1. Alienation
2. Bullying
3. Discrimination
4. Fear
5. Human rights
6. Intolerance
7. Migration
8. Multiculturalism
9. Prejudice
10. Racism
11. Refugees
12. Symbols

’The Island’ is a confronting story about the harsh treatment of people who arrive uninvited by sea to another country. The story opens, ‘One morning, the people of the island found a man on the beach, where fate and ocean currents had washed his raft ashore.’ Only the village fisherman supports taking the refugee in, as to send him back to sea would be the ‘death of him’. The following wordless double page spread reveals ominous, dark ocean swells and a foreboding sky. ‘So they took him in’.

Both words and images are bleak. The villagers are armed while the man is naked. Villagers have contorted, angry expressions contrasting with the arrival’s peaceful expression. There is a disturbing small scene of young children re-enacting the villagers’ threatening action.

The man is locked away in an uninhabited part of the island. When days later he shows up and asks for food, villagers are outraged and fearful. Again, the fisherman is supportive, insisting that they should feed him and give him a job. Instead, armed townspeople seize and bind the man, return him to his raft and push him out to sea. The villagers then construct a great wall around their town with watchtowers to detect and deter future arrivals. A final double page spread shows a turbulent ocean with the fisherman’s boat set ablaze and floating out to sea. There is no happy ending. Armin Greder intends to leave his reader with questions.

Several of Armin Greder’s books for young people feature those who are homeless. His artwork for these books is rendered in grey tones, with large amounts of white space, adding drama to unsettling scenes. Greder’s favoured media is compressed charcoal and pastel, brush and ink on paper. Altogether Greder’s choice of enlarged book shape, artistic media and stark storytelling alerts readers that these stories will be confronting and, most importantly, demand discussion.

1. Allen & Unwin Book Publishers. Teachers Notes by Dr Robyn Sheahan-Bright for ‘The Island’ by Armin Greder https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/dimo.allenunwin.com/assets/teaching_resource/9781741752663.pdf
2. Victoria State Government. Education and Training. ‘Teaching and learning cycle lesson: level 5 and 6, ‘The Island’ https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/readingviewing/Pages/exampleteachlearncyclelevel56.aspx
3. Pear Tree Education. Critical literacy book reviews: ‘The Island’ by Armin Greder reviewed by Alexis Birner, 6 February 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqTt2KWxZNA
4. TESOL Connections. Discusses the use of ‘crossover picturebooks’ in the adult English language classroom including a bibliography with Armin Greder’s, ‘The Island’, and other sophisticated picture books included, October 2020 http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolc/print/2020-10-01/3.html
5. Worlds of Words. WOW Review: Volume IV, Issue 2, review by Kathy G Short https://wowlit.org/on-line-publications/review/reviewiv2/12/
6. Worlds of Words. ‘Becoming Critical Readers through Engagements with International and Multicultural Literature; Learning to Mean: Teaching about Refugees’ by Lorraine Wilson. This educational resource about refugees involves in depth analyses of Australian children’s responses to refugees’ stories through their interpretation of art and writing. https://wowlit.org/on-line-publications/stories/storiesiii2/4/
7. Byford’s Books. Review by Byford’s Books on 14 Feb 2016 of ‘The Island’ by Armin Greder (The Most Important Picture Book of These Times)’. https://byfordsbooks.wordpress.com/2016/02/14/the-island-by-armin-greder-the-most-important-picture-book-of-these-times/