Gregg Dreise, Lethal Lizards (Scales and Tales), Magabala Books, September 2024, 32 pp., RRP $27.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922777294
This is Gregg Dreise’s second book in the ‘Scales and Tails’ series after his best-selling ‘Silly Birds’ books. Gregg Dreise is a descendant of the Kamilori and Euahlayi peoples of south-west Queensland and north-west NSW. His full colour, double-page illustrations offer a handsomely sensual picture book with many friendly looking Australian creatures such as the emu, kookaburra, echidna, platypus, and koala.
The story follows a creation myth from near the Narran Lakes in NSW. It features Biamme, an original man born of the stars, a motif common to many Indigenous creation stories. Biamme sets the pale goanna, skink and lizard on a path of colouring themselves through his ability to mix up a blue paste from a gift of berries. These creatures encounter some difficulties with menacing snakes, but manage to find ways to bring them round to assisting with giving them desert colours—and for the lizard the gift of a blue tongue.
The illustrations are dramatic, engaging and expressive throughout. The book would be a joy for early readers to encounter. The story itself opens up questions of how to deal with bullies and how to assert one’s identity in the face of hostility. While the commendable moral of the story might be predictable, the creativity and energy in the telling will leave a lasting impression.
Highly recommended for story-lovers from three to seven and beyond.
Reviewed by Kevin Brophy
