Picture Storybooks and Critical Literacy

While all texts can be analysed critically, the picture storybooks listed below are suitable for discussion and analysis with Primary School children, in relation to social justice themes.

The Elderly

• Base, G. 1983, My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, Australia, Thomas Nelson.
• Graham, Bob, 1994, Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten, Australia, Puffin Books.

The Environment

• Coucher, H. 1990, Rain Forest, Picture Corgi Books,Transworld Publishers, London.
• Gleeson,L. & Greder, 1999, The Great Bear, Scholastic Press, Gosford,NSW.
• Wild, M. & Brooks, R. 2011, The Dream, Australia, Allen & Unwin.
  (The environment before and after, the now thought to be extinct, Tasmanian Tiger.)

Gender

• Brinckloe, J. 1988, Playing Marbles, New York, Morrow Junior Books.
• Cole, Babette, 1988, Princess Smarty Pants, London, Picture Lions.
• Crew, G. 1992, Tracks, Melbourne, Lothian Books.
• Crew, G. 1994, The Water Tower, Martin International Pty Ltd, South Australia.
• Martin, B. Jr. & Archambault, J. 1988, The Ghost-Eye Tree, London, Puffin Books.
• Shannon, D. 1998, No David, New York, The Blue Sky Press.

Poverty, Unemployment, Homelessness

• Dumbleton, M & Jellett, T. 1999, Downsized, New South Wales, Random House.
  (A dad loses his job)
• Wild, Margaret, 2006, Woolvs in the Sitee, Australia, Viking, Penguin Books.

Race and Identity

• Bunting, Eve, 1994, Smoky Night, Voyager Books, New York, Harcourt Brace & Co.
• Brusnahan, Margaret & Roennfeldt, R. 1998, Nana's Gift, South Australia, Omnibus Books.
  (Indigenous Australian)
• Woodson, Jacqueline. 2001, The Other Side, G. P. Putman's Sons. New York.
• Naomi Shihab Nye, 1994, Sitti's Secrets, Aladdin Paperbacks, Simon & Schuster, New York.
  (Arab American)
• Hooks, Bell. 2004, New York, Hyperion Books.
• Rippin, Sally, 1996, Fang Fang's Chinese New Year, South Australia, Omnibus Books.
• Rippin, Sally, 1996, Speak Chinese Fang Fang, South Australia, Omnibus Books.
  (Chinese Australian)
• Germein, 2000, K. Leaving, Melbourne, Puffin Books.
  (Indigenous Australian)
• Marsden, J & Tan, S. 1998, The Rabbits, Melbourne, Lothian.
• Smith, David, 2002. If the World Were A Village: A Book About the World's People, Canada, Kids Can Press.

Refugees

• Greder, Armin, 2007, The Island, Australia, Allen & Unwin.
  (A gruelling account of what happens when a stranger is washed up on the shores of an island.)
• Marsden, J & Ottley, M. Home and Away, 2008, Melbourne, Lothian Children's Books.
  (A moving account of a family forced to leave their country, who end up in a detention camp.)
• Miller, David. 2004, Refugees, Melbourne, Thomas Lothian.
  (Beautiful book telling story of two refugee ducks.)

War

• Jorgensen, N & Harrison-Lever, B, 2002, In Flanders Fields, Western Australia, Sandcastle Books.
• McKee, D. 1983, 'Tusk Tusk', London, Beaver Books.