I would trust your uncles knowledge of the local fauna more than a generalized book personally. In a broader sense, he's not entirely wrong about all the sponge underside mushrooms - there isn't one I know of which can really kill you. Having said that, some might certainly give you gastrointestinal trouble.
The corals are really cool, right? They are, as far as I know, also not poisonous, though I've never eaten one. But I've also never found one that wasn't either old or surrounded by dog poop by chance.
I do hope it encourages you to explore fungi - I am very conservative on safety though, and so I personally always says identify but don't eat.
Yes you are right bout the "sponge" ones, but see the most of them found here are the really good ones-unfortunately I dont know their names in english but I do in german :)-anyways the " coral" looking ones are called Krause Glucke which means roughly translated curly broody hen lol and its a very tasty mushroom! the spongy ones we used to collect and ate fried in butter with a little flour coating or we would cut them up and dry them for soups and stews during the winter months-by the way those are sold here for as high as 40 Euros per kilogram (little less than 2 lbs) for fresh and a lots more for dried ones! My uncle would pickle some small type of mushroom also sweet/sour-delishous :) happy mushroom hunting :)