Cirrus@Austlit

Pemberton introduces six papers that critically engage with children's books in Australia and present a wide range of subjects and critical approaches. He briefly references the work of the aforementioned authors, quoting from Wrightson's Nargun and the Stars in recognition of the 'mythic potentialities' and 'immense challenge' of writing about what it means to be Australian (166). In this sense it is 'the image of the Australian child' and how this image is situated within and in relation to, the landscape that provides the focus for this issue of the periodical, drawing attention to how 'the dimensions of mythic distance in Australian children's literature are wide indeed' (167). For Pemberton, the authors and texts under discussion utilise 'the idiosyncrasies of Australian idiom, humour and candour' in ways that 'are testimony to a national resilience' and representative of 'the evolution of national identity' (166-67).