Way Home

Product Information

Honorable mention: "a friend…..met a small village-worth of women on the banks of remotest part of Pakistan, washing clothes together, laughing, talking, being playful." (I have to put a disclaimer here: clothes are washed like this IN EVERY PART OF PAKISTAN, not just remote areas, whether a community is together at it or just a help maid or single individual!) This book won't be for everyone, but I certainly found it fascinating. What he did was quite extreme and sounded like bloody hard work, but he successfully (for the most part) managed to keep himself fed, clothed and healthy with absolutely minimal involvement in the industrial capitalist economy. He communicated exclusively by mail, travelled to most places on foot or by bike, and didn't use any power tools as he grew his own food, or hunted or fished for it. He describes the changes he sees around him as rural Ireland is increasingly affected by the pressures of economic growth and technological change, and his efforts to return to a more integrated and simple life. Have students complete a ‘missing persons’ poster on the main character, Shane. As detectives on this case, students should aim to be as detailed as possible considering all the details and clues presented via his appearance, his speech and characteristics. Posters could then be displayed around the class and a ‘Chief Detective’ could come visit the classroom to see which posters would be most helpful for this case.

Way Home | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education - CLPE

Dedicated to the largely unsung, mostly unseen workers for young people in need, this evocative picture book by Libby Hathorn will stir hearts everywhere. With stunning illustrations by Gregory Rogers, this is the story of Shane and a cat with no name as they wander the streets at night on their way home. In 1995, Gregory won the Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations in Way Home. He is the first, and to date the only, Australian illustrator ever to have won this prestigious British award. Illustrator First of all, Mark Boyle's world view is the antithesis of my own. The Way Home was a free book on Audible read by an Irish voice I could understand. I was interested in the author's views on industrialization and technology and their influence on nations, communities, families, and individuals today. This book was easy to listen to and was almost poetical. It reminds me of On Walden Pond by Thoreau. I admire Boyle's willingness to put into practice the principles he taught for many years. There are many of his generation and younger who also have chosen to become more self-reliant and less dependent on technology. Boyle has taken it to the extreme. Despite all that Boyle has forsaken during this record of his first year of living off the grid, I don't believe he's found true reconciliation or lasting peace. He does not recognize the Great Creator and sees only the creation.Duration This unit will represent around three to four weeks' work in literacy/English classes. Reading the text could be undertaken in modelled and shared reading sessions by the teacher and independently by the students. This is a very dark but very engaging book for children, particularly in Year 4 and 5. Written in blank verse, it suits not only introducing children to poetry but also touches on a range of issues that can be used across the curriculum, particularly in PSHE. The book engages all levels of reader, from advanced readers who can infer plenty of meaning from the books sometimes tragic content, to less able readers who can infer meaning and engage with its dazzling, edgy illustrations.

Way Home - Libby Hathorn, Australian author and poet.

So, hearing that Boyle is now using a bit more modern technology and going into cities to do talks and book signings, I can imagine the frustration with standard sleep hours, the obtrusiveness of bizarrely emotive pop music in public places; the strange lacunae one has with news after a long time away from it. (I'm glad my years off from news were doldrum ones; now is a bad time not to be informed. I caught up on politics long ago, but occasionally I still become aware of other gaps from those years: a few weeks ago I saw a report about a crime from 2014 that read like it was a huge story at the time, but I'd never heard of it before; and until I read this a few days ago, I'd assumed "U ok hun?" was just a meme-based way to be bitchy.) Students are to complete a venn diagram in which on one side they write the characteristics of Shane’s home (where is it, what is it like, colours, decorations etc.) and on the other side of the circle, students make notes on their own home. For the part of the circles which overlap, students are to write the similarities that exist regarding their home and that of Shane’s. Where is home for you? He doesn’t mention whether he and his girlfriend / partner are using natural methods to control getting pregnant or she’s on the pill or whether he got the snip right after unplugging his phone and computer and before he ventured on this remote place, or she got the tubes done. It probably doesn’t matter because she isn’t living with him by the end of the book - she writes a ‘Dear John’ letter (that’s 5 years, 2 girlfriends and 1 small-holding; he doesn’t want kids). Heartbreaking story of a genuine, caring little boy who wants to look after a scared stray kitten. Like ripped photos, the astonishing pictures convey the violence and darkness of the streets where the story is set. Furthermore, the language used, rich in slang words, also help readers enter in the character's life and feelings. Boyle's life is a compromise - it has to be. He has given up a lot, but undoubtedly gained a lot, too. I didn't find him overly preachy - mostly I found him confused, conflicted, mournful, and a little lost as to how to connect with a society that had clearly thrown in the towel on his way of life. He may be right, though, that there will come a time when we will be forced - by our own mistakes and ignorance - to return to this way of life. Our plundering of the Earth can only last so long. And I sometimes feel myself growing frantic with my own reliance on abstract entities, corporations, and foreign governments.Shane is a runaway. A homeless boy living on the streets. One night he finds a kitten and is determined to make it his own and take it home. But will he and Cat be able to make their way safely through the night? At the end, having typed the manuscript himself so that it does get published (though swearing that he will one day write with his own pen, ink and paper that he will create himself aka quill, ink-cap-mushrooms, birch polypores and dryad’s saddle fungus), the author reminisces whether he’ll continue to live like this and mentions that he isn’t done exploring human beings, their depths and layers and how he feels we are all cloaked in from the moment we are born and he would like to see people without the masks and "ambition, plastic and comfort." My only question is how will he ever do that if he continues to isolate himself from the rest of the world? Imagine, a bearded man in a moorish Irish land whom you may meet if you go there and he may meet you if he has the time! Besides, he’s still in love with Kristy.