The Binna Binna Man
By (Author) Meme McDonald
By (author) Boori Monty Pryor
A&U Children's
A&U Children
1st September 1999
Australia
Children
Non Fiction
Childrens / Teenage fiction: General, modern and contemporary fiction
823
Winner of Ethel Turner Prize for young people's literature 2000 (Australia)
96
Width 130mm, Height 195mm
98g
Shanell says that the Binna Binna Man is a bogeyman the old people made up to scare the kids. Her cousin is not so sure. He has a spirit guide that keeps him strong when he's in danger, so he knows that there's more to the world that Madonna and McDonalds. But when he has to rescue Shanell by himself, at night, in the dark bush, he really hopes the Binna Binna Man is just a story. A stunning portrait of an Aboriginal family living in two worlds. The simple, direct text and haunting pictures illustrate that remembering where you're from is what keeps you going in the right direction.
Meme McDonald was a writer and photographer who created books for young people and adults.
Boori Pryor is from North Queensland. His mother's people are Kunggandji and his father is from the Birra-gubba Nation. Boori is a performer, storyteller and writer.
Meme and Boori co-wrote Maybe Tomorrow (Penguin, March 1998) with Margaret Dunkle as consulting editor. The Binna Binna Man (Allen + Unwin 1999) won Book of the Year at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2000. Meme and Boori also co-wrote two prize-winning books which have been adapted for theatre. My Girragundji (Allen + Unwin 1998) had two seasons touring nationally with The Bell Shakespeare Company, and Njunjul The Sun (Allen + Unwin 2002) - which received the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction - was adapted by Kooemba Djarra Theatre Company and produced with QPAC in Brisbane.
Boori Monty Pryor was Australia's Children's Laureate in 2012 and 2013.