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Waves
Every journey is perilous, every situation heartbreaking. Every refugee is a person forced by famine or war or fear to leave their home, their families, their friends and all they know. Children have travelled on the waves of migration to the shores of Australia for tens of thousands of years. This book tells some of their stories.
Waves is a narrative non-fiction book about the waves of migration to the shores of Australia.
Waves is a narrative non-fiction book about the waves of migration to the shores of Australia.
40 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2018
20 people want to read
About the author
Donna Rawlins
34 books3 followersDonna Rawlins is an illustrator, book designer and teacher who has specialised in making books for children for most of her working life. She has won many awards for her work and in 2003 was the recipient of the prestigious Lady Cutler Award, presented by the Children’s Book Council of New South Wales, for her outstanding contribution to the children’s book industry. Donna lives on acreage in the Lower Blue Mountains outside Sydney, New South Wales.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 29, 2019
I can usually predict which books will get a CBCA nomination, especially the Eve Pownall award for non-fiction. Refugees, belonging and journey themes are usually a sure thing, so as soon as I saw this book, I knew it would be a shoe-in!
Each double page spread features a child who has come across the sea to Australia, starting over 50 000 years ago to the present day. Families on rafts, a young sailor, a convict girl, a Chinese grandson determined to find gold to help his family, an Afghan cameleer, war refugees, orphans and asylum seekers all feature here with extra information about the particular time period included in the back pages.
They all share a common and universal experience. They fear leaving what they know and feel sad about leaving those they love behind. They fear the unknown and they all desire acceptance, belonging, safety and a purposeful life in their new home. Not that big an ask really.
Each double page spread features a child who has come across the sea to Australia, starting over 50 000 years ago to the present day. Families on rafts, a young sailor, a convict girl, a Chinese grandson determined to find gold to help his family, an Afghan cameleer, war refugees, orphans and asylum seekers all feature here with extra information about the particular time period included in the back pages.
They all share a common and universal experience. They fear leaving what they know and feel sad about leaving those they love behind. They fear the unknown and they all desire acceptance, belonging, safety and a purposeful life in their new home. Not that big an ask really.
June 13, 2019
A fantastic resource to accompany lessons about those who have travelled to Australia over the waves. Each page tells the story of an immigrant child, from Anak 50,000 years ago to Abdul in the last 20 years. We see 15 different stories, their hopes & fears & the shared experiences of them all. A great snapshot.
August 12, 2019
Waves by Donna Rawlins and illustrated by Heather Potter and Mark Jackson is a powerful picture book that seeks to educate its readers of the many world explorers, merchants, convicts, migrants and refugees that have travelled to Australia. Waves holds no bars as it seeks to illustrate the stark realities these travellers experienced including, but not limited too, the dangers of the unknown from rough seas, to unknown lands, families left behind, children dying on boats from sickness and disease, actual pirates kidnapping women and children, the pain of leaving home behind ... The experiences are as unique and endless as the people and cultures they represent. Waves covers a wide expanse of time, with the first 'recording' beginning 50 000 years ago and the most recent entry being the early 2000s.
If you are not an Indigenous Australian, your family have, at some stage, come to Australia from across the waves ...
Walker Books Australia have opted not to go for a shiny, glossy cover for Waves, a decision that ultimately gives the book a rough, textual feeling that heightens the reader's experience of the book itself.
The endpapers feature layered illustrations; waves, layered upon a faint world map, with fifteen different types of vessels refugees and immigrants have used to get to Australia from the beginning of time. Under each small image, a child's name is printed that correspondences to a double-page spread featured within the book. There is also a time stamp referencing the time period that the child's experience is from and the time the ships were predominately used.
Anak (50 000 years earlier than now), Maarter (early 1700s), Jalak (mid 1700s), Henry (late 1780s), Finola (1820s), Martha (1840s), Nianzu (1850s), Karim(1870s), Bridget (1900s), Harry(1940s), Olga(1940s),Marina(1950s), Cornelia (1960s), Hau (1970s), Abdul (2000s).
