Walkabout

by James Vance Marshall

Book Overview

Two modern school children learn the ways of the Australian Aborigines by taking a long trek through the Australian Outback. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887410995
• ISBN13: 9780887410994
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Sundance Publishing
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.2" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

A Study in Beauty and Brutality

I am working with a Grade Nine learning disabled class that seems compelled by the poetic language and fast pace of Walkabout. This book is a great exploration of poetic language conventions as well as character motivation and ethical issues that touch us all. The bush boy's role in the white children's lives, juxtaposed against Mary's role in his fate, is deeply moving. Walkabout made me want to learn more about the author, to trace his other works, and Australia, to track the children's journey, but so far I have had little luck on either path. And so my own walkabout continues.

An amazing book about the differences between races.

Mary and Peter come from Georgia,USA and get stranded in the Austrailian outback. At this time, in the US, there is much controversy about civil rights. When Mary and Peter get stranded, they meet this "Bush Boy". Mary is reluctant because of his black skin and nakedness while Peter is accepting. At the end, Mary never really accepts the "Bush Boy" and you can tell this because of her 'fear of nakedness' in front of the Aborignies. Peter is perfectly understanding and he emerdges as leader, proving that non-bias-ness will reign.

An insightful classic of its own kind.

Walkabout is a story of the unification of two cultures that are 10,000 years apart. Peter and Mary, two American kids from Charleston, South Carolina, end up in the ruthless Australian outback where not one person is found in miles, just true desolation, after their plane crashes on a flight to visit their uncle in civilized Adelaide. However they don't encounter what we call civilized. Almost on the point of dying they find an aborigine who saves them from hunger. The boy teaches them how to survive in his habitat from finding alkaloola (water) to how to kill fish in a fresh water pond. The aborigine performs his tribal dances, taking them hand in hand through the weird and mysterious world of one of the most primitive cultures ever seen on earth. One of the most important customs performed by the aboriginal people is the "walkabout" really the initiation to manhood, just like the bush boy is doing in the story, Mary and Peter however are not on a walkabout to manhood but a walk for survival. The author explains the wonderful surroundings with such detail that you feel you are there living every moment. From Koalas to baby Wombats, reading this book is like diving into an ecological realm. A story of insight and warmth straight from the heart. The book accomplishes what it's set out for to teach us more about the aboriginal people, as each chapter, which might seem long but very informative. If you are being assigned this book get ready to consider it a gift and if you are reading by choice you are guaranteed to consider it a very smart move.

Pure friendship of children

The story touched my heart so much that I cried reading it. A young hot blooded male like me cried when the Aborigine kid died, I just could not believe myself! Even it's such a sad story, J.V Marshall wrote it so beautifully. A "must-read" for all young hot blooded males.

How 2 kids try to get home with the help of a strange boy.

Let me just say that Walkabout is THE COOLEST BOOK!!!!! I liked this book because it describes how it really is like in a desert.It tells how each day they struggle for survival in a land forgin to Mary and Peter.I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!