All Because of Jackson
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Cover Story
This issue's cover is a photograph of Anne Frank whose diary is discussed by Michael Rosen fifty years after its first publication. Following the arrest of the Frank family and their companions, the secret annex in Amsterdam where they had been in hiding was locked up and everybody forbidden to enter it, since Jewish possessions became Nazi property and were carted away. Before this happened, the young woman, Miep Gies, who had provided those in hiding with food and who had a second key to the annex, risked herself once more by entering it. Miep retrieved Anne's diary from the devastation together with the Frank family photograph album.
Thanks to Penguin Children's Books for help in reproducing this cover.
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All Because of Jackson
Illustrated by John Eastwood
It is 1842 and Jackson, a young rabbit, longs to go to sea. One day he stows away aboard a sailing-ship bound for Australia together with Bunny, a young doe. Jackson and Bunny are soon captured by a sailor and destined to be turned into rabbit pie. However, their demise is postponed as first the mate, then the captain's steward, and finally the captain himself, claim ownership of the pair. But rabbits can look so appealing, and the intervention of an important passenger, kind-hearted Lady Potts, sees to it that they make a safe landing at Sydney. Short chapters, plenty of dialogue and line drawings on every double spread make this an inviting and seemingly easy read but the prose is in fact quite challenging for the new solo reader. Perhaps the need for a semblance of historical accuracy is the reason. And although this account of how Australia came to be plagued by rabbits is mildly amusing it lacks the verve and imagination of King-Smith's other stories for younger readers such as Harriet's Hare.
