australian novels

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Home : 2003 : February : 21

australian novels
By Fiona

My classes have always enjoyed the books by Morris Gleitzman.
Paul Jennings has quite a few books containing short stories - very short- along similar lines to Roald Dahl. Many of these were made into a tv series
entitled "Round the Twist" which is available on video - although I'm not sure if they are available for you in the States. These are filled with Australian slang and humour and the kids love them.
Emily Rodda is also an Australian author although most of her work is science fiction and set in futuristic times/worlds.
Another story although not novel, is "My Story" by Nadia

Wheatley. It traces back in time the site of a particular house in inner Sydney and the many people who have lived in this house right back to Aboriginal settlement. Again, this is not a novel but I have used it with 5th graders as an "opener" to them making their own "story" following the layout of the book. As many of the chn attending my school are from a variety of backgrounds, mainly Asian, they were very interested as it was an unknown story for them.
Quite an old novel is by Colin Thiele, "Storm Boy" which again was made into a movie. This would probably be approx. 25 years old maybe more. Colin has also written quite an extensive list of children's novels some having being made into films. "Blue Fin", "I Can Jump Puddles" and "I Own a Racecourse" come to mind. I 'm presently reading to my own Yr 5 class his novel, "February Dragon" which concerns the many dangers of bushfires encounter throughout our summers - especially topical as we have just had one of the worst bushfires seasons ever! Every summer seems to be worst than the previous year!
Robin Klein is also a favourite Aussie author for Aussie teachers. "Hating Alison Ashley" is very popular and it also has been written as a play.("Hating Alison Ashley:The Play"). Again some of her workk has been turned into local tv series, in particular "Halfway Across The Galaxy and Turn Right". She is very similiar to Judy Blume in her style of writing.
I hope this has been helpful to you and that you and your clas enjpoy whichever novel you choose.