Diversity Rocks! and Lost in Translation

[bookloversdiary.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone! Happy 2009! I just wanted to take a minute to tell you about the Diversity Rocks Challenge, since it correlates with the purposes of the community. The aim of this challenge is to ensure ethnic and racial diversity in our reading lists. There are a few different levels of participation, something for everyone. For more on the challenge, see here. The host, Ali from Worducopia is very good about posting recs so it might be something you want to check out here.

My tentative list of authors is here. Please let me know if you have any recommendations! :)

#20 Dunbi the Owl and #21 Warnayarra the Rainbow Snake

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

#20 - Dunbi the Owl

This is another retelling of an Aboriginal legend, this one involving the angry Wandjina and the destruction of most of the people by flood.

It was originally told by Daisy Utemorrah to children around Derby. Pamela Lofts has retold it and reworked the children’s illustrations. I must say that the illustrations are simple and bold, but I do find them a bit offputtingly crude.

Daisy Utemorrah, Dunbi the Owl, retold and illustrated by Pamela Lofts, 1983


#21 - Warnayarra the Rainbow Snake

This is another in the same series. The story is one that happened 'in the days when we were forced to made to work for the white bosses of Lajamanu'.

The illustrations are the same, broad brush strokes on white paper.