Podcast #17: Storm Boy by Colin Thiele

An Interview with Allison Tait

For my seventeenth Dream Gardens podcast, I interviewed author Allison Tait about one of her favorite children’s books, the Australian classic Storm Boy by Colin Thiele, illustrated by Robert Ingpen.

First published in 1963, the short book tells the story of a young boy who lives with his father on the isolated Southern coast of Australia.  One day, a mother pelican is shot, and the boy rescues her chicks and raises them. After growing up, one of pelicans, Mr. Percival, remains with the boy and becomes his closest friend.  And when a fishing boat is threaten to be shipwrecked on the coast, the two of them jump into the fray. What happens after that will change both of their lives forever.  For over fifty years this narrative has been beloved by children and adults alike for its lyricism, and for its timeless narrative of friendship,  adventure, and heartbreak.

Allison Tait is author of the middle grade adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles, which includes the books Race to the End of the World, Prisoner of Black Hawk, Breath of the Dragon, and the recently published Beyond the Edge of the Map .  She is also host of the podcast series So You Want to be a Writer along with Valerie Khoo of the Australian Writers’ Centre, which is available on itunes. You can find Allison’s website at allisontait.com and the website for her book series at themapmakerchronicles.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. The next podcast will be published on August 16th, 2017.

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