Baker has meticulously constructed each illustration in Belonging, using her unique multi-media collage technique. The double-page spreads are composed for maximum visual effect, drawing the reader through the window and into a multilayered streetscape. The format of the book is similarly carefully constructed. The front and back covers present a before and after vision of a built world. The contrast between the bleak, dilapidated inner-city block on the front cover and the lush, cared-for urban environment on the back cover encapsulates Baker’s belief in the possibility of metamorphosis and growth. Through framing and perspective, Baker produces a multilevel view of Tracy’s world. The first level is the personal: the casement window and its surrounds, through which the reader is invited to peer, voyeur-like. The second level is Tracy’s family life in the front yard. It is at this level that the idea of ‘from little things big things grow’ is played out, both personally for Tracy and in terms of the physical changes that occur in the yard, triggered by a gift from an Asian neighbour with a penchant for Australian native plants. The final result of this gift is only revealed on the back cover, where the used car salesyard seen throughout the book undergoes a significant transformation.

The next level of engagement is in the street. What is initially a rundown, crime-ridden neighbourhood develops, with the help of people power and a ‘reclaim your street’ campaign, into a strong and united community. This sense of belonging spills over into the surrounding suburbs, as the streets begin to sprout trees, roof gardens and rampant vines. Thus Baker deals with the themes of conservation, generational change, the cycles of nature and how ordinary people can make a difference. She shows that people who live in cities can reclaim their small plot of earth and create a sense of belonging – both to the land and to the people who are a part of its social fabric.

There is much in Belonging to engage the reader, child and adult, on both an emotional and an intellectual level. For children, there is the sense of identification with someone who, like many of them, is growing up in an urban environment. There is also the delight of poring over each picture to spot the changes, to recognise things that happen on their street and in their neighbourhood, and to identify the various plants, animals and birds that slowly creep back into the landscape as the people reclaim their environment. For adults, there is Baker’s social commentary and references to popular culture – My Beautiful Laundrette, raunchy billboards, the gentrification of the suburb, the disappearance of both Coca-Cola and Pizza Hut, visual references to her other books, and an aeroplane writing the word ‘Sorry’ in the sky.

Unlike previous works by Baker, such as Window or The Story of Rosy Dock (1995), or indeed similarly constructed Australian picture books such as Nadia Wheatley’s My Place (1987), Belonging has a positive message about the difference that people can make if they take the approach of belonging to rather than owning their land. And, as Baker shows, the rewards from such an approach go far beyond the personal – as do the rewards from reading and sharing this wonderful book.