Abstract
In recent years, Australian children’s picture books dealing with the First World War have balanced the increasingly sentimentalized construct of the Australian soldier as a victim of trauma and the traditional use of Australian war literature as a means of exploring national identity. It is an approach that has proved quite malleable, for variations of it have been used in children’s picture books dealing with the far more polemic issue of refugees. By drawing on this framework, authors and illustrators position refugees as victims of trauma who have displayed qualities that are entirely consistent with a construct of national identity grounded in martial achievement. Readers of these texts are encouraged to welcome these arrivals at a literal level as new citizens and symbolically as new inductees into a pervasive construct of national identity.
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Notes
- 1.
Joy Lawn, “Gallipoli books for children open an enlightening window on the reality of war,” WAtoday.com.au, April 24, 2015, http://www.watoday.com.au/entertaining-kids/parenting-and-childrens-books/gallipoli-books-for-children-open-an-enlightening-window-on-the-reality-of-war-20150420-1mmcfl.html.
- 2.
Robin Gerster, Big-noting: The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1987), 15.
- 3.
Gerster, Big-noting, 2.
- 4.
Joan Beaumont, “The Anzac Legend,” in Australia’s War, 1914–1918, ed. Joan Beaumont (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1995), 149–176.
- 5.
Marilyn Lake, “How do school children learn about the spirit of Anzac?” in What’s Wrong with ANZAC?: The Militarisation of Australian History, eds. Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds (Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press, 2010), 135–156.
- 6.
Charles Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume I – The Story of ANZAC from the outbreak of war to the end of the first phase of the Gallipoli Campaign, May 4, 1915, 11th ed. (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1941), 607.
- 7.
Carolyn Holbrook, “Are We Brainwashing our Children? The Place of Anzac in Australian History,” Agora 51, no. 4 (2016): 19.
- 8.
John Stephens, “Advocating Multiculturalism: Migrants in Australian Children’s Literature after 1972,” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 15, no. 4 (Winter 1990): 180. https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.0818.
- 9.
Paul Hazard, Books, Children, and Men, trans. Marguerite MacKellar Mitchell (Boston: Horn Book, 1983), 111.
- 10.
Joy Lawn, “Gallipoli books for children open an enlightening window on the reality of war.”
- 11.
Esther MacCallum-Stewart, “If they ask us why we died: Children’s Literature and the First World War 1970–2005.” The Lion and the Unicorn 31, no. 2 (2007): 180.
- 12.
John Stephens, Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction (London: Longman, 1992), 205.
- 13.
Martin Kerby, Margaret Baguley, Abbey MacDonald, & Zoe Lynch, “A War Imagined: Gallipoli and the Art of Children’s Picturebooks,” Australian Art Education 38, no. 1 (2017): 209.
- 14.
Chris Lee, “War is not a Christian Mission: Racial Invasion and Religious Crusade in H.S. Gullett’s Official History of the Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine,” Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 7 (2017): 92.
- 15.
Peter Cochrane, “WWI legend of Simpson and his donkey a case of selective truths,” The Australian, January 25, 2017. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/wwi-legend-of-simpson-and-his-donkey-a-case-of-selective-truths/news-story/8c3bfa810c90ed5c29f4ea6bf695cbc9.
- 16.
Bradly S. Billings, “Is Anzac Day an incidence of ‘Displaced Christianity?” Pacifica 28, no. 3 (2015): 230.
- 17.
John A. Moses, “The Nation’s Secular Requiem” in Anzac Day: Then and Now, ed. Tom Frame (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2016), 54–65.
- 18.
Kerby et al., “A War Imagined,” 208.
- 19.
Daniel Keane, “Eric Bogle: Australia’s anti-war balladeer reflects on his Anzac anthem and his upcoming trip to Gallipoli,” ABC News, April 22, 2015. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-18/eric-bogle-reflects-on-matilda/6398798.
- 20.
John Rickard, Australia: A Cultural History (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1988), 71.
- 21.
Kerby et al., “A War Imagined,” 206.
- 22.
Esther MacCallum-Stewart, “If they ask us why we died: Children’s Literature and the First World War 1970–2005,” The Lion and the Unicorn, 31, no. 2 (2007): 180.
- 23.
MacCallum-Stewart, “If they ask us why we died,” 177–178.
- 24.
Gordon Greenwood, “National Development and Social Experimentation 1901–1914,” in Australia: A Social and Political History, ed. Gordon Greenwood (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1955), 247.
- 25.
Stuart Macintyre, A Concise History of Australia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 145.
- 26.
Martin C. Kerby, Margaret Baguley, and Abbey MacDonald, “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda: Australian Picturebooks (1999–2016) and the First World War,” Children’s Literature in Education: An International Quarterly (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-017-9337-3.
- 27.
Macintyre, A Concise History, 145.
- 28.
Howard Bath, “The Trouble with Trauma,” Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care 16, no. 1 (2017): 1–12; Robert Hart, “Child Refugees, Trauma and Education: Interactionist considerations on social and emotional needs and development,” Educational Psychology in Practice 25, no. 4 (2009): 351–368; Kerrie A. Pieloch, Mary Beth McCullough and Amy K. Marks, “Resilience of Children with Refugee Statuses: A Research Review,” Canadian Psychology 57, no. 4 (2016): 330–339.
- 29.
Amber Moore and Deborah Begoray, The Last Block of Ice: Trauma Literature in the High School Classroom, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61, no. 2 (2017): 175. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.674.
- 30.
See Gerster, Big-noting.
- 31.
Pieloch et al., “Resilience of Children” 330–331; Amanda L. Sullivan and Gregory R. Simonson, A Systematic Review of School-based Social and Emotional Interventions for Refugee and War-Traumatized Youth, Review of Educational Research 86, no. 2 (2016): 503–530. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315609419.
- 32.
Liz Lofthouse, “Ziba Came on a Boat,” July 5, 2012. https://www.penguin.com.au/books/ziba-came-on-a-boat-9780143505518.
- 33.
Katy Brownless, “Book Review: Ziba Came on a Boat,” The South Sydney Herald, December 2, 2014, http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/book-review-ziba-came-on-a-boat/#.WoqXT01lLIU.
- 34.
Chandra Howard, “Ziba Came on a Boat by Liz Lofthouse,” (blog), posted April 16, 2013, accessed December 5, 2016, http://sdsubookreviews.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/ziba-came-on-boat-by-liz-lofthouse.html.
- 35.
Liz Lofthouse, “Ziba Came on a Boat.”
- 36.
Kirkus Review, “Ziba Came on a Boat,” Kirkus, accessed December 5, 2017, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/liz-lofthouse/ziba-came-on-a-boat/.
- 37.
“Explainer: Who are the Hazaras?” SBS News, September 3, 2013, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/explainer-who-are-the-hazaras.
- 38.
Howard, “Ziba Came on a Boat by Liz Lofthouse.”
- 39.
Tania McCartney, “Review: The Little Refugee by Anh & Suzanne Do,” The Boomerang Books Blog (blog), posted November 15, 2011, accessed January 4, 2017, https://blog.boomerangbooks.com.au/review-the-little-refugee-by-ahn-suzanne-do/2011/11.
- 40.
“The Little Refugee,” Scholastic Teacher Notes, accessed December 1, 2017, http://resource.scholastic.com.au/resourceFiles/8164501_66813.pdf.
- 41.
Ibid.
- 42.
“The Little Refugee,” Allen & Unwin Book Publishers, accessed December 2, 2017, https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/picture-books/The-Little-Refugee-Anh-Do-and-Suzanne-Do-illustrated-by-Bruce-Whatley-9781742378329.
- 43.
Carolyn Webb, “Little refugee tells kids a tall tale,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 4, 2011, http://www.smh.com.au/national/little-refugee-tells-kids-a-tall-tale-20110803-1ibo4.html.
- 44.
Megan Daley, “Review of ‘The Treasure Box,’” Children’s Books Daily (blog), posted February 15, 2013, accessed December 2, 2017, http://childrensbooksdaily.com/review-of-the-treasure-box/.
- 45.
