Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: glasses

  • The Boy in the Big Blue Glasses

    The Boy in the Big Blue Glasses

    For many young children the prospect of wearing glasses is daunting. The reasons they have concerns may include physical discomfort, peer impressions, and feeling like they stand out. Susanne Gervay has addressed these fears by telling the story of a young boy, Sam, who has just been prescribed glasses. He is of course a super hero and can’t abide the thought of trading his superman mask for the blue plastic eyewear.

    Well woven into the story is the support that we hope will be extended for all children. They need extended family to acknowledge the changes to their appearance, and, for the family to make positive remarks when they first see him. This happens when Sam sees his grandparents, who think he looks handsome. Aunties and Uncles are all positive to his changes as well.

    At school the teacher brings Sam out the front of the class to talk about his new glasses. He is still reluctant to openly accept his new addition as again, most children are. He keeps, “misplacing”, his new blue glasses, but luckily, they keep getting found.

    By accident Sam uses humour to disperse classroom teasing and it becomes so entertaining that everyone settles back into their regular games. Change, and especially when directed at appearance, can be very hard for shy children to manage. By using stories and books to bring the topic into focus, it not only helps those having to deal with the issue, but also brings awareness to those who are quick to tease.

  • The Flying Optometrist

    The Flying Optometrist

    Written in a celebration of the men and women who take medical assistance to the remote regions of Australia, The Flying Optometrist gives an insight into what is to come, with the cleverly designed front cover showing the wide range of letters similar to the charts used in Optometrists clinics.

    The story focuses on Stephanie, a little girl who lives in a remote part of Australia, on a very large farm, near a very small town. The town is so small they rely on the flying clinics provided by the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Flying Optometrist to bring in a wide range of medical services and such everyday necessities as health checks and eye checks, as well as organise some much needed new glasses for Stephanie and some of the other people who also live in the town.

    Stephanie has managed to break her one and only pair of glasses and can’t see anything very well through the cracked lenses. She can’t play cricket and no one is interested in letting her play with them at school because she keeps dropping the ball, She is very, very, miserable. There are several other people in town that badly need to visit the optometrist as well.

    The townspeople wait and wait for the arrival of the little red plane, but the weather is closing in, bringing with it a bad storm. They’re all very worried for the safety of the pilot, and his little plane but as a new day arrives, so too does the Flying Optometrist, safe and well.

    He does his work and then fly’s off to go to another town, promising Stephanie and her friends that their new glasses will arrive safely in the post in a few weeks’ time.

    The Flying Optometrist highlights the very real isolation that is a part of everyday life for so many Australians living in the country and the ongoing need to bring medical services to outback and remote towns which is as important today, as it has always been.

    In the back of the book there is a very well-constructed and informative look at the Royal Flying Doctor Service as well as the remote Optometrist Service of which Phil Anderton and his little red plane are an integral component.

    Wonderfully created with bright colourful illustrations used to reach out to children of a wide age range, The Flying Optometrist brings the little known world of remote Australia to life.