Back in 1974, on Christmas Eve Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin with winds of 240km an hour and about 80% of the homes destroyed.
Jackie French retells the destruction of Cyclone Tracy through the skilled use of rhyme and figurative language, including personification and onomatopoeia.
Free teaching notes for Cyclone are available here.
All three titles would work well together in a unit of work on natural disasters and all feature the impressive illustrations of Bruce Whatley.
Free teaching notes for Flood are available here and literacy activities are available here. Read a review of Flood and find other teaching ideas here.
Free teaching notes for Fire can be downloaded here and here. Again, a skilled use of rhymed couplets and figurative language brings this story alive, including the use of personification, onomatopoeia and similes.
Bruce Whatley uses colour in his illustrations to symbolise the different effects of fire - before, during and after the disaster.
All three titles would be wonderful for studying visual literacy and Whatley's choice of colour, technique and effect through the use of water colour paints to symbolise the events in each story. For example, in both Flood and Cyclone he uses a washed- out effect to symbolise the events in each story.
Other titles that could fit with a unit like this are reviewed in my previous blog post.
Blessings to all of those affected by Cyclone Winston last weekend.
We own Flood after our house flooded in 2011. It really helped with my sons anxiety levels when it rains. It took some time for him to be able to read it without getting upset but it helped put it in perspective for him and gave us the opportunity to discuss what happened and for him to talk about his feelings. I will have to keep an eye out for the others.
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