“Out (HB),” Maclean’s Booksellers, accessed December 4, 2017, https://www.macleansbooks.com.au/p/children-s-picture-books-out?barcode=9781743629000.
- 46.
Jess Layt, “Children’s book shines light on refugees,” Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser, June 28, 2016, http://www.macarthuradvertiser.com.au/story/3995776/childrens-book-shines-light-on-refugees.
- 47.
John Stephens, Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction (London: Longman, 1992), 9.
- 48.
Layt, “Children’s book shines light on refugees.”
- 49.
Rachel Bin Salleh and Samantha Fry, Alfred’s War (Broome: Magabala Books, 2018). Alfred’s War has been published by Magabala Books, Australia’s oldest independent Indigenous publisher.
- 50.
Rosemary Neill, Unknown Soldiers, The Weekend Australian Review (April 21–22 2018), 3.
- 51.
Charles Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Vol. VI – The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Allied Offensive, 1918 (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1942), 1096.
References
Bath, Howard. “The Trouble with Trauma.” Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care 16, no. 1 (2017): 1–12.
Bean, Charles. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume I – The Story of ANZAC from the Outbreak of War to the End of the First Phase of the Gallipoli Campaign, May 4, 1915, 11th ed. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1941.
Beaumont, Joan. “The Anzac Legend.” In Australia’s War, 1914–1918, edited by Joan Beaumont. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1995.
Billings, B.S. “Is Anzac Day an Incidence of ‘Displaced Christianity?” Pacifica 28, no. 3 (2015): 229–242.
Bin Salleh, Rachel, and Samantha Fry. Alfred’s War. Broome: Magabala Books, 2018.
Brownless, Katy. “Book Review: Ziba Came on a Boat.” The South Sydney Herald, December 2, 2014. http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/book-review-ziba-came-on-a-boat/#.WoqXT01lLIU.
Cochrane, Peter. “WWI Legend of Simpson and His Donkey a Case of Selective Truths.” The Australian, January 25, 2017. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/wwi-legend-of-simpson-and-his-donkey-a-case-of-selective-truths/news-story/8c3bfa810c90ed5c29f4ea6bf695cbc9.
Daley, Megan. “Review of ‘The Treasure Box.’” Children’s Books Daily (blog). Posted February 15, 2013. Accessed December 2, 2017. http://childrensbooksdaily.com/review-of-the-treasure-box/.
“Explainer: Who Are the Hazaras?” SBS News, September 3, 2013. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/explainer-who-are-the-hazaras.
Gerster, Robin. Big-noting: The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1987.
Greenwood, Gordon. “National Development and Social Experimentation 1901–1914.” In Australia: A Social and Political History, edited by Gordon Greenwood. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1955.
Hart, Robert. “Child Refugees, Trauma and Education: Interactionist Considerations on Social and Emotional Needs and Development.” Educational Psychology in Practice 25, no. 4 (2009): 351–368.
Hazard, Paul. Books, Children, and Men, trans. Marguerite MacKellar Mitchell. Boston: Horn Book, 1983.
Holbrook, Carolyn. “Are We Brainwashing Our Children? The Place of Anzac in Australian History.” Agora 51, no. 4 (2016): 16–22.
Howard, Chandra. “Ziba Came on a Boat by Liz Lofthouse,” (blog). Posted April 16, 2013. Accessed December 5, 2016. http://sdsubookreviews.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/ziba-came-on-boat-by-liz-lofthouse.html.
Keane, Daniel. “Eric Bogle: Australia’s Anti-War Balladeer Reflects on His Anzac Anthem and His Upcoming Trip to Gallipoli.” ABC News, April 22, 2015. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-18/eric-bogle-reflects-on-matilda/6398798.
Kerby, Martin, Margaret Baguley, and Abbey MacDonald. “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda: Australian Picturebooks (1999–2016) and the First World War.” Children’s Literature in Education: An International Quarterly (2017a). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-017-9337-3.
Kerby, Martin, Margaret Baguley, Abbey MacDonald, and Zoe Lynch. “A War Imagined: Gallipoli and the Art of Children’s Picturebooks.” Australian Art Education 38, no. 1 (2017b): 199–216.
