1. Art techniques
2. Book design
3. Emotions
4. Fear
5. Figurative language
6. Friendship
7. Grief
8. Happiness
9. Loneliness
10. Love
11. Peace
12. Poetry
13. Sadness
14. Safety
15. Siblings
16. Symbolism
17. Visual literacy

Libby Hathorn has always been interested in the concept of peace and how it can be viewed. It was however reading the line ‘for peace comes dropping slow’ from W.B. Yeats poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ that inspired her to write ‘A Boy Like Me’, a story about peace. Written as a prose poem, its figurative language tells of the power of active peace to heal. Active peace is more than just an absence of war or violence, it is peace where individual communities and government are actively working together to create peace by providing healing though justice, repairing relationships and working to change what needs changing.

Here we meet a boy where peace is present in his life, he laughed and played with his friend then they fought and ‘peace flew by’. As many find when something disagreeable occurs in their life, unhappiness, sadness even despair can descend and the longed-for sense of peace cannot be found in their aloneness just as the boy finds. Peace within returns to the boy in his connection with siblings and in the healing of his relationship with his friend. Peace is found in the love and laughter of family relationships and in his realisation of the power and healing value of connections and conversation, and in his desire to keep its momentum going.

‘Powerful and challenging’ is how illustrator Bruce Whatley describes his first reading of the book’s poetic text. His decision to interpret the text in an abstract form allowed the poem’s emotional power to show. Whatley has developed a technique of painting with his left hand to stimulate a right-brained and more emotional response and he used this technique here, painting in oils on MDF. Despite his reluctance to use the usual symbols of peace, a dove and a heart shape, he did find them very appropriate forms to use in this work. The colour palette is soft, a mix of yellows, blues and pinks which darken when peace is missing or shown through the hovering overhead of a black cloud. In illustrating the concepts of peace and its loss one cannot help but be reminded of Shaun Tan’s ‘The Red Tree’.

Peace, and a gentle stilling of the spirit is something many people seek, and in this book, readers are shown the potential for healing both in ourselves and in the world at large. A powerful book and a particularly useful discussion starter.

1. Kids’ Book Review 2 May 2012. Kelly Morton reviews ‘A Boy like Me’ by Libby Hathorn and Bruce Whatley http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2012/05/review-boy-like-me.html
2. Lamont Books Teacher Notes and Activities for ‘A Boy like Me’ by Libby Hathorn and Bruce Whatley https://www.lamontbooks.com.au/media/19134/May-2012-A-Boy-Like-Me.pdf
3. Adventures of a Subversive Reader 21 November 2012. A review of Bruce Whatley’s artwork in ‘A Boy like Me’ by Libby Hathorn and Bruce Whatley https://subversivereader.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/squirms-book-reviews-a-left-handed-edition/
4. Poem Analysis ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ by W.B. Yeats https://poemanalysis.com/william-butler-yeats/the-lake-isle-of-innisfree/
5. A Healing Journal 28 May 2020. ‘Omg what!!! There are TWO kinds of peace?’ https://www.ahealingjournal.com/peace-1/2020/5/27/omg-what-there-are-two-kinds-of-peace
6. UNESCO 2001. ‘Learning the Way of Peace. A Teachers’ Guide to Peace Education’ https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000125228