Published: 1st June 2021
Publisher: Woodslane Press
Illustrator: Adam Carruthers
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ – 3 Stars
Henry the emu wanted to FLY! But flying fish, eagles, and launchers cant seem to help. Its only after meeting Wallagoot Jean that Henry learns about the science of orbit, and the importance of flying first with his mind.
This was an interesting but slightly underwhelming book for what I was expecting so I suppose that’s on me a little. Weirdly enough it also took a few goes to work out the rhythm of the rhyme and found I could only find it was by reading it out loud. It isn’t hard, but for some reason my brain wouldn’t do it. It’s kind of like the old limericks or nonsense poems in rhythm, the closest I could think of was The Owl and the Pussycat beat. It was fun once I got the hang of it.
It isn’t a long book but it is broken up into chapters as we follow Henry’s journey of flight. It’s a curious concept in that it mentions that it’s impossible to fly, but at the same time trying hard and imagining he can results in Henry actually doing it? I think. It does make it sound like he really achieved this and it isn’t in his imagination which is nice for Henry I suppose. There’s maths and calculations, and a little bit about space mixed throughout so there is a bit more than pure faith and trust getting Henry in the air. I liked that it teaches you about how orbits work and how calculations can help adjust your results. It was a nice addition from only belief getting him his dream.
Carruthers’ illustrations are great. The full page art is bold, the colours are classic outback reds and brown, and the designs are fun, I enjoyed looking at the little details. Henry’s expression is fun and the other characters are quirky but not overly cartoony.
I love finding books that have no online review presence, like I’m the only person who read and reviewed this thing. It’s all over the buying websites though so someone else must know about this book besides me, but I have had to add it manually into Storygraph and it’s got no reviews on Goodreads so that’s always strange. Overall it was a nice read. I am a little let down because I thought it was going to be a bit better. It wasn’t bad, it was fun, not overly funny or anything but an interesting concept and execution. I enjoyed the rhyme choice and the illustrations so I’m taking that as a win.
You can purchase Henry the Flying Emu via the following
