A wander through my life as a Uni student and the things that catch my attention. It may be Uni assignments, or investigations into classical music, or yarn dyeing and knitting. Welcome!!
Friday, May 17, 2024
Diversity – what Children’s Book
Awards should we be looking at?
In
the words of The Children’s Book Council of Australia themselves, “The Book of
the Year Awards…are now the most influential and highly respected in Australia”
(CBCA, n.d., para.2).Do a google search
for “awards other than the CBCA” and the following screenshot is what comes up…
As
wonderful as the CBCA Book of the Year Awards and other state book awards are,
where are the awards celebrating diversity, cultural awareness, eco awareness?
A
new google search, “children’s book awards celebrating diversity”, was more
helpful.It led me to an article from
the School Library Journal – Children’s
Book Awards that Celebrate Diversity (Venkatraman, 2021).The author, a winner of the Walter Dean Myers
Award, presents an outstanding list of awards that “seek out books about or
authors from underrepresented and marginalized groups” (Venkatraman, 2021,
para.3).Although the awards are mostly
US based it came me hope that there are other awards closer to home.
DANZ
– The Diversity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Children’s Book Award – children’s
books that celebrate diversity: disability, culture, class, LGBTQI+, race, religion,
and marginalised communities. Books that
“push boundaries and challenge stereotypes” (DANZ, 2023, sect.1). 2024 is the inaugural year of the award and
it hopes to make it an annual award. It
brings Australia and New Zealand with the UK (The Diverse Book Awards) and the
US (The Walter Awards) (DANZ, 2023).
Description
of the awards from the Wilderness Society (2024):
Karajia Award for Children’s Literature: promotes themes that honour Connection to Country and tell stories exploring land, community, culture and/or language.
Environment Award for Children’s Literature: encourages a caring attitude towards the natural environment and/or promotes an awareness of environmental issues.
These
awards have been around since 1994 and I am ashamed to say I had never heard of
them.
In
2023 the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were transferred to Creative
Australia as part of the release of National Cultural Policy – Revive: a place
for every story, a story for every place (Creative Australia, 2024). The policy is available here
and is well worth the read. Below is a
screenshot of the 2023 winner and shortlist of the Children’s Literature Award
(Creative Australia, 2024), worthy additions to any children’s bookshelves be
they at home or in a library.
If
you click on the logos of the awards above it will take you to the home pages
where you can see the shortlists and winners for each award – as a prospective
future librarian, I will be adding these to my file of places to look for book recommendations.
This
has been an eye-opening two-part journey through the world of diversity and children’s
book awards – I was unaware there were alternatives to the CBCA Awards, having
been so immersed in them and the associated Book Week through working in
schools. The CBCA Awards have earned
their rightful place, now we need to search out and highlight those awards that
are celebrating diversity in all its forms.
References
CBCA. (n.d.). About the
Children’s Book Council of Australia. The Children’s Book Council of Australia.
https://cbca.org.au/about.
If
there was ever a website I would happily send my kids to it would be this one –
bright, colourful, educational, and so much content.
I
started my search for websites for kids at Save the Children (2024) – they have
a page here
containing links to all sorts of educational websites and apps for kids, and
there are some fabulous ones out there.I’ll be recommending a few more later.
National
Geographic Kids (n.d.) is a site children can safely explore without direct
parent supervision when older but is just as fun for children to explore
together with an adult. Positive
child-parent relationships are essential to a child’s development and learning,
and viewing digital media and discussing content together, as well as playing
games together can be a very positive experience (Edwards, S. et al., 2018).
Accessible
from the home page are drop down menus for games, videos, animals (fact sheets),
and explore more (history, science, space, weird but true!).You can also access Brain Boosters on the
home page with all sorts of craft ideas, recipes, homework help - How
to be an expert fact-checker being one of my favourites!
The
craft ideas pages are well laid out, e.g. Make a guitar.There is information on the guitar around
the world, a very clear materials list, and detailed instructions with
photographs for each step. An explanation of what is happening when you pluck a
rubber band, and a focus question round out the page.
Trash
Dash (National
Geographic Kids, 2018) is one of the weird but true! shorts and is a great
introduction to space junk.
PBS Kids Design Squad Global (WGBH
Educational Foundation, 2024) – Design engineering ideas, building ideas, city
building games, fun stories.
