Mem Fox has done it again! Hunwick's Egg is a lovely book - I bought it for my children for Easter - In Australia, the Easter Bilby has become as well known as the Easter Bunny! The illustrations are fabulous and look very much like the illustrations in Koala Lou, also illustrated by Pamela Lofts. I heard Mem Fox in a radio interview commenting that Pamela Lofts travelled to Central Australia in order to ensure the accuracy of her animal illustrations, right down to the ants! Well she certainly did a wonderful job. The story is very engaging with a little 'secret' revealed at the end. A lovely book to add to your collection and a great Easter gift.
How could I have missed HUNWICK until now? He is a rabbit-eared Bandicoot, one of an endangered species, familiarly known in Australia as the BILBY. *Aussie* reviewer "LIN" won me over by suggesting that "Hunwick's Egg" would be a great Easter gift. Hunwick and his mysterious egg become very special friends but the egg does not hatch.
They are scrutinized by a collection of the weirdest animals you ever yearned to hug: a cockatoo, an echidna (resembling a porcupine), and the hairiest of emus who could benefit from a bit of *Bryll Cream* . . . Hunwick is all heart and reaches out to readers with the most irresistible eyes to ever appear on your radar screen! But still the egg does not hatch. The plant life is gorgeous, drawn ever so delicately in watercolor pencils. I am most captivated by a plant resembling the eucalyptus, and other green wildflowers.
After referring to my dictionary I felt tricked into falling for a RAT, of all things. I don't want to believe what my faithful reference says about this darling creature!
The more important reality is that HAPPINESS CAN ERUPT FROM THE MOST UNEXPECTED OF RELATIONSHIPS. It is remarkable how loneliness vanishes when you can share your burrow. Reviewer mcHAIKU recommends that you make sure you have an Easter Basket large enough to accommodate this precious book.
This story by the successful author of many children's book classics such as Possum Magic and Koala Lou cleverly cashes in on the Australian Easter Bilby legend that has grown over the years through the selling of chocolate bilbies to raise money to save the endangered bilby from extinction. The book however has nothing at all to do with Easter or the Easter Bilby but the title and cover illustration cleverly catch the eye of this market! The illustrator Pamela Lofts has again done a brilliant job with her unique style (sort of realistic but not entirely so with human traits for the animals thrown in).
In Hunwick's Egg a mysterious egg arrives in the Australian desert during a storm. Hendwick a bilby after ensuring it belongs to no other animal immediately takes possession. As it becomes more and more obvious the egg will never hatch the other Australian wildlife become increasingly concerned about their friend. Hendwick knows something they don't know though!
If you have fallen in love with bilbies through the illustrations and want to help save the real ones before they are wiped from the planet go to easterbilbydotcomdotau (replace the word dot with full stops Amazon doesn't post reviews with other websites). Or alternatively if you're in Australia visit real bilbies at David Fleay Wildlife on the Gold Coast who run a breeding and research program where you can also make donations to ensure their future existence!
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