Podcast: Zeno Sworder on Illustrating the Story of His Parents’ Migrant Experience

Podcast: Zeno Sworder on Illustrating the Story of His Parents’ Migrant Experience

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Zeno Sworder talks to Cheryl Akle about how his family’s immigration story inspired his award-winning picture book, My Strange Shrinking Parents, which is out now.

About the author:

Zeno Sworder is a writer and artist who lives in Melbourne with his young family. After studying Chinese literature and migration law at university, he ended up as a dish washer. Later, he went on to work as a journalist, an English language teacher, a consular officer, an advocate for refugees and immigrants and a jewellery designer. He is a lover of all stationery but has a particular soft spot for pencils. Sworder is the CBCA New Illustrator of the Year 2021, and his first book This Small Blue Dot was a CBCA Notable Book, the winner of the 2021 Australian Book Designers Association’s Award for Best Designed Children’s Illustrated Book, and the Designers’ Choice Children’s/Young Adult Book of the Year.

Reviews

A Moving Work of Art: Read Our Review of My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder

Review | Our Review

13 September 2023

A Moving Work of Art: Read Our Review of My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder

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Teacher's Notes: My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder

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13 September 2023

Teacher's Notes: My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder

Publisher details

My Strange Shrinking Parents
Author
Zeno Sworder
Publisher
Thames & Hudson
Genre
Children’s Picture Book
Released
19 January, 2023
ISBN
9781760761233

Synopsis

Notable Book: Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) – Picture Book of the Year 2023

Recommended for ages 4+.

It goes without saying that all children believe their parents to be strange.

Mine were unusual for a different reason…

One boy’s parents travel from far-off lands to improve their son’s life. But what happens next is unexpected. What does it mean when your parents are different? What shape does love take? And what happens when your parents sacrifice a part of themselves for you?

In this heartbreaking and heart-warming story, CBCA award-winner Zeno Sworder reflects on his own migrant parents’ sacrifices to create a universal story about what it means to give to those you love. Drawing from the sacrifices his Chinese mother made to raise her young family in a small country town, Sworder’s drawings are full of beautiful detail and fairytale settings that explore his own journey from child to parent.

With humour and pathos, Sworder reflects on the strange nature of giving and receiving love and celebrates those parents who embrace a hard life for themselves in the hope of a better life from their children. Full of depth and generosity as well as insight and candour, Sworder brings this gorgeous fable to life.

Zeno Sworder
About the author

Zeno Sworder

Zeno Sworder is a writer and artist who lives in Melbourne with his young family. After studying Chinese literature and migration law at university, he ended up as a dish washer. Later, he went on to work as a journalist, an English language teacher, a consular officer, an advocate for refugees and immigrants and a jewellery designer. He is a lover of all stationery but has a particular soft spot for pencils. This is his first book for children.

Books by Zeno Sworder

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