Warna means sea; Manda means earth
Susan Betts is a Wirangu woman from South Australia. She says this book is about "that connection to the earth and being able to share that connection ... It hope that it inspires everyone, especially children, because that's who I wrote it for, to feel and awaken that sense of connection to Mother Earth."
Listen to this 8 minute ABC 2013 interview with Susan Betts where she talks about her school program.
This book is a lullaby you could share with a very young child. The repeated patterns on each page are very appealing and the way parts of this pattern are also used in Warna-Manda’s dress gives the little girl a perfect connection with the wide world as she explores her world on each page.
After some further research I did discover a little more about the illustrations. Susan’s paintings make up the backgrounds used on each page with the characters in the foreground created by illustrator Mandy Foot. South Australian author Katrina Germein assisted with adapting the original text.
If you know someone celebrating the arrival of a new baby this book would be a special gift. Here is part of the text:
Warna-Manda Baby, it's time for you to sand.
On this earth, walk your feet, gently on the sand.
Warna-Manda Baby, look around ... explore.
Beautiful eyes see the world. You'll never need no more.
You can see art from this book on Mandy Foot's web page. Raising Literacy Australia were part of this project.. This book came from a collaboration between Susan Betts, who comes from Streaky Bay in South Australia, the illustrator Mandy Foot and author Katrina Germein. I especially love Katrina's book Big Rain Coming. The text of this book first appeared in It's Bedtime and Lullabies for babies. The original words can be sung to the tune of Incy Wincy Spider.
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