Title: Cat Spies Mouse
by: Rina A Foti
illustrated by: Dave Atze
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
What happens when an impatient and arrogant cat spies a humble and patient mouse? An exciting read-aloud story about how a small mouse who asks BIG questions changes the world.
Author, Rina A Foti has written a story that has a theme that young children are familiar with in the animal world – mouse vs cat and cat vs dog. Kids will totally get it. They will also understand the repeated words, “That’s not fair!”
Illustrator, Dave Atze has created colourful, likeable characters that leap off the page, showing their personality through facial expressions, poses and humour that will attract children’s interest and make them giggle, but also help to develop empathy for the under-dog character in each situation.
There is no doubt that this story will open up discussion on the topic of fairness – at school, as well as at home, and question the notion about doing things without thinking, just because “that is what is expected”, or “that is the way it has always been done”. But why? And is it reasonable, or fair?
There are two outstanding take-aways from this tale: one is the courage and bravery of the mouse to question what cat is doing, and the other is that the cat can absolutely not understand how mouse feels, until what he is doing to mouse, happens to him. It’s kind of satisfying to see him get a taste of his own medicine, plus being covered in dog-stomach-goop at the end.
Title: Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy – Gang of Thieves
by: Jane Smith
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
School camp can be fun, but not when it’s run by a nasty bully who picks on Tommy Bell and his friends. But when Tommy’s magic cabbage-tree hat takes him back in time to meet up with Ben Hall and his gang, Tommy discovers that even in the gold rush days there were bullies … and they were on both sides of the law!
They also really knew how to make trouble …
Multi-published author, Jane Smith, has captured the life of bushranger, Ben Hall, with accurate observation through the eyes of a fictional young character, Tommy Bell.
Tommy is on school camp at the town of Young, an old goldmining town. He lists the good and bad things about going on a school camp, but the worst thing about this camp is one of the leaders, Mr Porter. He is just outright mean and nasty. In fact, he is a bully. A grown-up bully! It’s during one of Mr Porter’s bullying rants that he shoves Tommy’s woven ‘straw-like’ hat made from the leaves of a cabbage-tree onto Tommy’s head, and in an instant, he finds himself back in time. He notices that the air is fresher and the birdsong louder, before a man enters Tommy’s time-travel adventure – Ben Hall (9 May 1837 – 5 May 1865) – an Australian bushranger.
Tommy joins Ben Hall and his accomplices—Johnny Gilbert, John O’Meally and Patrick Daley. They ride on horseback to a placed named Little Wombat, a goldfield near Young. When they enter Mr Soloman’s store, a gun battle breaks out: Tommy has just witnessed a robbery. Tommy hangs around with the bushrangers for a little longer before he removes his time-travel hat and returns to his school camp where his friend finds gold. However, the callous Mr Porter claims the gold as his, gets angry and shoves Tommy’s hat back onto his head. Tommy travels back in time again to Ben Hall, and the scene of another hold-up: a failed bank robbery.
Tommy also witnesses other incidents with Ben Hall in this action-packed chapter book that will have readers turning the pages. Another bonus to this Bushranger Boy series can be found the final pages of the book—a chapter called ‘Historical Note’, which contains a photograph of Ben Hall and interesting information about his life.
Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy – Gang of Thieves, is the fifth book in the Tommy Bell, Bushranger Boy collection. It’s a remarkable Australian series where fictional characters watch Australian history unfold before their eyes. I highly recommend it for schools, independent readers, and for kids who love Australian history.
I’m looking forward to Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy Book 6 due for release in 2019, titled Mrs Thunderbolt.
Title: Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy – Gang of Thieves
by: Jane Smith
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
ISBN: 9781925675238
Category: children
Pages: 100
Subject: Bushranger, Adventure series
When I was a teacher, there was a question I used with kids. Frequently.
‘Are you okay?’
Powerful words.
image from arc.unsw.edu.au
And then it was my job to listen without judgement, and to take it from there. Sometimes it was even before a child stepped foot into the classroom in the morning.
There’s an issue that seems to be escalating in society. Bullying.
Here’s the thing about bullying … It’s a worldwide problem.
