Inside the CBCA Shortlist
Before reading this satire, children guess what the title means.
What might the Orange 430 itself be?
What could be the relevance of this numeral?
The All New Must Have Orange 430 (Penguin Random House Australia) is a humorous, although cautionary, tale about Harvey who must have the new Orange 430 but he doesn’t have enough money until he scavenges around the house. He takes his $5.35 to the shop to buy the Orange 430, which is packaged inside a box labelled “Useless Object”. The contents are over-packaged and are revealed to be an object that has everything but does nothing. Harvey can’t work out what it does and, when he realises it is completely useless, he tries to return it. He discovers many others also have useless objects and they end up having more fun playing with the boxes. Harvey resolves to save his money in future and spend it wisely.
The illustrations are in comic style, with some panels. Orange is the signature colour, used mainly for the Orange 430. Speech, thought and picture bubbles are incorporated effectively.
Michael Speechley’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/speechley_art_australia/?hl=en
Using the book with children:
Fads Survey the class on current and past fads. Then discuss what makes a fad, why might they be part of (or a victim of) a fad and why/how should they should avoid being part of a fad.
Money Children trace Harvey’s buying transaction, beginning with finding enough money, then being ripped off, losing his receipt, attempting to get a refund and resolving to save and buy more carefully, as a simple flowchart or visual map or diagram. (Australian Curriculum Year 2 Consumer & Financial Literacy: Typically, at this level, students have developed concepts and understandings that form the foundations of consumer and financial literacy. Students learn to count and order collections of money according to their value. They recognise that money is limited, comes from different sources and can be saved to meet needs and wants.)
Packaging Children analyse what packaging (and excess packaging) is used in several bought items, e.g. fruit packaged on a tray with plastic; an ICT product and a perfume or cosmetic packaged in several layers. List the packaging around the Orange 340. Play with the box packaging like the children in the book do, e.g. box boat race, hopscotch.(Australian Curriculum Year 2 Design and Technologies: developing new meanings for objects and action during play, for example exploring how household packaging can be used to represent other objects)
Create a Useless Product Construct a product using recycled materials or clean rubbish. Name it and create a (fake) purpose for it.
Use Stop-frame animation to photograph the product and show it moving. https://www.dragonframe.com/introduction-stop-motion-animation/
Play games with the new product.
Optional: plan a marketing campaign for the product
paperbarkwords.blog 