LATEST DISCOUNTS & SALES: PROMOTIONS
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- If Room on the Rock takes a gentle approach, this book which also tackles the refugee crises, is much more blunt. This is the book for much older students to use, and is uncompromising in its depictions of human misery. Armin Greder never sugarcoats, and if his black-washed images are confronting, they are no more confronting than the reality they depict. There is only one sentence, right on the first page, and the illustrations that follow show the food chain of actions that cause mass exodus as well as the literal food chain… Dark, eloquent, thought-provoking and brilliant. Lindy Jones
Armin Greder was born in Switzerland. In 1971 he migrated to Australia where he worked as a graphic designer and later taught design and illustration at a tertiary art institution. Books he has illustrated include 2016 CBCA Picture Book of the Year, Flight, with Nadia Wheatley, and The Great Bear, An Ordinary Day and I Am Thomas, all written by Libby Gleeson. Books he has authored and illustrated include The Island, The City and Australia to Z. His work, in which charcoal is prominent, reflects his European background. He is the recipient of a number of international recognitions such as the Bologna Ragazzi Award and has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Prize. He now lives in Lima, Peru, together with his companion Victoria.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- If Room on the Rock takes a gentle approach, this book which also tackles the refugee crises, is much more blunt. This is the book for much older students to use, and is uncompromising in its depictions of human misery. Armin Greder never sugarcoats, and if his black-washed images are confronting, they are no more confronting than the reality they depict. There is only one sentence, right on the first page, and the illustrations that follow show the food chain of actions that cause mass exodus as well as the literal food chain… Dark, eloquent, thought-provoking and brilliant. Lindy Jones
'As a wordless book, the illustrations obviously carry the weight of the story, and it feels like all the heaviness of the book is immediately transferred right to our shoulders as we read it. We can't ignore what we see in this book, and it shines a harsh spotlight on the fact that most wars are started for profit and countless lives are lost in the process. The charcoal illustrations are muted throughout most of the book with rare exceptions, and the dark choices allow for a wide variety of tones throughout each spread, ranging from sinister to anonymous.' - Let's talk Picture Books (UK) 'This book should be used to enhance and enrich discussion of these issues in every secondary school classroom. Our young people deserve the chance to reflect on the important importance of the Mediterranean and its surrounding countries, once known as the cradle of western civilisation, and the holiday destination of wealthy Europeans, and now as the scene of international neglect of human life.' - School Librarian (UK) 'Having dramatically dealt with the theme of prejudice in his earlier picture book The Island, here Armin Greder uses his distinctive charcoal drawings to depict a dark world with a global dimension. The only words in the story are a single sentence indicating what is happening to the body in the water in the first picture. From there on the reader needs to examine the pictures to draw conclusions about how that body came to be in the sea. An afterword by Alessandro Leogrande, an Italian journalist who writes about social, political and environmental issues, fills in the background about the food chain portrayed in this disturbing picture book which demands discussion.' - CLPE (UK)