Here’s the thing about bullies … Once, they were not a bully. They weren’t born with that trait. They’re vulnerable people, like everyone else. There is an underlying hurt that all bullies carry, and they are trying to mend it, to feel better. There’s something in their lives that they have no control over, so they lash out with the belief that it will make them feel better. Except it doesn’t, and they get caught in a cycle that damages themselves as well as their target. Their behaviour is a reflection of someone who is bullying them, or of something about themselves that they hate. Their aggressive behaviour is covering up their low self-esteem, in an attempt to feel better about themselves. When they are not surrounded by their ‘friends’, they tend not to bully.
Here’s the thing about people. Including bullies … We all need to belong. We all need to feel that we are accepted. We all need to feel that we are loved.
Here’s the thing about being human … We’re not all the same. We never will be. Our differences are what makes our world interesting, and alive, and colourful. And that’s the way it is meant to be. It’s something to be celebrated.
Here’s the bottom line … We live in an imperfect world. There will always be bullies – verbal bullies, physical bullies, social bullies, the bullying of exclusion, cyber bullies, etc. Schools seem to cop the barrage of blame. But bullies aren’t just at school, they’re at work, at home, at parties, at sport, at art class, dance class … everywhere.
What to do … Let’s get off the blame-game merry-go-round. There are too many bruised and broken souls and a trail of irreparable destruction from bullying. And death.
It’s time to make a change, for the bullied, and the bully. To date, we have tried to focus on the bully exclusively, with limited success. We have tried to give the bullied strategies to stop the bullying, with limited success. It’s time to look around. What do you see? Bystanders. They have the power to change everything. Everything.
There’s a saying for when something bad happens –
“Look for the helpers, there’s always helpers!”
Let’s apply it to bullying situations –
“Look for the bystanders, there’s always bystanders!”
Here’s the thing about bystanders – you have already seen them in action … they are the heroes …
Have you ever watched a sportsperson pull a team member away from a fight? That’s a bystander. Have you ever watched a sportsperson touch an angry team mate’s shoulder and told them to let it go, and remove them from the situation? That’s a bystander. Have you ever watched a team gather around one of their own players and remove them from the volatility of the situation? That’s a bystander. That’s what bystanders do. And it’s about distraction, diffusing a volatile situation, dispelling the destructive energy aimed at another person.
A bystander can be anyone. They can be the bully’s friend. They can be the bullied’s friend. They’re standing by. Observing.
It’s time to take action.
But here’s another less well-known fact about bystanders … If there’s a group of people, less of them will step in to help. Why? It’s called the ‘bystander effect’. And it’s a social phenomenon. People don’t like to step out of their comfort zone, in front of others. People think that someone will do something first, and they wait for others to take that step.
Here’s the thing about schools … Education empowers. Schools and teachers work with dedication to help our children. Always. We have the ‘High Five’ strategy to deal with bullies. Children know what bully behaviour looks and feels like. But now we need to educate our kids about the “bystander effect”. We need to tell them not to wait for another person to do something – because that person is waiting for someone else, which leads to nobody helping.
We need to encourage others to step boldly. STEP. BOLDLY. Be courageous.
I was helping at a party once. It was full of teenagers. There was a magnificent creation of birthday cupcakes and the happy birthday song was sung. But then, no one came forward to take a cupcake to eat. How strange …
I’m an observer, an analyser, a problem solver. I knew there was nothing wrong with the cupcakes. The problem wasn’t the cupcakes, it was a social entity. I watched as one brave soul stepped forward and took a cupcake, and guess what, so did the others.
It takes just one person to step out of their comfort zone. Step boldly.
Here’s the thing about the responsibility of being part of the human race … It’s about looking out for your mates. It’s about knowing what is right and wrong and taking a stand. Bullying is always wrong. Everyone knows that.
Here’s the thing about accountability …
We all have a choice. What will you choose? I encourage you to step boldly, if you are a bystander, if it is safe for you to do so. If not, call for help. Don’t expect someone else to do it.
To the bully and the bullied … helpers are everywhere … reach out.
Darth is the new fish on the block. And there’s a gang with a leader who is not so nice. There’s a bystander. Can he change the outcome of Darth’s plight? Dedicated to Steve Jobs.
Book Reviews & Writer's Ink 