Australian Children's Literature

Recently I was reading an essay by Clare Bradford on the American Printz Award for young adult fiction. Bradford writes that “the Australian texts that have succeeded in the Printz are Australian but not too Australian”. This statement makes sense in terms of the media coverage of iconic Australian animated series Bluey being adapted for the American market on Disney+ . Changes made include the removal of an episode featuring farting and the deletion of scenes that refer to a vasectomy and which depict a dog sitting on a toilet. There are some aspects of Australian life, language, and culture that are too unfamiliar, or which conflict with the sanitised norms of life as it is depicted on American children’s television. Many of the Australian children’s and YA authors who have succeeded at the highest levels internationally are authors of fantasy, perhaps for this reason. Some of the most recognised works of Australian children’s literature derive from fantasies set in the bush such as