Music:
Franz Joseph Haydn—Farewell Symphony 45
Joseph Haydn, the Merry Little Peasant–Wheeler
The Boy Who Loved Music–Lasker. We have an ex-library copy of this picture book about Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, which is why I chose that piece for us to listen to this week..
Mission Study:
1. Window on the World: Fiji
2. WotW: New Zealand
3. WotW: Papua New Guinea
4. WotW: Samoa
Poems:
My Poetry Book: At Our House. This book is my favorite poetry book, published back in September, 1956 and nostalgically remembered from my childhood; it includes favorite poems by James Whitcomb Riley, Eugene Field, Nancy Byrd Turner, Laura Elizabeth Richards, Thomas Augustine Daly, Lewis Carroll and other old-fashioned poets. We’re going to read some poems from the chapter entitled, “At Our House” this week, and I might even be able to post some of them here since the poems are even older than the book and may be out of copyright.
Science:
Airplanes and Flight
Nonfiction Read Alouds:
Usborne: Australasia and Oceania
FACES: Australia through Time
Fiction Read Alouds:
Ice Drift–Taylor
And the Word Came With Power: How God Met and Changed a People Forever–Shetler
Picture Books:
Koala Christmas—Bassett
The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo—Kipling (Illus. Michael Taylor)
Take a Trip to Australia–Truby
Elementary Readers:
The Boy Who Spoke Dog—Morgan
Trouble on the Tracks—Napoli
The Pirate Uncle—Mahy
Red Sand, Blue Sky–Applegate
Playing Beattie Bow–Park. I read this time travel book that takes an Australian girl back to Victorian England a long time ago. I’m looking forward to finding it and recommending it to Brown Bear Daughter.
Sandy, the Girl Who Was Rescued–Blackwood
Movies:
Rescuers Down Under
OR Crocodile Dundee
Do my Australian readers have any suggestions about fiction, nonfiction, or movies that would give the urchins a taste of Australia?
Oh!
Picture books, ‘Diary of a Wombat’ and ‘Pete the Sheep’ by Jackie French (actually, _anything_ by Jackie French is worth reading, although probably most of her other books are for older readers.) ‘Are We there Yet?’ by Alison Lester is the story of driving around the country (it’s a _long_ way:-) )
Elementary readers… Colin Thiele (who died today) wrote ‘Storm Boy’ and ‘Blue Fin’. ‘ Playing Beattie Bow’ as you’ve mentioned, Ruth Park also wrote ‘The Harp in the South’ (and I think it has a couple of sequels). Also, ‘The Muddle-Headed Wombat’. Henry Lawson’s short stories, and obviously Banjo Patterson’s poems (‘The Man from Snowy River’ for example). ‘Snugglepot and Cuddlepie’ by May Gibbs is beautiful to look at, although is quite scary (those big bad banksia men…). Norman Lindsay’s ‘The Magic Pudding’, Dorothy Wall’s ‘Blinky Bill’.
How old is elementary?
Films, I’d say ‘The Man from Snowy River’. Others may be a bit gritty for young audiences.
That’s probably enough for now:-)
And of course, for all those horse mad girls, there’s always ‘The Silver Brumby’ series, by Elyne Mitchell:-) Actually, I think they made a film of it a few years ago… (it appears it was 1993, with Russell Crowe—but don’t let that put you off, known as The Silver Stallion in the US… there’s also a TV show, but I’m not sure how hard that would be to find.) Should be pretty family friendly.
There’s also the ‘Billabong’ series, by Mary Grant Bruce. Adventures on a station, centering on Norah Linton, her brother and his friend. Probably the nearest we have to the Anne books.
‘Seven Little Australians’ by Ethel Turner (and its sequel, ‘The Family at Misrule’.)
You happened to ask this question just as I’d begun thinking about essential Australian books:-)
‘Whalerider’ would probably be a good choice for NZ.