The
team at PBS Kids recognise that games on digital technology is favoured activity
of kids so “make fun educational video games that help kids learn social and
emotional learning, problem-solving, and computational thinking skills”
(Gratton, 2023, para.2).
Bedtime Math (2024) – A
website and an app. Parents read the opening to the child, then solve the math
problem together. Lots of themed topics
with links (locked by a maths problem) for parents and kids to discover more
interesting facts.
From
personal experience working in the school system Scholastic
Australia’s Literacy Pro (2019), although favoured by teachers, is not well
liked by a lot of children. My children tried to test out to Year 12 level by
Year 5/6, so they could read whatever they wanted. Both Literacy Pro and ABC Reading Eggs require you to pay for
a subscription.
I
found this search enlightening as my main exposure to educational websites is
those that are paid for by the schools.The websites highlighted above are free, fun, full of educational
content, and encourage parents and children to explore together.Digital technology is here to stay, and it is
worth searching out quality resources to encourage parents “to be thoughtful
and intentional” (Gratton, 2023, para.4) when looking for websites to explore
with their children.
References
ABC Reading Eggs. (2024). Learning
to read can be easy and fun. Blake eLearning, 3P Learning. https://readingeggs.com.au/.
Following
on from looking at censorship and book bans, what better topic to look at than
at cultural diversity – particularly in Children’s Book Awards.
I
found a wonderful article “A Cause for Hope or an Unwitting Conspiracy?”,
written by lecturers Helen Adam and Yvonne Urquhart (2023), from Edith Cowan
University in Western Australia.Both have
a passion for the importance of “authentically diverse and inclusive literature
to break down barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding in society” (Adam
& Urquhart, 2023, p.58).
This
agrees with the American Library Association (ALA) Council which states, “A
diverse collection should contain content by and about a wide array of people
and cultures to authentically reflect a variety of ideas, information, stories,
and experiences” (2019, sect.6).
Adam
& Urquhart chose to look at literary award shortlists as these are often
used by libraries and parents to search out quality books for children.Ninety picture books were chosen from the
shortlists of 2019, 2020 from multiple awards across Australia, as these feature
books published and/or written and illustrated in Australia.The authors examined the illustrations in
each book, focussing on the representation of the human characters - skin
colour and other visual differences as an indication of race, while
acknowledging that they “ascribe to the belief that race is a social construct”
(Adam & Urquhart, 2023, p.50).They
noted that 68% of the books with human characters had some cultural or racial
diversity, but that “specific ethnicities…were mostly unclear or ambiguous”
(Adam & Urquhart, 2023, p.55).There
were concerns over two books that portrayed outdated stereotypes.
The
authors did not examine the award criteria or processes but recommended that “consideration
of the authenticity of cultural representations” (Adam & Urquhart, 2023,
p.55) be included.
In
reflecting upon this article, I realised it was not something I had ever thought about, so I looked at the recently released shortlists for
the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards 2024, which are available here:
I
was particularly interested in this list, living in Western Australia myself.Authors must reside in Western Australia for
all awards except for The Daisy Utemorrah Award for Unpublished Indigenous
Junior and YA Fiction which is open to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
writers Australia wide (State Library of Western Australia, 2024b).You can read about the wonderful manuscripts
for this award here at Magabala Books.
The
shortlists for the CBCA 2024 awards are available at:
Our
Country: Where History Happened -
Journey through tens of thousands of years of history (Greenwood, M., 2024).
I
am the Mau and other stories – stories
exploring the duality of Kenyan Life (Glasheen, 2023).
Huda
was here – centred around
Lebanese Australians and living in a minority group (Hayek, 2023).
The
Concrete Garden – community
friendships in an urban setting (Graham, 2023).
Tamarra:
A story of termites on Gurindji Country - the life of termites through Gurindji storytelling (Wadrill
et al., 2023).
This
Book Thinks Ya Deadly! A Celebration of Blak Excellence – short form biographies of First
Nations People who have done great things (Tutt, C., 2023).
I
firmly believe there is definitely hope for cultural diversity in children’s
literature.
References
Adam, H., & Urquhart,
Y. (2023). A cause for hope or an unwitting complicity? The representation of cultural
diversity in award-listed Children’s picturebooks in Australia. Bookbird, 61(2),
48–58. https://doi.org/10.1353/bkb.2023.0023.
