KICK IT TO ME is a delightful picture book for children that asserts Australian Rules Football was actually created by Aborigines, taught to an Australian sportsman, Tom Wills who eventually helped kick off the modern AFL game in Victoria in the late 1850s.
Author Neridah McMullin’s white boy character, Tom discovers the aboriginal game of Marn-grook and the book is wonderfully illustrated by Maleny artist Peter Hudson. Peter freely admits that drawing the highly athletic and loose-limbed aboriginal children playing Marn-grook was one of his greatest challenges.
Whether it’s on the ovals of Victorian schools or the scrubby outback of western Queensland the cry of “kick it to me!” has been heard down through the generations. This is a book that should be on your children’s bookshelves.
Kick It To Me – Neridah McMullin. Pub: One Day Hill www.onedayhill.com.au Available at Rosetta Books, Maple Street, Maleny
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