These rhymes were born on frequent journeys along the highways of Australia, touring with various theatrical productions. Their author, Patricia Vivian-Lall, amused herself by oberserving strange and different place-names, and composing rhymes about them for her children. There are no Australian nursery, or nonsense rhymes to capture a child's innate love of playing with words, sounds and rhymes, so, she thought if fun with rhymes could also be related to the environment, with visual humor, meanings of names and a map, they would be more relevant and could lay an educational foundation that could be acquired painlessly and make learning fun. Many of these fascinating names reflect the language and culture of the first Australians, the Koori people, and the rich and descriptive meanings of the names are included, thus expanding the child's horizons, also a knowledge and understanding of "differences" can be gained and appreciated. This "building of bridges" could be valuable in later life.

The delightfully humorous, elegant illustrations, painted on silk by Brenda Nelson, depict the environment of each rhyme, and character of animal, bird and human personalities. In each one, they leap off the page and out to the reader with a lively and instantaneous impact, loveable and endearing. The map is included as an early orientation exercise, giving the child an overview of the shape of Australia and an idea of where each place is in relation to themselves and others. There is fun for children living in other countries, who may be coming to Australia, or receive this book as a souvenir of a recent visit to the Antipodes. Whatever the reason, a need was seen which, hopefully, this book will fulfil.


Many of the pages have an optional “Paint Me” feature for children to finger paint the pages and create their own custom version of the book.


Additional features: Professional voice over, table of contents control to navigate easily through the book and an audio on/off control.