Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Dallas Public Library | + PRESCHOOL - GRAY | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Told in the first person by two young boys, this story relates their identical experiences . . . with very different results. The text appears in the middle of the page, and two sets of pictures, above and below, show the same actions in two very different cultures: a small African village and a modern suburban setting. . . . The format makes this an interesting picture book. . . . Children will enjoy finding the similarities and differences for themselves.-- School Library Journal.
Author Notes
Nigel Gray was born in a farm shed in Ireland. At twelve months old, during the Second World War, he was taken to England and never saw his father, nor brother and sister again. He went into a series of foster homes, a children's home, and later lived with his mother. Gray left school only semi-literate, and became involved in petty criminality. He planned to work his way overland to Australia and spent two years travelling and working in ten European countries. He became an anarchist, was involved in numerous political causes, was arrested many times, locked up on a number of occasions, and deported for political offences from four countries.
Gray worked as an unskilled manual worker for eleven years, but earned a B. A. in English and Politics, and an M. A. in Creative Writing from British universities in the process. He went to South East Asia as part of a non-violent action group in 1967 to oppose the American War, was involved in civil unrest in several countries in 1968, worked for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Campaign in 1972, and visited South Africa to oppose apartheid, as well as some of the Soviet Bloc countries.
Gray began writing when he was in prison in Thailand. He began with performance poetry, and went on to write non-fiction, and then stories, novels, plays, and children's books. He set up a commune in Cumbria, did work for People Not Psychiatry, and established a major Arts Festival. Gray has been writing professionally for thirty years, and has more than sixty books published, in twenty-six countries and twenty-four languages, winning various awards and honours.
Gray finally arrived in Western Australia in 1988, over twenty years later than he'd intended, having migrated under the special category of artists and sports people of international reputation, and has been an Australian citizen since 1990. He is a member and a past president of his branch of PEN, the writers' organization with special concern for writers throughout the world who are in imprisoned or persecuted. With respected literary critic and poet David Craig, Gray founded and edited the literary magazine Fireweed, which was published quarterly from 1974 to 1978. As a photographer, he has had work published and exhibited. North West Arts mounted a one-person exhibition of his photographs in 1977. Gray has also acted in the role of Joe Malik in Ken Campbell's epic production of Illuminatus, which opened in a warehouse Liverpool in 1976 and then moved to The Micky Theatre, Amsterdam, and the National Theatre, London in 1977.
Gray has taught Literature courses for The University of Liverpool; The University of Lancaster; and The Worker's Education Association. He has taught Creative Writing courses for The University of Liverpool; The University of Leicester; The University of Western Australia; The Worker's Education Association; The Arvon Foundation; The Katherine Susannah Pritchard Foundation; and The Northampton Arts Centre. He has also taught numerous writing workshops in schools, colleges, universities, libraries, arts centers, writer's centres, centres for the unemployed, and prisons.
Gray received the following writing fellowships in the course of his career, including, in the UK: East Midlands Arts 1977/79; Northampton Development Corporation 1979/80; C Day Lewis Fellowship, London 1980/81; and Eastern Arts 1981/82. In Australia he received: the WA College of Advanced Education 1988; Shire of Kalamunda 1989/1990; Edith Cowan University 1990 and 1994; and Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation 1992. Gray has also received The Dickens Fellowship Award, and The Irish Post Award for Literature. His books have won four major international awards, been shortlisted for thirteen more, and have picked up sixteen further honours in Australia, Europe and the United States.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-- Told in the first person by two young boys, this story relates their identical experiences--going to school, having a baby sister, shopping, and playing sports--with very different results. The text appears in the middle of the page, and two sets of pictures, above and below, show the same actions in two very different cultures: a small African village and a modern suburban setting that could be almost anywhere in the ``developed '' world. Although the story is simple, and the cartoon illustrations of the scenes in both worlds are pleasant and colorful but not distinguished, the format makes this an interesting picture book. As a result of Dupasquier's cartoon style, the characters, both black and white, are a bit stereotyped and unappealing. Independent readers will get the most out of this book as the pictures are too small to share with a group, and they are the crux of the story. Children will enjoy finding the similarities and differences for themselves almost like a game. --Rosanne Cerny, Queens Borough Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In what PW called "an extraordinary book," one or two lines of text per spread describe a day in the life of two very different boys--one is pictured in cartoon panels in a rural African village (above the text), the other is pictured in a Western European city (below). Ages 4-8. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
An ordinary day in the lives of two boys - one in a rural African village, one in a large, modern city - is depicted in a comic-strip format. The boys help their parents, go into town, and go bike riding with friends, each in his own way. Stressing the basic similarities in the boys' lives, the book reveals the nearness of 'a country far away.' (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
One brief text serves parallel sets of illustrations here: the frames that march across the tops of these pages show the activities of a rural African boy, while those at the bottom show a suburban boy (who could be in the US, Australia, or many other industrial nations) doing similar things. ""I helped my mom and dad."" ""Today was the last day of school."" ""My mom had a baby."" ""We had a celebration."" In each case, the life-styles contrast, but the similarities seem more important. There's no real story here, and the pious thought that the two boys might someday meet doesn't make a strong conclusion; but Dupasquier's lively, detailed illustrations carry the unusual idea well. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 3-7. Simple in concept, yet rich in execution, this pictorial study of two boys--one from an African village and the other from a suburb in a Western nation--cleverly utilizes its spare story to highlight both the similarities and differences in the boys' life-styles. Dupasquier's brightly colored illustrations seem to glow in sunlight as the dual story lines are mounted on the same page in storyboard fashion. With cinematic perspectives that mesh wide angles and close-ups, these framed sequences invite children to inspect the carefully contemplated details about going to school, helping at home, doing the shopping, and playing soccer. The final spread, in which both boys look at pictures from each other's homeland, provides a thought-provoking vision of our shrinking world. --Beth Herbert