Ordinary lives in microcosm - the similarities between very different communities - the simple pleasures of life, family, pets and the inter-connectedness of, well, everything!
This simple story begins in India with a sparrow looking for food.
Like all Graham's work, though, the bulk of the story occurs in the illustrations. We see children playing hopscotch outside a small food shack. A customer is sitting down to a plate of samosa's. The sparrow flits around, until it eventually spies an open rice bag on top of a truck full of rice bags...about to head off to the big city and the docks.
The rice is placed on board a cargo ship and sails across the ocean, with the sparrow on board too.
Eventually the ship arrives in a new city and the sparrow flies out over the land.
Walking through the Botanic Gardens are toddler Edie Irvine, her grandparents and their dog. They stop at the cafe for afternoon tea. Edie has her bottle and her grandparents sit down to enjoy an ice cream cone.
Along comes our cheeky little sparrow, looking for fresh food. It spies some crumbs on the table. The dog leaps after it, pulling grandad's arm, knocking over the vanilla ice cream and.........
Vanilla Ice Cream has been endorsed by Amnesty International UK "because it reminds us that we should all enjoy life, freedom and safety."
If you'd like to see more Bob Graham illustrations, then click here to see my post about his recent Retrospective in Canberra.
Must find this one. Love Bob Graham. Love him.
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