We managed to squeeze one Easter themed book into the mix for our Reading Challenge this week (given that this month's theme is "Religion and Philosophy", and Easter is coming up at the end of the week, it seemed timely). Ironically, it's not actually about Christianity. We'll have to see what we can rustle up for next week. Mind you, it could be argued that Easter was originally a pagan holiday, in which case we've got just the right book for this week.
Brenda found a book about a Lost Thing, which invited readers to come to their own philosophical conclusions regarding the story. Samantha read a book about finding a more Australian symbol for Easter (to replace rabbits). Sharon took up the bonus challenge and read a book about pagan faiths, which touched on the idea of finding and rebuilding lost faiths. You could say we "found" a lot of interesting things this week.
Have you "found" anything interesting to read?
Brenda read The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan.
I was fortunate to hear Shaun Tan speak about his life and
work a few years ago. His father was an architect and Shaun Tan credits the
fine detail in his illustrations to his father’s influence. All of Tan’s
picture books convey philosophical questions to ponder. At the end of The Lost Thing, Tan writes, “I don’t
know what the moral is…”. Tan simply presents the stimulus and the reader is
invited to supply the meaning.
And what a beautiful and enchanting journey it is! Tan’s imaginative illustrations are an absolute delight. His narrator, an ordinary, self-deprecating boy, is still young, observant and compassionate enough to notice someone unusual and lost, and to try and do something to help him. To the adults in the story, the lost thing is simply an unwanted inconvenience, someone who doesn’t belong in their small, routine, grey lives. The ability to notice and delight in the unusual is a gift Shaun Tan has and one which he recommends to his readers, even though his narrator observes, “I see that sort of thing less and less these days though. Maybe there aren’t many lost things around anymore. Or maybe I’ve just stopped noticing them. Too busy doing other stuff, I guess.”
It's definitely worth taking the time to enjoy this award-winning story. You can find The Lost Thing and other picture books by Shaun Tan in the Curriculum Collection.
Fiction, Australian author, 820.94 TAN(S)
Samantha Baxter read The Bilbies' First Easter, by Irena Sibley.
Like the snowy scenes of Christmas much of the imagery
around Easter is not particularly relevant in the southern hemisphere. This is
an Australian style Easter tale for children who are more use to a harsher environment,
starring our preferred bunny substitute the bilby.
Easter is about rebirth and new life-and so this tale puts a new spin on that with a little boy (William) and his family on the land suffering through drought.
The Easter miracle brings rain-to restore life and vitality to the landscape. And with the help of some native animals William gets an Easter Sunday gift.
Australian author,Author I’ve never read, Fiction, c820.94 SIB.
Sharon Bryan read The Paganism Reader, edited by Chas S. Clifton and Graham Harvey.
“Readers” are always interesting. A
“Reader” is an anthology of things the editors thought would give you a good
grounding on a particular subject. Sometimes they tell you a lot about the
subject, sometimes they tell you a lot about the reading habits of the editors
(which is what this book did). The most interesting “Readers” do both.
I chose this book for the bonus challenge this month; I don’t know a heck of a lot about Paganism, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn something new. I can’t say it was the most successful choice of reading matter for that. One of the potential flaws with any “Reader” is that they can provide an overview without really explaining how everything ties together in order to make it, well, “overviewy”.
The Paganism Reader presents extracts of works from three different eras: pagan texts from before or parallel to the time of the spread of Christianity; works from the “proto-revival” stage during the Victorian and Edwardian eras (when professors and poets were trying to see if paganism made them more interesting); and “revival” texts from the latter half of the 20th century, when various neo-pagan revival movements were trying to establish themselves as viable religions. Many of the texts in all three sections are works of fiction, while others are reflections or “how to” works. Some are quite informative, others less so. At least one was a rambling piece of insanity.
It could have done with a bit more explanation and elaboration by the editors. It’s almost like they assume anyone reading this book already has a bit of a background in Paganism studies – which completely defeats the purpose of a “Reader”. And – this is a little thing, but it irked me no end – they have four symbols on the cover of the book, and at no time did they ever tell us what those symbols stand for. Very annoying.
