Author: jthorndyke
Alice’s Shoe Word Search
Here’s a little activity for keen readers of Alice’s Shoe, free to download.
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Reviews of Alice’s Shoe
“Alice’s Shoe” by Julie Thorndyke and Jennifer Harrison beautifully narrates the childhood journey of Alice Betteridge, who later earned the title of ‘Australia’s Helen Keller’. The book is divided into two parts – the first half depicts Alice as a young girl, exploring her world through sight and sound, with colorful descriptions of vibrant hues and melodious sounds around her. However, when a fever strikes, Alice’s life takes a transformative turn as she loses her sight and hearing, and the narrative gracefully shifts to focus on her sense of touch and feel, such as when “the carpet in the parlour was soft and smooth beneath her toes.”
Alice’s disdain for wearing shoes becomes a part of her remarkable story, highlighting her strong connection with the world through her bare feet. Alice must fight to keep her shoes off and this determination is what leads to her being able to sign and communicate with those around her.
The book’s exquisite illustrations and the nostalgic feel transport readers into Alice’s world, fostering a heartfelt connection to her experiences. As readers delve into “Alice’s Shoe,” they witness the strength and determination of a young girl embracing her unique way of experiencing the world, leaving them inspired and moved by her incredible journey.
Alice’s Shoe is a lovely starting point for conversations with young children about history, illness, women and education. Thank you to @newsouthbooksau and @midnightsunpublishing for a reading copy.
Be Curious Books https://www.facebook.com/becuriousbooks 3 August 2023.
Midnight Sun Publishing, 2023. ISBN: 9781922858139. (Age:5+)
Highly recommended.
Alice’s Shoe written by Julie Thorndyke tells the story of Alice Mary Betteridge (14 February 1901 – 1 September 1966) who was an Australian woman known as the first deafblind child to be educated in this country. Born in Sawyer’s Gully, NSW, Alice became deafblind at the age of two after a childhood illness.
The opening pages of this beautifully illustrated picture book with expressive and lyrical language, showcase the sounds and colours of the farm and surrounding forests experienced by a very young Alice: the green world of cedar forests, the golden world at sunrise, the crimson world at sunset, the noisy brown world of her brothers. One night though Alice falls ill with a fever. When she wakes everything is different for Alice. Sounds are muffled and images are dull. Alice is diagnosed in Sydney as deafblind and her mother takes her to the Deaf and Blind School at Darlinghurst where she is told to return when Alice is older. Back at home, Alice learns to rely on her sense of touch. In particular she loves the feel of textures beneath her feet and struggles to keep on her shoes.
At the age of seven, Alice returns to Sydney to begin at the Darlinghurst School. She is far away from what she knows and in particular cannot adjust to wearing shoes. Miss Reid, her teacher, makes four signs on Alice’s hand over and over again which Alice soon realises spells shoe. This is the first word Alice learns to finger sign and her learning begins. Alice masters the deafblind alphabet and then to read and write in Braille.
The striking illustrations by Jennifer Harrison in soft muted hues are full of detail and in perfect harmony with the era of the story. The sepia toned endpapers showcase important aspects of the Alice’s life journey. The author has thoughtfully included the Deafblind Alphabet and UEB uncontracted (grade1) Braille symbols. This gentle story is a joy to read and one that may encourage further research on Alice Mary Betteridge and deafblindness.
Themes Disability, Deafblind, School, Family, Braille, Sign Language.
review by Kathryn Beilby
ReadPlus Reviews 1 July 2023
Assorted Dreams
Purchase the anthology from Amazon here
It has been a topsy-turvy sort of summer for me, but I finally caught up with my writing friends at Eastwood/Hills Fellowship of Australian writers and was able to take delivery of my copy of Assorted Dreams. The members who took on the job of editing and publishing the anthology have done a fine job of putting the book together, with a nice balance of poems and short stories.
So many dedicated writers have participated in the Eastwood/Hills meetings, workshops and competitions since the beginning of the group. This anthology publishes work by twenty-two of the current members. It demonstrates what writers can achieve, when we meet together, learn from each other, and provide a supportive environment for creativity to flourish.
Borrowed Riches
Over twenty years or so of writing tanka, my notebooks overflow with poems.
Some have been published in journals and anthologies, some have remained in notebooks or ventured out in email shared with other poets.
Now and then, it seems like a good idea to put the accumulated poems into a little book, as a kind of record of the writing experience, of the life that provoked the words, and of time passing.
Borrowed Riches is the third such little book that I have put together. It contains one hundred tanka written over about a decade. Once again Ginninderra Press has kindly published the collection.
I hope that you will enjoy the poems.
To order from Ginninderra Press, click here
Reviews of Borrowed Riches
Blithe Spirit: journal of the British Haiku Society Volume 33 Number 1 2023 pp 91-92 review by A.A. Marcoff
This is a little gem, a little book of 100 tanka, one to a page, by a well-practised hand, editor of Eucalypt: a tanka journal since 2017. Tanka (or waka) originally meant ‘short Japanese song’, and Julie Thorndyke’s poems really do read like songs, and sing form the page with all the music of time and existence. Her tanka are accessible, the very stuff of life and death, and they show a shining generosity of spirit. They share with the reader so much of Julie’s own life and ‘her singing heart’ – a life lived with all the vitality available to us—the whole panoply of experience.