Walker Books Australia has used these endpapers extremely clever, as not only do they serve as an introduction to the book itself, they exist as a snapshot of time and visual aid for what the reader is about to learn. I particularly like that Rawlins has included such a vast time period and the true multi-cultural experience of people from all over the world and their experiences and reasons for travelling to Australia. This creates a non-biased, and all-encompassing text and educational tool. The end result is an unbiased, text that seeks to teach understanding and empathy from a young age. For this reason alone, I believe Waves proves itself to be a significant text that belongs in every classroom and every child's home library within Australia.
Waves is set up as a series of double-page spreads covering a particular experience and time period as people travelled (both legally and illegally) to Australia throughout history. Covering a comprehensive time frame from 50 000 years ago to the early 2000s, Waves is ambitious, but I would argue, a successful text that gives an overview of the migration and immigration patterns to Australia. It seeks to promote understanding and cultural awareness, which teaching children about the world, and Australia's, history.
Each double-page spread features a bleak beige background, allowing Potter and Jackson's illustrations and Rawlins text to shine. Each double-page spread is broken up and dedicated to the 15 types of vessels used by refugees to arrive in Australia. It's worth noting the unusual placement of the book's page numbers - they exist only on the side-edge of the right-hand double-page spread.
If you are not an Indigenous Australian, your family have, at some stage, come to Australia from across the waves. The characters in this book are fictitious, but the types of journeys they take in these stories are very real.
Lastly, at the end of the book, Rawlins has included an additional two pages of information regarding the history that inspired the characters and their stories.
Waves , albeit ambitious, is a powerful book that seeks to teach, explain and understand the experiences of travellers, convicts, migrants and refugees from the beginning of time. It's a book that seeks to illustrate cultural diversity and understanding. It belongs amongst the bookshelves of every school and library in Australia and has the true power to change, enlighten and inspire entire generations.
Waves by Donna Rawlins and illustrated by Heather Potter and Mark Jackson has been shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia's Eve Pownall Award for 2019. Winners will be announced on Friday 16th August 2019.
This review was originally posted at The Never Ending Bookshelf on Monday 12th August 2019 and can be found here: https://wp.me/p3yY1u-1Jv
If you are not an Indigenous Australian, your family have, at some stage, come to Australia from across the waves ...
Walker Books Australia have opted not to go for a shiny, glossy cover for Waves, a decision that ultimately gives the book a rough, textual feeling that heightens the reader's experience of the book itself.
The endpapers feature layered illustrations; waves, layered upon a faint world map, with fifteen different types of vessels refugees and immigrants have used to get to Australia from the beginning of time. Under each small image, a child's name is printed that correspondences to a double-page spread featured within the book. There is also a time stamp referencing the time period that the child's experience is from and the time the ships were predominately used.
Anak (50 000 years earlier than now), Maarter (early 1700s), Jalak (mid 1700s), Henry (late 1780s), Finola (1820s), Martha (1840s), Nianzu (1850s), Karim(1870s), Bridget (1900s), Harry(1940s), Olga(1940s),Marina(1950s), Cornelia (1960s), Hau (1970s), Abdul (2000s).
Walker Books Australia has used these endpapers extremely clever, as not only do they serve as an introduction to the book itself, they exist as a snapshot of time and visual aid for what the reader is about to learn. I particularly like that Rawlins has included such a vast time period and the true multi-cultural experience of people from all over the world and their experiences and reasons for travelling to Australia. This creates a non-biased, and all-encompassing text and educational tool. The end result is an unbiased, text that seeks to teach understanding and empathy from a young age. For this reason alone, I believe Waves proves itself to be a significant text that belongs in every classroom and every child's home library within Australia.
Waves is set up as a series of double-page spreads covering a particular experience and time period as people travelled (both legally and illegally) to Australia throughout history. Covering a comprehensive time frame from 50 000 years ago to the early 2000s, Waves is ambitious, but I would argue, a successful text that gives an overview of the migration and immigration patterns to Australia. It seeks to promote understanding and cultural awareness, which teaching children about the world, and Australia's, history.
