Cirrus@Austlit

'The Bexley Hill High School plays are designed for use with the Secondary classroom and allow students to explore issues in a familiar, contemporary Australian setting. Following a cohort of students from Year 7 to Year 12, the plays dip in and out of this timeline to show the clowns and the clobberers, the troubled and the trouble-makers, the self-improving and the self-deluding, and the helpful and the helpless. Teachers will be able to read through each play with their class and make use of a range of included resources to deepen and broaden an appreciation of the text's themes.

'In Community and Family, a Year 11 Community and Family Studies class is placed under considerable strain when Trent Papadakis is singled-out as having the potential to be School Captain. There's a rising tension at Bexley Hill High as both students and teachers alike are forced to consider the qualities of a true leader and deal with the undercurrents of racism and homophobia that no one wants to acknowledge.' (Publication summary)

'The Bexley Hill High School plays are designed for use with the Secondary classroom and allow students to explore issues in a familiar, contemporary Australian setting. Following a cohort of students from Year 7 to Year 12, the plays dip in and out of this timeline to show the clowns and the clobberers, the troubled and the trouble-makers, the self-improving and the self-deluding, and the helpful and the helpless. Teachers will be able to read through each play with their class and make use of a range of included resources to deepen and broaden an appreciation of the text's themes.

'In Charity and Change, a Year 9 English class finds itself split between two teachers with very different teaching styles. Tasked with creating their own charity presentations, a diverse collection of students find themselves facing a range of challenges. Can they stand up in front of their peers? Can they rise above their personal baggage? Can they work together?' (Publication summary)

Eight scripts, designed for high-school students, including:

• 'Vote Yes or No: Vida Goldstein'
• 'Not Just a Refugee'
• 'Acting Parts of Speech'
• 'Water on Trial'
• 'Q.V.H.'
• 'My Robotics Homework Problem'
• 'Anorexia: Body Rescue Kit'
• 'Bowling Them Over: Fashions in Cricket'

• Goodbye and Hello
• My Friend
• Figure It Out
• Spoilsport (Monologue)
• Granny Smith's Apples
• The Ned Kelly Myth on Trial
• The Right Writer
• The History T.V. Game Show
• The Guyra Census Taker's Impossible Task

'Sense, Shape, Symbol is an investigation of Australian poetry. It explores the ways in which poets succeed, or fail, in their attempts to bring their experience to life.

Their primary raw materials are the five senses - sight, sound, smell, taste and touch - the means by which we all experience our world.

Poets also like to experiment with the shape of their writing, starting with the qualities of vowels and consonants, of syllables, and of rhyme, metre and rhythm.

Working poets make particular use of the metaphor, of the connections that they suggest between normally unlike things, to express their response to their subject.

The collection explores the work of five poets who have played an important, influential part in the development of Australian poetry: Judith Wright, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, David Malouf, Les Murray and Mark O’Connor.

The final chapter looks at some of the common concerns that can create conflict in our lives, such as gender, race, age, and socio-economic status, and other issues that create fear and that encourage hope.

The collection is intended to allow readers to become familiar with the techniques that poets use, and to develop their own poetic writing in an informed way.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Why tinker with The Caucasian Chalk Circle? It's a long play. It's a complicated play. The propaganda can become a bit repetitive. Epic theatre, as Brecht's theatre is called, is like a row of boxcars, each scene standing on its own, and so the sets are constantly changing. Most school productions would take a knife to the original text. Our version simplifies and streamlines the production. Extra lines are added without taking away the spirit and mood of the original. There are parts here for twenty or more actors, half of them playing several characters. But this is Brecht. His poetry is here. His humour is here. His characters continue to be amusing because of their blatantly self-centred approach to life. Many of them are caricatures, but that is what makes them fun to play. This is not Stanislavski. Actors do not need to be talented thespians to take part in a Brecht play. So 'have fun with it' as Drama Directors are wont to say on opening nights.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Pieces contains extracts selected to appeal to a wide range of readers and interests from 11 highly regarded Australian novels The extracts are intended to introduce students, particularly those for whom reading is not a favourite activity, to a variety of novels. The extracts average 3500 words each and introduce students to the major characters of the novel. Each extract has a brief introduction to put the events and characters in context, and is followed by a synopsis of the novel.

'The novels are: Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy, Illywhacker by Peter Carey, The Day of the Dog by Archie Weller, After January by Nick Earls, Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe, The Secret River by Kate Grenville, Matilda, My Darling by Nigel Krauth, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally, The Well by Elizabeth Jolley, Plains of Promise by Alexis Wright and Cloudstreet byTim Winton.' (From the publisher's website.)