Refugees

by David Miller

A small green swamp just past the edge of town is home to two wild blue-billed ducks. But one day huge, rumbling, grumbling machines crawled, scraping and gouging towards the swamp and out poured the swamp's precious water. Refugees tells the story of the duck's misadventures in trying to find a new place to live.

Genres: Picture Books, Environment

Paperback

First published September 25, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Jenna Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good message

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up and I was really expecting a hard-hitting response to the Australian Government's (of the time) policies towards refugees. I was expecting small, cute children to be over-crowded into the tiny boat on the cover. (ala the Children Overboard Affair and the tragic SEIV-X sinking (with 143 children among the 353 people who died).

Instead we get a story of displaced ducks attempting to find an appropriate new home. All the underlying messages are there, I was just expecting something more upfront and direct.

I'm not sure X-man will like having his beloved excavators portrayed as the 'bad guys'!

A real highlight for me was a couple of pages of real tension - pretty unusual in a picture book. The ducks were hiding from hunters in some reeds - and you turn the page to find a close-up picture of a retriever dog and the haunting words "But they were found,". Perfectly executed!

I dislike the deus ex machina ending of an unknown animal rescue organisation saving the ducks from the hunters and introducing them to a lovely lake. What does this say in the human case - that human refugees have no hope unless an outside agency (UNHCR) takes up their case? Hmmm... while probably true it's a depressing thought...

The paper sculpture illustrations have to be seen to be believed - truely amazing.

In the end I suppose I like the duck allegory in the case of a picture book - it means you can introduce the full range of ideas about refugees as your child is ready.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rufugees is all about two duck that live in a little green swamp out of town and could not be happier.Until one night big machine bulldozers come and distory there swamp so the ducks had to go live somwhere else. It's all about these two ducks trining to find somewhere to live but everywhere they go there's always something wrong Until there bad luck changes?

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was amazing because all the illustrations were made of paper.