Tutt, C. (2023). This
book thinks ya deadly! A celebration of Blak excellence. (M. Hunt, Illus.).
Hardie Grant Explore.
Wadrill, V., Ngarnjal,
T.D., Leaman, L., Edwards, C., Algy, C., Meakins, F., Barr, B. & Crocetti,
G. (2023). Tamarra: A story of termites on Gurindji Country. Hardie
Grant Explore.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The Freedom to Read
Two things
happened this week to inspire this blog post:
·An
email arrived from ALIA entitled “New Freedom to Read resources now available”.
·I
rediscovered a book on my shelves that I and the primary school librarian had
removed from our school bookshelves.
I decided to
explore the resources ALIA has made available as unfortunately, book
challenges and confrontations appear to be coming more commonplace around
Australia.
These include:
·ALIA
Freedom to Read 2023 Wrap,
·Be
Prepared Postcard,
·Collection
Development Policy Template,
·Collection
Development Policies Webinar, presented
by educators Julie Barkman, TAFE NSW and Catherine
Barnes, UniSA/Endeavor College.
·OCLC
On-Demand Courses for
responding to a crisis and de-escalating conflict, and
·Book
resumes from The Virginia Library Association and Unite Against Book Bans (ALIA, 2024).
Upon seeing
the link to book resumes I googled “book challenges Virginia”. The following screenshot is the first four
entries of an alarmingly long list.
I
chose the article from The
Washington Post (Natanson, 2023) on the school book wars – very interesting and well-balanced,
it looks at the issue from both the side of the challenger and that of the
school librarians.
What
I learnt from ALIA Freedom to Read 2023 Wrap shocked me.
In
Australia in 2023 there were 75 individual book challenges about 48 different
titles, and 21 reported incidents including threats, protests, and petitions.
(ALIA, 2023)
“Books
for younger readers were by far the most targeted type of book, with board books,
picture books, children’s fiction and children’s non-fiction accounting for 63%
of total complaints, and young adult fiction and non-fiction making up 13%”
(ALIA, 2023, para7).
The
topics targeted by complaints were dominated by “LGBTQIA+ issues, gender
identity, and explicit or graphic sex education” (ALIA, 2023, p4).
The webinar Collection
Development Policies addressed the importance of having a strong collection
development policy, particularly in the area of selection of resources, when it
comes to book challenges and censorship.
The following statement from ALIA from the webinar sums up this
importance:
(Gary,
2023, 33:00-33:23)
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutes (IFLA) and
UNESCO Public Library Manifesto 2022 states, “Collections and services should
not be subject to any form of ideological, political or religious censorship,
nor commercial pressures” (IFLA, 2022, p2)
I realised that one of my gaps in
knowledge is what my legal rights and obligations as a potential library staff
member when faced with threatening behaviour are. I am addressing this by watching another
webinar provided by ALIA under their Freedom to Read resources – Know Your Rights
with criminal barrister Nicholas Stewart (Stewart, 2024).
And the book we removed from the
primary school library? It was this CBCA
shortlisted gorgeous book from award winning – and one of my children’s favourite
– author, Matt Ottley (2007). It is so worthy
of a place on a secondary school bookshelf.
It deals with the Stolen Generation, a young man’s battle with
psychological issues, and his discovery of his father’s part in the hidden manslaughter
of a young Indigenous boy. Not themes
for a primary school! It is listed on
Matt Ottley’s own website under YA fiction (Ottley, n.d.).
Photo by Louisa Lowry
But
as Catherine Barnes said in the Collection Development Policies webinar,
“It is important to acknowledge there may be items in your collection that do
need to be reconsidered” (Barnes, 2023, 19:31-19:37).
References
PLEASE NOTE: ALIA Freedom
to Read resources are only accessible to members.
Every year ABC Classic asks the public to vote for their favourites in a particular category to form the Top 100. This year the theme is "Feel Good". In thinking about this I decided to have a look back at my choices in the 2021 countdown -"The Music You Can't Live Without".
The music I voted for has formed the basis of my classical playlist, although the playlist has been mightily expanded since then - currently over 55 hours worth.
So with out further ado, let my introduce you to what is still my top 10...
1. Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 (The Emperor Concerto)
Beethoven - 5th Piano Concerto 'Emperor' (Zimmerman, Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker)
What can I say? It makes me laugh, it makes me cry. It is lyrical and dramatic, yet simple and poetic. The first movement has it all - an overview of all the themes to come, and a beautiful interplay between the pianist and orchestra. The second movement is pensive, quiet, and thoughtful. The third movement just makes me want to sing and dance.
And this piece was voted number 1 in "The Music You Can't Live Without" Top 100.
2. Joseph Tawadros - Concerto for Oud and Orchestra
Concerto for Oud and Orchestra’ (3 Movements) Composed Joseph Tawadros.
Performed by Joseph Tawadros and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Incredible!! Watching Maestro Benjamin Northey just trying to keep the orchestra in time with Joseph Tawadros on the oud is amazing.
3. Johan Johansson - Arrival of the Birds
Scene from The Crimson Wing, directed by Leander Ward and Matthew Aeberhard.
Original music by The Cinematic Orchestra.
So beautifully atmospheric.
4. Joe Hisaishi - One Summer's Day (Spirited Away)
Official music video by Joe Hisaishi
This was in a close race with my other favourite Joe Hisaishi song - MerryGoRound from Howl's Moving Castle. In this video you get to see the master at work - sublime!
5. Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1
Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, (Hilary Hahn - violin)
Hilary Hahn manages to capture the very essence of Max Bruch's violin concerto with such sensitive playing - a beautiful example of a very popular violin concerto from the Romantic period.
6. Ravi Shankar - Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra
Performed by Ravi Shankar (sitar) and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn, with Terence Emery (bongos).
The music I grew up with - one of my Dad's favourite records, which he loves to tell me I scratched by rubbing it on the floor as a baby. I redeemed myself as a teenager when it was finally rereleased on CD.
7. Ross Edwards - Arafura Dances - Concerto for Guitar
Very hard to find a complete recording on YouTube, but this is link to the third movement. So beautiful. Ross Edwards is one of the quintessential Australian composers that has such a unique sound and I live how he captures the feel of the Australian bush.
8. Peggy Glanville Hicks - Etruscan Concerto
Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990) : "Etruscan Concerto" for piano and chamber orchestra (1954)
Another Australian composer, although she spent a long time living overseas. This is such a joyful piece, with quiet pensive moments.
9. Nigel Westlake - If I Had Words (Babe)
If I Had Words - Composed and conducted by Nigel Westlake with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Oh that pig - what's not to love?! This is the orchestral finale based on Saint-Saens 'Organ' Symphony and just makes my heart sing.
10. Michael Nyman - The Heart Asks Pleasure First
Michael Nyman - The Heart Asks Pleasure First (The Piano Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Just so beautiful,,,
I hope you enjoyed this wander through my top 10, and that you find something you love too.
Have you ever wanted to introduce your pre-teen child to some of the classic literature that has entranced us over the years? Do you have a range of reading abilities in your Year 5/6 class and want some ideas for running a classic literature unit? Are you a kid sick of the same old series and wanting something new to read? If so, then this reading guide is for you.
THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I fell in love with the world of Mary Lennox when my father read the book to me as a child, then as a teenager the 1993 film, starring the wonderful Maggie Smith as Mrs Medlock, was released - just gorgeous!
Now a film released in 2020 has rekindled interest in the book. You can watch the trailer here:
As a first introduction to the book that still uses the original language if in a slightly simplified form is this gorgeously illustrated picture book.
Freedman, C. (2020). The secret garden. (S. Davidson, Illus.). Puffin.
Mary Lennox is sent to live with her uncle, Lord Craven, at Misselthwaite Manor as an orphan from India, after her family is wiped out by a terrible fever. He is often away, and she is left under the care of the housekeeper, Mrs Medlock. As she explores, she discovers her sick cousin, Colin, hidden away inside the mansion and a secret garden full of magic. Can she bring the garden back to life and with it bring a young boy and his father back together? The illustrations are beautiful with a full fold out spread at the end.
Another recent version of this book with mousified language, crazy graphics, and beautifully detailed illustrations, is the Geronimo Stilton adaptation as part of the Classic Tales series:
Stilton, G. (2018). The secret garden. (E. Clement, Trans.). Scholastic. (Original work published 2012).
"Burnett wrote many books, including The Little Princess and The Secret Garden. She wrote about social problems, but she also told romantic stories that captivated readers young and old. Her books dealt life's difficulties, the strength of nature, and love as a way to understand the world. (Stilton, 2018).
