Azaria: A true history by Maree Coote

Publisher blurb Walker Books Australia: 

A beautifully illustrated non-fiction picture book that sensitively explores the collision of wilderness and civilisation, explains a famous miscarriage of justice, and examines the role of the media in history-telling, in an appropriate manner for children. A modern day fairy tale, cautionary and unforgettable. Essential reading for students of history and the law, young and old.  When a tiny baby is stolen by a dingo, nobody will believe the truth. Prejudice, ignorance and gossip grip the nation, and the tragedy is transformed into a quest for the truth. Are you sure you know what happened? Azaria is a cautionary tale about justice, the media, wilderness, and the perils of mob thinking. Azaria forms an excellent cross-curricular resource, ideal for class discussion and activity. 

Azaria was short listed this year for our Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. A couple of weeks ago Ann James, from Books Illustrated, suggested the 2022-23 CBCA judges read an interview the Maree Coote reported in Magpies Magazine, Volume 36, No. 2, May 2021. Here are some quotes from the interview:

"The book is about innocence, ignorance and injustice."

"This is very much a story about Place, and so the rock is absolutely at the heart of things. I wanted to insert layers of meaning into the imagery, to impart that other worldly feeling one gets in that desert, that something more is going on here than meets the eye."

"My drawing style is best described as having a collage-like feel ... rough-hewn shapes overlaid on each other."

If you need to understand more about this story take a look at this report from BTN. Here is an article about Azaria written for Books Illustrated. In this video Maree reads her book and shares her motivation for writing this important story. Here is a set of very extensive teachers notes with references suited to use in High School classes. You can see other books by Maree Coote here.

Image Source: Books Illustrated

This picture book is the epitome of a top-quality informational resource with superb illustrations.  It should be essential reading for students of history and law, both young and old. StoryLinks

The large digital illustrations are fantastic at capturing the mood and the place and they support and add to the text so well. From the fabulous colours of the red desert and Uluru, the night time pictures of people looking for Azaria while the sand is covered in dingo footprints and the sad eyes of Lindy. ReadPlus

Her illustrations shimmer with the beauty of the desert; the rich colours of the natural world juxtaposed with the sombre darkness of society and supposition. Kids' Book Review

Small Mercies by Bridget Krone

"Once when Gandhi stepped off a train in India, his sandal fell between the train and the platform and he couldn't get it back. So he took off his other sandal and threw it down too. When people asked him why he did that, he explained that one sandal was no use to anyone. It was better that someone finds two sandals on the track than just one. This taught me to look at problems with new eyes."

This is a deeply personal story. Mercy lives with her two elderly foster aunts in the South African town of Pietermaritzburg. Mercy's life seems to be on a precipice. She is fearful that the "authorities" will discover the poverty and difficulties of her home. She finds the demands of her teacher overwhelming.

Aunt Mary declares they will need to take in a lodger. Mr Singh arrives with his stories of Mohandas. Mercy discovers this is actually Mahatma Gandhi. Mercy has a school assignment where she has to talk about a role model - some one who inspires her. Perhaps Mercy can share some of Mr Singh's stories in her talk.

Meanwhile a nasty developer has arrived on the scene. He has plans to knock down their house and clear the empty land next door. The house is very old and it seems to be falling apart. Aunt Flora is also falling apart - she has Alzheimers. Aunt Mary explains to Mercy:

"it's as if her roads are blocked. Some of the roads in her brain have closed. Some streets have become one-ways, some roads that used to be busy motorways are now cul-de-sacs. There are lots of pot-holes and dead ends... so her thoughts can't get through like they used to."

Have you ever noticed the way authors use shoes as a way to explain poverty. Often a character will have shoes that are way too small and, as readers, we feel the pain of every step and the despair that money is too short for new or even second hand replacements.  In Small Mercies Bridget Krone also uses shoes as a way to let us know things are tough for Mercy.

"Mercy had to walk fast to keep up. She was wearing flip-flops that were too big for her and they made an embarrassing slap on the tiles of the shopping centre floor." Later when Mr Singh takes Mercy to visit a statue commemorating Gandhi she develops very painful blisters from her flip-flops and the long journey is grueling.

Here are some other signposts of the family poverty:

"Aunt Mary cutting the crusts off with the broken bread knife and Aunt Flora fussing ... and then wrapping the Marmite sandwich up tightly in an old bread bag. There was a time when they'd wrapped sandwiches in wax paper, but these days they recycled everything possible: even tea bags, after their fourth or fifth dunking in boiling water, were put on the veranda to dry and then soaked in parafin to be used as firelighters in the winter."

"She didn't have a phone, and the TV set, before it got sold at the auction, had lived in the corner of the dining room on a trolley, covered with a green velvet cloth fringes with pom poms."

