Just So Stories

Ford St Publishing

June 2023

ISBN: 9781922696274

RRP: $19.99

Andy Lightfoot’s gap year takes him deep into the past – at the old
and weirdly wonderful Rainbow Trout Private Hotel. Here, high in the
mountains, Andy discovers working for nothing gives him everything
. . . and that the middle of nowhere is the centre of an amazing
universe, filled with individuals of sheer brilliance.

It gave me the greatest pleasure to be asked to write teaching notes for this sensational new novel from David Metzenthen, whose writing I have long admired.

From the first page to the last, I was in love with the characters and the setting. If I had to liken it to something in terms of quirkiness and fabulous characterisations, I would suggest Northern Exposure (for those of us of a certain age) – a rather remote location, a cast of assorted, odd and distinctive characters and a plot that unravels with ease but completely and utterly intrigues the reader.

Andy sort of accidentally lands on the Rainbow Trout Hotel, and accepts the offer of a job with no pay because it does offer a roof and food. A hotel in the Alpine region ostensibly run by a tween girl but also inhabited by her brothers and mother with an enigmatic ‘help’ plus, naturally, rather interesting guests seems an unlikely place for anyone to have an epiphany or a rite of passage, but that’s exactly what happens with Andy.

I honestly just enjoyed this so much and the entire narrative is such fertile ground for extended English, I was mentally building an entire unit of work around it. SO refreshing and so different to those tired old ‘classics’ still bogging down poor long-suffering secondary students.

This has fresh perspectives, engaging characters and a killer plot with great twists and turns. I highly recommend it for your library collection but I would strongly urge you to promote this to your English HoD. It would be perfect for kids from Year 7-9 as a set novel. And just look at these really useful teaching notes!! 😉