Category Archives: Australian
Lost & Found by Shaun Tan
The literati around the world have surely got the memo that 2011 is Shaun Tan‘s year. Every few weeks, he seems to be back in the news with new accolades (all well-deserved, I must add … yes, I got the memo of his genius, too!).
Not too many weeks ago, Australia-based Tan won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for The Lost Thing (available on iTunes for you techno-savvy), which he co-directed, based on his own story of the same name. Then came the very recent news that Tan won the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award; the coveted literature prize (known as “The World’s Largest Children’s Literature Award”) also comes with five million Swedish krona, something along the lines of $801,000!! WOW!
Lucky for us, we can delight in his latest title as our reward for being loyal groupies: Lost & Found is actually THREE books in one. The Red Tree shows how unexpected surprises can turn despair into hopeful joy; The Lost Thing captures a magical encounter that teaches the proper care and feeding of lost things; and The Rabbits somberly questions the irreversible consequences of colonialism.
Tan’s minutely detailed, whimsically playful, utterly unique art is again something to behold. As in his previous sensational titles, The Arrival and Tales from Outer Suburbia, Tan’s boundless imagination creates beckoning new worlds, just familiar enough to curiously venture in, yet so incomparably surreal and invitingly extraordinary to want to visit again and again. His versatile stories are multi-layered morality tales for all ages, gently suggestive and deeply lingering.
Explore his latest: three strokes of genius in one volume. Talk about rich rewards!
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2011 Continue reading
The Playwright by Daren White, art by Eddie Campbell
The unnamed playwright here is one lonely man. He “lodges” in Uncle Ernie’s spare room as his own family stopped talking to him in 1978 when his screenplay “based upon his older, retarded brother” aired and subsequently won awards. While he “regrets this loss of family … he never wastes good material. Never ever.”
Now middle-aged, just about any woman the playwright happens to see (on the bus, on the streets, in the park, in his memories, even on the “introductory menu pages” of porn sites) is ripe fodder for his detached daydreams. While he firmly believes “he has much to offer a young wife and family,” he has a difficult time maintaining meaningful relationships. And yet hundreds, thousands of people gather in his name … as a highly successful playwright, all the world’s his stage, one that ironically he creates but can’t partake.
When Uncle Ernie passes away, the playwright “often spends his days without human contact.” Then his parents die leaving him responsible for his older brother. He decides to care for his bother at home with the help of a hired live-in nurse. The threesome become a family of sorts, providing much-needed comfort for the playwright … but life’s surprises are hardly over. The play must go on …
In contrast to the often vibrant watercolors that populate the three panels of each page, the words that depict the playwright’s life remain matter-of-fact, almost monotone. The book ultimately proves to be a somber study of the price of creativity and outward success.
The playwright could easily have been dismissible as just another dirty old man (and certainly, this is not a comic for anyone but grown adults), but both author and illustrator infuse him with a strangely sympathetic innocence. Glimpses of his neglected, abandoned adolescent years are clearly shown as the cause of his isolated mindset in adulthood. But a good story can save many a lost soul … even this lonely old playwright whose real life finally becomes more engaging off the page.
Readers: Adult
Published: 2010 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Graphic Novel/Manga/Manwha, Australian
Mirror by Jeannie Baker
The simplicity of Australian author/artist Jeannie Baker‘s latest title makes it simply stupendous. Open the book and you have two halves on either side, the left which begins in English, and right which starts with Arabic. To tell you too much would be wasteful of the gasp of delight that you will certainly have on your own discovery … so stop reading here or endure just a few details …
Two families – one in Sydney, Australia, the other in southern Morocco’s Valley of Roses (“famous for its rose perfume,” Baker adds in the final author’s note) – experience what seem to be very different lives, thousands of miles apart.
Turn the pages together on either side, and through exquisite, multi-layered collage, Baker creates a wordless journey of two families going about their busy day. “But some things connect them,” Baker writes on the first page, “just as some things are the same for all families no matter where they live.” Indeed each facing set of pages provide hide-and-seek details that actually connect us all together … no spoilers here … you’ll need to cuddle up with a young ‘un to find a few for yourselves!
