[m i a o w] the cat

When talking to my Small Brother in the UK the other day, the topic of M’s SmallEye virus came up, and Small Brother said “Does he look like that guy in that picture book - you know, with the naggy horse and the squinting eye…?” and I knew exactly who he meant, but neither of us could remember the name. It took a couple of days, but as I was in the van with M and Chris the other day, driving along the interminable goat-trackesque Hervey Bay roads, I remembered. Mulga Bill!! I even remember some chunks of it to recite - but now I’ve come to read it I’ve realised that I’ve had Mulga Bill and another bushy kind of bloke intertwined into one in my head. Luckily I could remember three consectutive words from the unknown one ‘teeth to toast’. This was enough for Google, which found The Oath of Bad Brown Bill - it’s got fantastic illustrations and was one of my favourite picture books.

This is the ‘teeth to toast’ bit:

Right there and then he galloped off,
To find himself a ghost.
And that same night he saw a sight,
That turned his teeth to toast.
He’s come across a hideous ghoul,
Astride a rotten log.
It grinned a slimy, slippery grin,
And breathed a damp green fog.

…if you want to read the whole thing, I put it here for a bit.

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I’m currently studying “trends in literature for children and young adults” and one assignment so far had me visiting a local library to “critique” part of their children’s collection. I actually did my assignment in the junior fiction section, but took the time to wander through the picture books too. I came across Mulga Bill and the Man from Ironbark and sat and re-read those gorgeous two lovely books. I think they came out in the 70’s along with a few other Banjo poems. Fantastic picture books. I loved them then and fell in love with them all over again.

Rae typed this on Sep 26 04 at 12:00 pm