Enora and the Black Crane

Enora follows a shimmering band of colors deep into the rain forest, where an act of violence against a crane changes him forever

With its stylized paintings and spare, fable-like text, this title unself-consciously immerses children in Australian Aboriginal culture. "Long ago when the world was new," and all the birds of the rain forest are black, white and gray, an Aboriginal boy named Enora spies a "splash of color shimmering and moving among the trees." Enora follows the flickering colors and watches as they flow into the forest's birds, making their feathers glow brightly. When Enora kills one of the birds he is transformed into a black crane destined to spend his days surrounded by his more colorful avian comrades. The sinuous lines and intricate patterns of Meeks's paintings achieve an almost hieroglyphic treatment of the human form and natural world. The Aboriginal artist, whose knowledge of the bush and its spirits was passed on to him by his grandfather, provides American readers with a rare glimpse of his culture. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An Aboriginal Australian draws on his ethnic traditions for both story and illustrative style. In the beginning, Enora (``Arone'' reversed?) lives in a tropical paradise where all the birds are black, white, and gray. One day, he follows a mysterious band of shimmering colors into the forest, where the colors touch each bird, transforming its plumage. Because his people doubt his story, Enora kills a crane to show them; for this transgression, he himself becomes a crane--with black feathers. The story, somewhat similar to the Arawak legend retold in Troughton's How the Birds Changed Their Feathers (1976), is distinguished by utterly original full-page art in black, white, and ocher on a brick-red ground. The long-limbed human figures are hairless and earless, with round eyes and mouths and vertical lines as noses. Large areas are textured with stippling, cross-hatching, or herringboning. Many shapes have double outlines, as if the lines have been incised into red pottery. A dramatically unusual book. (Picture book. 5-10) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 4-6. In the rain forest that is his home, Enora follows a stream of shimmering colors to a clearing filled with birds. The colors flow over the birds, changing their white, black, and gray feathers to bright colors. When Enora arrives home, no one listens to his story about what he has seen. Determined to prove his vision, he returns to the clearing and, in the midst of the dancing colors, kills a crane. The next day Enora's whole body is covered with small black feathers. He returns to the clearing where he watches as "for the last time the colors appeared and flowed over the birds. Before long Enora was surrounded by birds with feathers of every color. But Enora's feathers remained black." Classified as fiction and subtitled "An Aboriginal Story," this has the feeling of an orally transmitted tale. Meeks, an Aboriginal artist, illustrates his tale with elongated figures in red ocher and black, giving each page a glowing intensity. Sophisticated and powerful, this will need some careful introduction to reach a wide audience. Janice Del Negro