image of person or book cover 5177102911690207531.gif
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon My Dog single work   picture book   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 My Dog
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Alija's only companion is his dog, but his optimism and courage in the face of adversity and loneliness is touching and inspiring. This extraordinary book deals with the tragedy of Bosnia and the reality of ethnic cleansing and civil war for civilians.

Notes

  • Braille edition available.
  • This is affiliated with Dr Laurel Cohn's Picture Book Diet because it contains representations of food and/or food practices.

    Food depiction
    • Incidental
    Food types
    • Everyday foods
    • Everyday drinks
    Food practices
    • Eating in - meal
    • Food production
    • Food preparation
    Gender
    • Food production - male
    • Food preparation - female [domestic]
    • Food preparation - male [professional, outdoor fire]
    Signage n/a
    Positive/negative value n/a
    Food as sense of place
    • Domestic
    • Rural
    • Historical
    Setting
    • Domestic interior
    • Rural landscape
    Food as social cohesion
    • Family meals [dinner]
    Food as cultural identity
    • Non-Anglo characters
    • Refugee story
    Food as character identity n/a
    Food as language n/a

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has been translated into Japanese.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Hunters Hill, Ryde - Gladesville - Hunters Hill area, Northwest Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Margaret Hamilton Books , 2000 .
      image of person or book cover 5177102911690207531.gif
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 32p.
      Description: col. illus.
      Reprinted: 2002
      ISBN: 1876289120
Alternative title: ぼくの犬
Transliterated title: Boku no inu
Language: Japanese
    • Tokyo, Honshu,
      c
      Japan,
      c
      East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Nihon Tosho Sentā ,
      2005 .
      image of person or book cover 4277383879899708076.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 1 v.p.
      Description: col. illus.
      ISBN: 4820598430, 9784820598435

Works about this Work

The Politics of Picture Books : Stories of Displaced Children in Twenty-first-century Australia Mary Tomsic , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 15 no. 2 2018; (p. 339-356)

'This article uses cultural representations to write refugee history. It examines twenty-first-century picture books about displaced children, alongside published responses to them, to explore how refugee experiences and histories are constructed, both for and about children, in an Australian context. The visual literary form of picture books as political texts is examined as a space for discussion and dialogue. Published responses to them, however, more commonly reveal rigid interpretations of imagined readers, invoking binary divisions between displaced and non-displaced children. Through these sources, questions of humanisation and (de)politicisations in refugee history are considered.'  (Publication abstract)

What Are We Feeding Our Children When We Read Them a Book? Depictions of Mothers and Food in Contemporary Australian Picture Books Laurel Cohn , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Mothers and Food : Negotiating Foodways from Maternal Perspectives 2016; (p. 232-244)

'This chapter explores how Australian writers and illustrators in the twenty-first century depict the act of mothering in picture books for young children in relation to cooking and serving food. It draws on the idea that children’s texts can be understood as sites of cultural production and reproduction, with social conventions and ideologies embedded in their narrative representations. The analysis is based on a survey of 124 books that were shortlisted for, or won, Children’s Book Council of Australia awards between 2001 and 2013. Of the eighty-seven titles that contain food and have human or anthropomorphised characters, twenty-six (30 percent) contain textual or illustrative references to maternal figures involved in food preparation or provision. Examination of this data set reveals that there is a strong correlation between non-Anglo-Australian maternal figures and home-cooked meals, and a clear link between Anglo-Australian mothers and sugar-rich snacks. The relative paucity of depictions of ethnically unmarked mothers offering more nutritious foods is notable given the cultural expectations of mothers as caretakers of their children’s well-being. At the same time, the linking of non-Anglo-Australian mothers with home-cooked meals can be seen as a means of signifying a cultural authenticity, a closeness to the earth that is differentiated from the normalised Australian culture represented in picture books. This suggests an unintended alignment of mothers preparing and serving meals with “otherness,” which creates a distancing effect between meals that may generally be considered nutritious and the normalised self. I contend there are unexamined, and perhaps unexpected, cultural assumptions about ethnicity, motherhood, and food embedded in contemporary Australian picture books. These have the potential to inscribe a system of beliefs about gender, cultural identity, and food that contributes to readers’ understanding of the world and themselves.'

Source: Abstract.

CIT Student Exhibition 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Lu Rees Archives Notes, Books and Authors , no. 34 2012; (p. 17-19)
This column discusses the CIT student exhibition 'From Pencil to Published', Reid, Australian Capital Territory, 6 - 26 June 2012.
John Heffernan Interview Anastasia Gonis (interviewer), 2009 single work interview
— Appears in: Buzz Words , 15 November no. 72 2009; (p. 15-23)
John Heffernan, farmer, writer and poet reveals to Anastasia Gonis, how his writing life began and where it has led him.
Know the Author : John Heffernan Margy Heuschele , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , March vol. 19 no. 1 2004; (p. 16-18)
Untitled Sandi Toose , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 15 no. 3 2001; (p. 27-28)

— Review of My Dog John Heffernan , 2000 single work picture book
Top Tales for the Young Leanne Younes , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 March 2001; (p. 19)

— Review of Butterflies Fly Yvonne Winer , 2000 single work picture book ; My Dog John Heffernan , 2000 single work picture book ; The Kangaroo Who Couldn't Hop Robert Cox , 2001 single work picture book ; The Dredgersaurus Kim Scott , 2001 single work picture book
Little Hands Make Light Readers Meg Sorensen , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 April 2001; (p. 4)

— Review of My Dog John Heffernan , 2000 single work picture book ; Prue Theroux : The Cool Librarian Gillian Rubinstein , 2000 single work picture book
Untitled 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Classroom , vol. 20 no. 3 2001; (p. 44)

— Review of My Dog John Heffernan , 2000 single work picture book
Untitled Alison Gregg , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 16 no. 2 2001; (p. 31)

— Review of My Dog John Heffernan , 2000 single work picture book
Andrew McLean John Cohen , 2001 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , May vol. 45 no. 2 2001; (p. 4)
The Children's Book Council of Australia : Annual Awards 2002 2002 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 46 no. 3 2002; (p. 2-13)
CBC Acceptance Speeches : John Heffernan John Heffernan , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 46 no. 4 2002; (p. 4-5)
CBC Acceptance Speeches : Andrew McLean Andrew McLean , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 46 no. 4 2002; (p. 5)
War and Dispossession in Children's Books Robin Morrow , 2003 single work column
— Appears in: Classroom , vol. 23 no. 3 2003; (p. 6-8)
Last amended 22 Mar 2022 14:46:54
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