Narrative Non-Fiction Books for Young Readers: Australian Animals

I'm always on the look out for good narrative non-fiction books for children. I really like some of the Australian Natural History picture books that are available now that combine factual content within a story. I've previously written about one of these books, 'Emu' written by Claire Saxby and illustrated by Graham Byrne, that is very good. The same author and illustrator have collaborated in Big Red Kangaroo.

The illustrations in this book are large and were created with charcoal and digital media, capturing the dry, hostile beauty of inland Australia. The narrative storyline is accompanied by a section in italics on the opposite page that gives more information in factual form. The book was published in 2013 and has 29 fully illustrated pages. Recommended for Primary School aged children but an interested younger child would enjoy it, too.

Another book about Australian native animals by author Claire Saxby is Dingo. This book is illustrated by Tannya Harricks and though at first I wasn't that enamoured with her style, it grew on me as I looked at it more closely. The illustrations were created with oil paint in loose, broad brush strokes. This gives Dingo a very different feel to the Big Red Kangaroo. It has a lighter, softer background and the storyline is simpler with less narrative and larger writing.   

Dingo has the same format and page numbers as Emu and the Big Red Kangaroo and was published in 2018.

3 or 4 year olds and up would like this.

Bilby's Secrets by Edel Wignell; illustrated by Mark Jackson (2011) has a very similar format to the books above with lovely bright illustrations that evoke the Pilbara region of Western Australia - deep, rusty reds and brilliant sky blues. I've included some links below about this endangered Australian mammal.

This is a lovely book for younger children to pour over and observe closely as the illustrator includes many other creatures in the background.

The narrative is excellent and has a literary quality with a broader vocabulary than the books above.

Bilby - WWF-Australia - WWF-Australia

The Greater Bilby - Bush Heritage Australia

About Bilbies – Save the Bilby Fund

If you're looking for some Australian Natural History books for the younger years I would recommend any of these publications. Some children aren't ready for chapter books (such as those written by C.K. Thompson). These pictorial but realistic non-fiction books are a great way to start introducing them to Australian animals.

Nature Study in Australia: The Christmas Bush & a Lakeside Holiday

Christmas Bush (Ceratopetalum gummiferum) - is an Australian native that flowers in spring. It's not the petals or 'flowers' that stand out, though. This native bush or small tree is unique in that its sepals turn a brilliant red colour after flowering. Just in time for Christmas, hence the name, Christmas bush. I took some photos at different stages over the space of about a month. A couple are magnified to better show the flowers, which are quite small.

Magnified photo of the flowers

They are quite delicate and from a distance look bushy, like the first photo I posted above

A non-magnified view

And the sepals put on their show in summer

Our pre-Christmas lakeside holiday. We took the opportunity to have an extended family holiday while everyone could get time off work etc. 16 of us & it was great.

The going down of the sun

A jog along the beach - there are magnificent beaches all around Australia & lots of empty space to enjoy

Motor boat rides and kayaking - we took our two grandchildren out on the boat. I went in the double kayak with my daughter-in-law who is 8 months pregnant & very fit! She did the steering...I also went out with my daughter, who is very swim fit & kept telling me to put a bit more effort into my paddling!  I didn't do too badly with the jogging along the beach - my son was a bit more diplomatic and told me not to worry about keeping up with him.

Aunty & Uncle on beach duty

'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.'

John Masefield

Nature Study: Spring in Australia

Hails and I finished our 6 week Natural History Illustration course offered by the University of Newcastle this month and we are planning to join a session with a Nature Club in October via Zoom. Covid has opened up some online educational opportunities that weren't available to us before, and they've been free, too. A bush walk during the first week in spring was too early to spot many wildflowers but a week later they were all out in their splendour.

 

One of our Natural Illustration assignments - quick field sketches. My kookaburra did not cooperate. 

My page is the one with the large blank section!

A trip to the beach. We were sitting outside the fish and chip shop and this pelican came along to check out the menu. 

He decided it looked pretty good and went in to place his order

This is his usual eating hole

Interesting sculpted rocks

 

A wee froggie that jumped out of some washing I had hanging outside

Notebooking our spring flowers

A couple of suspicious looking characters hanging around the neighbourhood

Notebooks in a Charlotte Mason Education - Year 6

Moon Jelly Aurelia aurita - common ocean animal often washed up on beaches. There's a video about them here.

Science Notebook 

This year Moozle has recorded experiments from some of her science books e.g. Archimedes and the Door of Science; The Sea Around Us; The Elements and The Mystery of the Periodic Table. The experiment below was one she watched via video on the Periodic Table:

Archimedes and the Door of Science

 The Sea Around Us

We had a severe storm with large hailstones about a week ago so we did a study on what causes hail and watched the short video below which explains it reasonably well. The hailstones were the largest we've experienced and made a tremendous racket as they hit the roof. They were about the size of eggs and we ended up with a smashed skylight and damaged pergola.

Nature Notebook

We've been using this series of videos on basic water colour techniques by John Muir and also some by Alphonso Dunn on using ink & watercolours to get some direction and help in this area. Moozle has also been inspired by the watercolouring in A Country Diary of an Edwardian Woman. I wrote a little about that here.

The Portuguese Man O' War or Bluebottle was mentioned in the fourth chapter of The Sea Around Us and around the same time as we were reading through that chapter, we went to the beach and there were heaps of them washed up on the sand. Moozle managed to get stung twice but fortunately, the bluebottles we get here are not the tropical nasties. The stings hurt but what hurt more was the bull ant bite she got a few days later out the back! I know because I got one on the under part of my foot and it was awful!
For an introductory video on recognising bluebottles and treating their sting see here. A marine-stinger fact sheet is here.

