Blinky Bill

 

Image credit: Goodreads

Finishing up on the quest to read classic Australian children’s literature, I have just closed the cover on a number of adventures featuring everyone’s favourite cheeky koala bear: Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall. 

Chronicling the birth of the bush’s most mischievous little bear all the way through to his near adulthood, Blinky Bill follows Blinky as he continuously runs away from home to have many adventures. In the three stories that make up the novel, he vandalises a sweet shop, goes to live in the zoo, helps turn his gumtree into a guest house, and goes to many bushland meetings including a parliament of pelicans, a rabbit’s birthday, and a charity soiree thrown by Mrs. Possum. 

Complete with cute illustrations, Blinky Bill does not sugar coat the harsh realities of the bushland and the food chain. For a book that is written for young children, there is a fair amount of death and violence either casually alluded to or just flat out stated. The stories themselves take on that traditional form of prose that is best experienced when read aloud; short sentences, simple, and frank. It’s definitely a book that one reads out loud to a group of tiny children all sitting in a circle, like kindergarten. 

Image credit: Wikipedia

Sometimes it’s a mistake reading books like these as an adult, because there is absolutely some point in life where that wonder-centre of the brain morphs into something else that lights up in response to different stimuli. I’m sure that, if I was five, I would have loved hearing these stories. I would have had a grand old time with them. But sadly, as a 30+ year old, that enjoyment has evolved into enjoyment of other things… like shiny sets of dice for Dungeons and Dragons. 

But I can say that, as a children’s book, Blinky Bill ticks a lot of boxes and is something of an Aussie equivalent of Winnie the Pooh. It’s quite cute and definitely good if you want your kids to get into reading early. 

Author: Dorothy Wall, 1939

Published: Angus & Robertson, 1939

Longevity: The characters and adventures of Blinky Bill have been entertaining Aussie kids for decades, having been made into an animated TV series, and recently a feature film.