Hayley Wells - Children's Literature: Home and Away

Home and Away

By John Marsden

SUMMARY:
Published in 2008, author; John Marsden and illustrator; Matt Ottley created a children's story like no other. Home and Away is the story of a typical Australian family who find themselves in the middle of a war and like the refugees of today, do what they can to get out of the country, away from the war and travel to another country for safety and to begin living again, only to be placed in a detention centre. The story is told through the journal of a typical, Australian, fifteen year old boy. A sad story, yet eye opening and effective for young readers. It is effective because of the way that Marsden is able to get inside the mind of an adolescent and tell the events that occur in a quirky way. Similar to Tomorrow When The War Began, the story parallels the situations that occur in other countries to give readers a different perspective of those particular situations, making it easier to comprehend. Matt Ottley's illustrations draw the readers attention to them with the emotional feel they give off. Although they aren't as shocking and as harsh as the text, the images still relate well to the theme of the story. The effective narrative creates shock for students in a way that they still want to find out what happens during the book and not a 'look away' shock. Not only does it make children think about the situation/issue but the imapct on an adult reader is just as effective.

USE IN THE CLASS:
This thought-provoking narrative can be used within a year 5 class to look at:
- Discussing the creativeness of the narrative and the 'fair' factor
- Illustrations and choice of colour (cross curriculum with the Visual Arts)
- An understanding of what a refugee is (cross curriculum with Society and Environment)
- Discuss and explore the purpose of the narrative
- Creating a short narrative involving an issue in another country and narrating from a character based in our country.


LINKS TO ACARA:
Home and Away can be used in a year 5 class to discuss and explore the narrative's purpose as it relates to the key idea, "Understand how texts vary in purpose, structure and topic as well as the degree of formality," as stated by ACARA 2012), within the strand Language and sub-strand Text Structure and Organisation.