1. Art motifs
2. Glossaries and vocabularies
3. Goannas
4. Grandmothers
5. Visual literacy

Girrawaa the goanna lives in the bush next to Grandma’s farm. His home is a large hollow branch in a tall dead tree. One day Grandma hears noise coming from her chicken house. What could be happening? Girrawaa is just about to reach the hen’s eggs! Grandma shoos Girrawaa away and when he determinedly advances on the eggs, Grandma gives him a smack on his tail! Over the fence Girrawaa ran! The chickens feel safe again and Girrawaa does not venture there again for some time. Typically these four books in the Grandma’s Farm series end with Grandma and the animals all living in harmony on the farm together. But we know that Girrawaa might return again one day.

The text is placed either on the left or right side of the double page spread. The illustrate opposite reveals Grandma’s farmhouse, her chicken house and the encounter between Grandma and Girrawaa, Each illustration is simply outlined and boldly coloured within an oval. Outside the oval illustration there is Aboriginal motif art that covers the remaining page.

There is a glossary of 11 Wiradjuri language words used in this story. These appear at the front of the book and at the bottom of each page when they appear in the story.

An autobiographical statement about Gloria Whalan is included in which she reveals she was part of the Stolen Generations. She was raised by her non-Indigenous grandmother and discovered at 49-years-of-age that she was of Wiradjuri descent from New South Wales.

Series title: Grandma’s Farm no 3

1. Black Ink Press website, Gloria Whalan https://blackinkpress.wixsite.com/blackinkpress/whalan-gloria
2. Black Ink Press, Grandma’s Farm Series by Aunty Gloria Whalan https://blackinkpress.wixsite.com/blackinkpress/3b---prep-year-1-grandmas-farm-serie
3. ABC Science, Goanna have ferocious appetites, but do they attack humans? 25 March 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8aAzU6JmTk
4. Active Wild, Goanna Facts, 27 October 2018 https://www.activewild.com/goanna-facts/
5. Central Art aboriginal art store, Goanna Dreaming (significance of goannas in Aboriginal Art and Dreaming) https://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/aboriginal-art-culture/aboriginal-dreamtime-stories/goanna-dreaming/