Refugee Wolf: Special Education Edition

Big Bad Ben is a larrikin wolf and seeks refugee status on the Planet of Straw, the Planet of Sticks and the Planet of McSpaceMansions. Our anti-hero speaks Aussie slang and in this speculative, dystopian satire set in 2500 AD, Big Bad Ben hurtles through space on a clapped out space shuttle after being hunted down by the humans. In a universe of surly porkers and excessive consumerism, the Super Hungry Pigs reject the wolf by giving arbitrary reasons. The allegorical, fairy tale structure of The Three Little Pigs - whereby the pigs constantly say no to the wolf - is used to tell a story about how our society of excess has increasingly become inward looking. The universe of Refugee Wolf evokes a world of excess gone wrong and one which is also narcissistic in its consumption of a mythical world called Spacebook. A skewed sense of oneself arguably makes society fear the other , namely, asylum seekers. Novelist and Patrick White 2016 award winner, Carmel Bird, endorsed the story and she said it was a powerful, engaging, accessible exposition of the issue of Australia and refugees. Also very funny. This is a special education edition. It can be used as a guide by teachers to explain the symbols contained in the story. It can also be used by students to understand the underlying meaning of the story.