There is an author’s note at the end, even though this story is fictional, about how wilderness is disappearing and how humans are impacting the planet. Her books would be good adjunct material to lessons on ecology and sustainability. The note has a tinge of hope, though I found it sobering, although not as depressing as the story itself. Effortlessly combining contemporary debates about power, love, depression and the isolation of urban living with the electrifying tension of films such as Rear Window, Gaslight and Vertigo, The Woman in the Window isan exciting and unmissable debut. From a skinny, ginger-haired kid from Walsall who was bullied at school, to the ‘Queen of Soho’, who would rule London’s drag scene in its most dazzling era. This gripping true story follows an unassuming boy, separated from other children and made to sit by the window, on to a remarkable career, with celeb buddies including Kylie Minogue, The Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper and, of course, Boy George.

I hope so. What I’m hoping is that readers will feel a responsibility, that the way each one of us lives our lives, counts. But I also hope they’ll have an understanding of the way everything is related, how once you destroy the native vegetation of a place, the native birds aren’t going to come there anymore, the native animals aren’t going to come there anymore, even the insects.’ How many different creatures can you identify in the illustrations? Can you find out more about some of them?

Think of places where this story could be set. Are there any clues in the text to help you choose a location? Choose a picture and make a list of nouns that are used to describe the people, places and objects in the scene. Heart wrenching and honest. This memoir is unique in its perspective, straddling the worlds of wealth and celebrity with that of the common man, which makes it a truly fascinating read.

Baker provides the audience with the same viewpoint, a window, throughout the entire book. However, as the story progresses and time passes, the view that can be seen from the window gradually changes to show the consequences that occur over part of the boy's life. Changes that can be observed include building developments, a decrease in nature/ wildlife, deforestation, urbanisation and human population increase. The book ends with the boy, who is now grown up with his own child, stood at a new window with the view resembling the one at the very start of the book (and at the start of his childhood). That’s a really nice way of expressing it. In a sense, it is a narrative, but the viewer finds their own narrative. One person said to me it was about how the average male is conditioned to dominate and control the world! It had never occurred to me, but that was the narrative she saw in it.’ But one evening, a frenzied scream rips across the silence, and Anna witnesses something no one was supposed to see. Now she must do everything she can to uncover the truth about what really happened. But friendless, isolated and under suspicion from those she wishes to help, will anyone believe her? And can she even trust herself?

Footpath Flowers

After really enjoying 'Belonging' I expected to love 'Window' just as much. Perhaps it was reading the authors note about ecological damage after reading in her last book how she collected sponges for her collage that made this seem a like an example of practise what you preach, but where I found 'Belonging' subtle and touching I found this frustrating.

It may not be stretching things too far to suggest that Jeannie Baker believes she can change the world through her work. Perhaps that’s what motivates most great artists. Write a few sentences that describe each scene. Use these as narration when showing the pictures to an audience. When I began this book, by a conservative estimate we were losing one species every hour. Two years later, by the time I’d finished the book, we were losing two species every hour. The projected rate, if we continue exponentially changing the world, is by the year 2000 we’ll be losing ten species an hour!’Draw what that view might have looked like ten years ago and how it might look ten more years in the future.

In a sense, listening to information like that is something that everyone, I think, feels disturbed by, but it’s easy to think, ‘I don’t play a part in this.’ I’m trying to show exponential change, which is a concept many adults find difficult to understand, in a simplified way so that it can be understood. All the changes in the book have a pattern – all the natural things like birds, animals, trees, decrease exponentially alongside the manmade changes.’ David has written his story of the glittering drag world, famous friends and lavish fun against an undercurrent of sadness… coming out to disapproving parents and the loss of friends to AIDS. A journey towards knowing himself.'Use the window frame template to draw the image that you can see from a window in your home / school today (see Resources below). Window by Jeannie Baker is a picture book; its illustrations present the reader with the story of a boy and the view from his bedroom window of the landscape below. As he grows up, the area he observes gradually develops from a lush, rural wilderness to a highly urbanised scene. The message is clear: humans are drastically and directly changing the planet through their actions. Look at the use of perspective in each image. How do we know that objects are close / further away?