The Flying Emu and Other Australian Stories - Hardcover

Morgan, Sally

3.89

27 ratings by Goodreads

9780679847052: The Flying Emu and Other Australian Stories

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679847057 ISBN 13: 9780679847052

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1993

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Drawn from the author's own aboriginal heritage, an anthology of twenty tales describes the creation of the world and the events that followed. By the author of My Place.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Dedicated by the aboriginal author to ``all the naughty children in the world,'' 20 lively original stories replete with the mythic stuff of wonder tales--magic, transformation, resurrection, eating alive, disgorging, and other comically earthy workings of the digestive tract--all recounted in an engaging colloquial style. Animals and humans demonstrate such classic foibles as greed, vanity, cruelty, or laziness, balanced by forgiveness, courage, kindness, or love. There are creation tales, fables, pourquoi and trickster tales; talking animals, giants, monsters, and spirits. Resonances are many--with African and Native American myths, Aesop, E. Nesbit's plans-gone-awry, Roald Dahl's irreverence. In the splendidly decorative art-- powerful in design and satirically funny in detail--humans are brown-skinned, but the stylized animals come in a vibrant spectrum of imaginative hues. The author explains that some of the stories were created, and told, in her own family; her enthusiasm for them shines from every page. Follow this with Ted Hughes's equally humorous, more philosophical Tales of the Early World (1991). Glossary. (Folklore. 5-12) -- Copyright �1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6-Morgan offers 20 original "myths" based on her childhood family storytelling sessions. The collection is full of wonder and fun, with only an occasional moral slipped in. A vain emu, a nervous wombat, the ever-mocking kookaburra, muscular kangaroos, and the occasional dingo, platypus, and numbat all create a milieu unique to this evolutionarily isolated continent. Babies, children, and a wise old Granny provide human counterpoints to the anthropomorphized animals and to the various giants and spirits with varying demeanors. The stories are radiant with magical wit and visceral with crocodile farts. Brilliant full-page paintings throughout evoke a mood one might call bold primitive. The book is dedicated to "all the naughty children in the world." They'll certainly take these stories to heart.
John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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