Paul Morin

Animal Dreaming tells the story of the Australian Aboriginal people. The elders in the story interpret the story of the rock art left by their ancestors to tell Mirri about their history. Some of the themes that I saw in the story were that the earth has a place for each creature so if they work together they can all live in peace. We all leave our marks in different ways like how the aboriginal people of Australia left their heritage with rock art about Dreamtime and the creation of animals and the earth. It also emphasizes how important dreams are and reflecting on the dreams you have like the animals did when they were trying to bring peace to their community. Mirri learns about his ancestral heritage through tales from the ancient rock art from the aboriginal peoples and through the stories told by his elders. There is also a glossary at the beginning of this book for all the terms used to tell the story of the Aboriginal people that readers might not know.… (more)

I am not really a huge fan of this book. I appreciate the story, but truthfully it was all a bit confusing. I read the whole thing twice and still ended not fully knowing what was going on in the book. The front of the story comes with a 1 page little dictionary of words that are native to Australia that someone reading probably wouldn't recognize, but that didn't really help me a whole lot. I can't really picture myself reading this to my kids, just because I don't get excited to read the next page when I read this book. The illustration is beautiful in this book, but it is not my personal favorite story wise.… (more)