Just So Stories

Allen & Unwin

January 2023

ISBN:9781761180026

Publisher:A&U Children’s

Imprint:A & U Children

RRP: $24.99

This is another visually stunning picture book which has a deeply meaningful text but also truly superb artwork, which would be so perfect to utilise as inspiration in a learning environment. Taking its cue from one of Emily Dickinson’s most well-known and loved poems with it’s allegorical theme of hope, author and illustrator have collaborated to reflect on the healing that nature can provide after devastation (in this instance, the 2019 bushfires).

Since both creators have a special interest in birds, it seemed a natural step to springboard from the famous poem to collaborate on an equally lyrical expression of this same belief that no matter how disaster wreaks havoc on the natural world, there is always a regeneration of some kind. In particular, birds are forever adapting, some over long periods of time like most species but some within our own living memory. Just think about the adaptations of birds you know: ibis, bush turkeys, magpies, pelicans, pigeons just to name a few.

The text is both soothing and uplifting. and the illustrations take this to an entirely higher plane (pardon the pun!). My very first thought on reading this was ‘here is a perfect integrated unit of work’ – combining science, HASS, art, literature, creative and informational writing in particular. I really love that illustrator, Erica Wagner, has included notes on exactly how the illustrations have been created which would make for a brilliant stepping stone for young artists to try the same technique.

Dickinson’s poem is one that is relentessly scrutinised and analysed, though probably not as much here in Australia, but if you were to do a unit on poetry, or include verse in your teaching program, you could certainly do a compare and contrast, or have students create their own inspired ‘version’. My preference would be to simply enjoy the language and intent of the original, and reflect on its influence on the book, then translate that into students’ own thinking and ideas on this theme.

I strongly recommend it as a sophisticated picture book offering for upper primary to secondary.