Reviews

This book is full of fantastic imagery and is an excellent way to model good descriptive writing to school children. Children are able to relate to the life of this young boy through this descriptive writing and then, when he and others are taken away from their parents, are able to have empathy for his situation. Unless Australians know what happened to the aborigines they cannot understand why things are as they are now. To know that they lost all hope and sense of who they are explains a lot and also shows why it is so important now to help them find their true identity and recover the pride in their culture that they once had.
Helen Bell has done this in an amazing way. As a teacher who is responsible for developing understandings of our society in primary school children in Australia, I pay tribute to Helen Bell for the wonderful way she has enabled positive discussion and appreciation of the Aboriginal situation.
K.C.