Through an American's eyes...

An interesting article by Galda & Tobin (1992) is titled "Children's Books: Dreamtime Downunder: Exploring Australian Books".  This is a book review of sorts, but the article also promotes itself as a teaching guide for American teachers who want to explore "Australia" with their pupils.

It covers a range of books, including "Possum Magic" and also the work by Graeme Base.

 Source: http://www.memfox.net/possum-magic.html

Galda & Tobin start out by commenting that many Australian themed books help to 'perpetuate the narrow stereotype' of what it means to be Australian, by focusing on 'bush adventures' and 'cuddly koala's'. The article also highlights a number of books which it claims deals with multiculturalism and cites the Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawkins bicentennial publication "My Place" (which has also been turned into a television series) as a good example of this.

Environmental issues are also tackled, and the authors highlight books by Jeannie Baker  who is concerned with preserving the environment.  Indigenous themed story books for children are also covered.

Overall, this review provides a balanced view of how Australia can be represented abroad.  In that the books covered include universal themes, as well as those which explore the Australian Indigenous culture.  However, there is still an overwhelming number of books that deal with bush themes, in particular Australian animals.

 

Australian animals - Source: http://www.alivenotdead.com/