“The idea for this book came from my delight traveling in a country very different from my own,” explains Baker at book’s end. “At the time, in my own country, there was much political poisoning of attitudes toward foreigners and foreignness.” Traveling as a “stranger” herself, what Baker realized was not so much that outward differences mattered, but “[i]nwardly we are so alike, it could be each other we see when we look in a mirror.”
Her resulting book could not be a better reminder of the same, shared goals of people everywhere: to be loved by family and friends, to be a part of a community, to belong. Regardless of specific circumstances, our connections define and make us human. While celebrating the unique cultures and traditions that give us our diverse heritages, Baker reminds us with clear, undeniable proof that we are all an interconnected community.
Go get a copy right now. Share it with your children, your immigrant neighbors, yourself. Language not required. Just a few moments of your humanity …
Readers: All
Published: 2010 Continue reading
Noodle Pie by Ruth Starke
Andy Nguyen is most definitely Australian, not Vietnamese. And yet his father insists they’re going “home” to Vietnam, somewhere Andy has never been. Andy’s Dad is Viet Kieu, a name given to Vietnamese-born immigrants who live in other countries around the world. Returning Viet Kieu have certain expectations placed on them for having been the lucky ones to have been able to leave.
For the first time in decades since he escaped the devastation and horrors of war in Vietnam, Andy’s father is finally coming home. But for Andy, the return is marked by culture shock … not to mention some disappointment. He can’t understand why his father has bought himself a new gold watch and ring which he knows his family can’t afford. He’s shocked to discover his Vietnamese family’s “famous” restaurant is hardly more than a shack. He’s surrounded by a language he only partially understands, and unfamiliar faces that only seem to demand more, more, more than what he and his father have already generously brought. But with the help of an enterprising young cousin, and a hefty dose of honesty from his father, Andy finally comes to understand his family history, and the love and dedication that binds them all together, even if he’s more Australian than not.
Author Starke, an award-winning writer in her native Australia, does an admirable job of enhancing her story with Vietnamese history and contemporary issues. Through Andy’s experiences, she shows the interaction between comparatively wealthy western tourists, and the native Vietnamese with a weekly median income that would not even pay for ice cream in a fancy tourist cafe. She gives glimpses of the life of the bui doi, literally the children of the dust, who live on the streets trying desperately to survive. She expertly weaves in the real-life group restaurant Koto – Know One Teach One – established by an Australian Viet Kieu, which gives street children the opportunity to get off the streets, learn a valuable trade, and hope for a better future.
She also includes a few tasty recipes at book’s end … good nutrition for both the tummy and soul.
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2010 (United States) Continue reading
Filed under ..Middle Grade Readers, ..Young Adult Readers, .Fiction, Australian, Vietnamese
Mahtab’s Story by Libby Gleeson
When 12-year-old Mahtab’s father returns home with obvious signs of torture, and her grandfather is forever lost, her family knows it can no longer live in Taliban-controlled Herat, Afghanistan. Her best friend has already left without saying goodbye, hoping to find refuge somewhere in Iran. Now Mahtab and her family must leave her beloved grandmother and the rest of the extended family in search of survival and freedom.
Mahtab, her mother, and her two younger siblings begin their frightening journey hidden in the back of a truck, while her father rides in the front, bribing officials when necessary to get the family safely to Pakistan. There the father must leave his family behind, traveling alone to Australia where he hopes he will be able to prepare a secure new life for his wife and children. They must patiently wait, hidden, desperate, and unsure of their tenuous future. Days and weeks become many, many months … the younger children begin to wonder if they can remember their father’s face … and even Mahtab begins to doubt that the family will ever be safely reunited again.
