Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia
November 2023

• ISBN: 9780063051546
• ISBN 10: 0063051540
• Imprint: HarperCollins US
• RRP: $16.99

This author is completely new to me, but by all accounts very well-known and highly thought of in America where she is a novelist and TV writer. This is her first middle-grade book and completely captivated me from the first page.

Set in the fictional island nation of Mariposa, protagonist Muki Krishnan has been coasting along in life quite well. His parents might not be rich but their shop does well enough, and Muki has a scholarship – along with two of his neighbourhood friends – to the upmarket Marble Hill Prep in the ‘other’ part of town.

He pretty much is invisible at school, and that suits him just fine, so really all is good. Well, it would be, except for having to share his bedroom with Paati, his Indian grandmother, who has come to Mariposa supposedly to help look after Muki as his parents are just so busy with the shop.

The truth of it is that Paati, with her early morning yoga, annoying snoring and quirky traditional habits has come, as the rise in xenophobia on Mariposa, fuelled by their President, begins to divide residents into ‘Butterflies’ and ‘Moths’ – the one being Mariposans of three generations, the other being more recently arrived immigrants – expressly to be there for Muki, in case anything happens to his parents. The revolution is coming.

Muki’s parents and others have been aware of this growing resentful prejudice for some time, and are ready to mount a resistance to the proposals that the immigrants be relocated (not repatriated but taken to trade partner countries). It takes Muki quite some time to unravel all the ramifications of the incipient revolution, but when he and his friends finally understand it all, they too are ready to fight for their rights.

When Paati and the other ‘Elder Moths’ are rounded up, it is the spark that lights a fuse. The revolution begins in earnest, engineered to a great extent by Muki and his friends, and their determination. It is a surprising and dramatic adventure that involves unlikely sympathisers, accidental discoveries, shocking treachery and resolute bravery.

With so much that is similar in both history and current world events, this is a novel that would be a timely and important shared reading experience for classes from around Year 5 to Year 7. 

Our readers know injustice when they see it, and it is our duty to help empower them to stand up and protect both their own selves, as well as those who cannot speak for themselves. It is a terrific read and has so much to offer, I highly recommend it to you for readers from around 10 upwards.