Tatiara

Jo Oliver (author/illustrator)

New Frontier Publishing, Australia: 2010

ISBN: 9781921042225

Genres: picture book, realistic fiction

Issues: disability, endurance, resilience

A girl who wears a backbrace due to curvature of the spine finds herself making friends with an injured seal that is using the bay in front of her parents' café as a place of shelter and recovery. Days that had once dragged are now filled with interest as the girl goes fishing for treats for her whiskery friend, and watches Tatiara from the jetty or from an upstairs window in winter.

Very much a book about healing, Tatiara explores not only the relationship that develops between a girl and an injured animal, but the nature of healing; that injury or illness can affect the spirit; that hope and encouragement are as necessary to recovery as correct physical treatment. In Tatiara Oliver uses drypoint etching combined with watercolours to capture the movement of both the sea and the animals in it. The paler colours of the café, the jetty and its surrounds emphasizes the connection between the girl, Tatiara and the bay; it is the rich blues of the bay that echo the hope, longing and ultimate goal of both of those awaiting healing.