Because we can’t be in two places at once, and travel back there is hard (first because travel anywhere with a toddler and baby is hard, and second because the pandemic and travel restrictions are showing no signs of abating), I’m doing the next best thing to introduce Australia to my kids: reading them books. I’m using books to combat my own homesickness and also to introduce some level of Australianness to them. It’s a very small thing. I’m not reading them factual “birds of Australia” or Australian history books. But to my toddler I’m reading books that have illustrations clearly set in Australia – you see it when you know what you’re looking for, and you recognise the bins, the clotheslines, the colours of the road signs. The language is different, and while you tend not to see a lot of Australian slang in picture books for the 0–3 crowd, you do still get Australian English: mum, jumper, lolly, bin, sultanas. The animals are different, and there are books where the characters are wombats or koalas or possums. The places are different, and some of the books explicitly mention the Australian cities or streets where they are set. To my baby, I’m reading books that are beloved by Australian parents and children and have become bedtime classics around the country. His current rotation of bedtime books do not have much in the way of Australian language or illustrations, but mention the books to a parent or caregiver of young children in Australia and you will probably receive a look of recognition.
Books to Read to Australian Expat Children
Note: This is, unfortunately, not an incredibly diverse list of authors and books. While there are Australian children’s authors and illustrators of colour, there are not very many, and two of the most prolific ones I know of, Shaun Tan and Ahn Do, do not write books targeted at audiences as young as my two, and their picture books are for older children.
The Baby Stage
These are the books that I read to my baby at bedtime and before naps. I call it the Mem Fox classic bedtime collection.
The Toddler Years
The Books I’m Saving for When They’re a Bit Older
This list is only a tiny fraction of all the Australian books I have and that we read. Some of these books are very explicitly Australian, either in the words or illustrations, and some are only very subtly Australian. But I’m hoping that all of these books contribute to some level of Australianness being absorbed by their subconscious, and that one day they will be fluent in Australian English, see clotheslines as normal household objects found in backyards, and have a familiarity with Australian flora and fauna. Reading Australian books is my way of exposing them to their other country so that when we do return to Australia, it’s not entirely foreign to them.
