Just So Stories

UQP

June 2025

9780702269028

A$16.99

If you’re looking for a character-driven middle grade novel to explore characterisation, and particularly, introduce the literary concepts of archetypes and tropes, this would be a good choice.

You could very easily use this as a class serial read and then unpack these points and the accompanying themes with a class, who will easily recognise the various ‘types’ included in the cast. There’s the well-off snobby city girl who talks up big, hiding her hurt and insecurity. There’s the small-town girl, a little on the innocent side, who has talent, ambition, self-belief but feels a little like a fish out of water. The rivalry between these two, the one with her posh flute, the other with her humble recorder, drives much of the plot. There’s the quirky girl who is, quite likely, ASD we can infer but is very bright and more than able to handle the nuances of the group around her, and her cousin, the girl who appears to be crazier about boys and her horses, more so than her music.

There are also, of course, boys because music camps are not confined to girls. The most notable are the smooth talker who presents as the popular guy (but is actually heartily disliked in his own school), and the clown, who likes to joke around.

Then there’s the adults: the cool, kind and intuitive young female teacher and the straight-down-the-line male teacher (they, we can assume, if not an item already, will be).

And into this mix of camp chaos and interactions, there’s some flooding (more flooding really) which leads to a final huge emphasis on climate change, and the need to be proactive about this issue.

There’s some positivity as the book concludes around better acceptance of others, putting oneself in another person’s shoes, kindness and cooperation which could also be useful in your Social and Personal Capabilities program.

Teaching notes are extensive and will need cherry-picking. I would definitely be focusing on character attributes, archetypes and having some fun with character autopsies activities. It gets a 3 🎵🎵🎵 for around Year 4-6.