It shoots off to the right and racing after it, they’re jostling and laughing and pushing each other trying to be the first to pick up the ball.
When cricket season ends, Tom is desolate. What will he do with himself with no cricket to play? Luckily, his friend Jirra, from the Djab Wurrung tribe, has an idea. Jirra will teach him to play a fun game that he and his friends love to play – Marn-grook. Soon, Tom is happy again as he plays the game of kicking and catching with Jirra and his friends.
Kick it to Me offers the story of the origins of Australian Rules football. Tom Wills, the boy in the story, was a key figure in the development of the sport now known as Australian Rules football, drawing on the game he learned from his Aboriginal friends as a child. The fictionalised story of Tom’s childhood is complemented by back of book notes, as well as a foreword by Collingwood President and television personality Eddie McGuire.
In hard cover picture book format with illustrations by Peter Hudson, this story of the origins of our national sport has been released just in time for the new footy season.
Kick it to Me, by Neridah McMullin & Peter Hudson
One Day Hill, 2011
ISBN 9780980794861
This book is available in good bookstores, or online from Fishpond.