Mahtab’s Story is inspired by a true story, the book’s cover reveals. In the afterword, award-winning Australian author Libby Gleeson recalls that she was introduced to a group of refugee girls in a Sydney high school in 2004: “Their stories of persecution and fear in their own countries and their escape to Australia were so compelling that I felt I had to write about that experience.” She stresses, however, that this is a novel, not a biography. And yet, this is also sadly a very familiar tale in our contemporary world of questionable wars and the countless innocent victims who must risk everything for survival. In the end, Mahtab’s is undoubtedly one of the lucky stories …
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2008, 2009 (United States) Continue reading
Filed under ..Middle Grade Readers, ..Young Adult Readers, .Fiction, Afghan, Australian
I Am Jack by Susanne Gervay, illustrated by Cathy Wilcox
“Did you know that thirty percent of children in American schools are either bullied, or bully other kids?” asks award-winning Australian author Susanne Gervay in her “Author’s Note” for the first U.S. edition of her already bestselling novel. Inspired by her own son Jack’s experiences of being bullied, Gervay tells both a story and offers concrete paths to finding solutions, as well.
At 11, Jack is an exemplary older brother to Samantha. He’s a big help to his mother working hard to pay off the family’s mortgage alone. He appreciates his mother’s boyfriend, but isn’t quite sure if he’s ready for a stepfather. He graciously accepts his grandmother’s gifts of half-priced purple underwear, but much prefers when she just brings croissants. His almost-family best friend is Anna whose parents own the Super Delicioso Fruitologist Market next door. He’s a talented photographer and is growing the first-ever Ponto – half onion, half potato.
But at school, Jack is being bullied. His teachers are too busy to notice his skinned knees, his hiding in the library, his daily tardiness as he tries to avoid his main attacker. His mother is too overworked to see that his frequent illnesses and plummeting grades are signs of a much bigger problem. For awhile, Jack tries to handle everything on his own. But best friend Anna finally tells her parents, who immediately alert Jack’s mother. Shocked and distressed, Jack’s mother goes straight to the principal, setting in motion a series of events that quickly bring the necessary awareness to positively resolve a terrible situation.
The book is not without a few minor quibbles. The constant abundance of junk food is overwhelming (even if grandparents are granted free access to spoiling their grandchildren). Jack’s references to his mother’s dieting is a little much, especially when his 10-year-old younger sister starts mimicking her behavior – warning bells indeed! But the story’s focus – overcoming bullying together as both a family and community – definitely remains steadfast. Without a doubt, this is one title that children, parents, and educators should read together.
Readers: Middle Grade, Adults
Published: 2009 (United States) Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, ..Middle Grade Readers, .Fiction, Australian, Nonethnic-specific
Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts
Forty-three (yes, 43!) hours is a major commitment to a single book. And in spite of the most eye-rolling, not-so-nicely-talking back to a continuously babbling (for 43 hours, 3 minutes to be exact!) iPod that I have ever done, I will actually admit that Shantaram is one of the most thrillingly entertaining stories ever. I can’t believe I just wrote that!
I’ll also add that when Mira Nair finally finishes her film version (Johnny Depp as Lin, though? definitely Daddy Bachchan as Khader Khan, yes! Gregory Roberts himself is doing the screenplay), it will most certainly be one of the few better-on-film-than-page movies.
Kudos are definitely in order for the amazing Humphrey Bower who does a remarkable job narrating, especially given that big chunks of the sometimes embarrassingly overwritten passages could have substantially whittled down the 944-pages. Hey, but that’s the price the reader (and/or listener) has to pay for Lin’s phenomenal story.
An escaped convict from Australia with an unknown real name, “Lindsay Ford” – as his fake New Zealand passport originally identifies him in the opening chapter – lands in the teeming streets of 1980s Bombay. His first real friend, Prabaker, baptizes him as “Lin,” and “Linbaba” with the affectionate honorific added. On that day of arrival on his way to sharing his first meal with Prabu, Lin is instantly mesmerized by Karla, a gorgeous but damaged Swiss American fellow ex-pat, with whom he immediately falls in love. She remains a haunting presence throughout Lin’s story.
