Drac, the Warrior Queen, is in terrible danger. And it's up to the Gremlin of the Groaning Grotto to help...

Playing in the backyard, a young girl, pretending to be Drac, the Warrior Queen of Tirnol Two, unites with a young boy, pretending to be the Gremlin, to save the White Wizard's planet from the Terrible Tongued Dragon.

In this book, members of the ChiLPA Project explore the children's literature of several different cultures, ranging from ancient India, nineteenth century Russia, and the Soviet Union, to twentieth century Britain, America, Australia, Sweden, and Finland. The research covers not only the form and content of books for children, but also their potential social functions, especially within education. These two perspectives are brought together within a theory of children's literature as one among other forms of communication, an approach that sees the role of literary scholars, critics and teachers as one of mediation. Part I deals with the way children's writers and picturebook-makers draw on a culture's available resources of orality, literacy, intertextuality, and image. Part II examines their negotiation of major issues such as the child adult distinction, gender, politics, and the Holocaust. Part III discusses children's books as used within language education programmes, with particular attention to young readers' pragmatic processing of differences between the context of writing and their own context of reading.

This book is intended to offer an introduction to some major themes in literacy education. Literacy has become an important issue both in the UK and internationally, and this book aims to inform discussions while assisting teachers to reflect on their work as literacy teachers. Literacy is important from the earliest years through all the years of formal education, and so this book covers work with students in the full range of schooling, and in a number of different subject areas. Topics covered include: *the nature and use of texts *the reading positions that are constructed in texts and their ideological implications *the ways in which written texts change as students grow older *moving from the early years through to secondary education *the implications of Information Technology for literacy teaching Frances Christie is Foundation Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Melbourne. Ray Misson is Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education at the University of Melbourne.

Looks at gender in relation to children's fiction And The role that language plays in this relationship.

This book provides pre-service and practising teachers with an integrated approach to language and literacy learning in early childhood. Written by leading academics in the field, it explores how children learn to talk, play using language, become literate and make meaning - from birth through to the pre-school years. Emphasising the importance of imagination and the arts in language learning, this book addresses a wide range of contemporary issues, highlights the impact of diverse socioeconomic, language and cultural backgrounds on young children's language and literacy development, and shows how early childhood teachers can effectively partner with parents and caregivers to help children learn through and about language. Case studies, interviews, reflective questions, clear links to the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum, and a rich array of practical and creative activities for use in early childhood environments help students connect theory and current research to practice.

Annotation " ... It is highly recommended to anyone who thinks they have a serious interest in the book ... or would like to discover to discover something of the complexity of the well-springs of the Australian psyche." Biblionews Paper Empires explores Australian book production and consumption from 1946 to the present day, using wide-ranging research, oral history and memoir to explore the worlds of book publishing, selling and reading. After 1945, Australian publishing went from a handful of fledgling businesses to the billion dollar industry of today with thousands of new titles each year and a vast array of imported books. Publishing's postwar expansion began with the baby boom and the increased demand for school texts, with independent houses blossoming during the 1960s and 70s followed by the current era dominated by global conglomerates.

Talking Beyond the Page shows how different kinds of picturebooks can be used with children of all ages and highlights the positive educational gains to be made from reading, sharing, talking and writing about picturebooks. With contributions from some of the world's leading experts, chapters in this book consider how: children think about and respond to visual images and other aspects of picturebooks children’s responses can be qualitatively improved by encouraging them to think and talk about picturebooks before, during and after reading them the non-text features of picturebooks, when considered in their own right, can help readers to make more sense out of the book different kinds of picturebooks, such as wordless, postmodern, multimodal and graphic novels, are structured children can respond creatively to picturebooks as art forms picturebooks can help children deal with complex issues in their lives Talking beyond the Page also includes an exclusive interview with Anthony Browne who shares thoughts about his work as an author illustrator. This inspiring and thought provoking book is essential reading for teachers, student teachers, literacy consultants, academics interested in picturebook research and those organising and teaching on teacher education courses in children’s literature and literacy.

Yates was cautiously lifting a cooked and curried crescent to his mouth. He stopped and looked at Pettit. 'It's a cockroach,' he said. 'I'm going to eat it.' 'What in hell for?' 'To find out what it tastes like.' Here is a journey that begins with a shuddering disaster in the Himalayas, and ends with an ill-starred romance on Mars. In between are adventures down the rivers of Cambodia and Laos, battles with bulls in Australian country towns, encounters with French agents, freelance photography assignments, handbag-snatchers in Naples, thong-flingers in Rangoon, bread queues in Afghanistan, and more. This streetwise collection from master storyteller Allan Baillie spans centuries of cross-cultural relationships, civil wars and expeditions.