Kirkus Review. “Ziba Came on a Boat.” Kirkus. Accessed December 5, 2017. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/liz-lofthouse/ziba-came-on-a-boat/.
Lake, Marilyn. “How Do School Children Learn About the Spirit of Anzac?” In What’s Wrong with ANZAC?: The Militarisation of Australian History, edited by Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, 135–156. Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press, 2010.
Lawn, Joy. “Gallipoli Books for Children Open an Enlightening Window on the Reality of War.” WAtoday.com.au, April 24, 2015. http://www.watoday.com.au/entertaining-kids/parenting-and-childrens-books/gallipoli-books-for-children-open-an-enlightening-window-on-the-reality-of-war-20150420-1mmcfl.html.
Layt, Jess. “Children’s Book Shines Light on Refugees.” Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser, June 28, 2016. http://www.macarthuradvertiser.com.au/story/3995776/childrens-book-shines-light-on-refugees.
Lee, Christopher. “War Is Not a Christian Mission: Racial Invasion and Religious Crusade in H.S. Gullett’s Official History of the Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine.” Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 7 (2017): 85–96.
Lofthouse, Liz. “Ziba Came on a Boat.” July 5, 2012. https://www.penguin.com.au/books/ziba-came-on-a-boat-9780143505518.
MacCallum-Stewart, Esther. “If They Ask Us Why We Died: Children’s Literature and the First World War 1970–2005.” The Lion and the Unicorn 31, no. 2 (2007): 176–188.
Macintyre, Stuart. A Concise History of Australia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
McCartney, Tania. “Review: The Little Refugee by Anh & Suzanne Do.” The Boomerang Books Blog (blog). Posted November 15, 2011. Accessed January 4, 2017. https://blog.boomerangbooks.com.au/review-the-little-refugee-by-ahn-suzanne-do/2011/11.
Moore, Amber, and Deborah Begoray. “The Last Block of Ice: Trauma Literature in the High School Classroom.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 61, no. 2 (2017): 173–181. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.674.
Moses, John A. “The Nation’s Secular Requiem.” In Anzac Day: Then and Now, edited by Tom Frame, 54–65. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2016.
Neill, Rosemary. Unknown Soldiers, The Weekend Australian Review, April 21–22, 2018.
“Out (HB).” Maclean’s Booksellers. Accessed December 4, 2017. https://www.macleansbooks.com.au/p/children-s-picture-books-out?barcode=9781743629000.
Pieloch, Kerrie A. Mary Beth McCullough, and Amy K. Marks. “Resilience of Children with Refugee Statuses: A Research Review.” Canadian Psychology 57, no. 4 (2016): 330–339.
Rickard, John. Australia: A Cultural History. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1988.
Stephens, John. “Advocating Multiculturalism: Migrants in Australian Children’s Literature After 1972.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 15, no. 4, (Winter 1990): 180–185. https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.0818.
———. Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction. London: Longman, 1992.
Sullivan, Amanda L., and Gregory R. Simonson. A Systematic Review of School-Based Social and Emotional Interventions for Refugee and War-Traumatized Youth. Review of Educational Research 86, no. 2 (2016): 503–530. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315609419.
“The Little Refugee.” Scholastic Teacher Notes. Accessed December 1, 2017. http://resource.scholastic.com.au/resourceFiles/8164501_66813.pdf.
“The Little Refugee.” Allen & Unwin Book Publishers. Accessed December 2, 2017. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/picture-books/The-Little-Refugee-Anh-Do-and-Suzanne-Do-illustrated-by-Bruce-Whatley-9781742378329.
Webb, Carolyn. “Little Refugee Tells Kids a Tall Tale.” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 4, 2011. http://www.smh.com.au/national/little-refugee-tells-kids-a-tall-tale-20110803-1ibo4.html.
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Kerby, M., Baguley, M., Lowien, N., Ayre, K. (2019). Australian Not by Blood, but by Character: Soldiers and Refugees in Australian Children’s Picture Books. In: Kerby, M., Baguley, M., McDonald, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Artistic and Cultural Responses to War since 1914. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96986-2_18
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