2001. - [32] p
ISBN 0-670-88928-8
Animals - Seasons - Wildlife – Counting
Famous Australian illustrator Graeme Base has created yet another
ingenious picture book. His delightful mixture of counting book, puzzle book,
story, and information book, »The Waterhole«, offers children of all ages
something to enjoy. The colourful doublespreads invite readers to examine
different landscapes, each one typical of a particular continent or region and
its wildlife. Yet, while various animals gather on the pages for a drink, the
waterhole in the middle slowly dries up. So, in the end, the animals are
forced to leave; they return, however, as soon as the rains start pouring down
announcing the end of the dry season. The simple storyline is interspersed
with humourous sidecomments from the animal »protagonists«. And with its
additional animals depicted in the tiny page borders, which can also be
spotted melting into the landscapes of the main picture, this stunning book
provides readers with new delights every time they return to it. (4+) +
23
Carmody, Isobelle (text)
Woolman, Steven (illus.)
Dreamwalker
Port Melbourne, Vic. : Lothian Books, 2001. - 46 p
ISBN 0-7344-0007-1
Imaginary travel - Dream - Other World - Outsider - Love
Ken, an avid comic collector, also likes to draw his own comics. His new
story, however, suddenly gets out of control: He is summoned to his fantasy
world by dream magic and asked to help his heroine fight against an evil
sorceress. The only person who can save him is Alyssa, a girl from his class.
Together they manage to bring both stories - the imagined one and their own -
to a happy ending. In this unusual mixture of fantasy novel and comic, where
reality and dream are hard to tell apart, text and illustrations are closely
intertwined; even the colour of the paper changes from cream symbolizing the
»real« world, where Ken is in control, to black with white print when he is
plunged into dangerous adventures in his fantasy world. (12+)
24
Eaton, Anthony
A new kind of dreaming
St Lucia, Queensland : Univ. of Queensland Press, 2001. - 229 p
(UQP young adult fiction)
ISBN 0-7022-3228-9
Juvenile delinquency - Social integration - Outsider - Friendship –
Murder
After having been arrested for car theft, 17-year-old Jamie is sent to
Port Barren, a small desert town, to live in isolated care. At first, his
plans are to quietly serve his two-year sentence with as little fuss as
possible. Yet, from the moment of his arrival, he feels ill at ease. The
children at his new school carefully keep their distance, the social worker
seems to be afraid of something, the local police officer, Butcher, tries to
arrest him without proper reason, and Jamie keeps hearing a girl's voice in
his head. Made suspicious by the strange events, the boy starts to ask
questions about the town's past; all of a sudden, the easy-going narrative of
the beginning picks up speed and does not release its grip on the reader until
the very last page. (14+)
25
Kelly, Laurene
The crowded beach
North Melbourne, Vic. : Spinifex Press, 2001. - 218 p
(Young adult fiction)
ISBN 1-876756-06-3
Domestic violence - Father - Alcoholism - Murder - Coping with fear -
Everyday life
This sequel to Laurene Kelly's highly praised first novel »I started
Crying Monday«, sensitively and convincingly describes the turmoil of
feelings the two protagonists are struggling with. After their mother and
younger siblings are killed in a family tragedy, Julie and her brother Toby
are forced to move to their aunt's place in Sydney and start anew. Whereas
Julie tries to adjust to the hectic city life as quickly as possible and
forget about the past, Toby desperately misses his friends and the relaxed
country-living. Both of them have to cope with their fear of the violent
father, fight their loneliness, and deal with the normal burdens of teenage
life. Yet, at the end of this novel with its quiet and very subtle
descriptions of the protagonists' insecurity and sudden mood changes, Julie
looks at her life with new optimism. (12+)
26
Moriarty, Jaclyn
Feeling sorry for Celia
Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia, 2000. - 262 p
(Pan : Fiction)
ISBN 0-330-36210-0
Friendship - Divorce - Sexual relationship - Disappearance - Suicide
attempt
Elizabeth's life is a chaos. Her mother is hardly ever at home but leaves
messages for her everywhere, her father refuses to introduce her to his new
wife and son, her best friend Celia disappears yet again and leaves Elizabeth
worrying about her, and, to make matters worse, the boy she is in love with
falls for her best friend. If it wasn't for her new penfriend Christina,
Elizabeth might even take the advice of the Association of Teenagers and hide
away in the fridge forever. This hilarious novel in »real« and imaginary
letters and notes, written in a witty and ironic style, makes the readers
laugh out loud on every page. But beneath the funny surface some serious
issues, such as divorce and suicide, are also tackled. (12+)
27
Russell, Elaine (text/illus.)
A is for aunty
Sydney, NSW : ABC Books, 2001. - [36] p
(1. publ. 2000)
ISBN 0-7333-0729-9 ; 0-7333-0872-4
Australia - Aborigines - Everyday life
The letters in this unusual ABC book cleverly serve as an impulse
triggering off Russell's memories of her life as a child in an Aboriginal
mission. She recalls happy moments, such as a billycart race with her brothers
and friends, and tells about daily routines at the mission. A closer look at
her powerful pictures, painted with bright acrylic and gouache in naïve
style, also reveals her being one of the few fair-skinned Aborigines; as she
mentions in the short biographical sketch included in the back of the book,
these children were often taken away from their families by the white
government at that time. An additional treat for the readers is the book's
dustjacket, which can be unfolded to a large format and put up on the wall as
a poster. (4+) <> ¤ +
28
Savvides, Irini
Willow tree and Olive
Sydney, NSW : Hodder Headline Australia, 2001. - 260 p
(A sceptre book)
ISBN 0-7336-1306-3
Immigration - Outsider - Sexual abuse – Friendship
Born in Australia as the child of Greek parents, Olive sometimes feels
torn between two worlds. One day, triggered by a lecture Olive attends at
school, suppressed memories of some past event suddenly surface and cause a
mental breakdown. Step by step, through Olive's letters to her psychologist
and her poems and thoughts, the reader discovers that she was raped at the age
of five. In order to recover and face the past, she travels to Greece for a
few months. This time, her bond with nature and Greek culture and tradition
enable her to leave the past behind and look towards a new future. The
powerful and moving story is told in fragments of poetry and prose that the
reader has to piece together as Olive slowly starts healing. (14+)