Living the life of a fugitive, Lin proves extremely adaptive, picking up languages in his new home city almost as easily as he finds friends. Prabu, with his wide, unforgettable, always loving smile, proves to be Lin’s guide far beyond the city’s limits. Lin joins Prabu on a visit to his remote village, where Prabu’s family welcomes him as one of their own, and Prabu’s father further baptizes Lin with the name Shantaram, meaning ‘man of god’s peace.’ With Prabu’s teaching and encouragement, Lin learns Marathi, the native language of Maharashtra of which Bombay is the capital, a language too few Bombay-ites speak; the skill will serve Lin well.
As Lin’s funds dwindle, Prabu finds him a much in-demand hovel in a densely populated Bombay slum. Lin’s arrival there is marked by a tragic fire, and he begins his residency as a local hero when his past training as a medic saves numerous lives. His dwelling eventually becomes a free slum clinic, subsidized by black-market medical supplies procured by a renegade community of lepers. Lin is hand-chosen by one of the city’s most powerful mafia leaders, Abdel Khader Khan, who becomes both an inspiring guru and father-substitute for the lonely, searching Lin. He learns – and quickly excels in – all the local illegal trades, from international money laundering to passport fakery, and eventually risks his life in Khan’s own Russian/Afghan war. He experiences the heart-shattering price of doing “the wrong thing, for the right reasons.”
The many similarities to Roberts’ own life detailed in Shantaram have prompted many to ask why it’s called a novel … fact or fiction, it’s a remarkable account of one man’s experiences of life on the run. All quibbles aside, you’ll have to just read (or listen) to it yourself because no description could possibly do it justice. Eye-rolling, cursing, and all!
Readers: Adult
Published: 2004 (United States), 2006 (unabridged recording) Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, Australian, Indian, South Asian
Unpolished Gem: My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me by Alice Pung
Already a many-time-many-variety award-winner in her native Australia, Alice Pung‘s debut memoir arrives Stateside filled with humor and bittersweet grace. Born one month after her family arrived in Melbourne, Australia, after fleeing the killing fields of Cambodia, Pung’s father chooses her name for “a story translated from English that he read in his youth, about an enchanted land in which a little girl finds herself. This new daughter of his will grow up in this Wonder Land and take for granted things like security, abundance, democracy and the little green man on the traffic lights. She will grow up not ever knowing what it is like to starve.”
Surrounded by her extended family (ever growing), like many children of new immigrants, Pung grows up treading between the new culture into which she is born and the sometimes conflicting traditions most comfortable for her parents and grandparents. She comes of age, trying to please both her distant mother and her indulgent paternal grandmother. As the oldest child – and a girl even! – she is reminded again and again of the Cambodian saying, “A girl is like white cotton wool – once dirtied it can never be clean again. A boy is like a gem – the more you polish it, the more it shines.” In spite of a debilitating period of depression near high school’s end, Pung manages to shine and more.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2009 (United States) Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, ..Young Adult Readers, .Memoir, .Nonfiction, Australian, Cambodian
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
From the genius mind that brought you the wordlessly breathtaking bestseller, The Arrival, comes a collection of 15 short stories for all ages, uniquely illustrated in Tan’s signature enigmatic style. The second story, “Eric,” about the visit by a foreign exchange student like no one has ever seen, ends in one of those delightful gasps that leave you almost teary with just pure joy. Tan’s latest is a collection to be savored, with or without your kids.
Readers: Children, Middle Grade
Published: 2009 (United States) Continue reading
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
A spectacular book-without-words that traces one family’s immigration story with brilliant imagination. In an unnamed troubled land, a man leaves his wife and young daughter behind in search of freedom in a new country. His adjustments are initially overwhelming and disorienting, but with the help of new friends, he slowly finds his way and is eventually reunited with his family.
Review: “TBR’s Editors’ Favorites of 2007,” The Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2007
Readers: Children, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2007 (United States) Continue reading
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