The China Coin
China Coin
Politics in Children's Novels: The China Coin by Suzanne Wilson
Novels for children which encompass notions about history, about culture, and about politics, have been around ever since a 'children's literature' was recognised as something distinct from books for adults. Indeed it is difficult to imagine something more political in its content and aspirations than Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies. But what is interesting today in the light of books for children now being published (and changing attitudes to children's fiction) is what a children's novel that has apparently been 'politicised' says about a literature specifically addressing a young audience. Allan Baillie's achievement. The China Coin, gives readers the opportunity to think in a broader sense about political novels for children and whether such books are in fact a successful way of introducing notions of political and cultural upheaval to the reader. Not only that The China Coin offers us a look at the scope of the novel in the wider field of Australian children's literature in general. What, say some, is the politics of China doing in a children's book? That question implies wider and highly significant issues about audience and the way we categorise a literature for children. And Allan Baillie's outstanding story is an excellent way of beginning to come to terms with such a debate. The China Coin presents a sense of political and cultural upheaval by developing two key elements: Leah is the central pivotal character amongst this background that the reader immediately latches on to; the coin itself is the central trope which Baillie surrounds with layers of meaning - personal, political, cultural and textual. In Leah, we see a girl thrust into China, her mother searching for a family and the answer to a mystery about an ancient Chinese coin. The opening of the novel goes like this: Leah thought Here I am, about to be sold into slavery in the lost mountains of China.
Politics in Children's Novels: The China Coin by Suzanne Wilson
Novels for children which encompass notions about history, about culture, and about politics, have been around ever since a 'children's literature' was recognised as something distinct from books for adults. Indeed it is difficult to imagine something more political in its content and aspirations than Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies. But what is interesting today in the light of books for children now being published (and changing attitudes to children's fiction) is what a children's novel that has apparently been 'politicised' says about a literature specifically addressing a young audience. Allan Baillie's achievement. The China Coin, gives readers the opportunity to think in a broader sense about political novels for children and whether such books are in fact a successful way of introducing notions of political and cultural upheaval to the reader. Not only that The China Coin offers us a look at the scope of the novel in the wider field of Australian children's literature in general. What, say some, is the politics of China doing in a children's book? That question implies wider and highly significant issues about audience and the way we categorise a literature for children. And Allan Baillie's outstanding story is an excellent way of beginning to come to terms with such a debate. The China Coin presents a sense of political and cultural upheaval by developing two key elements: Leah is the central pivotal character amongst this background that the reader immediately latches on to; the coin itself is the central trope which Baillie surrounds with layers of meaning - personal, political, cultural and textual. In Leah, we see a girl thrust into China, her mother searching for a family and the answer to a mystery about an ancient Chinese coin. The opening of the novel goes like this: Leah thought Here I am, about to be sold into slavery in the lost mountains of China.