image of person or book cover 8121432673269598312.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website
y separately published work icon Tom Tom single work   picture book   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Tom Tom
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A day in the life of a small Aboriginal boy named Tom Tom who lives in a remote community in the Northern Territory, fictionally known as Lemonade Springs.'--Provided by publisher.

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teaching notes from The Big Little Book Club.   

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
    • Bushtucker
    Food practices
    • Eating in - meal
    • Eating in - snack
    • Food preparation
    Gender
    • Food preparation - female [domestic]
    • Food preparation - male [outdoor fire]
    Signage n/a
    Positive/negative value n/a
    Food as sense of place n/a
    Setting n/a
    Food as social cohesion
    • Family meals [dinner]
    • Relationships
    Food as cultural identity
    • Indigenous Australian characters
    Food as character identity
    • Imagining food
    • Food names [Vegemite, the dog]
    Food as language
    • Food place names [Lemonade Springs]

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Kingswood, Mitcham area, Adelaide - South / South East, Adelaide, South Australia,: Working Title Press , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 8121432673269598312.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website
      Extent: 1v.p.
      Edition info: 1st hardback ed.
      Description: col. illus.
      Reprinted: 2010
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: September 2008.
      ISBN: 9781876288983 (hbk.), 9781921504105

Works about this Work

Empathy Starts Early : 5 Australian Picture Books That Celebrate Diversity Ping Tian , Helen Caple , 2021 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 5 February 2021;

'Early exposure to diverse story characters, including in ethnicity, gender and ability, helps young people develop a strong sense of identity and belonging. It is also crucial in cultivating compassion towards others.'

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)
Untitled Judith James , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of The Children's Book Council of Australia , February vol. 53 no. 1 2009; (p. 19)

— Review of Tom Tom Rosemary Sullivan , 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
[Untitled] Joan Zahnleiter , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 23 no. 5 2008; (p. 30)

— Review of Tom Tom Rosemary Sullivan , 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
Untitled Judith James , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of The Children's Book Council of Australia , February vol. 53 no. 1 2009; (p. 19)

— Review of Tom Tom Rosemary Sullivan , 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.

Empathy Starts Early : 5 Australian Picture Books That Celebrate Diversity Ping Tian , Helen Caple , 2021 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 5 February 2021;

'Early exposure to diverse story characters, including in ethnicity, gender and ability, helps young people develop a strong sense of identity and belonging. It is also crucial in cultivating compassion towards others.'

Last amended 13 May 2021 11:37:34
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X