This cheeky tall tale about the Urandangi State School kids’ elaborate plot to win the North West Zone Sports Day in Mt Isa is told with an infectious sense of humour and dramatic action. Without a high jumper, the school’s chances of winning are jeopardised, and so the kids decide to train a goanna to jump. On the day, the amazing goanna, fueled by a diet of grasshoppers, clears seven metres, and wins the sports competition for the school. Sadly, however, goanna meets a sticky end after a spectacular leap over the Mt Isa smokestack staged for a local TV station. Disappointed but pragmatic, the Urandangi kids salvage the situation by declaring that that they will enjoy "a good feed of goanna.”
The children’s voices echo in repetitive phrases and in the use of natural speech throughout this funny, engaging story. Framed black ink lino-cut illustrations on variously coloured background washes add to the book’s charm.
Created by students from Urandangi, a remote community in southwest of Mt Isa, Queensland (near the Northern Territory border) with the assistance of author/illustrator Narelle Oliver and storyteller, Darnell Bellingham.
Series: Uupababa
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
