STORM BOY

by Colin Thiele ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1979

Storm Boy lives in a shack in Australia with his widowed beachcomber father, Hideaway, and his only other acquaintance is their Aborigine neighbor, Fingerbone Bill--until an orphaned pelican becomes the boy's full-time companion. Storm Boy names the bird Mr. Percival and teaches it to play hunt-and-fetch games, and one stormy morning Mr. P. uses his training to help rescue a crew of shipwrecked sailors. But later that year Mr. Percival is shot by duck hunters--and only then does a grieving Storm Boy accept the grateful sailors' offer to send him off to boarding school in Adelaide. First published here in 1963, this lacks the richness and tension of Thiele's later adventure stories, but his feel for atmosphere is evident and John Schoenherr's new, double-page ink drawings play up both the wild Australian setting and the reliable boy-and-pet pathos.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1979

ISBN: 1741101875

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION