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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Uno builds a home and garden in the magnificent forest among the playful puddlebuts and feathered frinklepods, but as the place becomes more and more popular, it is overtaken by tourists and buildings until the forest and animals seem to disappear altogether.' (Libraries Australia)
Affiliation Notes
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This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has Chinese translations.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Children as Ecocitizens : Ecocriticism and Environmental Texts
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Contemporary Children's Literature and Film 2011; (p. 109-126)This chapter provides an overview of ecocriticism, discussing the extent to which children's environmental texts mobilise concept and approaches from this field.
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The Courier-Mail Little Big Book Club
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 16 - 17 July 2011; (p. 24) - y Reading The Environment : Narrative Constructions Of Ecological Subjectivities In Australian Children's Literature Kelvin Grove : 2009 Z1792849 2009 single work thesis Ways in which humans engage with the environment have always provided a rich source of material for writers and illustrators of Australian children's literature. Currently, readers are confronted with a multiplicity of complex, competing and/or complementing networks of ideas, theories and emotions that provide narratives about human engagement with the environment at a particular historical moment. This study examines how a representative sample of Australian texts (19 picture books and 4 novels for children and young adults published between 1995 and 2006) constructs fictional ecological subjects in the texts, and offers readers ecological subject positions inscribed with contemporary environmental ideologies. The conceptual framework developed in this study identifies three ideologically grounded positions that humans may assume when engaging with the environment. None of these positions clearly exists independently of any other, nor are they internally homogeneous. Nevertheless they can be categorised as: (i) human dominion over the environment with little regard for environmental degradation (unrestrained anthropocentrism); (ii) human consideration for the environment driven by understandings that humans need the environment to survive (restrained anthropocentrism); and (iii) human deference towards the environment guided by understandings that humans are no more important than the environment (ecocentrism). iv The transdisciplinary methodological approach to textual analysis used in this thesis draws on ecocriticism, narrative theories, visual semiotics, ecofeminism and postcolonialism to discuss the difficulties and contradictions in the construction of the positions offered. Each chapter of textual analysis focuses on the construction of subjectivities in relation to one of the positions identified in the conceptual framework. According to the analysis undertaken, the focus texts convey the subtleties and complexities of human engagement with the environment and advocate ways of viewing and responding to contemporary unease about the environment. The study concludes that these ways of viewing and responding conform to and/or challenge dominant socio-cultural and political-economic opinions regarding the environment. This study, the first extended work of its kind, makes an original contribution to ecocritical study of Australian children's literature. By undertaking a comprehensive analysis of how texts for children represent human engagement with the environment at a time when important environmental concerns pose significant threats to human existence, Massey contributes new knowledge to an area of children's literature research that to date has been significantly under-represented.
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Untitled
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of The Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 50 no. 4 2006; (p. 41)
— Review of Uno's Garden 2006 single work picture book -
Untitled
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 21 no. 5 2006; (p. 30)
— Review of Uno's Garden 2006 single work picture book
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Under Age
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 8 October 2006; (p. 45)
— Review of Henrietta the Great Go-Getter 2006 single work children's fiction ; Uno's Garden 2006 single work picture book -
Untitled
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , September vol. 86 no. 3 2006; (p. 23)
— Review of Uno's Garden 2006 single work picture book -
This Week's Selections
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 4 November 2006; (p. 12)
— Review of Uno's Garden 2006 single work picture book -
Celebrating the Ordinary
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 286 2006; (p. 57-59)
— Review of Waltzing Matilda 2006 single work picture book ; The Thirsty Flowers 2006 single work picture book ; Nog the Nag Bird 2006 single work picture book ; Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair 2006 single work picture book ; Eight 2006 single work picture book ; A Particular Cow 2006 single work picture book ; Chatterbox 2006 single work picture book ; Midsummer Knight 2006 single work picture book ; Uno's Garden 2006 single work picture book ; Water Witcher 2006 single work picture book ; Grandpa and Thomas and the Green Umbrella 2006 single work picture book ; Kestrel 2006 single work picture book ; Bobbie Dazzler 2006 single work picture book ; Bushranger Bill 2006 single work picture book ; Moon Bear Rescue 2006 single work picture book ; The Friends of Apple Street 2006 single work picture book ; The Music Tree 2006 single work picture book ; It's Christmas 2006 single work picture book ; Pemberthy Bear 2006 single work picture book ; Samsara Dog 2006 single work children's fiction ; Norman and Brenda 2006 single work picture book -
Emotional Charge from Picture Books
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 23 December 2006; (p. 13)
— Review of The Arrival 2006 single work graphic novel ; Uno's Garden 2006 single work picture book ; Norman and Brenda 2006 single work picture book -
Spreading the Word
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 September 2006; (p. 27) -
Base Matters
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 17 December 2006; (p. 21-22) -
The Courier-Mail Little Big Book Club
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 16 - 17 July 2011; (p. 24) - y Reading The Environment : Narrative Constructions Of Ecological Subjectivities In Australian Children's Literature Kelvin Grove : 2009 Z1792849 2009 single work thesis Ways in which humans engage with the environment have always provided a rich source of material for writers and illustrators of Australian children's literature. Currently, readers are confronted with a multiplicity of complex, competing and/or complementing networks of ideas, theories and emotions that provide narratives about human engagement with the environment at a particular historical moment. This study examines how a representative sample of Australian texts (19 picture books and 4 novels for children and young adults published between 1995 and 2006) constructs fictional ecological subjects in the texts, and offers readers ecological subject positions inscribed with contemporary environmental ideologies. The conceptual framework developed in this study identifies three ideologically grounded positions that humans may assume when engaging with the environment. None of these positions clearly exists independently of any other, nor are they internally homogeneous. Nevertheless they can be categorised as: (i) human dominion over the environment with little regard for environmental degradation (unrestrained anthropocentrism); (ii) human consideration for the environment driven by understandings that humans need the environment to survive (restrained anthropocentrism); and (iii) human deference towards the environment guided by understandings that humans are no more important than the environment (ecocentrism). iv The transdisciplinary methodological approach to textual analysis used in this thesis draws on ecocriticism, narrative theories, visual semiotics, ecofeminism and postcolonialism to discuss the difficulties and contradictions in the construction of the positions offered. Each chapter of textual analysis focuses on the construction of subjectivities in relation to one of the positions identified in the conceptual framework. According to the analysis undertaken, the focus texts convey the subtleties and complexities of human engagement with the environment and advocate ways of viewing and responding to contemporary unease about the environment. The study concludes that these ways of viewing and responding conform to and/or challenge dominant socio-cultural and political-economic opinions regarding the environment. This study, the first extended work of its kind, makes an original contribution to ecocritical study of Australian children's literature. By undertaking a comprehensive analysis of how texts for children represent human engagement with the environment at a time when important environmental concerns pose significant threats to human existence, Massey contributes new knowledge to an area of children's literature research that to date has been significantly under-represented.
-
Children as Ecocitizens : Ecocriticism and Environmental Texts
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Contemporary Children's Literature and Film 2011; (p. 109-126)This chapter provides an overview of ecocriticism, discussing the extent to which children's environmental texts mobilise concept and approaches from this field.
Awards
- 2008 winner YABBA — Picture Storybook
- 2007 winner Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards — Best Language Development Book for Lower Primary Children (2003-2013)
- 2007 winner The Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children's Literature — Picture Books
- 2007 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Book of the Year for Younger Children
Last amended 18 Oct 2019 13:48:53
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