Mercy is so afraid of a visit by the social worker that she has memorised some words to at least postpone her removal by the authorities:

"According to the Children's Act of 2010, each child has the right to legal representation and I demand that the order be held pending this process."

This is book I HIGHLY recommend. I know that this story will linger with me for a long time. It is an example of carefully crafted storytelling. In my head I talked to Bridget Krone as I was reading this book hoping she could help Mercy. I was especially worried when Mercy misunderstood a conversation she overhears which is actually about Aunt flora needing to go into aged care. Mercy thinks Aunt Mary is planning to send her to a children's home. The resolution of this in Chapter 28 made me sigh with relief. I also want to thank Bridget for her character Mr Singh who offers quiet wisdom to Mercy and who is also able to produce delicious food exactly when it is needed.

Read this review for more plot details:

The short chapters are a nice treat for the reading level,particularly since the themes have a depth to them that take some reflecting.Krone notes that her “favorite stories are those that, just when you expect a lesson, sing a song instead.” Small Mercies is just that surprising song, full of light and sweetness. Readers will carry the melody in their hearts long after the last page is turned. NY Journal of Books

Sensitive, funny, and tender. Kirkus

Small Mercies (published in 2020) is a book from South Africa.  Here is the US cover.  Which do you prefer? I was excited to read the review by Ms Yingling.

I would pair small Mercies with The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Patterson and these titles:

Pictures of Hollis Woods

When Friendship followed me Home

Missing May

Speechless

I think adults would enjoy Small Mercies. It made me think of these two adult novels:

How High the Moon by Karyn Parsons

The late Agnes Nieuwenhuizen says in the introduction to her guide Good Books for Teenagers published in 1992 :

"I was especially keen to find fiction that takes risks and that challenges; that raises questions without necessarily answering them. I wanted books that entertained but also illuminated, pushed boundaries and encouraged young people to enter, through their imaginations, other times, worlds, spaces and lives."

How high the Moon is a book that fulfills these ideas/ideals.

The year is 1944. Ella is living in a small town in South Carolina. Her mother is living in Boston and rarely visits. Her father is gone and Ella is desperate to know who he is. Ella is different. Her skin is not quite so brown and her hair has softer curls. Perhaps her daddy was a white man? There is a tension in Clarendon County. Early on in this story we hear how a two young friends stumbled across a lynching.

"A tiny stockinged foot dangled directly over me.
Motionless bodies like Christmas tree ornaments, but without any sparkle or cheer. They were close to each other but not touching. ... They were all dressed like they'd just left the house to go to the store together."

"I always knew that bad things happened in the world. Even though they never touched me. But knowing it in your head is one thing. Seeing the horror of it right in front of you makes you believe in monsters."

Karyn Parsons gives her reader tiny fragments of information that reveal the tensions of discrimination. Ella and her cousin meet an older white boy on their way home from the river. They immediately lower their eyes and answer questions with the courteous 'Sir". When Ella aged 11, her cousin Henry aged 12 and Myrna aged 14 visit the general store in the town it is another scene where you can feel the tension. Even though the store owners - the Parkers "was white, they always treated us real kindly." The same cannot be said for a white woman who enters the store with the children.

When Ella is asked to join her Mama in Boston she is overjoyed but life there is way beyond her imagining. Mama has aspirations to be a jazz singer. She works all day in a factory and late at night sings in city jazz clubs.  This means she has no time for Ella. It is a mystery really why Mama wanted Ella to come to Boston. Ella has to spend her days inside their tiny apartment. Her mother never organises to enroll her in school and the secrecy around her father's identity grows deeper especially when Ella finds some hidden letters and a message on an album cover which features her mother.

While Ella is in Boston two little white girls go missing and after a long search they are found dead. Vigilantes take the law into their own hands and accuse George Stinney - a boy from the town. Myrna has been falling in love with George. Everyone knows he is innocent but the police beat a 'confession' out of him and he is destined to be hung.

"The whole town was tense. If ever I did pass a white person, I kept my head bent and walked on. You could feel the anger bubbling in the air. As far as they were concerned, a colored boy had gone and murdered those two little white girls."

Ella, Henry and Myrna share roles as narrators. I adore books like this which use different voices to tell the story.

The publisher says this book is for readers aged 9+ and Kirkus say 8+ but I have to strongly disagree. They also liken the story to Wolf Hollow, One Crazy Summer and To Kill a Mockingbird. I agree with this but these titles, along with the underlying tension and fear of reprisal against African American citizens, especially the youth, show me this a book for an older audience. How High the Moon is due for publication early in March, 2019. For me it is a ten out of ten book!

Ella’s realistic voice and passionate responses to injustices make her a credible, flawed, and likable character who sees the truth in front of her but often doesn’t recognize it. Kirkus Star review