image of person or book cover 4530705874859815867.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Special Kev single work   picture book   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Special Kev
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'On the day I was born Mum planted red roses and rolled out the red carpet. She called me Special Kev. I am the only one of all my eleventy million cousins who has curly hair, red hair and freckles. Anyway that thing that happened with Nicky Bathgate, well, it wasn't my fault. (Publisher's blurb)

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teacher’s notes from publisher’s website.

Notes

  • 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
    • Discretionary foods
    • High sugar foods
    • High fat foods
    • High salt foods
    • Fast food/Takeaway [fish and chips]
    Food practices
    • Eating out - meal
    • Parties and Entertaining
    • Food preparation
    Gender
    • Food preparation - female [domestic]
    Signage
    • Shop sign
    Positive/negative value n/a
    Food as sense of place
    • Urban
    Setting
    • Urban landscape
    Food as social cohesion
    • Rituals
    • Social gatherings
    Food as cultural identity
    • White Australian characters
    Food as character identity
    • Food names [Aunty Pav]
    Food as language n/a

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • East Melbourne, East Melbourne - Richmond area, Melbourne, Victoria,: Allen and Unwin , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 4530705874859815867.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 32p.
      Description: illus.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: August 2008.
      ISBN: 9781741755503

Works about this Work

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.

The Children's Book Council of Australia Judges Report 2009 2009 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of The Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 53 no. 3 2009; (p. 4-10)
Lift the Flap on Fairies, Pirates and Inspired Madness Stephanie Owen Reeder , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 23 May 2009; (p. 18)

— Review of Ellis Rowan's Fairy World Susan Hall , 2009 single work picture book ; My Baby Love Meredith Costain , 2008 single work picture book ; Tom Tom Rosemary Sullivan , 2008 single work picture book ; Captain Crabclaw's Crew Frances Watts , 2009 single work picture book ; Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
Untitled Kevin Brophy , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 52 no. 3 2008; (p. 23)

— Review of Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
[Untitled] Nola Allen , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 23 no. 4 2008; (p. 28-29)

— Review of Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
Untitled Margaret Hamilton , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , July vol. 88 no. 1 2008; (p. 49)

— Review of Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
Under Age Ruth Atkinson , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 10 August 2008; (p. 31)

— Review of Goodbye Jamie Boyd Elizabeth Fensham , 2008 single work novella ; Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
[Untitled] Nola Allen , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 23 no. 4 2008; (p. 28-29)

— Review of Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
Untitled Kevin Brophy , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 52 no. 3 2008; (p. 23)

— Review of Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
Lift the Flap on Fairies, Pirates and Inspired Madness Stephanie Owen Reeder , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 23 May 2009; (p. 18)

— Review of Ellis Rowan's Fairy World Susan Hall , 2009 single work picture book ; My Baby Love Meredith Costain , 2008 single work picture book ; Tom Tom Rosemary Sullivan , 2008 single work picture book ; Captain Crabclaw's Crew Frances Watts , 2009 single work picture book ; Special Kev Christopher McKimmie , 2008 single work picture book
The Children's Book Council of Australia Judges Report 2009 2009 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of The Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 53 no. 3 2009; (p. 4-10)
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.

Last amended 20 Nov 2018 09:48:36
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