Boy Overboard
Camberwell
:
Puffin
,
2002
Z976312
2002
single work
children's fiction
children's
(taught in 4 units)
'A story of adventure, ball control and hope.
Jamal and Bibi have a dream. To lead Australia to soccer glory in the next World Cup.
But first they must face landmines, pirates, storms and assassins. Can Jamal and his family survive their incredible journey and get to Australia?
Sometimes, to save the people you love, you have to go overboard'. (Source: publisher's website.)Debra Dudek critiques two novels by Morris Gleitzman, Girl Underground (2004) and Boy Overboard (2002), analysing the representation of ethical relationships between detainees and Australian citizens. In relation to children's multicultural fictions and non-fictions, Dudek suggests that in terms of cultural citizenship, Australia needs to move from 'an ethics of compassion to an ethics of responsibility' in order to understand tolerance as 'a way of respecting absolute differences' (20-21).
Dudek explains how an ethics of responsibility requires the citizens of Australia to actively participate in the dismantling of mandatory detention as an enactment of justice that works towards realizing the meaning of a 'fulfilling social life' (20-21). For Dudek (and others) this begins with the recognition of difference rather than its effacement.
