“Fun questions and energetic visuals will help readers solving the birds’ eye view mystery of ‘Who’s The Gang on Our Street?’ Good story to read aloud.” – Hazel Edwards, OAM, author of ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’
Overview
Who are smart, naughty, love playing tricks, flashy, very loud, but need lots of affection? What is an Australian icon, millions of years old, fast and loves to rock and roll?
Another fun and fact filled book from one of Australia’s much-loved authors.
About the Book
Who’s The Gang on Our Street is a narrative non-fiction with supporting facts. It is written to delight young people about the antics and values of our loved sulphur-crested cockatoos. It combines creative imagery and information and is on the K-3 Australian national curriculum for Australian birds. It links into the social and emotional module where the sulphur- crested cockatoos have a social structure which embraces equality, inclusion, no bullying, loyalty, and values that relate to the best of what we seek to teach children. They are also funny, playful, affectionate, and smart. Sulphur-crested cockatoos are part of Australian identity in both the city and bush.
Susanne Gervay is best known to me for her historical fiction set in World War II, so when she asked me to review her new picture book, I was eager to see what she had come up with. The kids in the street are playing together in their gang, but there is another gang in the street too. This gang has punky, spiky hair, and are boppy and bouncy too. They keep tapping their toes and dancing on their toes, and they love to snack and share tricks and fun – sounds like any gang, right? Well, this gang is a not human, they’re a gang of cockatoos. Susanne starts with a human gang of friends, and moves into describing the cockatoo gang, who are present on every page and lead the human gang on a scavenger hunt for them.
This book by Susanne Gervay celebrates cockatoos and shows what they symbolise in Australia, and in her email Susanne told me that Cockatoos are protected in Australia under The Wildlife Act of 1975, and her book serves to teach readers of all ages about cockatoos and their place in Australia. The back of the book has a list of ten fun facts about cockatoos accompanied by a quiz based on the facts. Susanne’s book not only celebrates cockatoos but acts to let people know that they are not annoying, despite cheeky antics like tipping bins over, or turning on bubblers – but they’re doing this because they’re looking for food. Their natural food is seeds and trees, so this book encourages people to understand this and to plant more native trees to give cockatoos a natural and proper source of food. This narrative non-fiction shows the intriguing cockatoo in a positive light, showing that they share this world with cockatoos and can show them how they can be aware of this and help create a space the cockatoos can enjoy as well.
Throughout the book, using a diverse gang of human kids, Susanne shows that sulphur-crested cockatoos have an inclusive social structure that is free from bullying and embraces equality, combining creative imagery with information – so it has earnt its place on the Australian national curriculum for studying Australian birds. This book embraces cockatoos as part of Australia’s national identity in the bush and the city as well. I enjoyed this book and its fun beat as the kids learnt more about cockatoos and their place in our world. It will be one that readers of all ages can enjoy and learn from and find out that there is more to cockatoos than we see. It is filled with laughs as well as being educational, ensuring that readers can have fun whilst learning when they read this book. Its inclusive nature illustrates that there are many ways a gang can form, and in this instance, it is a diverse gang of kids in one street and a gang of cockatoos and the way they all accept and learn from each other that is what makes this book a powerful, educational and inclusive book to read.
About the Author
Awarded the Lifetime Social Justice Literature Award for her books by the International Literacy Association, nominated for the Astrid Ingrid Memorial Award and an Order of Australia for literature, Susanne Gervay is recognized for her youth literature from pre-school to young adult novels on social justice. She engages young people in complex issues from multiculturalism, disability to peace.
About the Illustrator
Nancy Bevington is an energetic, multifaceted visual artist. Her artistic career spans over three decades, working in painting, illustration and concept creation and execution. Picture books are one of her real passions. Using her many styles and techniques she has the ability to interpret the written word and bring a story to life.
What people are saying
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos are endearing, mischievous, highly intelligent personalities of the Australian bird world. They are comical, they have rhythm and can dance, mimic, and perform to entertain us and each other. They are the subject of an enchanting picture book by author Susanne Gervay, dynamically illustrated by Nancy Bevington.
Cockatoos like company–they gather as Susanne Gervay cleverly describes it, in gangs. It’s a clever and apt analogy because of the way in which these cheeky, irreverent cockatoos gang up to cause mischief. Who’s the Gang on our Street, draws children into the dynamic, energetic world of our sulphur crested cockatoos. On each page, a cockatoo is shown following the actions of the children—playing, racing, dancing, balancing, hanging upside down, teaching each other new tricks, and eating food that they find delicious. The group of friends set off on a quest to discover a local gang of cockatoos that live in their neighbourhood. The final pages in this book has facts about sulphur crested cockatoos followed by a quiz for young readers to test their knowledge.
Educational and entertaining this is a great story for young readers which generates interest in, and provides a fun way, to learn about these amazing Australian birds.
Highly recommended picture book.
Book Review by Dr Sharon Rundle
For those whose neighbourhood calm is often shattered, whose heads are occasionally clobbered with plummeting missiles, and whose picnic victuals are frequently raided, this book is for you.
Who’s The Gang On Our Street? by Susanne Gervay and Nancy Bevington attempts to answer the conundrum of exactly who is responsible for this cacophony of cheeky chaos?
It’s a joyful new picture book that explores a typical suburban cul-de-sac (I got Neighbour’s vibes but it could be a location found in any Australian city) and the gang of troublemakers that co-exist alongside a troop of neighbourhood kids.
Said eclectic group of friends have their own garage band, coincidentally named ‘The Gang’ and share busy days together kicking around soccer balls, racing billycarts, and sharing sweet delights. Typical run-wild, spirit-filled kid play. But this new ‘gang’ has them bamboozled. Who is it that is challenging their funky-punky urge to play and scream with glee?
Gervay’s narrative is a delightful answer-the-riddle-set up with teasing inquisitive lines that jiggle and dance across the pages to a backdrop Bevington’s colourful images. Each spread makes a comparative statement that invites readers to ‘look and search’ for the answer. Hints are secreted in each and every spread, giving readers, young and old alike, plenty of ooh and ahh, giggly moments.
The result is a riot of fun. And the answer to this mystery? Well, it’s a squawky, gorgeous final full spread reveal that invites even more delight. Not only does this picture book celebrate one of Australia’s best known but maybe under-appreciated native birds, the good old Sulphie, better known as the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, it cleverly draws playful parallels between rumbustious pre and primary schoolers and cheeky cockies. These comparisons elicit joie de vie whilst embedding a deeper understanding and appreciation for this very intelligent species of bird. A fully illustrated Fun Facts page explains and then tests new knowledge at the end of the book rounding off an informative yet entertaining experience.
Picture book homage has been paid to other less well understood birds including the much-maligned Bin Chicken aka Straw Necked Ibis so it’s a welcome relief to see the raucous Sulphie showcased so enthusiastically. Who’s The Gang On Our Street? is a tribute befitting many of the amazing attributes of the sulphur crested cockatoo and our exuberant Australian way of life suggesting this is one gang we can live with more harmoniously.
Hazel Edwards OAM