What would be the best Idriess books to use for a homeschool curriculum based on the idea of living books to teach Australian geography and history? I have Horrie the Wog Dog which I plan to use when we get to WWII but I want to give my son a rich education on Australia and the Australians who founded this country - particularly Qld and the North. He's 12 but a solid reader and we will be using these books for the rest of high school.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Francine
Excuse my late comment as well, Francine. For a good story empathetic to indigenous culture I enjoyed (and still do) The Red Chief, which I first read when I was 12 (See my article in this Forum: What is your favourite Ion Idriess book?). In a similar vein, but with a Torres Strait setting, is Drums of Mer.
But idriess' books reflect a different time and era and what was acceptable for children then would not be now. So, although Idriess had a certain empathy for Aboriginal culture and customs and people, he also indulged in racist terminology and attitudes. Even the word "wog" in Horrie the Wog Dog would be frowned upon now (the American edition was called Dog of the Desert)! Violence (but not explicit sexual depictions) feature in a number of his books. This is the case even for the 4 Idriess books written ostensibly for children: The Opium Smugglers, Headhunters of the Coral Sea, The Great Trek and Nemarluk: King of the Wilds (see my article in this Forum: The Opium Smugglers - how suitable for (young) boys?
But having said that, Ion idriess over 40 or so years and 60 or so books covered a wide range of topics including Australian history and geography. Gems from Idriess, as Clive has suggested, contains excerpts from a number of Idriess' publications. Men of the Jungle recounts some of Idriess' adventures in Queensland gold and tin prospecting - and in doing so tells something of life in that era - early 20th century. Over the Range depicts something of life in the Kimberleys, WA, in the early days. The Cattle King tells the story of Sir Sidney Kidman and his cattle stations, and Flynn of the Inland that of John Flynn of Australian Inland Mission and The Royal Flying Doctor (which to be honest I found a bit tedious: there are better biographies of this great Australian and his legacy - but it hit a chord, nonetheless - there were and are many editions and reprints of this book). The Silver City is one of Idriess' best books, in my opinion, telling not only something of Idriess' own story, but also of Broken Hill, silver and copper mining and opals - the latter further explored in Lightning Ridge. All of these books tell something of the struggles, hardships, language of the day, views, pioneering and 'progress' of the early days of colonisation in Australia in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Horrie the Wog Dog is WWII: The Desert Column is WWI - Anzacs and the Middle East. It reflects a certain devil-may-care attitude, even non-chalance towards war (was this just Idriess' view or a more general one?), but it is fascinating reading - how suitable for a 12 year old, I'm not certain - but every night on TV we can see vivid war scenes of Ukraine and Gaza.
There are many other Idriess' books about geographical and historical aspects of Queensland, the NT, the Kimberleys, the Coral Sea and Torres Strait - see this sites bibliography. Fortunately many of these books of Idriess have or are being reprinted by ETT Imprints. I hope you find some of these useful, Francine.
Hi Francine, please excuse late response (I'm on vacation and not checking the webiste often). You should probably try to get a copy of "Gems from Idriess", which was publised in 1949 for the "Junior Library of Australian Schools".
here is our link so you can get a visual...
Once I return from hols I will try to give you a bettter selection.
Clive