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Margaret Dunkle

Margaret Dunkle is a writer, reviewer and bookseller with Melbourne’s specialist children's bookshop, The Little Bookroom.

Margaret Dunkle reviews 'Reading Race' by Clare Bradford

December 2001–January 2002, no. 237 • 01 December 2001
Clare Bradford is an Associate Professor in Literary and Communication Studies at Deakin University. She writes from within her discipline, and addresses other academics. Reading Race, despite its broad title, is principally a discussion of forms of racism that the author identifies in books published in colonial times, compared with contemporary examples. Bradford’s thesis is that the sins of ... (read more)

Margaret Dunkle reviews 'Gift of the Gab' by Morris Gleitzman

May 1999, no. 210 • 01 May 1999
With Gift of the Gab, Gleitzman continues the saga of Rowena Batts, the feisty twelve-year-old who previously appeared in Blabber Mouth (1992) and Sticky Beak (1993). Ro is the daughter of an apple farmer, a child with character, immense energy, and several problems: chiefly her inability to speak (she was born with 'some bits missing' from her throat) and her loving and much loved Dad. She copes ... (read more)

Margaret Dunkle reviews 'The Stone Swan' by Helen Bell, 'Keep Me Company' by Gillian Rubinstein, 'The Adventures of Charlotte and Henry' by Bob Graham, and 'Fox' by Margaret Wild

April 2000, no. 219 • 17 October 2022
The Stone Swan by Helen Bell Cygnet Books, $22.95 hb Swans are said to mate for life and The Stone Swan (Cygnet Books, $22.95 hb) builds on the love and anguish of such a relationship as the focus for a lesson in environmental responsibility. A pair of swans, lagging behind the rest of their flight, take solitary refuge in a wetland adjacent to a new housing estate, unaware that it is targe ... (read more)

Margaret Dunkle reviews 'The Man in the Red Turban' by David Martin

May 1979, no. 10 • 01 May 1979
 I know nothing of David Martin’s childhood or family, but I think that he must come from a long line of slayers of dragons, and that somewhere during the formative years of his childhood he listened to many adult conversations on social justice and human dignity. At any rate, his adult life has been spent dealing with dragons, in one way or another. David Martin arrived in Australia in th ... (read more)

Margaret Dunkle reviews 'The Lonely Hearts Club' by Robin Klein and Max Dann

August 1987, no, 93 • 01 August 1987
Q: What is the most outdated, boring genre in children’s literature?A: The boys’ boarding school story, a fossil left over from the last century. Q: Would it be possible to revive it?A: Out of the question. And anyway, who would want to?   Miracles can still happen. Robin Klein and Max Dann, two of the most popular and successful contemporary children’s authors, have combined forces ... (read more)