Bag and a Bird by Pamela Allen - Book Pathway

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Book Pathway


Contents Themes

Australia

Care for the Environment

Family

Literature 1. “Possum Magic” - Mem Fox 2. “Big Rain Coming” Katrina Germein 3. “Bunga Witta” - Emily Rodda 4. “This is Home: Essential Australian Poems for Children” - Jackie French

5. “Why should I Recycle?” Jen Green 6. “The Tree Lady” - Joseph Hopkins 7. “The Lorax” - Dr Seuss 8. “The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge” - Joanna Cole

9. “Families families families” - Suzanne and Max Lang 10. “Messy Bessey's Family Reunion” - Patricia and Frederick Mc Kissack 11. “Little House in the Big Woods” - Laura Ingalls 12. “A Tale of Two Families” Jenny Pausacker


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Picture Book

Possum Magic By Mem Fox “Possum Magic” by Mem Fox is specified as a picture book and is aimed to capture young children’s attention and imagination. The book explores a detailed adventure of two possums through the vast Australian landscape in search for the secret cure to the invisibility potion.

The landscapes, food, and animals portrayed throughout the book paints a vivid picture of the Australian style theme, championing this is the following sentences: “She made wombats blue and kookaburras pink.” p.3 - “She made dingoes smile and emus shrink.” p.4 - “They ate Anzac biscuits in Adelaide, mornay and minties in Melbourne, steak and salad in Sydney and pumpkin scones in Brisbane.”p.20 Discover More


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Early Years Reader

Big Rain Coming By Katrina Germein “Big Rain Coming” by Katrina Germein is set in a remote Aboriginal community in Australia. The families and animals in the community have suffered through many very hot, dry days and are eagerly looking forward to some rain. Beautiful, colourful illustrations of Australian scenery along with simple text make this an engaging, easy to read book for young readers. Sentences such as “The children swam in the billabong after school” (p.17)and “The fat green frogs huddled around the leaky tap on the rainwater tank,” (p.20) reflect the Australian theme. Discover More


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Middle Years Reader

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Bunga Witta By Emily Rodda “Bunga Witta” by Emily Rodda is a chapter book which is set in a rural Australian community and describes the difficulties the twelve residents face due to the harsh dry environment. They work together to put on an event that will entice tourists to visit and spend their money to help save the town while they hope for some rain. The theme of “Australia” is reflected in the book through sentences such as:

“Gleaming wombats, kangaroos, turtles, dinosaurs, maps of Australia, cars, crows, swagmen, unicorns, dolphins, crocodiles, the Sydney Opera House and a giant pineapple began to rise from the dry, brown earth.”(p.54) -“ ‘Waltzing Matilda,’ yelled the man who had eaten a sponge cake whole, and who was now wearing a green and gold tea cosy on his head.”(p.73)

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Upper Years Reader

This is Home: Essential Australian Poems for Children By Jackie French “This is Home: Essential Australian Poems for Children” written by Jackie French and illustrated by Tania McCartney, includes a poignant display of the diverse cultural aspects of Australian history through poems to develop and evaluate the events that have molded the country to what is evident in today's contemporary society. Jackie French’s literature included precise links to the Australian culture located throughout the plethora of poems names and content, including: “ANZAC Cove, Waltzing Matilda and The man from Snowy River.”


Importance of the ‘Care of the Environment’ theme in literature

‘Care for the environment’ is a particularly relevant and extremely important theme which is represented in children’s literature. It is pertinent that from a very young age children are exposed to opportunities to learn about respect for the environment and how to protect it and endeavour to achieve sustainability for the future. Adults need to read stories to children from a very young age and as their understanding and language develops, they can initiate conversations about the environment from the illustrations and text in the books. As young children apply their prior knowledge, develop their scientific knowledge and extend their questioning techniques they can further explore living things and other relevant environments such as the park, the beach and the school play areas. This current theme is known as contemporary realism as it relates to today’s society and allows children to build connections from literature to the real world and recognise relationships between texts. (McDonald, 2018, p.12) This knowledge about living things and environmental effects will assist them in their formal schooling with the content in the learning area of Science from the Prep year onwards, championing this is the achievement standards


C En ar vi e f ro or n t m h en e t

Picture Book

Why should I Recycle? By Jen Green “Why should I Recycle?” by Jen Green, demonstrates the dire importance of how and why we should respect and protect the environment. It is introduced at the beginning of the story with: “In my family, we recycle our garbage. We return things so they can be used again.” (p.4)

This concept continues through the ongoing references to the reasons for recycling and involving the children in the process of how and why things are recycled to assist them to understand the positive effects it can have on the environment. Further consolidation of the reasoning behind the recycling process is on page 20: “Most of the garbage we put in the trash can gets buried in dumps that spoil the countryside. It’s good to recycle as much as you can.”

