Phoenix

by Nan Hunt, Junko Morimoto

A young girl with failing eye-sight and facing a risky operation befriends a phoenix which is afraid of fire. The choices each has to make are difficult but this hardship creates great strength.

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 1997

About the author

Born as Nancy Louise Hunt, 16 September 1918 in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia.
Also writes as N.L. Ray

Reviews

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful children's story about the difficulties of making hard decisions.

Roli takes courage in her love for the Phoenix - and agrees to a potentially risky operation to improve her vision. The Phoenix on the other hand decides to embrace his fate and be reborn through fire.

I like that the final outcomes of these decisions are left hanging - you never learn if Roli's operation was a success, or about the rebirth of the Phoenix.

Junko's illustrations are interesting - in this book they consist primarily of cut-paper collages.

The introduction explains the Pheonix travelled from the Middle East to Australia because of the 1990-91 Gulf War - with images that strongly reminded me of a National Geographic article from the time The Persian Gulf: After the Storm from August 1991.