Just So Stories

EK Books

August 2023

ISBN: 9781922539380

RRP: $16.99

I’m fairly sure that at one time or another, we’ve all wished we had a magic wand to just ‘swish and flick’ to remove any obstacles, problems or annoyances. Somehow, I’d never pictured it as a magic pen though!

12-year-old Ruby is an inveterate cartoon-sketching kid, who can cleverly capture the essence of anyone or anything in her doodles. Her artistic ability comes from her father, who sadly died when she was just eight. In the intervening years, her mother has had no less than five boyfriends, and all of them losers. The current one, Dodgy Dave, is no less than a narcissist controlling not only her mother, but everything around him. He’s also a thoroughly bad egg in a criminal sense.

Thanks to him, Ruby is being sent to an interstate boarding school, where she fully expects to be utterly miserable. Her brief excursion to the local markets to try to sell some of her cartoons, the day before she leaves for the school, also results in her acquiring a shabby second-hand pen from a strange old man. To her utter astonishment, she quickly realises after her arrival at her ghastly new school, that her pen is imbued with a magic that causes her drawings to become reality, so when she is beset by bullies, both students and teachers, and trying situations, her cartooning quickly becomes her escape – and, more often, her retaliation.

Happily, she also manages to make some friends, and these are the bright spot in her new existence. But as events unfold, and it becomes apparent that both the horrible headmaster and Dodgy Dave are in cahoots over a very shady property deal, the petty squabbles between students become far outweighed. The problem is that Ruby has become far too fond of wielding her magic pen, and the power it gives her, and this, in turn, starts to alienate her from the the only true friends she’s made.

There’s a lot of absurd humour in this which readers will enjoy very much, and the villains are nasty enough to also be a hit. Underlying the humour are some deeper themes of ethics, family, friends, relationships and the abuse of power, which would provide some interesting discussions. Cherie Dignam’s illustrations are terrific with definite echoes (for me) of Ronald Searle, and perfectly suited to the content.

I think middle/upper students would enjoy this as well as a serial read-aloud. My only demur is the fact that Ruby’s mother, aside from the domestic abuse aspect which is not funny at all (though certainly another side to bullying), is on her 5th boyfriend in just four years since the father’s death, while completely ignoring her daughter’s grief and loss – which really paints this woman in an a very unattractive way. While grief affects different people in different ways this, I found, was very unappealing.

Overall though, this would certainly create not only interest with your less than keen readers, and it’s really pleasing to see a girl protagonist in a humorous novel, but offer up some potential for more serious conversations. Suggested for readers from Year 5 upwards.