The Portuguese Man O' War is an interesting creature. It's not a true jellyfish but a colony of four different types of animals. My nature journal entry:

Bull Ant

We started a tree study earlier this month. So, of course, the best way to do that is to get up in the tree and have a good look.

Poetry Notebook

'A gauntlet with a gift in 't.'

‘God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, 

And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, 

A gauntlet with a gift in 't.’ 

 Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

I think we’d all agree that we are in challenging times. I remembered this poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning the other day and it seems to me that there is a gift in this gauntlet. God has often answered my prayers in a challenging way, but there is always a gift hidden in the challenge. 'God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.'

I’ve heard it said that ‘this virus writes its own rules,’ and it remains to be seen how long our ‘quarantine’ continues and whether it becomes more rigid. That’s out of our control but regardless of the outcome, each situation we find ourselves in will have its own challenge, and in some measure, its own gift.

A couple of nights ago we had our ‘Mum Culture’ evening via Zoom instead of our usual get together at my home. The topic had already been picked some time ago: Habits. But as I thought about the topic, I realised that we have an ideal time to work on some of those habits we’ve let slide or those that we need to put in place. When we have full days with lots of outside commitments good habits are easy to break and harder to form. Habit is a good servant but a bad master. Like fire in some aspects. When we’re home for large portions of time it becomes obvious when we’ve let things slip. We get to see the gaps more clearly. So this is an ideal opportunity to work on the important little things that we otherwise may overlook. I’ve been trying to find the gifts in this challenge I've had thrust upon me; to look with fresh eyes at our everyday lives.

• Moozle usually swims three or four times a week so instead of dropping her off at the pool we’ve been having a good walk together or she’s ridden her bike while I walk/jogged. She had her cello lesson via Skype with her teacher the other day and we have FaceTime with her niece and nephew so they don’t forget us!
• We’ve set up the sewing machine in the garage because my husband has taken over the kitchen/dining room for work and we’ve started a quilt for her older brother.
• I had to order some fabric online, which I’d never done before. It wasn’t quite the same as it looked online but it’s fine.
• I’ve been in phone contact with a whole lot of friends I haven’t talked to in a while and we’ve checked in via Skype with my relatives in Scotland a few times.
• I’ve almost finished ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ which I’m reading in tandem with my daughter-in-law & checking in with each other on our progress. There is something about this book that is restorative and calming. Frodo faces extreme danger throughout but is always rescued, gets up and goes on, even in the face of his great fear and the unknown of what is ahead.

When life gets back to normal, or non-lockdown, we hope to watch the movies together. I’ve purposelessly not viewed them as I wanted to read the books first. Looks like I’ll have plenty of opportunity to do that!

Having said that, I don’t feel like I’ve got any more time now than I did before everything shut down. I just have different opportunities. I don't want to look back on this time and feel that I've wasted any of them.

Opportunity

This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:—

There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;

And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged

A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords

Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner

Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes. 

A craven hung along the battle's edge,

And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel—

That blue blade that the king's son bears,— but this

Blunt thing—!" He snapped and flung it from his hand,

And lowering crept away and left the field. 

Then came the king's son, wounded sore bested,

And weaponless, and saw the broken sword

Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,

And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout

Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down

And saved a great cause that heroic day.

Edward Roland Sill (1841-1887)

Rainbow Lorikeets on the Birdfeeder

Kookaburra Interrupting our Lesson on the Verandah

Something we've had the opportunity to concentrated more time on is writing poems. Moozle wrote this after spending some time listening and watching outside in the garden:

My Home

Nestled in the side of a valley,

Tucked up a long driveway,

It met the eye as you walked up the ascent

Shadows lying in their vague way

Across the pebbles,

An avenue of trees and bushes

Leading to the house.

Weather beaten, brown brick

Piled on top of brown brick,

Trees arching their backs to the

Miracle of light above.

A wilderness of beauty

Wrought with a divine hand,

Surrounding man’s creation.

Imperfect, yet perfect,

It lay there placidly.

Beauty was in the eye of the beholder –

But I considered it beautiful.

The furthest city light

Not far for the seeking,

But still it was peaceful,

Untouched, a piece of paradise

In the suburban world.

It was said of the house

That it was unfinished,

Wrong, the hand of the designer

 Had slipped in his work.

The verandah was massive,

A table, turned grey

By the wind and the rain,

Crowning the centre.

 It was a thing of rough beauty,

I thought, with the

Flashes of colour made by

The flowers in the middle,

The pots staining the shadows

With white and orange clay.

Truly we take our possessions for granted.

Visitors marvel at

The beauty of the surroundings,

The dwellers say,

‘The gardens are untenanted,’

Left except for an occasional sprinkle of care.

But that is the beauty of it,

An unfinished work of art.

 The first brush of orange,

As the sun slips down the sky,

Skidding out of sight,

Only held in place by

An invisible string, controlled

By some unseen hand.

Night wings over,

Blackness settling down

Gently upon the earth,

Shrouding the home in darkness.

A myriad of lights,

Bright shining in the dark,

And a round circle

Where the moon beams down

Kindly upon the humans

That inhabit the earth.

The moon like a pock-marked diamond,

Rough-hewn from stone.

From the rising of the dawn,

To the putting out of the sun,

From maze of stars,

To spume of suns,

An unfathomable mine

Of never-failing skill.

The clouds straddling the sky,

Like cloths of heaven,

Left out to dry.

A swashbuckling bee

With stripes of terracotta,

Zooming in among the flowers,

Gathering its life-giving dust.

Surrounded by countless trees

And miracles of colour,

A work of art

Encircling a house.

No, it was not a house,

It is my home.

I often think of my online friends in your different parts of the world and it always brightens my day when I hear from any of my readers.