Simpson and his Donkey

When we were working out what stories we'd write for series #5, the specifically Australian series, we wanted some stories that would be useful as a springboard for some themes that come up year after year in a class. War is one of those themes; it comes up on ANZAC Dat (25th April) and Remembrance Day (11th November.)

For this we chose Simpson and His Donkey — a well-known and beloved story of a man who didn't quite fit the army, but whose bravery was legendary. As well, there's a donkey, and we've noticed that readers of PageTurners love stories about animals. Finally there's the question of justice — a built-in discussion at the end of the story that can lead in to all sorts of other topics.

We blogged about Simpson and his donkey here.

You can listen to the story here.

Click here for a google image search on Simpson and his Donkey and look at more pictures.

Or if you want to discuss something different in class, you might want to read about Ned Kelly, who was hanged on November 11th. I'll be blogging about him soon.

Series #5, an all Australian series

Anne here, writing to let you know that Series #5, our All Australian Series is now on sale. We had a number of problems and delays with the printing, but all that is behind us, now, and it's all OK.

There are 10 new titles, and we're hoping they'll be popular with Aussie readers in particular. For all you overseas readers, don't worry, Series #6 is in production as we speak and should be on sale in the first half of 2012.


In the next few weeks I'll talk about each of the books in turn, but in the meantime, here's a look at the covers. Both stories in level 1 (Yellow covers) are set in the desert, Australia's vast inland.  Running With Boats is about the famous Todd River Boat Race in Alice Springs, a race held on a dry river bed. It's a crazy event and people there have lot of fun.

 The Camel Man is about the Afghan and Indian cameleers who helped open up much of the outback, bringing goods and supplies to the isolated people living there.

Fire, one of our level two (red) books is about a danger many Australians are touched by every year — bushfire. Liz, Anne, Ian and Greg get caught up in a bushfire. It's based on a true story. This really happened to me and my friends.

On The Goldfields is a story from history, about life on the goldfields in the 1850's and gives a small insight into how it was for women.

Next, in level 3,  we have the story of Cyclone Tracy, which hit the city of Darwin on Christmas Eve.

And Moira has Would I Lie to You? — a tale of the Furphy tank, a water carrier that gave rise to a common expression "that's a furphy."

In level 4 we have the story of Australia's most beloved racehorse, Phar Lap. He died before most of us were born, but people still love Phar Lap. 

Finally we have three books at a new level. They're longer books, but we've kept the unique word count to the same as level 4, so they're longer to read, but not too hard, we hope. 

A Handful of Sand is about indigenous land rights -- it's the story of the Gurindji people, and how they fought to get their land back. 

Simpson and His Donkey is a beloved story from Word War One -- an ANZAC story, about Private  Jack Simpson and the donkeys he used to rescue wounded soldiers. In this book we use  a lot of historical photos from WW1, as well as some of Moira's cartoons.

 Lastly we have the story of Australia's best known bushranger, Ned Kelly. This book is entirely illustrated from historical photos and illustrations from Ned Kelly's own time, and are of interest in themselves.

 We're very proud of this new series. We hope you enjoy it.

http://pageturners.prace.vic.edu.au/book-5-1-runboats.php

At a conference

I went to the ACAL conference on Tuesday and Wednesday to display the new series of PageTurners. Series #5 isn't printed yet, but they will be soon. I made up some hand made versions of the books so people could read them and get an idea.

Series #5 is on topics that are particularly Australian — they're the sort of topics that come up year after year. There's NED KELLY, PHAR LAP, GOLD, FIRE, CYCLONE TRACY, and more.

These are the hand-made covers — the final books will look like the usual PageTurners.

And some more:

We're also introducing a new level — level 4 extended, with a light green cover. These have the same number of unique words as level 4 (300 unique words) but are longer and more complex. These titles are SIMPSON AND HIS DONKEY (an ANZAC story) A HANDFUL OF SAND (a story of indigenous land rights) and NED KELLY (outlaw or hero — you decide.)

It's always a pleasure going to conferences and displaying our books. So many people come up to say "We use these books all the time," or "My students love these books," and we talk about our classes, or maybe the PageTurners website and what's on it. 

Sometimes there are people standing nearby who've never seen the books, and when they hear other people saying nice things like this, they drift closer, and start looking through the books.  

By the way, a lot of people said they'd been using RED DOG (from series 4) in conjunction with the movie that's out at the moment, but not many realized we had an interview on this blog with my friend, Janet, who actually had RED DOG hitch a ride with her.

This conference was at Victoria University, in the heart of Melbourne, on the 12th floor, so in the break I wandered out onto the terrace and took a few snaps. I'm still getting the hang of photos with an i-phone, so they're not great. But you get the idea. The photo below is looking south, across the Yarra River, away from the city. All the photos are away from the city.

This is looking to the west, down the Yarra, heading toward Port Phillip Bay.

And this is east, looking past the magnificent old Flinders St Station.

I'll post more information about the new series soon.