Shake a Leg

 This book is a quirky combination of Aboriginal folk tale, traditional dance and cookery class with a bit of language learning thrown in to help you pick up some Italian and Yarrabah. There is an original and quirky stance on presentation too, ringing the changes between pages in comic strip format, others with orthodox page setting, some with boxed captions, some with speech bubbles.

5 stars: The illustrations draw us in to the cultural heritage being narrated by Bertie. There’s a lightness of touch in the writing and it keeps the reader absorbed throughout, right to the superb end pages where strength of cultural identity and close-knit family ties come through exuberantly. The boys eat their pizza, get painted up with flour, water and tomato sauce and learn to dance, to warrima, to shake a leg. A super title.

A triumph of a story, illustration and design, in which Omerod's evocation of the movement, ancient mystery and vitality of the dances is remarkable.