Gregg Dreise – May 2 2021

World Migratory Bird Day – May 8 2021

Gregg is a teacher, author, illustrator and artist. He is a descendant of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi people of south-west Queensland and north-west New South Wales. Story-writing, poetry, music and painting run in his family and Gregg’s paintings have been sold all over the world. His illustrations appear in Tiddalik the frog: a play as retold by Dianne Irving, High 5 to the Boys and Why I Love Australia. His poetry with illustrations appears in the anthology A Boat of Stars and he has produced a children’s music CD titled Sing. Dance. Walk Together. Gregg was inspired to create his first picture book, Silly Birds, by hearing the Elders’ saying, it was “hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys” and by spending time with his uncle, Reg Knox, a natural story teller who painted school murals and would tell students about working with Italian farmers who owned a pet cockatoo they trained to speak Italian and English. Reg also taught it the Gamilaraay Aboriginal language, and would end his story saying, “if a small brained cockatoo can learn three languages … imagine what you can do if you try your hardest”. Gregg’s other picture books include Kookoo Kookaburra and Mad Magpie. He is currently working on a chapter book for upper primary.

Silly Birds
Magabala Books, 2014; ISBN 9781922142993
5-8 years
Maliyan is a proud eagle who always looks, listens and sees things from a long way away. One day he meets the turkey Wagun, who is a silly bird, and together these two new friends begin to do silly-bird things and soon the local billabong becomes a mess. They do not care for anyone and seem to have eaten all the food. Maliyan begins to see the error of his ways and tries to talk to Wagun and the other birds about their actions. No one listens. So Maliyan flies away and begins the journey of listening again. Maliyan soon becomes a proud leader and all the silly birds begin to follow his example. They all help clean up the messes they have made. All except one …. In this quintessential Australian fable, Silly Birds combines richly textured and striking illustrations of Australian animals with the gentle humour of an Aussie truism that it is hard to soar like an eagle when you are, in fact, surrounded by turkeys.

Cunning Crow
Magabala Books, 2019; ISBN 9781925768862
5+ years
Remember – beauty comes from within…
Way back, before once-upon-a-time, there was the Dreamtime when all the birds were white. One of those white birds was a crow called Waan. One day a big storm came through and a magnificent rainbow appeared. When the birds passed through the rainbow, one by one, their feathers took on its beautiful colours. Waan flew through the rainbow too and his feathers became a beautiful red and orange. But Waan was jealous of the other birds. He wanted to be more beautifully coloured than anyone. So Waan hatched a cunning plan. But things did not go the way Waan wanted ….