Bird to Bird by Claire Saxby illustrated by Wayne Harris

Begin with the cover - notice the bird flying in the air and the other bird, possibly made from wood, held in a hand above the ocean.

These things come together in this book but you need to read the text to make all the connections. A bird drops a seed, it grows into a tree, the wood from the tree is used to make bunk beds on a ship, this is a ship filled with convicts heading to Australia. The ship falls into disrepair and so the wood from the bunk beds is now used to make a weaving loom because clothes are desperately needed in the new colony. Wool is woven into fabric and then the fabric is made into suits. Eventually the loom is no longer in use and so this wood is now used as part of a kitchen roof. Over time the old home crumbles but a crafter finds the wood and carves a small bird. I just sighed over this perfect ending. 

Here is a set of teachers notes.

There's also a gently delivered message about treating our world with respect and being responsible with its resources. The story's words are used sparingly, which when combined with a series of beautifully painted images, evoke a sense of looking down on places and events as time passes. Bird to Bird is a book that packs a powerful punch. Kids' Book Review

I recently spent a few spare hours in a local library and I took the time to make notes about several picture books which I am now sharing here months later. I had not seen Bird to Bird even though it was published in 2018 but by then I had left my former school library. This book would be SO perfect to share with a Grade Three or Four class as a part of their topic on Australian history especially alongside another book by Claire Saxby My name is Lizzie Flynn. Take a look at the NCACL annotation. 

Other books by Claire Saxby:

Iceberg

Secrets of the Saltmarsh

Other books illustrated by Wayne Harris:

Read about Wayne Harris in this post

The Good, the Bad and the Silly: Stories of our Past by John Dickson and Bern Emerichs

"The following 'peep holes' introduce young readers to heroes, villains, fools and plain folk on the extraordinary journey Australians have taken to arrive here in the twenty-first century"

History, well reading about history, should be fun. There are heaps of quirky, crazy, strange and slightly unbelievable stories out in the world about all periods of history.  I used to delight in talking to my students about a convict called Mansfield Silverthorpe. He could easily have been included in this book his story is so wild!  Here is his record:

Through a variety of employment in the Silk Trade, Wines and Spirits, India Rubber and Shakespearean actor, he eventually ends up jobless. Taking a notion to go to France, he ends up down to his last franc and in desperation he steals a "valuable diamond" from a museum in Boulogne. Returning to England he discovers it's a fake - when the "fence" he tries to sell it to smashes it to smithereens with a hammer. He is eventually arrested when he tries to steal a Scottish Captain's Chest. Unfortunately, making his getaway on an Omnibus with the chest he finds he is on the same coach as the Captain's butler who has been given time off to see London!  He is found guilty, sentenced to transportation for fifteen years and sent to the Hulk "Ganymede" at Woolwich. His story ends on his arrival, aged 24, at Norfolk Island. 

I wonder that I didn't discover this book in 2019 when it was published. I also wonder that this book did not appear on any CBCA notable lists. Perhaps it wasn't entered?

In The Good, the Bad and the Silly you will read about a variety of people, animals and events from our early Australian history. For example I had not heard about the dwarf emus that lived on Kangaroo and King Islands. Sadly they were all killed by seal hunters. Three were sent to France and two were placed in the gardens of Empress Josephine. When they died they were stuffed and put in a Paris museum. The makes me think of the book A giraffe for France.

Perhaps you already know the story of our platypus. Captain John Hunter "sent its pelt back to Britain. Hunter's gift was greeted with scorn. Anatomist, grave robber and body snatcher Robert Knox said it was most likely to have been cobbled together with bits of duck and beaver ... and should be included in the same category as mermaids."

Back to the emu. In Western Australia in 1932 soldiers were sent out to shoot the emus, 20,000 of them, that were eating crops. The emus were the winners with their strategy of running off in every different direction. 

You can also read about the convict Mary Wade mother of twenty one children. Former PM Kevin Rudd is one of her descendants. Harry the very unhappy camel. The rum hospital in Sydney. Hulks that were used to hold prisoners off the coast of Victoria, our first indigenous cricket team who visited England in 1868 and women winning the vote in 1902. 

I do hope this book is in your school library. It would be a wonderful resource to share with older Primary classes as a jumping off point to further research.

This is one book in a series - here are a few of the others:

Pirate Boy of Sydney Town by Jackie French

Jackie French writes the best historical stories because she is able to seamlessly blend huge amounts of research into her stories. Books like Tom Appleby Convict boy, for example, never feel like a history lesson and yet these books are packed full of so much history. If you love historical fiction I highly recommend books by Jackie French but these books are also perfect for anyone who is curious about our early Australian history.

Ebeneezer (Ben) Huntsmore lives a comfortable life on his English estate called Badger's Hill but his known world is turned upside down when his father unexpectedly arrives and declares Ben and his mother must now travel to the distant colony of NSW - specifically to Port Jackson. 

The voyage is terrible and Ben's mother, along with many others, succumbs to typhoid. His father has taken a human cargo of convicts on this voyage. It seems impossible that any of these poor wretches could possibly have survived.  Ben opens the hatch and one convict crawls out. Others have survived but his father closes the hatch before Ben can can free them. The convict who crawls out is called Higgins. He is a cunning survivor.

Mr Huntsmore is one of those men who is always looking for the next scam, the next 'easy' way to get rich quick. His latest plan is to attack Dutch ships off the coast of Western Australia and plunder them for gold.

Ben is not sure he wants to join his father but perhaps he has no choice.  Also on board their ship, called Golden Girl, is a native man called Guwara. These three, Ben, the convict now manservant Higgins and Guwara form an unlikely allegiance but later this develops into the strongest bonds of friendship after the sailors on the Golden Girl mutiny and Mr Huntsmore is killed.

This is a powerful adventure story. All your senses will be on high alert as you read about the smell of half dead convicts held below ship, the desperate thirst as Ben and his companions try to survive in the bush and you will experience the taste of strange foods such as hoppers (kangaroos) and even emu and emu eggs.

Here is a set of excellent thematic teaching ideas from the publisher Harper Collins. You can also read a chapter sample.

One interesting extra in Pirate Boy of Sydney Town is the way Jackie French includes references to previous books such as Nanberry and Tom Appleby.

Complex and confronting at times but with redeeming hopefulness, courage, unexpected friendship and loyalty and the perfect illustration that ‘class’ does not maketh the individual, this is a wonderful study of human nature at its best as well as its worst. Just so Stories

This is a scintillating read from Australia’s most prolific writer, Jackie French. The novel is fiction, based on real events. It is full of vivid scenes filled with swashbuckling action, tension and twists and turns, and laced with romantic innuendo. Kids' Book Review