Boomerang Hunter

by Jim Kjelgaard

This strange story might have taken place a few years or a few thousand years ago.
Balulu is an Australian aborigine. He is a desert hunter whose life is an endless search for food and water. He has never worn clothing, never heard of a building, never seen any humans except other wandering tribesmen. Everything he owns he has made himself and can carry with him: his curved boomerangs and long spears, his throwing stick and implements for making fire.
Yet Balulu has other possessions: a hunter's keen senses and tireless endurance, vast knowledge and understanding of animals, the ability to find his way across unmarked desert. Best of all, he has the friendship and loyalty of Warrigal, the big, red-furred dingo he has tamed.
This is the adventurous saga of Balulu and the dog-like dingo. As in Fire-Hunter nad Wild Trek, jim Kjelgaard makes the ever-appealing theme of primitive wilderness survival come to vivid life.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult

171 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

an American author of young adult literature.

Born in New York City, New York, Jim Kjelgaard is the author of more than forty novels, the most famous of which is 1945's "Big Red." It sold 225,000 copies by 1956 and was made into a 1962 Walt Disney film with the same title, Big Red. His books were primarily about dogs and wild animals, often with animal protagonists and told from the animal's point of view.

Jim Kjelgaard committed suicide in 1959, after suffering for several years from chronic pain and depression.
- Wikipedia -

Reviews

[Stephen Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like stories of natives roughing it in the wild, then you may like this book more than I did. He has with him his trusty Dingo, and saves his companion from being eaten like other companion dingo's of the tribe when there is a drought. The story is of him on a quest to find better hunting grounds. Here is a passage from the book:

'The last survivor of the Dingo Totem in his tribe, he had even been denied the morsel of meat, that might have been his share when the Desert People started eating their tame dingoes. Wild or tame, Balulu could neither kill nor eat a dingo, for they were his sworn brothers and in the body of one of them lived his other self. If he killed a dingo it was even possible that he would be killing himself, for if his life had no place to go when it took leave of his body, it must perish too.'

One of my goals is to read all of Jim Kjelgaard's dog books, and this one is close enough to check the box toward that goal.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful and fast read. Enjoyed it when I was in middle school. Still good.

[Norm S · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars

I read Jim Kjelgaard books in Junior High about 60 years ago. Loved Snow Dog, Wild Trek, and especially Fire Hunter. I had never read this one, although not nearly as good as "Fire Hunter" it still gets 5 Stars. Kjelgaard was definitely a gifted story teller.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book fuckin slaps just read it i promise its good

[Michael Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love all of Jim Kjelgaard's books. This was no exception!

[Eliatan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A promising start and then it was all over, but a fun little read regardless.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another early humankind book. Also quite good.