Ben's Week 4 post

This week I have also been reading some of the work of Morris Gleitzman, and have found it to be engaging, but carrying some deeper and more mature themes than I would have predicted. An example of this is the story Bumface (1998), where the absent mother is quite promiscuous, and has multiple children from each of her short term partners. This insight has given me more focus on being thorough in my selection of texts, to make sure they are appropriate for the students I am working with.

In Belly flop (1996), the main character Mitch lives in an area suffering from an eight-year drought. Mitch’s dad, who works for the town’s Bank, has to foreclose on the loans of local farmers and as a result the townspeople loathe Mitch and his family. Mitch is determined to change people’s opinion of him, and decides to become a diving champion as a way of getting people to like him. He petitions his guardian angel, Doug, who no one else believes in, to help him in his quest. the story is well written and keeps the reader interested in the plight of the characters and what will happen next.