Summer Reading

The Red Shoe by Ursula Dubosarsky provides an interesting insight into life in N.S.W in the 1950's from a child's point of view. The story unfolds through the observations of a six year old girl, of her family life with her two older sisters, her mother and her father who is frequently away at sea. When the father returns home for weekends, his brother usually joins them and they enjoy some happy times together. However, there are serious undertones that evolve throughout the story to reveal an attempted suicide.
It incorporates newspaper articles that elude to some of the political events  surrounding the Petrov affair. The characters within this novel are well developed and it is an interesting example of historical fiction, as well as a good read.

Libby Gleeson's novel Mahtab's Story highlights the intense experience of a refugee girl (around ten years old) and her family's flight from Herat, their journey through the rocky mountains of Pakistan and their voyage on a refugee boat to Australia. This realistic and confronting story could be explored by students to develop their  understanding of current issues surrounding illegal boats coming to Australia and treatment of refugees in detention centres. It could also be used as a source to facilitate the development of the values of empathy and tolerance in our multicultural society. It is well written and very good to read from both an adult and a child's perspective.

Google images Source: www. fishpond.com.