Literature to support the Australian curriculum: annotated lists of fiction and poetry by Fran Knight

Pledger Consulting, 2011. ISBN 978 187667825 8.
Recommended. Once again Fran Knight lends us her prodigious knowledge of children's and young adult literature to support and extend our students' experiences of quality literature. It is well nigh impossible for busy teachers and teacher-librarians to keep pace with the publishing scene. We rely on wonderful people such as Fran Knight to guide us through the myriad of works published. She lets us into the secrets of which books are worth us exploring with our students.
In this publication Fran has collected together many of her favourite titles and sorted them into the Cross-Curriculum Priorities of the Australian curriculum- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures; Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia and
Sustainability. Each category is sorted again into 3 age bands: Entry level - Year 3; Year 4-6 and Year 7-10. Also included are very useful chapters on Poetry, Class Text suggestions and Read Alouds for Entry level- Year 6.
In this way she enables teacher-librarians to be ahead of the pack and encourage teachers to pick up on the Cross-Curriculum Priorities which may be overlooked in the initial flurry of preparation to teach the new curriculum topics. Similarly the chapter on poetry supports the strengthened emphasis on poetry in the English curriculum. Given one of the English curriculum's underpinning foci, 'the close analysis of literary works' and thus the need for schools to access class texts, the chapter on class texts is very timely.
The publication, which is well designed, being clear and easy to access, includes a useful index of authors. It will prove a real 'boon' to busy teacher-librarians and teachers.
Diana Warwick
Editor's note: A sample of the book and order form is available at http://www.readplus.com.au/resources.php