Window

Through a house window the view gradually changes over the passage of time to show how the environment changes, not necessarily for the better

In the 20 years of the story the city encroaches and the rural setting is lost in the urban sprawl. In turn the boy, now a man, stands at a window with his baby in his arms and watches the city encroach from a new near bush location. Jeannie Baker writes that she hoped to help children understand how people change the environment.

Baker has been writing and illustrating picture books for children since 1975 but is probably best known for her environmental commentaries in Where the forest meets the sea, Window, The Story of Rosy Dock and her most recent book Mirror, for which she won the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Award in 2011.

Baker's art is astoundingly layered and delicate: employing collage techniques she builds the pictures rather than drawing or painting them. She uses natural materials wherever possible when portraying the natural world, and while the collages are largely two-dimensional, she manages to achieve a sense of depth.

With the majority of her books Baker has a strong environmental message, whether she is writing about the bush or about the urban environment. She also writes about home and family and society, powerful messages that reach out not just to children but to adults.

Migrating to Australia in 1975 from England, Jeannie Baker has become one of Australia's most awarded and recognised children's author/illustrators.

Copyright 2000 Jeannie Baker: Cover from WINDOW by Jeannie Baker.

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