Shake a Leg - Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod

Winner of the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards (children's fiction)

A unique picture book collaboration about having fun, sharing culture and the power of story and dance. A picture book to get the whole town dancing.

From pizza shop to bora ground, here is a joyous celebration of food, dance and cultural understanding.

When three young boys go to a pizza parlour and meet an Aboriginal chef who can speak Italian and make a deadly pizza, they're in for a surprise!

All you fellas watching, come up, join in, warrima.
Clap your hands, little ones.
Stamp your feet, nannas.
Get down and dance, you smart young things, mummas and daddas.
Let's get the whole town dancing!

Boori Monty Pryor is a storyteller, dancer, writer and educator, and Jan Ormerod is an internationally acclaimed picture-book author and illustrator. This glorious book is the first one they have cooked up together.

Biography

Boori Monty Pryor was born in North Queensland. His father is from the Birrigubba of the Bowen region and his mother from Yarrabah (near Cairns), a descendant of the Kungganji and Kukuimudji. Boori has worked in film, television, modelling, sport, music and theatre-in-education. He has written several award-winning books with Meme McDonald including Maybe Tomorrow, My Girragundji, The Binna Binna Man and Njunjul the Sun. His stories are about finding strength within to deal with the challenges without, and his skill is to create positive visions of the future for both Indigenous and white people.

Jan Ormerod grew up in Western Australia, and as a child she was constantly drawing. After becoming a mother, Jan turned to children's book illustration. Her first book, Sunshine, won awards around the world. She has since had over 50 books published, including Moonlight, Lizzie Nonsense and Water Witcher.

Judges' Comments

When three boys go into a pizza shop in far north Queensland they get much more than just a meal. For there they meet a pizza-maker, an Aboriginal man, who reveals not only the secrets of great pizza – but the stories that he draws upon for inspiration. Shake a Leg seamlessly marries cultures in ways that are unexpected, humorous and revealing. This picture book introduces three traditional dances and the stories that inspired them. These dances are shown to be part of a living culture and Jan Ormerod's images elegantly capture the dancers' movement, power and grace. Writer Boori Monty Pryor is of the Birri-gubba and Kunggandji Nations, from far north Queensland. His life as a storyteller, dancer, actor and writer richly informs Shake a Leg, an extraordinary partnership with Jan Ormerod, the Western Australian born and internationally acclaimed illustrator. Ormerod's page designs deftly blend graphic novel and picture book formats, reflecting the theme of diversity and oneness that is at the heart of this big-hearted and original story. Shake a Leg is a book of enduring pleasure and reward, challenging the boundaries of culture, and of what a picture book can be.