person or book cover
Courtesy of Walker Books
y separately published work icon No Bears single work   picture book   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 No Bears
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Ella is in charge of this book, and she will tell you something right now. There are NO BEARS in it. Not even one. Ella wants to tell you a story -- a story with absolutely no bears. You don't need bears for a book. You need pretty things like fairies and princesses and castles and maybe funny things and exciting things. In Ella's kind of story, there are no bears in the village or the castle or the deep dark forest or faraway lands. But there might be . . . a monster! Riffing on well-known fairy-tale themes, this fun, offbeat story is perfectly matched by playful illustrations with a running visual joke that will keep even bear lovers smiling.' (Publication summary)

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

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
    • Featured
    Food types
    • Everyday foods
    • Everyday drinks
    • Discretionary foods
    • High sugar foods
    Food practices
    • Parties and Entertaining
    • Food preparation
    Gender
    • Food preparation - female [domestic]
    Signage n/a
    Positive/negative value n/a
    Food as sense of place
    • Domestic
    Setting
    • Domestic interior
    Food as social cohesion
    • Rituals
    • Social gatherings
    Food as cultural identity
    • White Australian characters
    Food as character identity n/a
    Food as language n/a

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Newtown, Marrickville - Camperdown area, Sydney Southern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Walker Books Australia , 2011 .
      person or book cover
      Courtesy of Walker Books
      Extent: 32p.
      ISBN: 9781921529924 9781921529924
    • Cambridge, Massachusetts,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Candlewick Press ,
      2012 .
      Extent: 32p.
      Note/s:
      • Published on March 27 2012

      ISBN: 9780763658908
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Walker Books [London] ,
      2013 .
      Extent: [26]p.
      Description: illus.
      Note/s:
      • Published on October 3 2013

      ISBN: 1406349305, 9781406349306

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.

No Bears Susan Dove Lempke , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Horn Book Magazine , May/June vol. 88 no. 3 2012; (p. 68-69)

— Review of No Bears Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work picture book
Golden Books for Children Deborah Bogle , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 4 April 2012; (p. 3)
Tall Tales on Short List Katharine England , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 7 April 2012; (p. 46)
[Review] No Bears Leanne Barrett , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Childrens' Book Council of Australia , August vol. 55 no. 3 2011; (p. 25)

— Review of No Bears Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work picture book
Children's Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 28 June 2011; (p. 6)

— Review of No Bears Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work picture book
Kid Flicks Fiona Purdon , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 20 - 21 August 2011; (p. 24)

— Review of No Bears Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work picture book
[Review] No Bears Liz Derouet , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 26 no. 3 2011; (p. 29)

— Review of No Bears Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work picture book
[Review] No Bears Leanne Barrett , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Childrens' Book Council of Australia , August vol. 55 no. 3 2011; (p. 25)

— Review of No Bears Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work picture book
No Bears Susan Dove Lempke , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Horn Book Magazine , May/June vol. 88 no. 3 2012; (p. 68-69)

— Review of No Bears Megan McKinlay , 2011 single work picture book
Tall Tales on Short List Katharine England , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 7 April 2012; (p. 46)
Golden Books for Children Deborah Bogle , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 4 April 2012; (p. 3)
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 09:49:36
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