Storm Boy [in the book of the same name] lives a carefree, beachcombing existence in a remote shanty on the coast of Australia. He finds an abandoned pelican which he raises, and the two become inseparable. Although there are many poignant moments in the book, believability is strained when Mr. Percival, the pelican, rescues the crew of a shipwrecked tugboat, dies a grim death and causes the boy to give up his aimless life—all in true TV Lassie style….

"Storm Boy" suffers from too much plot….

Donald J. Bissett, "New Books for Young Readers: 'Storm Boy'," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1966 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), May 1, 1966, p. 30.

The author of this interesting story of life in the Bush [February Dragon] has obviously an intimate knowledge of the Australian countryside and the daily life on a Bush Homestead….

Although an imaginative...