The True Story of Mary Who Wanted to Stand on Her Head

Jane Godwin (author)

Drahos Zak (illus)

Allen & Unwin, Australia: 2005; 50pp

ISBN: 1741147166

Genre: allegory

Issues: differences, gifted, identity, values

CBCA Shortlist: Book of the Year, Younger Readers, 2006.

From the moment she's born, Mary is an individual who goes her own way. She stands on her head and continues to do so as she gets older, despite the best efforts of all sorts of specialists.

Eventually she flees to the desert, where she finds three great friends, each as different in their own way as she is in hers. They like Mary just as she is. This whimsical allegory is a wonderful commentary on a society that expects everyone to be the same.

Mary symbolises those of us who colour outside the lines, march to a different drummer, and generally refuse to conform. Mary is her own person and unafraid to be so.

Published in an usual format - a novel-sized hardback picture book, rather than the more traditional size - this verse narrative is illustrated in a slightly dark, surreal, almost gothic style. The pictures reinforce the story's celebration of differences: birds have strange heads or legs, animals have unexpectedly shaped feet or dorsal ridges. Text and illustrations contain references to other nonsense poems, Da Vinci's diagrams, and Cole's Funny Picture Book.

A curious but strangely appealing read, this is a book that will definitely appeal to gifted readers.