Description Share Post Meanwhile Back on Earth Finding Our Place Through Time and Space Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins) It seems that humans have always fought for their own space, right through history. So what if we were to take a drive through history? It seems that we’d find examples of our perpetual fight for space… For example, if we took a journey wherein we’d ‘turn‘ our vehicle ‘into a space car‘ to ‘head out towards the moon‘ we’d take ‘almost a year to drive there’. At this point we’d need to check ‘the mirror to see what we’re up to on our planet‘. It’ seems that at that point life was ‘as we left it at the start of the twenty-first century where everyone seems distracted and can’t agree what to do next‘. However what about moving left, to travel onto Earth’s closest neighbour, Venus? It seems we’d arrive in ‘the middle of the twentieth century’ at a time that ‘the whole planet was fighting’. Oliver Jeffers extends his theme of existence shown in picture books including Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth with Meanwhile Back on Earth... Our journey in the space car enables us to see recurrent echoes of human behaviour through pivotal points in history. Therefore, we consider the emergence of the United States, alongside the emergence of Ireland, for example. While it’s evident that this is the author with his children taking the journey, there’s a sense that humankind is along for the ride. What’s more, with his anecdotes, references to earlier works, echoes of past artists like L.S. Lowry and then his evident research, we arrive at an outstanding book. In fact, Bookwagon recommends Meanwhile Back on Earth… to readers of all ages. This is a title that merits discussion, sharing, knowing well alongside a place on every home and school bookshelf. It is magnificent.
