Yours Sincerely, Giraffe by Megumi Iwasa

One of my recent #readathon reads was the delightfully eccentric Yours Sincerely, Giraffe by Megumi Isawa. When my eyes started to get tired and words began to blur on the page, the simple but fun illustrations from Jun Takabatake were just the eye candy I needed.

The premise of the story is simple - Giraffe is bored. Until, that is, he spots a sign on a tree from an equally bored pelican who has decided to start up a postal service, 'willing to deliver anything anywhere'!

Giraffe decides to write a letter. He gives it to pelican with the instruction 'give it to the first animal you meet on the other side of the horizon.'

What follows is a rather absurd, but oh so charming tale of mistaken identity and misunderstanding as giraffe and his new penpal, penguin, try to imagine what each other look like and what it would be like to live on the other side of the horizon.

For teachers and parents, the added bonus with Yours Sincerely, Giraffe is the chance to discuss letter writing, difference and perception with your emerging reader. It's also a fabulous book to read aloud together.

New Zealand based Gecko Press have become renown for their promotion of unconventional, diverse and humorous books for children. These include Rose Lagercrantz's My Happy Life books and Ulf Nilsson's Detective Gordon series. Yours Sincerely, Giraffe is another quirky addition.

Jane, The Fox and Me by Fanny Britt & Isabelle Arsenault

I'm not a huge graphic novel aficionado, but every now and again, one comes along that grabs my attention.

Maybe it had something to do with the Jane Eyre reference or maybe it was the rave review from the rep that had stuck in my mind, but when I saw this book displayed on our shelves, I knew I just had to read it.

Helené is a recently rejected girl at school. Once popular with friends, she suddenly finds herself on the outer. She is taunted, teased and bullied.

Her loneliness, confusion & sadness are beautifully depicted in the grey wash illustrations by Arsenault. This is a graphic novel that is still also a picture book at heart.

The thing that keeps Helené going, that offers her respite from the taunts, that fills the void of friends, is books.

And one book in particular speaks to her - Jane Eyre.

All of a sudden we turn the page to find a little bit of Jane Eyre's story as seen through Helené's eyes.

The illustrations change - we see colour, lovely old-fashioned fonts & we also see hope.

Helené sees Jane as a kindred spirit - a connection is made through the pages of the book. Through Jane, Helené feels understood. Jane's story not only gives Helené respite, but hope.

During a ghastly school camping excursion, Helené spies a fox in the woods.

She reaches out & makes a connection with the fox.

This encourages her to make a connection with one of the other girls, Géraldine, also on the outer with the popular group.

There is nothing particularly new or earth-shattering about this classic tale of bullying & loneliness.

Or the redemptive power of a good book.

But Jane, The Fox and Me is told so tenderly that I defy anyone to resist its charms.

I certainly couldn't!

Fanny Britt is from Quebec.
The book was translated into English by Christine Morelli & Susan Ouriou.

This book has mature themes but would be suitable for good 10+ readers as well as high school students.

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty

Rosie Revere loves to make things - unusual things - useful things - like a special hat to keep off snakes for her uncle who works in the zoo.

Unfortunately, he laughs at Rosie's invention and she takes it to heart and decides never to make anything again for fear of failing.

A visit by her great great aunt - an elderly lady, called Rose, sporting a blue workers smock and red bandana, changes all that though, as Rosie learns an important lesson about failure & success, mistakes and trying again.

This is an empowering story for girls that taps into the Rosie the Riveter ethos from WW2. A time when women were encouraged to try new jobs, learn new skills and have a go - for the good of the nation, while the men were at war.

Occasionally the rhyme is a little clunky, but the heart & soul behind the text makes up for that.

Highly recommended for 3+ young readers as well as primary schools everywhere.

My Mother, My Father: On Losing A Parent edited by Susan Wyndham

Firstly, both my parents are still in the land of the living.

However this book has had an incredible pull on me this past month, until I could resist no longer & impulse bought it last week!

It's had quite a bit of radio & print time here in Australia which explains some of it.
Perhaps my uncle's death earlier in the month (and another uncle's sudden hospitalisation) has got me thinking about what's happening to the folks in my parents generation of the family tree.

Either way, I've certainly had the passing of time, ageing and illness on my mind lately.

