Meet… Nancy Bird Walton is another in the Random House series of picture books about notable Australians. It’s a useful series for introducing biography for younger (or less able) readers in the library and it now includes these titles:
- Meet Mary Mackillop;
- Meet Captain Cook
- Meet Ned Kelly;
- Meet the Anzacs; and
- Meet Douglas Mawson.
I am hoping that the series will include some notable indigenous Australians before long. A bio about Jandamurra, or Tunnerminnerwait & Maulboyheenner would be a lot more useful than yet another title about Ned Kelly who was a common criminal.
Nancy Bird was Australia’s first female commercial pilot. I read (and reviewed) her autobiography My God, it’s a Woman a little while ago, and although I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it as an audio-book to listen to, I was impressed by the remarkable achievements of Nancy Bird. Meet … Nancy Bird Walton compresses these achievements into a crisp, effective summary that focuses on the exciting early days of aviation. The illustrations are almost all double page spreads to convey the sense of scale and with their bold lines and authentic dress styles are reminiscent of adverts of the period. Most importantly the pictures show the fragility of the aircraft in which this brave woman pioneered aviation across Australia’s outback.
This title would be a handy resource for Year 3 History:
ONE important example of change and ONE important example of continuity over time in the local community, region or state/territory; for example, in relation to the areas of transport, work, education, natural and built environments, entertainment, daily life (ACHHK061)
There is a timeline at the back of the book, but I think the endpapers could usefully have included maps as well.
Author: Grace Atwood
Title: Meet … Nancy Bird Walton
Publisher: Random House, 2104
ISBN: 9780857983879
Source: Review copy courtesy of Random House.
Availability
Fishpond: Meet… Nancy Bird Walton (Meet…)
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