Who says boys don`t read? They do in literature circles!

This article is about Literature Circles and its ongoing implementation at Parade College, where it is regarded as an innovative, flexible and inclusive strategy that motivates adolescent learners, particularly boys, to read for enjoyment, for independent learning, and for the enhancement of literacy knowledge, skills and capabilities.

Reading race, aboriginality in Australian children`s literature

This text looks at the ways in which Australia's indigenous peoples have been, and continue to be, represented in books for children. These varying representations have helped to colour the attitudes, beliefs and assumptions of different generations of Australians.

New world orders in contemporary children's literature : utopian transformations

"New World Orders shows how texts for children and young people have responded to the cultural, economic, and political movements of the last 15 years. With a focus on international children's text produced between 1988 and 2006, the authors discuss how utopian and dystopian tropes are pressed into service to project possible futures to child readers. The book considers what these texts have to say about globalisation, neocolonialism, environmental issues, pressures on families and communities, and the idea of the posthuman."--BOOK JACKET.

Economic Evaluation of a Primary Care Trial to Reduce Weight Gain in Overweight/Obese Children: The LEAP Trial

Background:- A common policy response to the childhood obesity epidemic is to recommend that primary care physicians screen for and offer counseling to the overweight/obese. As the literature suggests, this approach may be ineffective; it is important to document the opportunity costs incurred by brief primary care obesity interventions that ultimately may not alter body mass index (BMI) trajectory.

Methods:- Live, Eat and Play (LEAP) was a randomized controlled trial of a brief secondary prevention intervention delivered by family physicians in 2002-2003 that targeted overweight/ mildly obese children aged 5 to 9 years. Primary care utilization was prospectively audited via medical records, and parents reported family resource use by written questionnaire. Outcome measures were BMI (primary) and parent-reported physical activity and dietary habits (secondary) in intervention compared with control children.

Results:- The cost of LEAP per intervention family was AU $4094 greater than for control families, mainly due to increased family resources devoted to child physical activity. Total health sector costs were AU $873 per intervention family and AU $64 per control, a difference of AU $809 {P < .001). At 15 months, intervention children did not differ significantly in adjusted BMI or daily physical activity scores compared with the control group, but dietary habits had improved.

Conclusions:- This brief intervention resulted in higher costs to families and the health care sector, which could have been devoted to other uses that do create benefits to health and/or family well-being. This has implications for countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, whose current guidelines recommend routine surveillance and counseling for high child BMI in the primary care sector.

Burnout in physicians : a case for peer-support

Background: It is well documented that doctors experience a high level of stress in their profession, and that this can lead to physical, psychological, and emotional harm, in particular, burnout. Overseas (especially in the UK and USA), research investigating the levels of stress, burnout, and associated psychiatric morbidity in health professionals, across many specialities, has been carried out with a view to prevention of these adverse outcomes.

Aims: To assess the level of burnout in a sample of New Zealand physicians, the associated work and personal characteristics, and the need for development of a support peer supervision or support system.

Methods: Questionnaires that measured a number of work and personal characteristics, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire, and additional questions regarding mistakes, and need for support, were sent to 83 physicians in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty areas. Analysis involved descriptive statistics, with t-tests for comparison with other studies, Pearson Product-Moment correlations between variables and analysis of variance where appropriate.

Results: Of the 50 respondents, 28% experienced high levels of two or three aspects of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, low personal accomplishment). Emotional exhaustion correlated with a greater need for support. Most respondents favoured a one-to-one support system.

Conclusion: This study highlights the presence of significant workplace difficulties for physicians and the need to develop a preventative support system for the protection of physicians and the patients in their care.

Mermaids and sirens as myth fragments in contemporary literature

This thesis examines three works: Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride and Alias Grace, and Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. All three novels feature female characters that contain elements or myth fragments of mermaids and sirens. The thesis asserts that the images of the mermaid and siren have undergone a gradual process of change, from literal mythical figures, to metaphorical images, and then to figures or myth fragments that reference the original mythical figures. The persistence of these female half-human images points to an underlying rationale that is independent of historical and cultural factors. Using feminist psychoanalytic theoretical frameworks, the thesis identifies the existence of the siren/mermaid myth fragments that are used as a means to construct the category of the 'bad' woman. It then identifies the function that these references serve in the narrative and in the broader context of both Victorian and contemporary societies. The thesis postulates the origin of the mermaid and siren myths as stemming from the ambivalent relationship that the male infant forms with the mother as he develops an identity as an individual. Finally, the thesis discusses the manner in which Atwood and Carter build on this foundation to deconstruct the binary oppositions that disadvantage women and to expand the category of female.

Holocaust literature : an exploration of second-generation publication in Australia

Normally we expect the magic of art to intensify, transfigure and elevate actuality. Touch the Holocaust and the flow is reversed (Clendinnen 1998, p. 185). This dissertation explores the relationships between the second-generation Holocaust writer, the Australian publishing industry and the reading public. It contends that a confluence of elements has made the 'genre' of second-generation Holocaust writing publishable in the late 20th century in a way that would not seem obvious from its major themes and the risk-averse publishing strategies increasingly adopted by the multinational conglomerates controlling the Australian industry. The research explores the nature of connections between writing, publishing and reading Holocaust literature, seeking to answer the following questions: What are the driving forces that compel children of Holocaust survivors to write about their parents' lives and their own experiences of growing up in a 'survivor' family? By what mechanisms are such stories published in an Australian industry dominated by international conglomerates focused on mass-market publishing? How do readers receive and make sense of this material?

Feminist perspectives on gender ideology in recent young adult literature

This study of gender in young adult literature examined a range of recently published texts in both the fantasy and realist genres and determined that narrative discourse contests the dominant patriarchal paradigm most sucessfully when female protagonists enact a trickster role.

Renegade judgement : a study of madness in medicine and literature

Explores socio-historical understandings and treatments of madness, examining literary works alongside contemporary medical texts. Incorporating notions of scientific objectivity, individual subjectivity and social totality, the thesis shows conceptual overlaps between art and science, identifying continuities and conflicts between fictional, clinical and cultural investigations into madness.