‘The Incredible Freedom Machines’ by Kirli Saunders and Matt Oxley
We’re a sucker for stories that sound poetic when read aloud, which are rich in little clues that add up to something greater. Kirli Saunders’ and Matt Ottley’s ‘Incredible Freedom Machines’ achieves both of these things, as it takes readers on a lyrical journey through a dream-like landscape that resembles the Australian outback.
It follows the story of a young girl who hears about “incredible freedom machines” and feels compelled to find and fly her own vehicle capable of traversing worlds. However, there’s more to this picture story book than what first meets the eye, as it could be interpreted as a celebration of the power and pleasure of reading and an acknowledgement of what it means to persevere as a reader.
Matt Oxley’s visual storytelling adds multiple layers to the metaphors explored throughout; it encourages students to revisit pages of this book to look for clues to revise their interpretations, ponder its various settings or to imagine their own versions of what ‘freedom machine’ means to them.
Suitable for:
Grade 3 to Year 8.
Inspires thinking about:
Persistence and perseverance
Freedom, creativity and imagination
Wonder and exploration
The power of reading and story
Useful for exploring:
Multimodal texts: how visual images and descriptions work together to communicate meaning and enhance each other
How the features and language devices of literary texts create meaning: Figurative language, symbolism, setting, mood, rhythm, assonance, alliteration, third person narrative
How writers make decisions about ideas, word choices, sentence fluency and conventions
Why we recommend it:
Don’t we all want to be taken on a beautifully illustrated whimsical reading journey?
No matter how old we are, we can all have our imaginations awakened by lyrical poetic language.
Students can engage with the text in many different ways, including some complex ideas and language features.
