The words and art in this book are breathtaking. I was amazed to discover (this is not the first time I've heard of this) that Jodi and Tannya did not meet until the book launch. This book is so beautifully designed and the illustrations and text are so harmonious I thought this pair must have collaborated, possibly for many hours or days, but they did not.
Here are a few of the lyrical sentences from this book:
"When the sun goes down, the red heat of the day bleeds into the sky and sets it on fire."
"Heat shimmers and the bitumen melts. The red dirt cracks; the scrub sighs, still and thirsty."
"Ancient gums perish where they stand, grey, ghostlike; a memory of themselves."
This book is about the severe impact of drought on farms, on one family, on the landscape, on whole communities but it is also a book of hope because rain does eventually come and when it comes it is a time to rejoice.
"Dry gums gasp, drinking deeply."
The Mallee is a region in the Australian state of Victoria but really this book could be about any region in country Australia. The huge skies, the towering grain silos, those lonely tin can letter boxes and long empty dusty roads - we've all seen them.
I am certain this book will be included in the 2020 CBCA short list. Yes it is that good! Read this book slowly. Take your time with each page. Linger over the words and the vivid oil paintings. Here is a review by The Bottom Shelf.
Mallee Region image source: http://www.rdv.vic.gov.au/regional-partnerships/mallee
Image source: https://www.ruralbookshop.com.au/mallee-sky.html
You could use Mallee Sky as part of a whole unit on drought in Australia along with Big Rain coming; Drought by Jackie French; Ella and the Ocean by Lian Tanner; Two Summers by John Heffernan; All I want for Christmas is Rain; Here comes the Rain by Clare Good; Raindance by Cathy Applegate; and Water Witcher by Jan Ormerod.
You can see I have put the label Senior Picture book for Mallee Sky. I am puzzled as to why the Premier's Reading Challenge have this as a K-2 title. I would use this book with a senior primary group.
My friend at Kinderbookswitheverything has several posts about the topic of Drought. January 18th, 2013; June 16 2010 World day to Combat Drought and Desertification; and this splendid post about the issue of water shortage and the joy of rain in other countries around the world. Come on rain is one of my all time favourite books and in fact I have ordered a copy for my own home book shelves. I think it would be so powerful to compare Come on, Rain with Mallee Sky.
When you read Mallee Sky you will also want to refer to the famous Dorothea Mackellar poem. Verse four is especially relevant.
The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
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