AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'On a beautiful island lives a tribe of people who don’t smile or laugh much. Only a small blind urchin notices the wonderful things on the seashore. He tries to share them with the tribe, but they don’t notice. One day a sea creature comes to the shore. Together, the boy and the sea creature play in the water. The people of the tribe warn the boy that it is a monster, but they change their minds when they hear him laughing. They join in. However, afraid that the sea creature will leave and they will lose the happiness they have found, the tribe capture it and put it in a small pool. The sea creature soon begins to fade and die. The boy rescues it and the people of the tribe are left behind, wondering if they will ever be happy again.' (Publication summary)
Teaching Resources
This work has teaching resources.
Teacher's notes from publisher's website.
Notes
-
Included in the 2006 White Ravens Catalogue compiled by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. Special mention.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Disturbing Thoughts : Representations of Compassion in Two Picture Books Entitled The Island
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Jeunesse : Young People, Texts, Culture , Winter vol. 3 no. 2 2011; (p. 11-29)'The title of my paper and the quotation by Martha Nussbaum from which it draws both invoke the double meaning of the word disturbing. In my title, disturbing functions simultaneously as an adjective that modifies the noun thoughts and as a verb that signifies a dismantling of those thoughts. The epigraph comes from Nussbaum's discussion of compassion, which serves as the core theoretical concept that informs this essay. In an Australian context, discussions of compassion arguably circulate most overtly and publicly in relation to the Australian federal government's position on asylum seekers. Over the past ten years, no issue has divided public opinion in Australia as much as the debate concerning the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia. Two picture books entitled The Island, one written and illustrated by Armin Greder and the other written by John Heffernan and illustrated by Peter Sheehan, engage with national issues concerning the arrival of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers while also functioning as allegories for any situation in which a community mistreats an outsider.' (Introduction)
-
Saying Yes with an Outreached Hand : Homelessness and Hospitality in Canadian and Australian Literature for Young People
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Canadian Studies , vol. 28 no. 1 2010; (p. 17-31) Between 2003 and 2008, more than fifteen books for children and young adults were published in Australia and at least thirteen in Canada that represent either literally or metaphorically the experiences of people whose family homes are no longer places of safety. In each of the texts analyzed in this essay - Shattered (2006) and Sketches (2007) by Eric Walters and The Island (2005) by John Heffernan - homelessness is represented not as the absence of a physical structure in which to live but as a an absence of belonging, an absence of hospitality. As the characters travel through their pathways of homelessness, they develop interdependent relationships with people, creatures, and/or structures personified as an outreached hand, a symbol and act of hospitality. In each of these books, endings are uncertain in order to offer readers not a closed, stable future, but a version of belonging that includes multiple possibilties. [Author's abstract] -
Untitled
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 20 no. 1 2006; (p. 29)
— Review of The Island 2005 single work picture book -
The Children's Book Council of Australia Judges' Report 2006
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 50 no. 3 2006; (p. 8-14) -
Untitled
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 49 no. 4 2005; (p. 16)
— Review of The Island 2005 single work picture book
-
Untitled
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking about Books for Children , September vol. 20 no. 4 2005; (p. 6)
— Review of The Island 2005 single work picture book -
Untitled
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 49 no. 4 2005; (p. 16)
— Review of The Island 2005 single work picture book -
Untitled
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 20 no. 1 2006; (p. 29)
— Review of The Island 2005 single work picture book -
The Children's Book Council of Australia Judges' Report 2006
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 50 no. 3 2006; (p. 8-14) -
Saying Yes with an Outreached Hand : Homelessness and Hospitality in Canadian and Australian Literature for Young People
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Canadian Studies , vol. 28 no. 1 2010; (p. 17-31) Between 2003 and 2008, more than fifteen books for children and young adults were published in Australia and at least thirteen in Canada that represent either literally or metaphorically the experiences of people whose family homes are no longer places of safety. In each of the texts analyzed in this essay - Shattered (2006) and Sketches (2007) by Eric Walters and The Island (2005) by John Heffernan - homelessness is represented not as the absence of a physical structure in which to live but as a an absence of belonging, an absence of hospitality. As the characters travel through their pathways of homelessness, they develop interdependent relationships with people, creatures, and/or structures personified as an outreached hand, a symbol and act of hospitality. In each of these books, endings are uncertain in order to offer readers not a closed, stable future, but a version of belonging that includes multiple possibilties. [Author's abstract] -
Disturbing Thoughts : Representations of Compassion in Two Picture Books Entitled The Island
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Jeunesse : Young People, Texts, Culture , Winter vol. 3 no. 2 2011; (p. 11-29)'The title of my paper and the quotation by Martha Nussbaum from which it draws both invoke the double meaning of the word disturbing. In my title, disturbing functions simultaneously as an adjective that modifies the noun thoughts and as a verb that signifies a dismantling of those thoughts. The epigraph comes from Nussbaum's discussion of compassion, which serves as the core theoretical concept that informs this essay. In an Australian context, discussions of compassion arguably circulate most overtly and publicly in relation to the Australian federal government's position on asylum seekers. Over the past ten years, no issue has divided public opinion in Australia as much as the debate concerning the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia. Two picture books entitled The Island, one written and illustrated by Armin Greder and the other written by John Heffernan and illustrated by Peter Sheehan, engage with national issues concerning the arrival of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers while also functioning as allegories for any situation in which a community mistreats an outsider.' (Introduction)
