My boys are 7 and 10 have grown, as children do, and while their interests have changed and they can now read for themselves, there is always an Alison Lester book lurking about.
Currently the boys are really interested in Sophie Scott Goes South about a 9 year-old who travels to the Antarctic aboard an ice breaking ship with her dad who is the captain. The book tells Sophie's amazing story but also shares lots of details about the antarctic environment, the ship and its routines, what people do in the Antarctic and the daily routines of Antarctic inhabitants. The book was inspired by Alison's 2005 trip aboard the Aurora Australis as the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellow. You can read some of Alison's thoughts on her Fellowship here.
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| Alison's book launch aboard the Aurora Australis (pic: https://penguineducation.wordpress.com) |
The boys particularly like the descriptions and pictures of the different types of exploration vehicles used in the Antarctic. Which vehicle would they choose. Where they would go. What would they be studying.
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| lots of icebreaker detail (pic alisonlester.com) |
They also like the minor details about Antarctic daily life. Sometimes to travelling from building to building one must rely on a rope guide to lead the way as thick snow and fog mean that one's feet are not visible! That particular part of the story lead to an impromptu intermission of hysterical (yes!) blind snow walking where the boys ran around the room with their eyes shut.
The blinded by the snow section reminded me of an exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium that I told the boys about. The aquarium is home to a few Beluga Whales and seals who can hold their breath, seals in particular, for long periods of time under the ice. The exhibit was a table with two holes in the tabletop, one at either end of the table, and there was a maze affixed to the underside of the table. The idea was to test your sealness and see if you could get from one breathing hole to the other in one breath. You put your hand under the table, your finger pokes up one breathing hole to get a big breath and then you attempt to navigate your finger through the maze to the other breathing hole on the one breath. It was pretty tricky and I thought that would be a great activity for a storytime session involving seals or cold climate water animals. You wouldn't need to have a maze and a table but there could be a breathing spot and a trail to follow to another breathing spot.
We recently took a trip to Alison's gallery in Fish Creek. I think this is the third time that I have been to the gallery. I'm a little in love. I'm a Lester lover.
If you are also a Lester lover there are so many things for you to see at the gallery. There are sketched layout editions of books, original artworks, sculptures, heaps of books and then you can set off to explore Fish Creek. We had a fantastic meal at Gecko Gallery.
We explored the gallery of the sculptor Andrew McPherson. I suppose more accurately I explored and told the kids to stop touching things. I sent the kids outside and then stood awkwardly in the workshop watching Andrew work away at a sculpture. I sometimes run out of words. It is awkward. I made myself feel better by giving his beautiful old dog some love. This dog was beautiful, he was brown but many browns, almost like a timber burl himself. The gallery is called Ride the Wild Goat.
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| Fish Creek... |
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| My son took this disgusting photo of me shoving my face with Cornish Pastie |
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