Immediately we know from the cover of ‘Earthquake’ that we will experience devastation. Bruce Whatley’s stark cover design reveals demolished and mishappen buildings, piles of rubble, a twisted car and a jagged crack in the street. The back jacket displays railway tracks snaking across the countryside but these are massively twisted. Open the cover to reveal endpapers of crushed and damaged bricks.
Then experience the jacket cover’s debossed title, ‘Earthquake’, again reflecting scenes of destruction. Both author and illustrator are perfectly in tune here to explore this natural disaster with young readers
The story is based on the 1989 earthquake in Newcastle, New South Wales. It measured 5.6 on the Richter Scale and was the first major earthquake experienced in a large Australian city. Jackie French’s rhythmic and rhyming text, seemingly at odds with such devastation, propels the reader along to experience with the Newcastle residents’ their shock and dismay.
The story begins with Dad telling a bedtime story to his young daughter. He describes a road trip and a small town, Meckering in Western Australia, hit by an earthquake. ‘That’s quite enough,’ Mum warns Pa. Yet, ‘That was the day the giant woke and on that day my city broke’. On the following page, the story reveals, ‘Quakes are how our planet lives. As ground sinks down, the earth then gives new land, as mountains, islands lift. Rock lies in beds that slide and shake … there is no malice in a quake’. The story ends with a warning, ‘All our buildings can be safe … once we accept that Earth can shake’ along with the necessity to be prepared.
At the back of the book, Jackie French offers information about earthquakes while Bruce Whatley explores his artistic style and media chosen to reflect the devastation he captures in his visual narrative.
Picture Books for Older Readers
