Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Reading Time
    • Home
    • Reviews
      • Highly Recommended
      • CBCA Short Listed
      • Early Childhood Books
      • Younger Readers
      • Intermediate Readers
      • Older Readers
      • Great Read Alouds
      • Information Books
      • Picture Books
      • Professional Development
    • Interviews
    • Suggestions
    • News
    • Meet The Review Team
    • Contact Us
    Reading Time
    You are at:Home»Reviews»Older Readers»Lullaby

    Lullaby

    0
    By Admin on July 8, 2015 Older Readers

    Bernard Beckett, Lullaby, Text Publishing, 27 May 2015, 208pp.,  $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922182753

    Lullaby

    Lullaby is very eerie science fiction which, in the telling of the story, discusses the dilemmas that medicine could find itself in when the desire to break new frontiers clashes with ethical principles.

    So while, things that sound just great, like people being able to regrow limbs, (something that happens in the book), doctors have to deal with consequences such as people refusing to recognise their new limbs or preferring someone else’s. And this is not unlikely; the brain can get very confused. Neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks in his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat wrote about a man falling out of his hospital bed because he did not recognise his own leg and thought he was throwing out a severed one that somebody had put in his bed, as a morbid type of joke.

    Rene, the hero of Lullaby must decide if he will agree to a dangerous and ethically dubious medical procedure. Rene’s identical twin brother Theo is in a coma after an accident which has left him with irreparable brain damage. There is one way to ‘treat’ this; by scanning Rene’s brain and implanting his memories in Theo’s brain, which leads to the question – is Theo then saved or is he now Rene version II? The young men may be identical twins but their personalities, talents and morals were very different.

    Lullaby is confronting, terrifying and challenging – definitely for the ‘older reader’.

    Teaching notes are available on the Text Publishing website.

    reviewed by Katy Gerner

    accidents ethics Identity medical morals Mystery Sci-Fi self awareness Suspense Teacher Notes twins

    Related Posts

    Moth in a Fancy Cardigan

    Gilded

    An Arrow to the Moon

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    • Themes
    • Curriculum
    Action adventure Airplanes Alphabet Anxiety autism Bullying CBCA Awards Coming of age Dystopian emotions family fantasy friendship grief Historical humour magic Mystery Post apocalyptic Readers Cup reluctant readers school Sci-Fi series of books siblings Sport Starting school Teacher Notes
    ANZAC Australian animals Australian history Biography Culture & Diversity Disabilities First Nations Geography health Humanities mental health Poetry Reconciliation resilience Science STEM Stolen Generation sustainability Wordless books



    Recent Comments
    • Barbara on The Secret of Sapling Green
    • Cherie on Elephant Island
    • Patricia Tilton on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Jilanne Hoffmann on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Penelope Pratley on The Secret of Sapling Green
    Recent Posts
    • The Bush Birds
    • Star of Anise
    • Spotlight Please…It’s Stevie Louise
    • Moth in a Fancy Cardigan
    • How to Make a Monster
    Recent Comments
    • Barbara on The Secret of Sapling Green
    • Cherie on Elephant Island
    • Patricia Tilton on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Jilanne Hoffmann on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Penelope Pratley on The Secret of Sapling Green
    © Copyright 2021 The Children’s Book Council of Australia - All rights reserved

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.