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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'At the edge of a northern Australian city, where river and mangroves reach the sea, two young boys join Uncle Tobias for a day of fishing and hunting.
'Leonie Norrington's beautiful text and Dee Huxley's lush, vibrant illustrations create a world in which the old and new cultures exist comfortably together and children move easily between them.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
-
This is affiliated with Dr Laurel Cohn's Picture Book Diet because it contains representations of food and/or food practices.
Food depiction - Incidental
Food types - Everyday foods
- Everyday drinks
- Bushtucker
Food practices - Eating out - snack
- Food production
- Food preparation
- Food serving
Gender - Food production - male [fishing]
- Food preparation - female [outdoor fire]
- Food serving - female
Signage n/a Positive/negative value n/a Food as sense of place n/a Setting - bush/beach/nature
Food as social cohesion - Rituals
- Social gatherings
Food as cultural identity - Indigenous Australian characters
Food as character identity n/a Food as language n/a
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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What Are We Feeding Our Children When We Read Them a Book? Depictions of Mothers and Food in Contemporary Australian Picture Books
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Mothers and Food : Negotiating Foodways from Maternal Perspectives 2016; (p. 232-244)'This chapter explores how Australian writers and illustrators in the twenty-first century depict the act of mothering in picture books for young children in relation to cooking and serving food. It draws on the idea that children’s texts can be understood as sites of cultural production and reproduction, with social conventions and ideologies embedded in their narrative representations. The analysis is based on a survey of 124 books that were shortlisted for, or won, Children’s Book Council of Australia awards between 2001 and 2013. Of the eighty-seven titles that contain food and have human or anthropomorphised characters, twenty-six (30 percent) contain textual or illustrative references to maternal figures involved in food preparation or provision. Examination of this data set reveals that there is a strong correlation between non-Anglo-Australian maternal figures and home-cooked meals, and a clear link between Anglo-Australian mothers and sugar-rich snacks. The relative paucity of depictions of ethnically unmarked mothers offering more nutritious foods is notable given the cultural expectations of mothers as caretakers of their children’s well-being. At the same time, the linking of non-Anglo-Australian mothers with home-cooked meals can be seen as a means of signifying a cultural authenticity, a closeness to the earth that is differentiated from the normalised Australian culture represented in picture books. This suggests an unintended alignment of mothers preparing and serving meals with “otherness,” which creates a distancing effect between meals that may generally be considered nutritious and the normalised self. I contend there are unexamined, and perhaps unexpected, cultural assumptions about ethnicity, motherhood, and food embedded in contemporary Australian picture books. These have the potential to inscribe a system of beliefs about gender, cultural identity, and food that contributes to readers’ understanding of the world and themselves.'
Source: Abstract.
-
Untitled
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Books Buzz , February no. 7 2009; (p. 6)
— Review of You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book -
Waltzing As One
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 300 2008; (p. 60-61)
— Review of The Peasant Prince 2007 single work picture book ; Wandihnu and the Old Dugong 2007 single work picture book ; You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book ; In the City : Our Scrapbook of Souvenirs 2007 single work picture book ; Sydney of the Antarctic 2007 single work picture book ; Minnie Pearl : And the Undersea Bazaar 2007 single work picture book ; Natemba 2007 single work picture book ; Guess Who? 2007 single work picture book ; Five Little Owls 2007 single work picture book -
Book Children's
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 9 - 10 February 2008; (p. 25)
— Review of You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book -
Untitled
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 51 no. 4 2007; (p. 21)
— Review of You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book
-
Untitled
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 29 July 2007; (p. 32)
— Review of Solo 2007 single work novel ; You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book -
Untitled
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 22 no. 3 2007; (p. 31)
— Review of You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book -
Book Children's
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 9 - 10 February 2008; (p. 25)
— Review of You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book -
Untitled
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 51 no. 4 2007; (p. 21)
— Review of You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book -
Waltzing As One
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 300 2008; (p. 60-61)
— Review of The Peasant Prince 2007 single work picture book ; Wandihnu and the Old Dugong 2007 single work picture book ; You and Me : Our Place 2007 single work picture book ; In the City : Our Scrapbook of Souvenirs 2007 single work picture book ; Sydney of the Antarctic 2007 single work picture book ; Minnie Pearl : And the Undersea Bazaar 2007 single work picture book ; Natemba 2007 single work picture book ; Guess Who? 2007 single work picture book ; Five Little Owls 2007 single work picture book -
What Are We Feeding Our Children When We Read Them a Book? Depictions of Mothers and Food in Contemporary Australian Picture Books
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Mothers and Food : Negotiating Foodways from Maternal Perspectives 2016; (p. 232-244)'This chapter explores how Australian writers and illustrators in the twenty-first century depict the act of mothering in picture books for young children in relation to cooking and serving food. It draws on the idea that children’s texts can be understood as sites of cultural production and reproduction, with social conventions and ideologies embedded in their narrative representations. The analysis is based on a survey of 124 books that were shortlisted for, or won, Children’s Book Council of Australia awards between 2001 and 2013. Of the eighty-seven titles that contain food and have human or anthropomorphised characters, twenty-six (30 percent) contain textual or illustrative references to maternal figures involved in food preparation or provision. Examination of this data set reveals that there is a strong correlation between non-Anglo-Australian maternal figures and home-cooked meals, and a clear link between Anglo-Australian mothers and sugar-rich snacks. The relative paucity of depictions of ethnically unmarked mothers offering more nutritious foods is notable given the cultural expectations of mothers as caretakers of their children’s well-being. At the same time, the linking of non-Anglo-Australian mothers with home-cooked meals can be seen as a means of signifying a cultural authenticity, a closeness to the earth that is differentiated from the normalised Australian culture represented in picture books. This suggests an unintended alignment of mothers preparing and serving meals with “otherness,” which creates a distancing effect between meals that may generally be considered nutritious and the normalised self. I contend there are unexamined, and perhaps unexpected, cultural assumptions about ethnicity, motherhood, and food embedded in contemporary Australian picture books. These have the potential to inscribe a system of beliefs about gender, cultural identity, and food that contributes to readers’ understanding of the world and themselves.'
Source: Abstract.
Awards
- 2009 shortlisted Territory Read Book of the Year
- 2008 shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Picture Book of the Year