Mirror

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What I see, is the sheer richness of different nationalities and cultures, a richness that will no doubt diminish as our western culture spreads. We really need to celebrate these differences and diversities while we can. How do the pictures appear to have been made? It isn’t always easy to tell with the different digital applications and printing processes that can be applied but encourage the children to look closely. Do the pictures look as though they are painted, drawn, collaged or created digitally? Refer to the section at the end where Jeannie Baker describes the process by which the images have been created. Use the medium of collage to create a spread depicting part of the children’s daily routine. Share these and notice the similarities as well as differences. As part of work in geography, you may want to choose a child from a different country and create a spread which depicts the same part of their day. Diary writing Students could use the Classtools Timeline template to create a timeline of the events for each of the twin narratives. A young girl searches for meaning and hope when her family is relocated to a WWII internment camp. Told in both Japanese and English.

Reinforce the metalanguage of visual analysis by conducting a ‘treasure hunt’ for examples of various visual language codes. Provide students with ten of the following codes to search for examples of within Mirror. You may wish to use the worksheet below for students to record their findings. Presentation of analysis: Students willgather together, where one by one, each pair will go up to the front of thegroup, display their particular illustrations that they had to focus on,including from Mirror and the dream view collage. They will then giveexamples of how both Jeannie Baker and the student incorporated the particularelements of shape, colour and/or texture into the artworks. Are any of the characters or objects connected with each other through colour choice? Are different characters associated with different colours? Mirror was also a national travelling exhibition The exhibition was set out in a different way. When a visitor enters the exhibition room space, they can choose to walk to the left or the right to view the works. If they walk to the left, they can view the Sydney journey and read the images from left to right and if they walk to the right, they can view the Moroccan journey and read the images from right to left.

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With beautiful, meticulously constructed collage, Baker shows two very different worlds…By placing the narratives side by side, opening toward each other, she highlights their similarities. using collages to create evocative images of Moroccan culture, highlighting values such as culture, tradition and diversity In terms of social and economic status, Baker made comparing the two very simple for the reader again. On the American side, a family travels to town via car. They are forced to wait for traffic and construction. On the Arabian side, a family travels through the desert on camel, avoiding the hassle of traffic and construction altogether. The social and economic status of the Arabians isn’t necessarily more poor on accident, rather, I believe it is more simple on purpose. Most children in Australian schools, and many adults, recognise Baker’s books because of her trademark collage constructions. A popular early book, Where the Forest Meets the Sea,depicts a pristine beach and the hollow trees and lush vines of the Daintree area in Queensland; the artist had collected sand, twigs and leaves from the region, then in her studio built miniature landscapes which, when photographed, provide scenes of intricate detail and 3D realism. A brief text tells of a father and son enjoying the peaceful forest, while ghostly figures call to mind their predecessors, the Aboriginal inhabitants; and then a shadowy future is depicted, of what may lie in store if developers are allowed to do their work. An endnote sets out facts about the Daintree and the need for conservation. There are elements in each image that reinforce stereotypes about each culture, as well as those that challenge.

And then I found myself being forced to admit that, even in a wordless book, the creator has gently nudged the reader in certain directions. Baker provides forewords and endnotes that give factual information about where the two families live, and about the materials and processes used for the collages; but she also guides the reader towards the underlying ideology of her work – in this case stating that ‘outward appearances may be very different but the inner person of a “stranger” may not be a stranger at all’. It would be hard to resist this message of community and goodwill. The carpet acts as a thematic motif that connects the two storylines. Students could design and colour in a carpet of their own after researching traditional Moroccan patterns. On their Moroccan carpet, they could write words or statements that identify the themes within Mirror, such as family, culture, belonging, trade, commerce, connection, etc. These could then be displayed around the classroom. Students could script and role-play an interview with Jeannie Baker. The student who takes on the role of interviewer will need to construct a series of thoughtful and appropriate, rather than generic, questions to ask Baker in relation to her aims, ideas and techniques. The student playing Baker will obviously need to be able to discuss the text and its construction in detail. In this way, both students will be able to demonstrate their close understanding of the text.

Both images involve interactions between fathers and sons, suggesting the significance of this relationship. Both fathers are implicated in the processes of inculcation of their sons into their respective cultural practices. Hayes, Joe. (2003). The day it snowed tortillas / El dia que nevaron tortillas. Ill. by Antonio Castro Lopez. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. I chose to read this book because as I said, it is very unique, also, I am a quarter Moroccan and I love learning more about the culture since I don’t know much. Overall, I love learning about new cultures and making connects between them as were shown in this book when the families eat and spend time together. The Moroccan part of the story opens showing a light in the window of a Kasbah, where a woman can be seen weaving. She has stayed up all night to finish weaving a carpet for her husband to take to the local souk (market) to sell. Readers are invited to see the two cultures as different but equal. Does the obviously unfinished nature of the western home (as it is undergoing renovations) suggest that a Moroccan home is only comparable to an unfinished or incomplete western one? Furthermore, the fact that the western family is seen to make home improvements to their abode might be seen as evidence of agency, implying the Moroccan family’s inability to enact similar development.

For very low ability students: the groups could recount the story and highlight the similarities between the two boys’ lives, referring to some specific images as evidence (Understanding). The teacher could provide further support or scaffolding by asking questions of the panel to elicit their discussion. These two intersecting stories are not exactly mirrors of each other so I don’t know that it’s got an ideal title, though the author’s note at the end does explain it, and I enjoyed seeing the inhabitants and scenery in the two settings: the Valley of Roses in southern Morocco and Sydney, Australia, the latter being the author-illustrator’s home. The region of the Valley of Roses was a trade route of various tribes further north and west around the Imilchil and Taznakht area. Consequently I decided to make a special trip to Taznakht, to try and understand the basic design and symbols underlying their carpets, which it seems the women in the Valley of Roses have been much influenced by. Mirror won the Children’s Book Council of Australia award for Picture Book of the Year in 2011. Students are to write and perform a 2–3 minute acceptance speech for Baker, explaining what she aimed to achieve with Mirror. In their speeches, students should make reference to the themes and ideas, purposes, audience and context of the book and the significance of receiving this award.The wordless picture book Mirror by Jeannie Baker is about the lives of two boys and their families that live very different yet somehow the same lives. One boy lives in Australia while the other lives in Morocco. The book goes through the boys lives to show how differences in the way they live, but how some things connect them. This is a great book that I think all kids would enjoy because of how different the format of it is and it really tells an important story without actually using any words. The English title type used is Papyrus, which I modified to eliminate its featured ragged edges: in doing this, we’ve created our own version of the type. In promoting the work, whenever the English title is used, we’ve striven to have the Arabic title placed alongside it: the two titles together having become the project logo. Also in promoting the work, when an Australian image is shown, we have stipulated that its Moroccan equivalent is shown alongside it. Cohn, Diana. (2002). ¡Si, se puede! Yes we can ! Janitor strike in L.A. Ill. by Francisco Delgado. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press . Text to world connection- Since this book has two stories about different places/cultures that relate to real world events I think text to world connection would be accurate.

Initially I put the two parts of the book together in a more complicated way. I tested it on a friend and watched as he just couldn’t work out how to open it. We pass the country trekked the previous day and on to a series of caves, the home of a family of nomads. A woman is weaving in one. I am told she will sell her weaving in one of the local souks … her husband will take it to sell there.Students should incorporate one (or more) of the techniques employed by Baker in Mirror to promote intercultural understanding, such as the use of a central motif, juxtaposition or multiple points of view. From my very first books I have worked in collage. For me this medium evolved from a love of texture … a love of the tactile qualities of things.