Susan Wyndham's mother died two years ago. Two years in which Susan struggled with her grief and struggled to come to terms with her feelings of loss & regret.

Susan's introduction sums up what she has done in this book better than I can,

"Some of my friends suggested I keep a journal about the experience...but for a long time I couldn't even begin to translate my thoughts into coherent words....

Instead I went looking for writers who had already found the words for me....

what I wanted were personal stories with which I could identify. Evidence that I was not alone or mad....

Everyone's story is different and so much is the same....

Many of them said writing their story was an intensely emotional or cathartic experience....

The stories are about lifelong relationships. A part of us goes with them....

It has been a ridiculous and comforting revelation for me that the world is full of people without parents who carry on living. With loss there is also growth....

we hope to offer companionship, insight and solace to anyone who is or will be a member of the club."

What follows is a moving, heart-felt conversation about our parents. We see difficult childhoods and constant battles, happy memories and nurturing care. The revelations that can only come with time are aired with tenderness and wonder. The guilt, regrets and sorrow that come after defy expectations and surprise many.

I have not found this book to be a sad or depressing book. 

Poignant - yes - occasionally heart-breaking & sometimes funny. It's full of  "ahhh" moments as Susan and her writer friends succeed in offering "companionship, insight & solace".

The common thread that joins all these stories, is that in the end, we are all left with the memories. Good, bad or indifferent these memories become a part of our stories. And that's what keeps us going.

For my Australian friends the other contributors in My Mother, My Father are Margaret Barbalet, Caroline Baum, Thomas Keneally, Susan Duncan, Nikki Barrowclough, Helen Garner, Jaya Savige, Kathryn Heyman, David Marr, Margaret Rice, Mandy Sayer, Gerald Windsor & Linda Neil.

The October Child by Eleanor Spence

I read The October Child when it first came out, which meant I was only about 9 or 10. I found it pretty heavy going at the time, although I often found myself identifying with young Douglas, the responsible, sensitive and slightly anxious protagonist. 

I knew nothing about autism at the time and didn't realise that the baby in this book was autistic. Spence doesn't use the term anywhere in the book, but describes exactly the tendencies and habits of an autistic child and the impact this can have on an entire family.

This book moved me as a child but also scared me - so much so that I never reread it again - until this week.

And I can see why.

This is a powerful, emotionally charged book. The new baby wrecks havoc on this quiet family. It strains relationships, exhausts the mum, alienates one of the siblings and causes the whole family to move to the city to be near a special school exacerbating all their difficulties to breaking point. 

There is no happy, hopeful ending; but a realistic, thoughtful ending instead. 
A little bit of knowledge, a new way of seeing things and a baby step forward in understanding is all that we are left with. 
No wonder I found this so disconcerting as a child - a child also growing up in a family with a sibling with a disability.

The October Child was awarded the 1977 CBCA Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for the British Carnegie Medal. In 1999, Spence received the Australia Council for the Arts Emeritus award "for her outstanding and lifelong contribution to Australian literature." Spence was also made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for her "contribution to Australian literature and her services to autism."

Eleanor Spence died in 2008. In her obituary in the SMH, Maurice Saxby, the children's literature expert, wrote: "More than any other writers, Eleanor Spence and Joan Phipson have perhaps helped guide the direction of Australian children's literature in the past 30 years. They have both expressed in their novels of family life not only social changes but the concerns and preoccupations of a growingly complex Australian society."

The October Child is not an easy read, but it is a worthy and worthwhile read for mature 10+ readers who like their stories real & gritty.

The Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

Everything about this charming picture book screams 'classic'!

Yet The Library Lion was only published in 2006.

This is a picture book for older readers (i.e. readers who can sit still for a longer period of time) as there is more text than you find in most picture books these days.

What follows is a very sweet tale of a lion trying to find a place to belong (a library), the adjustments he has to make to fit in with the rules of the library, the opposition he faces by some who already belong and think that he shouldn't and the acceptance and understanding he eventually inspires in everybody.

The final few pages cause me to tear up every single time I read it, but then the theme of belonging has been one of my life-long personal issues!

The old fashioned style illustrations, the quaint, gentle story and the universal themes of belonging and acceptance all add up to a modern day classic in the making.

I love it and hope you do too!