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C En ar vi e f ro or n t m h en e t

Early Years Reader

The Tree Lady the True Story of How One TreeLoving Woman Changed a City forever By Joseph Hopkins

“The Tree Lady the True Story of How One TreeLoving Woman Changed a City Forever” by Joseph Hopkins sets out to provide a contemporary realism style text in conjunction with an educational aspect of the importance of nature into children's literature. This picture book biography focuses on Kate, with her love of nature and her understanding of the importance of the need for trees in the environment. In the 1980’s, she set out to transform an American town from a dry desert to a luscious city with many parks and gardens. Her need to strive to care for the environment is evident in these excerpts: “But best of all, she liked studying wind and rain, muscles and bones, plants and trees.”(p.3) “Trees seemed to Kate like giant umbrellas that sheltered her and the animals, birds, and plants that lived in the forest.” (p.6)

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C En are vi f ro or n th m e en t

Middle Years Reader

The Lorax By Dr. Seuss In “The Lorax”, by Dr Seuss, a young boy seeks to impress a girl by showing her a real tree but is faced with many barriers along the way including the Lorax character who protects the trees and creatures who live in the forest. Through rhyming verse and nonsensical words, there is a focus on caring for and respecting the environment – “Plant a new Truffula (tree). Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.”; (p.63) deforestation - “From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall.” (p.52) and the inappropriate disposal of rubbish.

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C En ar vi e f ro or n t m h en e t

Upper Years Reader

The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge By Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen “The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge”, by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen dives down on the hot topic of climate change and the effects it poses onto the younger generation. Ms Frizzle and the magic school bus team set out to explore this topic and develop a new understanding of climate change in a fun and exciting manner.

The story includes examples of climate change such as: “There was still plenty of ice in the Arctic, but a lot had melted, and more was melting all the time.” (p.10) On page 15 , they talk about greenhouse gases to explain why the temperatures are generally becoming warmer: “Most of today’s warming is caused by the increasing level of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere,” and the clever inclusion of simple comic drawings and speech bubbles assists children in developing their understanding of the effects on the environment from climate change.

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Picture Book

Families families families,” By Suzanne and Max Lang

“Families families families,” by Suzanne and Max Lang, explores the depictions of a multitude of different combinations or nontraditional families through cleverly placed animals. The overarching theme of this fantastic book is the elaboration and emphasis on the celebration of the aspect of family love and diversity, it describes this perfectly by phrases such as, “Some children live with their father, and Some children have two mothers.” (p.7-8)

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Early Years Reader

Messy Bessy’s Family Reunion By Patricia and Fredrick McKissack

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Messy Bessy’s Family Reunion is a rhyming verse early chapter book about a little girl who attends a family reunion in the park but is not impressed by the mess her family left when it was finished which leads to Bessy then organising all the relatives to work together to solve the problem. The correlation to the Family theme is obvious as there are many references to family members such as: “Grandpa starts a story saying ‘I remember when…’” (p.16) and “Aunts and uncles, cousins, too, Grandpa and Grandmother are all together having fun, enjoying one another.” (p.6-7)


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Middle Years Reader

Little House in the Big Woods By Laura Ingalls

Based on a real life adventure in the early 1870’s, the award winning literature “Little House in the Big Woods” is a autobiography written by Laura Ingalls Wilder which explores a family’s life in a little house in the woods and the hardship and challenges they must overcome in order to make the best of their situation. They all had to pitch in to help with the chores and work together as a family as this text example shows: “Mary wiped more of them (dishes) than Laura because she was bigger, but Laura always wiped carefully her own little cup and plate.” (p.18) Discover More


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Upper Years Reader

A Tale of Two FamiliesThe Diary of Jan Packard By Jenny Pausacker A Tale of Two Families- The Diary of Jan Packard is a chapter book for middle to upper primary readers. It is written in diary form and is based on the life of the main character, Jan whose boredom leads her to writing recounts of her daily experiences. Set in the 1970’s, Jan details events and her interactions and relationships with family members and other family friends. Pertinent examples of this include: “…the Packards and the Maxwells are exactly the same…A mum and a dad, two boys and a girl, a cat and a dog.” (p.9) and also: “It made me realise…that Granma’s her mum, as well as being my grandmother.” (p.54)

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