Geronimo Stilton has consistently won over reluctant readers with his highly illustrated novels and graphics reminiscent of cartoons. My own children loved his books and donated several series to the school library.
Both books were available from my local library. I also found on Libby, the eLibrary app, a full cast dramatisation of The Secret Garden by BBC Children's Classics (2006) published by AudioGO Ltd, available as an audiobook if you would like to listen to the original story.
If you are looking for free resources to use when working with The Secret Garden, education.com
has free worksheets for reading comprehension, characters profiles and the role of setting in the book.
Now, it is time to enter the world of...
SHERLOCK HOLMES by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes - the name has become synonymous with a quirky, deep-thinking detective and his sidekick, and has inspired many adaptations of his stories. The wonderful Sherlock Holmes film (2009), starring Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law. The marvellous British TV series Sherlock (2010), starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. And, the Enola Holmes Mysteries (2006-2021) by Nancy Springer which inspired two movies of the same name in 2020 and 2022.
But who wrote Sherlock Holmes? What do we know about him?
Bailey, L. (2023). Arthur who wrote Sherlock. (I. Follath, Illus). Anderson Press
Linda Bailey was fascinated by the images of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of a "walrus-moustached Victorian gentleman" (2023, author's note) and the story of how he killed off his famous detective. This beautiful picture book explores the life of Arthur from his early days of his mother telling fantastical stories, through his school days, and his working life before Sherlock. Then, the love/hate relationship with his detective and his stories takes over. Will Arthur kill off his detective for good, or will he come to an arrangement that suits them both? Isabelle Follath's illustrations capture the essence of a Victorian fascination with the exotic so beautifully.
Sweet Cherry Publishing - as part of their Easy Classics series - have produced a whole suite of Sherlock Holmes stories. The one that I found at my local library was The Blue Carbuncle.
Doyle, A.C. (2019). The blue carbuncle. (Adapted by S. Baudet). Sweet Cherry Publishing.
A valuable jewel, the Blue Carbuncle, has been stolen. In trying to reunite a Christmas dinner and its owner, Sherlock comes across the missing diamond and must race against time to solve the case and save an innocent man's life.
The black and white line drawings throughout the book capture the mystery and the facial expressions of the characters. What is even better is that Sweet Cherry Publishing include a QR code for a free audiobook inside the front cover. And here they offer teaching resources such as vocabulary lists, plot sequencing, comprehension questions, and diary writing for some of the Sherlock books - including this one.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Now let's move back in time to the 1600's when a man known as William Shakespeare was writing plays - drama, tragedies, comedies.
Walker Books, together with illustrator Becca Stadlander, have produced a gorgeous book - Bold and Brave Women from Shakespeare.
Walker Books. (2020). Bold and brave women from Shakespeare. (B. Stadlander, Illus.). Walker Books.
Twelve of the women of Shakespeare's stories are celebrated in this richly illustrated guide. From the ambitious Lady Macbeth, the rebellious Juliet, the majestic Cleopatra, and the battle-ready Margaret of Anjou (Walker Books, 2020).
One of my favourite Shakespeare stories is Macbeth. It is a tragic tale of ambition and madness. Macbeth is prophesied to become King of Scotland by three witches. Through the process of killing the current king and trying to install her husband on the throne, Lady Macbeth spirals into madness, sleepwalking about the castle, trying to remove the bloodstains from her hands. One of my favourite adaptations that I read as a teenager was from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Wyrd Sisters (1989), but it is a book for older teenagers to adults.
One of the best ways to introduce kids to MacBeth is the witch's scene - who doesn't love, "Double, double, toil and trouble." The Folger Shakespeare Library has a free PDF version of Round the Cauldron from Macbeth in the original play form here. This one is great to do with a class of students as everyone can get into the spirit with the accompanying sound effects.
Folger Shakespeare Library has some great resources under their Shakespeare for kids which you can access for free by clicking the link. There are Shakespearean insults and compliments, try your hand at Shakespeare, tips on seeing your first Shakespeare play, colouring pages, and Shakespeare for teens.
