Allan Baillie

Cat is bullied at school and feels that the gang are right to pick on her because she is “Lumpy” and can’t do anything right. When she visits her grandmother one weekend, her gran is not there to meet her so Cat climbs the hill to discover a tree has fallen on her house & smashed the radio. Her Gran’s only link to the outside world. (Mobiles don’t work!) Cat finds a note in a puddle outside (a possum had dragged it out) and deciphers it to mean that a plane has crashed and her gran show more has gone to find it? Can Cat survive by herself at night on the mountain as she looks for her gran. And what of Darcy and Libby the injured passengers – why don’t they want to get help?p.46-57 Cat finds the plane. show less

Oh, now this I like. The children are so beautiful and also so real they melt my heart, and the story is told effectively, as if it's real... only the pictures reveal it's imaginary. I want to wrap this whole family in my arms and tell them how glad I am that people like this are in the world. I will definitely look for more by author and illustrator.

Here is a story of about an oppressive General coming into a village in Asia with visions of being a dictator. As he begins tearing down buildings and demanding obedience from the villagers, a small thong is thrown at him from a school window. The General tries to find out who threw the thong, but as an act of quiet rebellion all the villagers take off their thong so the General can't see who has one missing. In this story the General leave in a huff and the villagers celebrate their win. At show more the back of this book there is the statement "The heart of this story is true. It happened in 1990 at a school in Rangoon." As adults we know that the reprecussions and violence that must have followed this act of defiance were greater than what the picture book tells us. However the message of freedom, cival rights and the strength to stand up against opression is very clear.
Review by: Fiona show less

A rowdy, bossy child wreaks havoc all day long in his home and in the Chinese village where he lives. The story highlights the daily life activities of a family in a rural community in China. Children should with some discussion be able to identify similarities and differences between their family and the one in the book. Just below the surface lies a good discussion on the quality of a leader.
What would it be like to live in a place where the boss was real and everyone had to do what the show more boss wanted? What would life be like, would people be happy?
Review by: Fiona show less