In these pages you will find a 747, a teacher’s blackboard, an owl, a sister and a mother, lost love, red camellias, stars, a train, a paradox, a bowling alley, a father, wedding vows, jacaranda petals, a quilt, silence, laughter and friendship. The poems move and delight and echo through the valleys and hills of our own existence. William Blake might have called them ‘the productions of time’ :
the stillness
of this evening lake
we remember
what it is
to stop, listen, wait
Julie invites us into her life to do just that, and she shows us that we are all interconnected:
no matter
on what cliff I stand
salt winds
tell me we are all
part of one ocean
The book’s title, Borrowed Riches, suggests how fragile remains our purchase on this world, how fleeting and transient our presence here. We are left with ‘dream-echoes and life-songs’ and Julie’s work ‘yields a story of flame and ash’. Perhaps all we can do in the circumstances of this life is to ‘feel the breeze kiss the ocean’. It is a shared experience:
have you not learned
tomorrow comes, regardless?
lie with me, my love
and dream
on this shared pillow
Julie gives us a book that manifests the world in miniatures, that offers us tableaux of emotion, scenes from the reality of dreams, colloquies of experience expressed with all the possible vitality of being. It is a fine book indeed, truly authentic, translucent, and it will repay many more readings, all within her lingering, compelling, and resonant spell.
review by A.A. Marcoff
Divertimento
Divertimento: an instrumental composition in several movements, light and diverting in character.
(Macquarie Dictionary)
Twenty-seven short stories from renowned Australian fiction writer and poet Julie Thorndyke will take you on tantalising journeys in the company of artists and musicians, mothers and daughters, writers and lovers, as they make brave, desperate and audacious life choices.
Survival, desire, disaster; misadventure, murder and magic combine in this unique collection of tales set in locations including old rural Australia, present day cities and the distant mystical past.
Earthquake, flood, fire; stolen babies and lost children; homelessness and betrayal; ghosts, mystics and dreams— each story offers a chance to step into the shoes of closely imagined characters as they act out their unique answers to the question: “What if?”
Divertimento offers a chance to step briefly into the shoes of a protagonist and discover how it feels to steal, love, and murder . . . and live to tell the tale.
“skilled wordplay and gorgeous imagery”
“enthralling right from the beginning”
“a delightful read”
SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS NSW BOOK AWARDS SHORTLISTED AUTHOR
WINNER OF FAW PAULINE WALSH SHORT STORY AWARD
WINNER OF JOHN KELLY SHORT STORY AWARD
Order Here
https://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/store.php?product/page/2270/Julie+Thorndyke+%2F+Divertimento
Celebrating Milestones
Like many people, during lockdown I have missed being able to celebrate personal milestones in the normal way. Significant birthdays, anniversaries and book releases have had to wait for another day. Ginninderra Press also have milestones to celebrate: and have published a book of poetry from 160 poets in this, their 25th year. I’m very glad to be included with my poem “Clean Lines”. Congratulations to Stephen and Brenda Matthews for another publishing milestone, and thanks for the brilliant support they offer to so many Australian writers.
Bimbilla
poem published in The School Magazine ORBIT MAY 2021
So pleased to see my poem BIMBILLA in The School Magazine ORBIT May 2021 with a vibrant illustration by indigenous artist Leanne Watson.
This poem is a tanka sequence, written in 2006. In the same year, I wrote a short story for children with the same title, Bimbilla. Bimbilla is a Worimi word for a pink cockle shell. I discovered the word on an information sign at a beach north of Port Stephens, New South Wales, where the story and the poem are set.
So often a visit to a place, and encounter with an object or word, will provoke some new writing.
My story was a finalist in the Ginninderra Press short story for children competition, and was published in the anthology SECRETS. That was the beginning of my association with Ginninderra Press who have published my two tanka collections and two fiction books (Mrs Rickaby’s Lullaby 2019 and Divertimento 2021).
The short story BIMBILLA is available to read here on my website. https://juliethorndyke.com/2016/05/27/bimbilla/
I’d love it if an indigenous artist would collaborate with me to make an illustrated book of the story. Writing is a long game, and publication sometimes comes after a long time. A story like this has longevity, and I think there is still more to come.
Mouse in the house
I don’t know if you realised, but there is a mouse plague in New South Wales.
The latest news is that the most intellectual of these critters, showing excellent taste, have reached the literary epicentre of the universe, namely Castle Hill! (Patrick White at Dogwoods, me in Forest Knoll, who else could you want?)
Yes, these sweet little connoisseurs of literature have been leaving calling cards on my tastefully arranged, carefully selected, eclectic black bookshelves. Apparently, there was a mouse-sized gateway into this reader’s paradise from the cosy roof void. Now sealed.
My desk has also been cleansed of suspicious debris. Anyone who has ever seen a desk of mine, at work or at home, will know that this is no mean feat. The resident canine, who sweetly alerted me to the presence of the invaders by insistent nuzzling and silent pointing, has been rewarded and his cheese-laden food bowl moved to the outer reaches of our domicile.
Will these measures be enough to restore peace and tranquillity?
I’m sorting through so many books and papers, it will be a while before peace and order truly reign once more. But I have discovered some treasures on the shelves, mercifully un-nibbled, that I had saved for a rainy day.
I didn’t realize that it would be raining mice!
Julie Thorndyke
Julie Anne Thorndyke 