Malu Kangaro: how the first children learnt to surf

Judith Morecroft (text)

Bronwyn Bancroft (illus)

Little Hare Books, Australia 2007

ISBN: 9781921272

Genres: picture book, myths

Malu-Kangaroo leaves his hot inland home to visit the ocean and there meets the first children, who, as children do, ask for a gift. Malu makes the first surfboard to teach the children how to play with the ocean.

The children delight in their presents and soon learn to ‘skim across the water like flying fish' and ‘leap the waves like shining dolphins'. Long after Malu-Kangaroo has returned to his own home, the first children remain playing in the sun, delighting in the water and the skills his gift has given them.

An apparently simply tale, this modern myth, is dedicated to a young man of Morecroft's acquaintance who died young. It celebrates the joy of surfing, the skills of those who are able to dance with the waves and fly across the water. Bronwyn Bancroft's illustrations, as always, are vibrantly coloured, tactile and full of energy and the great love she feels for the Australian landscape and its occupants.

A very appealing book, both visually and in terms of narrative.