This Way Up

Grace's life has been turned upside down. Her family is moving countries again. Everything she owns is packed into a cardboard box and on its way home. But home is not quite the place Grace had remembered. She has to find her way back to belonging, to feeling at home in her new/old surroundings. For Grace, being reunited with her beloved grandparents is the turning point.

Author Information: Award-winning author/illustrator Kylie Dunstan's first picture book, Collecting Colour, won the 2009 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award. Since then, Kylie has published Because You Are with Me, The Red Bridge, and Same, But Little Bit Diff'rent.

This Way Up tells the story of a little girl returning to Australia after living overseas. Her life has been turned upside down, and her house is in chaos. Throughout the book, she finds her feet and her home. This Way Up further investigates the theme of dislocation and the notion of home as first explored in my book The Red Bridge (a Helen Chamberlin Book for Windy Hollow Publishing, June 2011).

While The Red Bridge explores a move to a new country and all the challenges and adventures associated with such a big move, This Way Up looks at moving from the point of re-entry to your own country. Re-entry is often a more difficult experience for travellers than the shift to a new country and culture. While an overseas move is often viewed with an open mind and chance for adventure, the move home can be fraught as expectations are already set based on prior experience and relationships. Often, what we come home to is quite different to how we remember it.

Selling Points:

• Award-winning author/illustrator
• Stunning graphic, collage illustrations
• Important theme of the sense of home for children in our increasingly mobile society

Teacher's notes available.