Just So Stories

Penguin Australia

May 2024

• ISBN: 9781761340185
• Imprint: Puffin
• Format: Paperback
• RRP: $16.99

I have followed Deborah’s progress with this one for the duration of its development, and been eager to read it. And yayyy! it arrived the day before yesterday (27/3).

As it happens, I had done a day’s relief teaching in Christian Studies at my local Lutheran primary that same day, and most unusually, the teacher had left no plan. That wasn’t a problem. Easter was nigh, and there is always much material in that. I looked at the #2 Key Idea in the Lutheran Education CS framework which goes a bit like this: we express our spirituality in various ways both within and outside Christianity.

I put this in the context of the meaning of Easter but we focused on ‘How do we demonstrate spirituality here in the school?’ Very easy: crosses, bibles, chapel, prayer, lessons, etc. Then, ‘How do we demonstrate it outside the school – in our community, homes and so on?’. From Year 2 to Year 4, 7 classes all had the same initial response: showing kindness.

And then a whole lot of other suggestions like helping people, being respectful, encouraging, listening to our friends and more – which, all in all, totalled up to the first thought: showing kindness.

It’s easy enough for children to get this concept – our prayer was for adults to do the same, so maybe the world could become a better place. So, with that in mind, even though I was later to bed last night than usual, I took this with me intending to read a little, and, an hour later, had finished it.

It was moving and so utterly exquisite that it will have a place in my heart forever now. And here’s the thing. It’s a verse novel. I don’t really like verse novels. I don’t generally read them -and certainly not for pleasure. I can count on one hand those I’ve read to review (4 in fact), and I did enjoy those (otherwise I wouldn’t have reviewed them). But this magnificent middle grade novel captured me from the very first page.

Nicolette’s much-loved teacher, Ms Skye has set the class a task to create a Kindness Project. She organises the groups, and Nicolette, the shy and awkward loner with no friends, is put together with new boy, Leaf, along with D.J., class bully boy, and Layla, perfect and pretty, whom Nicolette would dearly love as a friend.

None of this bodes well for Nicolette. She is okay about Leaf as they have already sent out tiny tendrils of connection to each other, but the other two don’t even want to be in the same room, let alone same group.

Nicolette has a lot of worries. Apart from the Kindness Project and the group, she worries about her Nanna who is so unhappy in the nursing home. She worries about her mum not wanting to talk to Nanna any more. She misses her Grandpop and know that both Nanna and Mum do as well. After all, it’s been just the four of them her whole life.

She worries about Nanna’s dementia and whether she will forget Nicolette altogether. She worries that she will never have any friends. And the worries seem to pile on top of each other. As adults, certainly speaking for myself, I know this predicament only too well. Those wakeful nights with (what I call) squirrel brain, with our worries and concerns going around and around. How much harder for children who are only just learning how to regulate their emotions and develop strategies for quietening their anxieties?

For Nicolette, things seem to get worse until gradually, they’re not. Little by little, the group of four – so different, each with their own set of anxieties hidden carefully from the world – begin to bond, share their secret concerns and develop into a force with which to be reckoned. It is the most beautiful exploration of blossoming friendships and establishing of trust I have read in a long time.

I don’t want to give much of the plot away because this deserves to be read with your own fresh eyes. But it is Nicolette who provides the idea for their project to the others, always hesitant and unsure of herself, but they take it up and gradually, as one after another feels confident enough to reveal their carefully concealed concerns, they find themselves coalescing into one connected whole. And that whole then impacts on all those other worries, until almost all are smoothed out and put away. This is all so beautifully done – incredible writing, Deborah! – without any sense of pointedness, but rather moving naturally to a revelation.

One in 14 Australian children aged 4-17 experience an anxiety disorder. I live with one of those. I have had children as young as 7 in my class prescribed anti-depressants. The fact is that many children, just like adults, find it difficult to cope with stressors: Loss, serious illness, death of a loved one, violence, or abuse, for example. As educators and parents, we need to provide our Smalls and Not-so-Smalls with the scaffolding they need to handle their anxiety in positive ways.

If you are thinking this book sounds incredibly serious…yes, the themes and situations are serious: dementia, grief, breakdown of family, mental illness, feelings of abandonment, trauma, loneliness, hyper-anxiety. But there are also moments of levity as Deborah skilfully lightens the tension, e.g., Nanna and Nicolette referring to the nursing home as Alcatraz and plotting their escape (we called my Mum’s place the Nanny Prison, and taking her out for a day was always referred to as a ‘jail break’). Their ransacking of the op shop for silly dress-ups and the other fun in their escape are moments of pure joy. (As a gran who has the perfect partner-in-crime granddaughter living with me, this spoke to me very much, as we have a lot of fun together.).

I cannot praise this highly enough. Your astute readers from around ten years old will find so much to love about this, and connect deeply with these characters, all of whom become dear to the reader. And the addition of dynamic fonts and layout was an added bonus which will capture the interest of all readers. I will certainly be adding it to my ‘bibliotherapy backpack’ and recommending it to colleagues, including guidance officers and therapists.

There are some people who know that I first came across Deborah when she had just released her first book in the Max Remy series, and I was the newly installed Central and Branches Team Leader at Marrickville Library (long before it was as fancy as the new building is!). Having been charged with organising the first ever ‘expo’ for the library, it was exciting to have a brand new children’s author be part of that. I have followed her writing career with such pleasure ever since, and am so happy to be connected with her still, now over 20 years later.

Congratulations on this outstanding book baby Deb, I predict it will be on the awards lists in the coming year without any doubt. Pre-order it now folks, you don’t want to miss out on this one! Highly recommended, as you can tell, for kiddos from middle primary up to early secondary – 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 with no reservations at all.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation

There are many other resources for teaching kindness so please do a search and integrate some into your programs.