Darren
Groth book “Are you seeing me” Has
been nominated for the CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers category.
Twins
Justine and Perry are at a crossroad in life. Twelve months ago their father
passed away from cancer. Their mother left them when they were four. They have
just turned nineteen and have now decided to take a road trip together to Canada
before they go their separate ways.
Perry
is different, special, literal and empathetic. He is a loving and caring
brother, he also has a brain condition. For more than a year Justine has been
Perry’s sole carer. This uplifting story is told with the alternating voices of
the siblings as they both try to work out how their lives will be now that they
are on their own.
Perry
is obsessed with earthquakes, Jackie Chan movies and mythical creatures. He
even uses earthquake analogies to understand the world around him and cope with
the way his brain and body reacts when things go off kilter. He also has a plan
to liberate his sister from responsibilities of life.
I
enjoyed reading this book, there is a lot of light-hearted humour and quirky
Aussie symbolism throughout the book. The story cleverly explores themes of
family, relationships, disability and social stereotypes making it an
exceptional book for discussion groups. There in lay the challenge how to do
the book justice in a review. Firstly I checked out the publisher’s website and
read over their teacher’s resources section. Impressive.
Random House Australia
Random House Australia
When
investigating CBCA book nominations to review, I also became a CBCA member and went
to a judge’s talk at Sacre Coeur, Melbourne. Which I found very informative in
regards to the books but also in the role of a CBCA judge. They have to read 400
titles and report on them as part of the process.
When
researching censorship I found a paper presented last year, ‘Requiem for a
Beast: A case study in controversy / Erica Hateley. In 2008, the Children’s
Book Council of Australia (CBCA) awarded Matt Ottley’s book Requiem for a Beast: A Work for Image, Word
and Music, Picture book of the Year. Ottley’s book is about one young man’s
attempts to reconcile his families and countries ruthlessness and shameful
history against Aborigines, at the same time trying to comprehend why he
attempted to take his own life. This caused media and public condemnation towards
CBCA and the author at the time.
Hateley’s case study involved an online survey enquiring about the
presence or use of Requiem in school libraries as a result of the controversy.
(72%) Had read the book
(65%) had Requiem in their collection
How or where is it located, ...themes varied
picture book/graphic
novel
· teachers only
· senior students
· restricted adults only
· Year 7 and above
Requiem
as a possible teaching tool:
· used for the Stolen Generation studies
· considering it for
inclusion in the year 11-12 curriculum for an Indigenous Issues story
· For art
· For art
· Identity Area of Study
Hateley claimed that the CBCA Award got the
book into school libraries, but that the controversy (real or perceived) is
keeping it out of circulation (literal or symbolic). (Hateley, 2014)
Groth, D. (2014). Are you seeing me. North Sydney. Random House Australia.
Referance
CHildren's Book Council of Australia. (2015). Retrieved from
Hateley, E. (2014). Requiem for a Beast: A case studyin controversy. The Asian Conference on Literature & Librarianship 2014 Official Conference Proceedings Retrieved from
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/72924/3/72924%28pub%29.pdf
Random House Australia. (2015). Retrieved from
www.randomhouse.com.au/teachers
Random House Australia. (2015). Retrieved from
www.randomhouse.com.au/teachers