Tag Idan Ben-Barak

The Very Hard Book

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The Very Hard Book
Ian Ben-Barak and Philip Bunting
Allen & Unwin

In this zany book readers are asked to try some very challenging things and it’s all in the name of helping us to become aware of our thought processes (metacognition). Are you up for the challenge of some open-ended thinking? Right … ‘Sit in an empty room.’ ‘Drop something by accident.’ ‘Dig half a hole.’

Each page (almost) gives a different instruction or asks a different question and by the time you’re half way through you’ll be giggling (partly thanks to Philip Bunting’s quirky creatures) and your brain will be going into overdrive with the creators’ comical ideas. Certainly however you will be more conscious of the limitations of your own mind.

You might even be prepared to have a look at The Very Hard Gallery at the back of the book. Here you will find a more detailed exploration of the paradoxes presented: you’ll see some interesting sounding names such as the Stroop Effect (your mind having to process two conflicting messages; in the example given, they are meaning and colour); then there’s Panta rhei. You will need to find out what this means for yourself, which means getting hold of a copy of the book (no cheating by using google).

Try putting this in a KS1 classroom; as well as introducing them to some surrealism, it will surely get everyone’s little grey cells working hard as they embark on a fun-filled thinking journey.

Argh! There’s a Skeleton Inside You! / A Cat Called Trim

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Allen & Unwin offer some unusual ways of presenting information in these two non-fiction books

Argh! There’s a Skeleton Inside You!
Idan Ben-Barak and Julian Frost
Allen & Unwin

Quog (a blobbly armless thing) and Oort (a gas cloud) are in their spacecraft going to a party but mechanical issues hold things up. They need to get out and fix the problem but without hands or arms, opening the door isn’t possible. Or is it? That’s when the narrative becomes interactive – the reader turns the page and … out they come.

‘Give Quog and Oort a wave,’ we’re told and a page turn reveals Quog has grown arms and hands. That’s a good start but there are further issues.

Little by little youngsters are then introduced to the bones,

muscles …

and nerves of the hand – their form and function.

With simple, bright, lively illustrations, this, zany mix of fact and fiction is enormously engaging: little humans will love the idea of helping the little aliens reach their destination, and in so doing learning some basic human biology – anatomy and physiology – as presented by the clever human team Idan Ben-Barak (author/scientist) and illustrator Julian Frost.

A Cat Called Trim
Corinne Fenton and Craig Smith
Allen & Unwin

‘Trim was a cat born for adventure.’ That he surely was having been born aboard the sailing ship Reliance bound for Botany Bay and then not long after, finds himself hurtling over the side of the ship into the inky depths of the Indian Ocean.

Happily for the kitten and his saviour Matthew Flinders, a special relationship is forged, with Trim accompanying his master on all his expeditions until the fateful day when Flinders was accused of spying, his precious books, charts and journals confiscated and he became a prisoner on the Isle de France (Mauritius).

After a while Trim disappeared and his master never saw him again.

Both educative and entertaining, Corinne Fenton’s telling of this true story is compelling and accompanied by Craig Smith’s dramatic, detailed illustrations, and maps, makes for an absorbing starting point for primary readers interested in Australia and its history.