The Bamboo Flute [Hardcover]

Garry Disher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1993 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

In 1932, during Australia's deep economic depression, young Paul meets Eric the Red--a wandering swagman--who teaches Paul how to play the bamboo flute and brings music back into Paul's life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From its exquisite opening line ("There was once music in our lives, but I can feel it slipping away") to the moving finale, this elegantly delineated tale never strikes a false note. Australian Disher, a newcomer to the American children's book scene, is a gifted writer, and his story of Paul, a 12-year-old dreamer, is symphonic in its composition and layering of tones. Paul has witnessed the gradual erosion of happiness in his life; the global Depression of the early 1930s has taken its toll on his family's outback farm, and his parents are stretched to the limit. An outsider at school, he longs to fit in, especially with the "town kids who have secrets and no place for me." At home, his relationship with his father, a dispirited veteran of WW I, is tenuous at best. When a swagman (drifter) takes an interest in Paul and teaches him how to carve a flute from bamboo, Paul's dreams of being special, of releasing the music that vibrates within him, finally take wing. In the end, father and son find common ground, and Paul helps reawaken in his father a sensibility fractured by the war and years of economic hardship. Disher's spare, evocative, emotionally charged coming-of-age story is reminiscent in style to the work of Paul Fleischman, but his voice is wholly his own, musical and haunting. In fact, the only downside to this book is its brevity. Like a particularly savory appetizer, it simply whets the reader's appetite for more. Ages 8-11.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

In his first US publication, an Australian author draws on his family history for a beautifully written novella set in 1932. Drought is making hard times harder: Paul's parents have had to sell his mother's beloved piano; Dad's ``warbling whistle, the one that coils and dips like water over stones,'' is rarely heard; and homeless ``swaggies,'' perceived (with reason) as a threat, demand food on their way to check out the goldfields. At 12, Paul is an indifferent student, lost in dreams of music, for which he has a gift he's never had a chance to use. When he finds ``Eric the Red'' roasting a sheep near their farmhouse, he knows he should tell his dad of the theft; instead, he's drawn into wary friendship by the sweet tones of the swagman's flute. Eric shows Paul how to make himself a flute of bamboo; it gives him, for the first time, an opportunity to express himself musically. Like other swagmen, Eric moves on; but Paul's flute is the key to his awakening, as well as to new connections with parents, teacher, and classmates. Like Cynthia Rylant or Ivan Southall, Disher writes in spare, lyrical prose, capturing a mood or the nuances of his character's perceptions with wonderful subtlety. The somber legacy of WW I adds depth to the theme: Eric, the teacher, and Paul's embittered father are all veterans, each scarred in his own way; for each, Paul's new music offers a touch of hope. Brief and easily read, a powerfully realized moment in Australia's past. (Fiction. 9-14) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (September 7, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395665957
• ISBN-13: 978-0395665954
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,528,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Garry Disher lives in Australia and is the author of over 40 books: novels, short story collections, writers' handbooks, history textbooks and children's fiction. His Challis and Destry police procedurals, and his Wyatt crime from the inside thrillers, are gaining international recognition, winning best crime novel of the year awards in Australia and Germany and appearing on best books of the year lists in the USA. Garry has toured Germany twice and the States once, and counts a scholarship year spent in the Stanford University creative writing school, early in his career, as one of his most important formative experiences.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bamboo Flute, May 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bamboo Flute (Hardcover)

The Bamboo Flute was a very interesting book about a boy called Paul, who's family was poor. He meets a man called Eric the Red who tells and shows him how to make a flute out of bamboo.