In the Yidinji language of North Queensland Jumbun, or Jumboon means witchetty grub.
The story of Stanley, a little Jumbun who wants a quiet life, is told with effortless humour and playfulness. Stanley just wants to curl up in his neat, clean log and just get on with being a grub. His friend Chubbs however is a wanderer. Stay-at-home-Stanley and his very neat home inside a log soon attract passing interest. A scrub turkey and then a bull ant would love to make it their home, and when a scrub python arrives Stanley knows it’s high time to move on. Thankfully Chubbs is nearby, lounging on a leaf in the lake. ‘…all work and no play makes a very dull Jumbun’, says Chubbs. He impresses upon Stanley that ‘You must share your dwellings with every creature in the rainforest!’ Jumbuns, he says, were made to move on. This highly engaging picture book takes the reader on a walk through a rain forest, all at bug-eye level! Quite subtly we learn about interdependence and the web of life that is at the heart of all ecological systems.
Key words and characters – log, scrub turkey, scrub python, bull ant, leaf and spiders – all appear not as the word but as an image in the text. This use of the Rebus story device undercuts any didactic aspects. The effect is to make the reader more alert and focused on noticing details in the full-page colour illustrations opposite each page of text. The reader learns simple things about some rainforest creatures through story and play
Narelle McRobbie is of Pacific Island and Aboriginal descent from the Nadjan people through her mother and the Yidinji people through her father. Grace Fielding was raised at the Wandering Mission south east of Perth, Western Australia. She lived in Broome for many years where she is well known for her unique style of art and fabric printing, combining traditional dot art with contemporary images. Grace has won the Crichton Award for Illustration, and the WA Premier's Children's Book Award.
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Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