ANCIENT MYTHS AND LEGENDS
If we move even further back in history - let's say nearly 3000 years - we come across Homer who is supposed to have written the Iliad and the Odyssey, poems of epic quests handed down orally and finally written down in the late 8th or early 7th century BCE. One of the legends mentioned in the Iliad is that of Athena - the Greek goddess of war.
From the creative team of Imogen (author) and Isabel (illustrator) Greenburg comes Athena, the story of a goddess.
Greenberg, I. (2018). Athena, the story of a goddess. (I. Greenberg, Illus.). Bloomsbury.
This is a graphic novel/illustrated picture book at its finest. Isabel Greenberg has used a limited colour palette (as shown above) to great effect, to bring the stories of the adventurous goddess to life. From battling Poseidon for the right to the city of Athens, helping Perseus defeat Medusa, and turning Arachnae into a spider in revenge for losing a contest to her, Athena had many clever ways to fight back against those who dared to cross her path.
Another book that looks at myths and legends from all around the world - including Ancient Greece - from the Dorling Kindersley range, is Myths, Legends & Sacred Stories - a children's encyclopedia from 2019.
Wilkinson, P. (2109). Myths, legends & sacred stories - a children's encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley.
This book is full of beautiful photos of artworks, pottery, and classical frescos, carvings, statues, and gorgeous illustrations from all around the world.
The first section is Europe - from the gods and goddesses (including Athena) from Ancient Greece to the Norse myths that have inspired so many Marvel movies.
The second section covers myths for China, Japan, and the Indian subcontinent. These stories are some of the oldest in the world, dating back 5000 years. The oldest epic poem, and earliest surviving world of literature is The Epic of Gilgamesh. This story is covered in detail, in an easy-to-understand way for everyone.
The next section is from Africa, stories of Egyptian gods and goddesses, and the story of /Kaggen (not a mistype – it really
does have a slash at the beginning!) and the world tree from southern Africa.
The fourth section has myths from the Americas - the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incans. Bizarre creatures, lively creatures and gods and goddesses that control everything from the weather to farming.
And finally, Oceania. Sacred stories from Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, including the stories of Maui's feats. Maui was the main character in the 2016 Disney film Moana.
HAVING FUN EXPLORING THE STORIES
The next two books are not classic tales in their own right - but what you do with them may be. The first uses something that is found in nearly every household or classroom - LEGO!!
Pagano, D. & Pickett, D. (2017). The LEGO animation book: Make you own LEGO movies! William Pollock
This fantastic book teaches you how to take LEGO from bits on a tray and turn them into unique characters and sets. It then takes you through basic animation techniques from miniscule movements, to walking, and complex motions. It teaches you how to film, how to edit, postproduction, and how to produce a fabulous story.
It would be a wonderful adjunct to any unit on classic literature to be able to produce a scene from the story in an animated LEGO movie. Check out what LEGO did with the tale of Red Riding Hood.
My second book for this section is from 3dtotal Publishing.
This book allows you to fully explore drawing from fundamental techniques to sketching in colour. Check out this fantastical creation from page 60.
Kangahorse from Beginners guide to sketching: characters, creatures & concepts.
The book guides you through designing an environment, illustrating and composing a scene, and bringing it all together, with lots of individual projects to practice techniques on.
Another wonderful idea to fully explore the characters in classic tales.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
These final two books came to my attention as worthy of a mention. They are slightly longer reads and the second is a slightly more challenging read, suitable for the more advanced reader or those wanting a challenge.
Firstly, Treasure Island.
Stevenson, R.L. (2021). Treasure island. (Abridged by L. Courtney: J. Noel, Illus.). Egmont.
I love this story, I used to listen to it being read on vinyl record when I was little. Although the book has been abridged, the language has not been modified and it still retains the wonderful flow. Jack Noel's doodles and illustrations add interest and kept me reading till the very end.
Secondly, Following Frankenstein.
Bruton, K. (2021). Following Frankenstein. Nosy Crow
This is not the original story; this is the story of Maggie and her father. Her father is Captain Walton of the original Frankenstein novel, who has dedicated his life to hunting down the monster that Victor Frankenstein created. It has cost the family everything and now he is off on one last journey to the Arctic with Maggie in tow on the ship of the mysterious Count Florenzo. Although this is a recent tale, the language is reminiscent of the original 1818 story.
I hope this reading guide has given you some ideas of the wonderful ways that authors are reimagining the classic tales to introduce a whole new generation of children to their magic.
