AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 7974253208538461919.jpg
This image has been sourced from Wikipedia Website
y separately published work icon The Nargun and the Stars single work   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1973... 1973 The Nargun and the Stars
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Simon Brent is orphaned. Still shocked, he is taken to live with his only relatives, brother and sister Charlie and Edie Waters, who live on a farm. There, Simon meets the Aboriginal spirits who also live on the land. Together Simon, Charlie, Edie, and the spirits save the land from the ancient Nargun. The story is memorable in the portrayal of the Nargun and the spirits, as well as the characters of Charlie and Edie, and the depiction of Simon's change from a shocked and emotionally frozen individual to a normal boy.

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon The Nargun and the Stars Margaret Kelly , ( dir. John Walker ) Sydney : Australian Broadcasting Commission , 1981 Z1849117 1981 series - publisher film/TV

Based on the novel by Patricia Wrightson, The Nargun and the Stars follows Simon, a heartbroken and orphaned boy from the city, who goes to live with cousins on a remote country property. Hidden in the depths of the property, he discovers a variety of creatures from the distant Dreamtime. But not all are benevolent, as Simon discovers when the threat of development wakes the stone Nargun.

With an overt environmental message and a strong focus on Indigenous Australian mythologies, The Nargun and the Stars attracted positive interest from reviewers, though Greg Flynn noted in the Australian Women's Weekly that the Potkoorok's voice is 'the fruity vowel sounds of the regrettably late Noel Brophy', and adds 'Surely the Aboriginals never imagined their swamp-dwelling monster sounding like a music hall turn?' Ultimately, however, Flynn noted that 'As with fantastic children's stories, it's the creatures and the gimmicks which make the programme fascinating. But the plot does have its merits. Although the series takes a while to pick up speed, once the Dreamtimers appear most viewers should be captivated by this story of the bush defending itself against the crass hand of man.'

Source: Australian Women's Weekly, Wed. 23 September 1981, p.145.

The Nargun and the Stars Verity Laughton , 2009 single work drama children's

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has a Japanese translation.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Richmond, East Melbourne - Richmond area, Melbourne, Victoria,: London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Hutchinson ,
      1973 .
      image of person or book cover 7974253208538461919.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Wikipedia Website
      Extent: 158p.
      Reprinted: 1988 With ISBN 0091574404 , 1996 With ISBN 0091574404
      ISBN: 0091176905
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1973 .
      image of person or book cover 8812899099647555242.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 160p.
      Edition info: A Puffin book.
      Description: map.
      Reprinted: 1975 , 2000 0141307293
      ISBN: 014030780X
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      McElderry Books ,
      1986 .
      image of person or book cover 1747515741206608342.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 184p.
      Description: map.
      ISBN: 0689504039
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Catnip Publishing ,
      2009 .
      image of person or book cover 8407464662488292869.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 190p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 13th May 2009
      ISBN: 9781846470769
Notes:
Illustrated version.
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Atheneum ,
      1974 .
      image of person or book cover 5241027504471800541.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 184p.
      Edition info: A Margaret K. McElderry book; [1st US ed.].
      Description: illus.
      Reprinted: 1986
      ISBN: 0689304323
    • Hawthorn, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Hutchinson Australia , 1988 .
      image of person or book cover 7043242105601614420.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 142p.
      Description: col. illus.
      Note/s:
      • Previously published without illustrations. Richmond, Vic. : Hutchinson, 1973; Ringwood, Vic. : Penguin, 1975.

        White copy inscribed by author.

      ISBN: 0091574404
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Puffin ,
      1988 .
      image of person or book cover 8485446610121471602.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 184p.
      Description: illus., [2]p. of plates.
      ISBN: 014030780X (pbk.)

Other Formats

  • Also braille and sound recording.

Works about this Work

Books That Changed Me : Andrew McGahan Andrew McGahan , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 20 July 2014; (p. 16)
Books That Changed Me : Catherine Jinks Catherine Jinks , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 24 February 2013; (p. 14)
Time and the Darkness : 40 Years of The Nargun and the Stars 2013 single work column
— Appears in: Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults , Winter vol. 21 no. 2 2013; (p. 14)
Crow Country : Treading Ambiguous Pathways Kate Constable , 2011 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 26 no. 4 2011; (p. 18-20)
Bush at Play Josephine Tovey , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2 January 2009; (p. 12)
Untitled Frances Kelly , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , March vol. 4 no. 1 1989; (p. 31)

— Review of The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson , 1973 single work children's fiction
Untitled Ernie Tucker , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: English in Australia , vol. 43 no. 3 2008; (p. 94-95)

— Review of The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson , 1973 single work children's fiction
Paperbacks Worth Checking Out Stephanie Lower , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: The Boston Globe , 21 August 1988;

— Review of The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson , 1973 single work children's fiction
Off and Away Eve Pownall , 1974 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , January no. 50 1974; (p. 23-28)

— Review of Wildfire Mavis Thorpe Clark , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Chinese Boy David Martin , 1973 single work novel ; The Flame Takers Lilith Norman , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Way Home Joan Phipson , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson , 1973 single work children's fiction
Untitled Patricia Milne , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , vol. 32 no. 4 1988; (p. 53)

— Review of The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson , 1973 single work children's fiction
At Home in Australia : The Changing Scene Continued... H. M. Saxby , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 47 no. 4 2003; (p. 8-13)
The author examines how the themes, genre and settings have changed in Australian children's literature throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century by examining works written in this period.
Patricia Wrightson : A Dreaming - Lilith Norman Talks About an Old Friend Lilith Norman , 1994 single work column
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 9 no. 5 1994; (p. 18-20)
Sources of Resilience: Australian Books for Children and Adolescents Don Pemberton , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 166-167)
Pemberton introduces six papers that critically engage with children's books in Australia and present a wide range of subjects and critical approaches. He briefly references the work of the aforementioned authors, quoting from Wrightson's Nargun and the Stars in recognition of the 'mythic potentialities' and 'immense challenge' of writing about what it means to be Australian (166). In this sense it is 'the image of the Australian child' and how this image is situated within and in relation to, the landscape that provides the focus for this issue of the periodical, drawing attention to how 'the dimensions of mythic distance in Australian children's literature are wide indeed' (167). For Pemberton, the authors and texts under discussion utilise 'the idiosyncrasies of Australian idiom, humour and candour' in ways that 'are testimony to a national resilience' and representative of 'the evolution of national identity' (166-67).
y separately published work icon The Responses of Early Adolescent, White Australian Readers to Selected Cross-Cultural Folklore-Based Fantasy Novels by Patricia Wrightson Barbara Joan Tobin , Ann Arbor : University Microfilms International , 1994 Z1524171 1994 single work thesis
Bush at Play Josephine Tovey , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2 January 2009; (p. 12)
Last amended 24 Aug 2021 06:10:15
X