"It came fast and without warning. The smouldering embers drifted into a smoky mist. There was great concern for the billabong friend."
The bushfire has arrived. Koala has a boat - an ark - and he sets off to collect all of his friends so they can be taken to a safe place.
An ark! The original ark was filled with animals gathered by Noah - but in this book the disaster is not a flood it is a huge bushfire and the hero is not a man, it is a small, but heroic koala.
I love the spare text in this book and the hand drawn, fine line illustrations which on every page beautifully extend the text. Every face in this book conveys enormous emotion. Readers from other countries will be introduced to words such as billabong and Australian animals such as the Hopping Mouse, galah, bowerbird, tawny frogmouth, lorikeets, black cockatoos, and the bandicoot.
The opening end paper of Koala Ark is presented as an aerial or bird's eye view of small islands near the coast of the Southern Ocean. Each area is inhabited by a different group of animals. The landscape is lush and green. Then on the next page there is a huge orange and yellow image. You may immediately think, as I did, of fire. On the title page we can see koala island and koalas enjoying their daily life but something is coming - a bushfire. On the final end paper the viewer zooms in even closer and it is clear the danger has passed and the koalas are once again able to enjoy their small patch of precious habitat. The end paper images in Koala Ark reminded me of the images by Stephen Michael King for the story Up the Creek from Beetle Soup by Robin Morrow illustrated by Stephen Michael King (1997).
Read the true life events that inspired Stephen Michael King to write this book. Sales of this book will be used to support: Koalas in Care and Aussie Ark/ Koala Ark Project.
Companion reads:
No comments:
Post a Comment