'Nonna Katia, Christina and Josie are three generations of Italian-Australian women living together in a hothouse atmosphere of love, support...and drama on an operatic scale.'
Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 23/10/2012)
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 9 (NSW Stage 5)
Themes
belonging, coming of age, death, family, family secrets, friendship, generation gap, identity, multiculturalism, purpose, relationships
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Numeracy, Personal and social
'There was a time when Melina Marchetta resented the success of her first novel, Looking for Alibrandi, a beloved Australian book for young adults.'
'Marchetta followed up 11 years later with Saving Francesca, also set in Sydney's inner west, and for a while she felt typecast as a writer of "good stories about Italian girls in the suburbs". ...'
Written for the Reading Australia project, this essay serves as an introduction to Melina Marchetta's Looking for Alibrandi. Pung discusses the importance of the novel to herself personally, and how it influenced her as a writer. Pung discusses the narrative voice of Josie Alibrandi, and how the novel represents identity, class, and relationships (with family, friends, and boyfriends).