22nd May Let's teach Australian kids more about dugongs than dinosaurs ...

While researching dugongs for this blog I read this article, 'Let's teach Australian kids more about dugongs  than dinosaurs with these books'. This is a quote from it

''Australia is home to more than one million species, many of which are found nowhere else. Tragically, it also has the fourth-highest level of animal species extinction in the world. 

Some 100 Australian species have become extinct and more than 1,700 are listed as threatened. This is due to threats such as climate change, invasive species, environmental degradation, land clearing, unsustainable agriculture, and an increase in natural disturbances such as drought and fire.

To fix the mistakes of the past, and prevent those of the future, it's important that young people become more knowledgeable about Australia's environment than previous generations. Storytelling can do this. It imparts information, nurtures emotional connections with natural places and allows us to reimagine our world."

Many of my students use 'hedgehog' when talking about 'echidnas'. If asked what is a dugong, quoll, bettong, cuscus, numbat, or potoroo is many would not have heard of the words let alone the animals.

The article cites a 2018 study which found children today spend half the amount of time playing outside that their parents did as youngsters. And 10% of the children studied had not been in a natural environment such as a park or beach for at least a year. It then uses this as a  reason to state that exposure to ecology through storytelling is particularly important. But often, Australian stories can get drowned out.

This got me thinking about whether the part about Australian stories not being foremost is in fact true. They used the Dymocks list of the top 51 kids' books as the indicator and yes it is true that most of these do not feature the natural environment, but publishers such as the CSIRO and Wild Dog are addressing this with a variety of amazing books that introduce students to some of the amazing wildlife in their country. Perhaps Australian adults need to make sure they are made more visible and accessible.

The CSIRO was first noticed as a publisher for children when Phasmid by Rohan Cleave made the CBCA shortlist. Reading it to classes was eyeopening for me. The students were immensely interested despite its length. It lead to researching other stick insects and having stick insects in the library for several months. It lead to finding out more through watching Melbourne Uni videos about the phasmid, about Lord Howe Island, their reintroduction and near extinction.

Since then I have been keen to buy any CSIRO picture book and share them with students. Year 2 and I tracked the Great Lizard Trek by Felicity Bradshaw as part of a unit of study on Australian animals and mapping.

In the past while looking at true animal stories Year 2 and I read Gordon Winch's Penelope the Mountain Pygmy Possum and now I would use it as a companion text to The Possum and the Migrating Moths by Julie Murphy.

One Potoroo by Penny Jaye seems to have some aura because it keeps going missing. I have now purchased three copies, two that were replacements.

The Voyage of the Whale by Vanessa Pirotta was a huge success, partly because she visited school for Science Week last year, but given where my students live, whales are always popular.

And this year with Year 2 while learning about Australian animals we used A Hollow is a Home by Abbie Mitchell and since then a new book Life in a Hollow  by Dean Gullan has been published.

I love the art in On the Trail of the Plains-wanderer and it was great to learn about a creature I did not even know existed.

Likewise Wild Dog Publishing has a large number of beautiful information books about Australian wildlife. Three that I have used very successfully with classes are:

• Peregrines in the City by Andrew Kelly. This book tells the amazing story of two peregrines who live on a high rise in the Melbourne CBD. They are filmed and on Youtube here.

• The Accidental Penguin Hotel by Andrew Kelly tells the story of the little penguin colony who has made its home in a man-made breakwater in St Kilda.

• Nestling Cockatoos: The story of Squeak and Squawk by Angela Robertson-Buchanan. This is the story of two sulphur-crested cockatoos who were rescued from the hollow of a tree when the tree was chopped down.

Another source of wonderful books to share on Australian wildlife is Walker Books Nature Storybooks. There are titles Dingo; Great White Shark; Wombat; Kookaburra; Searching for Cicadas; Platypus; Emu; Tasmanian Devil; Koala; Big Red Kangaroo; Python; Beware of the Crocodile; The Echidna Near My Place and Bilby Secrets all with teaching notes.

If you are looking for a book that has a comprehensive list of Australian animals so that the children you share books with get an overview, try:

• A is for Australian Animals by Frane Lessac

• A to Z of Australian Animals  by Jennifer Cossins

• Australian Animals by Matt Chun

• Australian Animals  by Melanie Mahoney (All About Australia series from Australian Geographic)

Of course there are other books, fiction and non-fiction that introduce children to Australian wildlife, many that are old favourites and still popular, such as

• Jeremy by Chris Faille (kookaburra)

• Sebastian Lives in a Hat  by Thelma Catterwell (wombat)

• The Snow Wombat  by Susannah Chambers

• Possum in the House by Kirsten Jensen

• Little Platypus by Nette Hilton

• The Best Beak in Boonaroo Bay  by Narelle Oliver

• Olga the Brolga  by Rod Clement

• Rufus the Numbat by David Miller

• Clancy the Quokka  by Lili Wilkinson

And these are new:

• Bowerbird Blues by Aura Parker

• Iceberg by Claire Saxby

• Where the Lyrebird Lives  by Vikki Conley

Need more Australian animals? See Australian Animals and Australian Birds on Pinterest

Back to the article...there is mention of geology and the environment too and certainly there are Australian picture books that address these topics, but they are another blog entry.