The Pelican — Children's Books and White Pelicans

By Tina Nappe

Recently, I was meandering through the $1 books at Grassroots Books in Reno. I found Roald Dahl’s The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. I wondered whether other books might feature a white pelican, and found the three books and movie below that specifically feature white pelicans.

Saving Netty by Bruce Thomas — Published 2020

A little girl named Presley saves a white pelican at Old Hickory Lake outside Nashville, Tennessee, created by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1957 to provide hydroelectric power for the region.

The lake is home to many types of birds, fish, and other wildlife, and is a stopover point for migrating birds. Based on a true event.

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Storm Boy by Colin Thiele — Published 1964

Storm Boy rescues three young pelicans whose mother has been shot. He raises and releases them, but one of them, Mr. Percival, returns.

Set in the Coorong region of South Australia, the story is of their life together, the natural world, and “the cruelty of hunters.”

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The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl — Published 1985

Pelly, the pelican, along with Monkey, Giraffe, and Billy, the boy, set up a window-cleaning business. They catch a thief in the Duke’s home while they are cleaning, and are rewarded with their special foods — Billy’s being a sweet shop.

The pelican’s remarkable bill holds the water for window cleaning, grabs the thief, and carries Billy.

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Storm Boy — 1976 movie based on Colin Thiele's novel

Directed by Henri Safran, Storm Boy, the movie, focuses on one of the three white pelicans the boy rescues, his relationship with his father, and an Australian Aboriginal man named Fingerbone Bill. The film won multiple awards in 1977.

A second adaptation was released in 2019. The mother pelican is shot; the boy rescues three babies, releases them, and one returns. Storm Boy, an Aboriginal boy, faces white expectations and family values.