Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

July 2023

Olive of Groves (Olive of Groves #1)

• ISBN: 9780733342615
• ISBN 10: 0733342612
• Imprint: ABC Books AU

Olive of Groves and the Great Slurp of Time(Olive of Groves #2)

• ISBN: 9780733342646
• ISBN 10: 0733342647
• Imprint: ABC Books AU

Olive of Groves and the Right Royal Romp (Olive of Groves #3)

• ISBN: 9780733342622
• ISBN 10: 0733342620
• Imprint: ABC Books AU

Here comes one of the most popular series I’ve had in my primary libraries, all dressed up in delectable new paperback bindings, and though the kids have never stopped borrowing them, the old copies are starting to look a little shabby – so this gorgeous and PRETTY new set is going to go like hotcakes I foresee.

If you’re never met Olive (really?), you are in for a treat. These stories are hilarious, sweet and quirky, and deliver some wonderful messages to young readers about friendships, loyalty, standing up for what is right, truthfulness, imagination and using one’s wits.

There is plenty of absurdist humour at play here – after all, one would expect that in a school for talking animals, circus performers and naughty boys. Olive has been sent to Groves boarding school, in mistake, by her grandparents who want her to have the company of other children, and who believe, by virtue of a soggy flyer in their letterbox, that Groves is a quite ordinary school.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is so extraordinary, that muddle-headed and inefficient headmistress, Mrs Groves, is determined not to have Olive in the school because she is ‘just an ordinary girl’.

Of course, Olive is just an ordinary girl, but within a short time of her arrival at Groves, she has proven that she has extraordinary gifts of kindness, compassion, ingenuity, determination and a very developed sense of justice.

Be it rescuing her friends from kidnapping, travelling through time, trying to ensure that a royal visit will run smoothly and the school will not close – all at the same time as the continual battle to forestall the Dirty Swine, Pig McKenzie, Olive is the hero for all. She is smart, capable and practical, with a loving heart and big ideas that work, when everyone pulls together.

The Girl Who Brought Mischief

Winner of the 2014 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature

A Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Notable Book

• ISBN: 9780733342899
• ISBN 10: 0733342892
• Imprint: ABC Books AU

I don’t know how it comes about that I had not read this before, but I’m thinking that when it was first published I was (I think) not actually in a primary library (it was my corporate phase). For whatever reason, it had slipped under my radar, but it is just a delight from start to finish.

There are definite overtones of Anne of Green Gables, and Heidi when Inge Maria arrives on the tiny and isolated island of Bornholm, to live with her grandmother, after her mother dies. Unlike our situation in the same circumstances, when The Kid had spent a great deal of her life with me before we lost her mum, Inge does not know her granny at all, and her wretched grief is intensified by the coldness of the ‘welcome’ she receives.

But this is one irrepressible and endearing little girl, who tries very hard to be good, yet always seems to end up in a pickle of mischief. But her antics are never naughty or mean-spirited, and they prove to be just the wake-up tonic that the staid, elderly residents of Bornholm need.

As Inge comes to terms with her loss, and learns to love her grandmother, who softens daily under the child’s natural warmth and grace, she creates bonds of friendship among her new neighbours, and helps to rescue another orphan, just like herself. It is such a fun story that I read it one easy sitting, but there are still those important themes woven throughout: grief, not judging by appearances, found family, adapting to new situations, humour and compassion. There is a beautiful use of language in this which puts it into a very useful bracket for a class novel, particularly for your year 3/4 kiddos.

Your readers from 8 upwards will greatly enjoy these stories and this will be a good time to introduce them to a whole new audience. Highly recommended for all your MG readers – truly one of our great and most versatile writers for kiddos.