- Title
- At the Heart of it: Once there was a Boy
- Creator
- Collins-Gearing, Brooke
- Relation
- A Multimodal Approach to Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Children's Picture Books p. 69-86
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003145875-5
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- There is a story, written and illustrated by Dub Leffler called Once There Was a Boy, published by Magabala Books in 2011. This story is about a little boy who lived on an island all by himself. “He lived in an ancient boat that was made from an ancient tree. Right on the beach” (Leffler 2011: 6). Every day he picked sapote to eat, climbed in the mangroves and watched the rays of the sun light the sea. One day he noticed a speck on the beach coming closer and closer. Someone else had arrived. The visitor is a little girl and, after being given sapotes by the boy, proceeds to eat them all, which makes her sleepy. She asks the little boy if she can sleep in his ancient tree. “Before the boy could answer, the girl had climbed up and fallen fast asleep in his softest hammock!” (Leffler 2011: 20). He watches her sleep, wondering if she will stay, and before sunrise he leaves. She wakes up to find a note from the boy that welcomes her, informing her he has gone to collect more sapotes from the other side of the island for her. At the end of the letter is a PS emphasising that she should not look under his bed. She looks under his bed. A small box made out of wood begins to make thumping noises at her. When she finally opens it, she discovers a heart beating inside. She picks it up but is startled by the return of the boy and drops it. Breaking it. Devastated the boy turns to ask her what he will do now, “‘I can’t use my heart if it is broken’” (Leffler 2011: 47), but the girl has gone. Double page illustrations show the girl’s tracks in the sand away into the mangroves.
- Description
- 1st ed.
- Subject
- Dub Leffler; story; illustration
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1449496
- Identifier
- uon:43677
- Identifier
- ISBN:97810031458751003145876
- Language
- eng
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