 Hi everyone, my name is Steph. This is Little Bookish Teacher and welcome or welcome back to my channel. For those of you who don't know me, I am a primary teacher and literacy coordinator here in Melbourne and I'm an absolutely avid reader. I absolutely love books, in particular I have a passion for children's picture books and children's titles in general, especially ones that are Australian or that showcase Australia's First Nations people, which is the book that I'm going to share with you today. We are talking about My Deadly Boots by Carl Merrison and Hakia Hasla. This is illustrated by Samantha Campbell and it is just a stunning, gorgeous picture book with a great message. Carl Merrison and Samantha Campbell are both Aboriginal First Nations authors and illustrators. Hakia is an educator who's worked all across Australia and particularly in remote Aboriginal communities and both Carl and Hakia have worked previously on a, I think it was a middle grade title called Black Cockatoo, which is fantastic and I tried to find my copy of it but I think it got packed up when I had to pack up my classroom library at the end of last year. This is just an absolutely stunning picture book and I'm so glad that I finally have had a chance to pick it up and read it. So this book is about a young Aboriginal boy who has saved up his money to buy these footy boots. He calls them his deadly boots, he's so proud of them, he's loved that he's saved up for them and he wears them everywhere and throughout the entire book he's just so happy to have them. He loves the way that they make him feel. They empower him and he loves it but then one day his footy boots go missing and he's obviously heartbroken about that and his grandfather helps him to see that the footy boots don't make him and that regardless of whether he has things he still has this amazing connection to his family and to his people and to his culture. So in many ways this book is about someone having a passion and saving up literally to be able to have that and in a classroom you could obviously have a conversation about how long it takes to save for something and what would be something that you would say for that is something that you are passionate about. But of course mostly this is about finding confidence and being true to yourself and recognizing that tangible objects come and go but knowing who you are, where you fit into your world and how you want to be as a person is what's going to drive your confidence into the future that is really critical in this book. Pretty much in every Aboriginal or Indigenous picture book that I have ever read the importance placed on family culture and country is the common thread because that is an incredibly important part of their culture as a whole and that really comes through in this story because this boy lives with one foot in one world and one foot in the other and he is learning to find the balance in that and to find the confidence again to navigate that situation. It's just really really beautiful. It's also just about the vibrancy and the resilience of the youth because that's where we constantly grow and learn and we bounce back more readily in our youth to situations and we're able to begin to process the things that will support us as an adult and that comes through in here as well. I absolutely loved the beautiful bright immersive color palette and the illustrations. It's really gorgeous. Throughout the text various portions are highlighted in white or orange to illustrate important parts of the text. There is a beautiful lyrical rhyme and rhythm as the boy is describing his boots and how they make him feel in various situations and of course there is also the inclusion of language that is specific to Aboriginal First Nations people such as Deadly and discussing what that means with students in a context like this is a really great way for them to unpack why that term is used specifically in this culture. So I absolutely adored reading this book. It's a gorgeous one. I will leave all the links where you can check it out down below. If you've read this book and you want to discuss it I would love to chat to you about it otherwise feel free to share an emoji that represents a passion that you have. I hope that wherever you're on the world you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.