WINNER – 2015 Speech Pathology Australia's Indigenous Children's Book of the Year
In this charming and humorous morality tale, Maliyan, a proud eagle meets a turkey, Wagun, who is a silly bird, and together these two new friends begin to do silly-bird things.
The Elders and Maliyan’s parents are very disappointed, warning Maliyan that it’s hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys.
Maliyan sees the error of his ways and together with the other animals, works to clean up the mess wrought by too many silly birds. But some birds will always be silly…
Gregg Dreise is a gifted artist, storyteller and musician, and he features the didgeridoo and guitar in his performances at schools, libraries and festivals. He
is a descendant of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi people of south-west Queensland and north-west New South Wales.
He is the author and illustrator of Cunning Crow; Silly Birds; Kookoo Kookaburra; Mad Magpie and My Culture and Me. All these stories are about teaching morals. They address self-image, friendship, kindness, bullying and Indigenous culture.
Gregg is also the illustrator of the classic story Tiddalik the Frog (Pearson Publishing) and has poetry with his illustrations in the anthology A Boat of Stars; and illustrations in High 5 to the Boys and contributions towards Why I Love Australia. He has a Children’s Music CD titled Sing. Dance. Walk Together.