Each double-page spread features a bleak beige background, allowing Potter and Jackson's illustrations and Rawlins text to shine. Each double-page spread is broken up and dedicated to the 15 types of vessels used by refugees to arrive in Australia. It's worth noting the unusual placement of the book's page numbers - they exist only on the side-edge of the right-hand double-page spread.
If you are not an Indigenous Australian, your family have, at some stage, come to Australia from across the waves. The characters in this book are fictitious, but the types of journeys they take in these stories are very real.
Lastly, at the end of the book, Rawlins has included an additional two pages of information regarding the history that inspired the characters and their stories.
Waves , albeit ambitious, is a powerful book that seeks to teach, explain and understand the experiences of travellers, convicts, migrants and refugees from the beginning of time. It's a book that seeks to illustrate cultural diversity and understanding. It belongs amongst the bookshelves of every school and library in Australia and has the true power to change, enlighten and inspire entire generations.
Waves by Donna Rawlins and illustrated by Heather Potter and Mark Jackson has been shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia's Eve Pownall Award for 2019. Winners will be announced on Friday 16th August 2019.
This review was originally posted at The Never Ending Bookshelf on Monday 12th August 2019 and can be found here: https://wp.me/p3yY1u-1Jv
July 29, 2021
A beautiful book with stories of Australian immigrants who have arrived by sea. It starts with Anak's story over 50000 years ago and finishes with Abdul, possibly an Afghani refugee, who travelled to Australia in the 2000s. I am not sure how factual the stories are, but many are certainly based on fact, such as Maarten who survived shipwreck and was taken on my local Indigenous people. He was seen by Captain Cook on his original visit to Australia.
All Of the stories include details of life at it was, including death by measles, shipwreck, pirates stealing women and girls from boats and killing protective fathers. I think that, even in a children's book, it is important that these stories are told.
Interestingly, while reading the two stories that happened during WW2, I realised that my father was also a refugee who came by sea, escaping the war as it reached Hong Kong and moving with his mother and brothers to safety in Australia. While I knew he had arrived by boat, I had never thought of him that way.
All Of the stories include details of life at it was, including death by measles, shipwreck, pirates stealing women and girls from boats and killing protective fathers. I think that, even in a children's book, it is important that these stories are told.
Interestingly, while reading the two stories that happened during WW2, I realised that my father was also a refugee who came by sea, escaping the war as it reached Hong Kong and moving with his mother and brothers to safety in Australia. While I knew he had arrived by boat, I had never thought of him that way.
June 17, 2018
A powerful historical fiction picture book by Donna Rawlins. In it she provides a series of short stories to illustrate the experience of migrants “who have come across the seas” to make Australia their homeland. The stories are arranged chronologically with each double page spread featuring the imagined journey across the waves of a typical immigrant from 50 000 years ago to the present day. Although Donna is a renowned illustrator this appears to be her first as a published author - and the writing is beautiful!
January 23, 2020
A narrative nonfiction (librarian speak) brings to life the journey of 15 immigrants who travel the Waves to find their way to a new land. These stories differ in the what ignites their journey, (beautifully) illustrating the various emotions behind leaving their home land. While the characters are fictitious the journeys are based on real stories of their respective times - anecdotal summaries are provided to further inform of each character's journey.
September 26, 2019
This book broke my heart a little - knowing that although the stories were largely fiction, there were true stories behind them. I loved the timely reminder at the end, that "if you are not an Indigenous Australian, your family have, at some stage, come to Australia from across the waves".
Bears repeating.
Bears repeating.
April 29, 2019
A lovely picture book that looks at the "waves" of migration that have arrived on Australian shores over the years. I also like the fact that the author has included a historical breakdown based on the years of arrival and backgrounds of each of the protagonists telling their story. Recommended.
July 1, 2018
Should be a mandatory read for all Australians especially our elected members
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews