Just So Stories

Hachette Australia

Imprint: Lothian

September 2024

| 9780734422163 | RRP $24.99

Tony Armstrong is arguably the hottest First Nations entertainer/actor/celebrity of recent times – he certainly dazzled at the 2024 Logies despite missing out on the Gold and has had a varied, but highly successful career, from football to breakfast TV to Extra-ordinary Things to a forthcoming new gig, rumoured to hit our screens in 2025.

It was no surprise to quite a few that, like so many others in the Australian entertainment scene, whether actually writing or simply branding [so many!] he should try his hand at kids’ lit. Given his very clear stance on advocacy for First Nations people and culture, this proud Gamilaroi man might be expected to produce a book squarely aimed at mob kids, but this one spreads its message to all kids who are struggling to find their strengths and, also, to find friends.

We’ve all had them in our classrooms – and more often, hanging in our libraries at breaktimes. Sometimes, it just takes a little nudge by someone else to get the friendship ball rolling. So it is with George, who has some very nifty magic and a lovely place to live but is lonely. He wants friends but really doesn’t know how to find them.

This is where Harriet comes into the picture. She lives in a nearby village and is also magical and she attunes to George’s wishes for a friend. [She’s also clearly an Ally as we can see by the Aboriginal flag on her tote bag]. When Harriet coaxes George (after some persuasion) to come to her village to meet people, they find the place under attack and George realises that he will need to use his magic to repel the ferocious dragon threatening everyone. Unsurprisingly, the village is saved and George realises that both he and his magic are quite easily accepted by all.

George’s dark skin, pink hair, gold hoop earring, and wizardish clothes are no barrier to making friends in Harriet’s village where the inhabitants are of all colours, sizes and indeed species. The text is pretty simple and enlivened by colourful font accents and the illustrations are bright and cartoonish enough to appeal to young readers.

There are some (fairly generic) teaching notes but an astute educator will be able to draw more out of this book in circle time discussions about friendship and accepting others without these. I can see it will have the greatest appeal for Smalls from around Prep to Year 2 and I’m giving it a 3 🧙🧙🧙🧙 rating.