Authors I haven’t read before, Bonus Challenge (religion I don’t know much about), fiction and non-fiction, 299.94 PAG
Brenda found a book about a Lost Thing, which invited readers to come to their own philosophical conclusions regarding the story. Samantha read a book about finding a more Australian symbol for Easter (to replace rabbits). Sharon took up the bonus challenge and read a book about pagan faiths, which touched on the idea of finding and rebuilding lost faiths. You could say we "found" a lot of interesting things this week.
Have you "found" anything interesting to read?
Brenda read The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan.
I was fortunate to hear Shaun Tan speak about his life and
work a few years ago. His father was an architect and Shaun Tan credits the
fine detail in his illustrations to his father’s influence. All of Tan’s
picture books convey philosophical questions to ponder. At the end of The Lost Thing, Tan writes, “I don’t
know what the moral is…”. Tan simply presents the stimulus and the reader is
invited to supply the meaning.And what a beautiful and enchanting journey it is! Tan’s imaginative illustrations are an absolute delight. His narrator, an ordinary, self-deprecating boy, is still young, observant and compassionate enough to notice someone unusual and lost, and to try and do something to help him. To the adults in the story, the lost thing is simply an unwanted inconvenience, someone who doesn’t belong in their small, routine, grey lives. The ability to notice and delight in the unusual is a gift Shaun Tan has and one which he recommends to his readers, even though his narrator observes, “I see that sort of thing less and less these days though. Maybe there aren’t many lost things around anymore. Or maybe I’ve just stopped noticing them. Too busy doing other stuff, I guess.”
It's definitely worth taking the time to enjoy this award-winning story. You can find The Lost Thing and other picture books by Shaun Tan in the Curriculum Collection.
Fiction, Australian author, 820.94 TAN(S)
Samantha Baxter read The Bilbies' First Easter, by Irena Sibley.
Like the snowy scenes of Christmas much of the imagery
around Easter is not particularly relevant in the southern hemisphere. This is
an Australian style Easter tale for children who are more use to a harsher environment,
starring our preferred bunny substitute the bilby.Easter is about rebirth and new life-and so this tale puts a new spin on that with a little boy (William) and his family on the land suffering through drought.
The Easter miracle brings rain-to restore life and vitality to the landscape. And with the help of some native animals William gets an Easter Sunday gift.
Australian author,Author I’ve never read, Fiction, c820.94 SIB.
Sharon Bryan read The Paganism Reader, edited by Chas S. Clifton and Graham Harvey.
“Readers” are always interesting. A
“Reader” is an anthology of things the editors thought would give you a good
grounding on a particular subject. Sometimes they tell you a lot about the
subject, sometimes they tell you a lot about the reading habits of the editors
(which is what this book did). The most interesting “Readers” do both.I chose this book for the bonus challenge this month; I don’t know a heck of a lot about Paganism, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn something new. I can’t say it was the most successful choice of reading matter for that. One of the potential flaws with any “Reader” is that they can provide an overview without really explaining how everything ties together in order to make it, well, “overviewy”.
The Paganism Reader presents extracts of works from three different eras: pagan texts from before or parallel to the time of the spread of Christianity; works from the “proto-revival” stage during the Victorian and Edwardian eras (when professors and poets were trying to see if paganism made them more interesting); and “revival” texts from the latter half of the 20th century, when various neo-pagan revival movements were trying to establish themselves as viable religions. Many of the texts in all three sections are works of fiction, while others are reflections or “how to” works. Some are quite informative, others less so. At least one was a rambling piece of insanity.
It could have done with a bit more explanation and elaboration by the editors. It’s almost like they assume anyone reading this book already has a bit of a background in Paganism studies – which completely defeats the purpose of a “Reader”. And – this is a little thing, but it irked me no end – they have four symbols on the cover of the book, and at no time did they ever tell us what those symbols stand for. Very annoying.
Authors I haven’t read before, Bonus Challenge (religion I don’t know much about), fiction and non-fiction, 299.94 PAG
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