Cirrus@Austlit

'Kit goes to school with her friends Harley and Vanya, and always tries her best at everything she does. Arlo is too loud, too close, just too... much. But when a moving van pulls up next to Kit’s house one weekend, Kit and Arlo find out they have a lot more in common than they thought. Join Kit, Arlo and their friends as they navigate school, home life and friendships, and learn more than a few things about how to get along.

'Kit and Arlo Find a Way: Teaching consent to 8–12 year-olds is a much-needed consent teaching resource for Grades 3 to 6. An action-packed and relatable fictional chapter book, Kit and Arlo is a page-turning journey of upper primary school kids – Kit, Arlo, Harley and Vanya – developing and exploring friendships with plenty of ups and downs. Entertaining and compelling as a standalone narrative, Kit and Arlo’s secret weapon is that it contains all of the complex components of consent and includes respectful relationships education in an age-appropriate format.

'Teachers can read the story, chapter by chapter, in class, and then use the discussion points and ‘read and respond’ notes to facilitate conversations around consent in child-friendly ways with their students. For schools needing a more in-depth consent and respectful relationships curriculum, a dedicated Kit and Arlo teaching resources platform houses evidence-based teaching activities, videos, webinars, podcasts, resource links and lesson plans designed to tie in with the story.

'Key topics include:

• body boundaries and safety
• verbal and non-verbal cues
• developing a sense of self, personal strength and self-determination
• understanding that the responsibly of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ should be shared
• understanding that shared activities should have enthusiastic, affirmative and ongoing consent
• having the courage to withdraw consent
• understanding gendered stereotypes, coercion and power imbalances
• learning to have empathy for others
• managing disappointment when someone changes their mind
• how to be an upstander when someone is being harmed
• the keys to respectful relationships and better friendships.
  
  'Kit and Arlo Find a Way is a vital resource for schools doing the essential work of empowering kids with decision-making skills that will carry through to their interactions and relationships later on in life.'

(Publication summary) 

'Bailey’s mum had always said that being by the creek with Bailey and her dad was as good as it gets. She had shown Bailey sap glistening on tree trunks. They had crouched together to nudge a beetle onto a leaf. They had sat on the creek’s edge with their bare feet in the water.

'It’s one year since Bailey’s mum died. And her dad doesn’t seem to care much about anything. But Bailey still spends afternoons by the creek with her dog, Sheba.

'Until Sheba gets sick—very sick—from something she must have swallowed while swimming in the creek. And Bailey notices all the rubbish polluting the waterway.

'Between visits to Sheba in the vet hospital, Bailey tries to find a way to make the creek safe for Sheba and other animals. And through her unexpected friendship with Israel, a quiet boy who knows about endangered species, Bailey Finch finds the courage to take a stand.

'Bailey Finch Takes a Stand is a moving story about love and loss, about caring for the environment and standing up to make change happen.' (Publication summary)

'An accessible picture book for young children that introduces First Nations history and the term 'terra nullius' to a general audience, from Australian of the Year, community leader and anti-racism advocate Adam Goodes and political adviser and former journalist Ellie Laing, with artwork by Barkindji illustrator David Hardy.

'For thousands and thousands of years,
Aboriginal people lived in the land we call Australia.

The land was where people
built their homes,
played in the sun,
and sat together to tell stories.

When the white people came,
they called the land
Terra Nullius.
They said it was nobody's land.
But it was somebody's land.

'Somebody's Land is an invitation to connect with First Nations culture, to acknowledge the hurt of the past, and to join together as one community with a precious shared history as old as time.

'Adam Goodes and Ellie Laing's powerful words and David Hardy's pictures, full of life, invite children and their families to imagine themselves into Australia's past - to feel the richness of our First Nations' history, to acknowledge that our country was never terra nullius, and to understand what 'welcome to our country' really means.'(Publication summary)

'Bailey’s mum had always said that being by the creek with Bailey and her dad was as good as it gets. She had shown Bailey sap glistening on tree trunks. They had crouched together to nudge a beetle onto a leaf. They had sat on the creek’s edge with their bare feet in the water.

'It’s one year since Bailey’s mum died. And her dad doesn’t seem to care much about anything. But Bailey still spends afternoons by the creek with her dog, Sheba.

'Until Sheba gets sick—very sick—from something she must have swallowed while swimming in the creek. And Bailey notices all the rubbish polluting the waterway.

'Between visits to Sheba in the vet hospital, Bailey tries to find a way to make the creek safe for Sheba and other animals. And through her unexpected friendship with Israel, a quiet boy who knows about endangered species, Bailey Finch finds the courage to take a stand.

'Bailey Finch Takes a Stand is a moving story about love and loss, about caring for the environment and standing up to make change happen.' (Publication summary)

'You can be anything. You can be everything. 

'Have you ever felt you should act a certain way or do certain things, just because you're a boy. 

'This book encourages young boys to broaden their ideas about what it means to be a boy, supporting them to feel free and proud to be who they truly are. 

'Every boy deserves to be themselves without apology, and know that being themselves now will make them the man they will become in the future.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'My body is strong.
My body can do amazing things.
My body is my own.

'Freedom is loving your body with all its "imperfections" and being the perfectly imperfect you! Love Your Body encourages young girls to admire and celebrate their bodies for all the amazing things they can do, and help girls see that they are so much more than their bodies.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Find out where rain comes from and what geysers look like! Read about soil becoming too salty and why greenhouse gases are increasing. Did you know that fog is a cloud sitting on the ground and that ice can tell you about the environment of millions of years ago? And what is lightning anyway? Australian Backyard Earth Scientist is full of fantastic photos and fascinating information that help explain different aspects of earth science - a science that discovered how old the Earth is, what fossils tell us, how mountains were created, what causes earthquakes, what the difference between weather and climate is, and why glaciers are melting. 

'From the beginnings of the planet through to climate change, 'Australian Backyard Earth Scientist' includes interesting and fun facts and projects help develop an understanding and appreciation - like making your own fossils, collecting cloud types, and using tree rings to find out about past weather. Young readers can discover the influences that have fashioned our earth - and are still acting to change it.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.