This simple picture book invites preschool readers to identify six native Australian animals: the lizard, kangaroo, emu, fresh water fish, turtle and dingo. Each naming is followed by a spread in which there's a surprise in the plot: the lizard is up a tree looking down on the narrator, the kangaroo jumps over the top of the narrator, the emu catches him in its sharp beak, the turtle treads on his toe and so on. The bold palette of the illustrations also invites young readers to name the colours used. It has been a busy and tiring day, because the final scene, accompanied by a dingo's howl, is the narrator curling up in bed for a restful night.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the narrative, however, is that it challenges the conventional western (or Judaeo-Christian) relationship between animals and human beings. Where in most familiar stories humans are shown to have power over non-human animals, in 'Look and See', Shane Morgan (a Yorta Yorta man from Victoria) inverts this and celebrates the animals' cheeky playfulness and superiority. This perspective could lead to discussions with school-age children about the ways that non-Indigenous stories often depict animals as being subservient to, or even victims of, non-human animals.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
