Shake A Leg

Boori Monty Pryor (author)

Jan Ormerod (illustrator)

Allen&Unwin, Australia: 2010

ISBN: 9781741758900

Genres: graphic novel; realistic fiction

Issues: differences, indigenous culture, perspectives

Three boys go in search of pizza and find a meal that challenges their perceptions and teaches them about cultural change and integration, ending in a joyful warrima. The aboriginal man who makes their pizza spent two years in Italy learning his craft. Through food, stories and song he teaches the boys that cultures change and grow; that ancient traditions are important but new learning and skills can be absorbed without diminishing what has gone before. An aboriginal is not always ‘standing on one leg, leaning on a spear, looking for emu' but, like most people, is someone who has to make a living, find a career, raise a family, pay bills.

 Boori Pryor (My Girragundji) is a gifted storyteller who has a great capacity to communicate a positive vision of a future for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians; an inclusive future where individuals take personal responsibility and are open-hearted in their desire to understand and work together with respect for cultural differences. Jan Ormerod's illustrations skillfully interweave the modern and traditional settings and activities as well as capturing the humour that is part of Pryor's talent as a storyteller.