Just So Stories

Hachette Australia

July 2026

ISBN: 9780733654596

RRP: $16.99

I first knew Ashleigh’s work as a picture book creator, one who could create wonderful texts that not only engaged young readers but gave them portals into the larger world. Then along came her middle-grade novel How to Sail to Somewhere which so skilfully demonstrated that her talent as a writer is not confined to the picture book genre.

Now she has produced another sensational novel for your mid-primary/early secondary kiddos that confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt her absolutely outstanding ability as a writer across genres. I picked this up two nights ago and completely inhaled it over the two sessions.

If you think that words like grief, mortality, hospice are leaping out and giving you a vibe that this will be an intense read filled with drama and sadness, you could well be forgiven, in fact, it is without a doubt one of the most uplifting, hope-filled and moving reads of the year for me. I may have been a little teary but only because the beauty of the this gave me all the feels and the resolution was so perfect.

Ester Starr is always hyper-vigilant about germs, illness, danger, possible accidents, contamination, food-poisoning – you get the idea. Since the death of her father when she was just 8 and also losing her much-loved grandmother, Ester has essentially been expecting her own imminent demise and has become obsessive about preventing it at any cost.

That cost is an isolation that is not the medical kind. She finds herself on the outside of anything even resembling friendship. Avoiding people, avoiding invitations to join in has cost her the normal interactions a girl of her age would have through school or other activities. But things are changing.

When her mum, who works in a hospice, tells Ester that she needs to come to her work after school instead of a neighbour as usual, Ester is horrified. Surrounded by dying people? She already thinks it’s the most awful job her mother could do but for her to spend time there as well? That’s just an invitation for her to become infected – somehow. Her book of unanswerable questions – the ones she expects to find answers to in the afterlife – goes with her homework and, reluctantly with all trepidation, starts at the new arrangement.

What she doesn’t expect is that one old lady, Joan, and one young boy, Peter, also doing his homework in the hospice common room would become so invested in her questions. Not only does she find commonality with these two people but also becomes intrigued herself by Joan’s own wondering: where is her sister, Winnie, from whom she’s been estranged for decades? How can she find her again to say goodbye before she dies?

And, at the very same time, the new family next door produces the irrepressible and exuberant, Mackenzie, who will be Ester’s friend by hook or by crook – no taking no for an answer. And, as it happens, Mack is a self-styled detective so she’s just the person to investigate Joan’s past life with the circus, find Winnie and uncover the truth, dragging a reluctant and anxiety-ridden Ester along with her.

The two girls slowly but surely track down clues and people, reports and news, in their quest for Winnie and along the way Ester begins to shed her many phobias and fears until she realises that her mother’s answer, as to why she works in a hospice, is the best guide after all – working with the dying makes one all the more determined to live life to the full. Ester’s newfound friendships and joy in living provide exactly the right healing for her losses and grief, including the most recent.

While there are big emotions a-plenty throughout, the leavening of the intensity with humour, particularly Mack and her larger-than-life personality, provides a beautiful balance of these. Those important themes of loss, grief, anxiety, mortality are deftly handled and paired with hope, joy, empathy and kindness. Ester’s character arc is handled with such skill as we see her gentle but sure transformation. There is never a second that this becomes trite or mawkish, it is always essentially authentic and the reader cannot help becoming fully immersed in the plot and, most definitely, liking these characters – even the irascible ones.

I could not love this book more. In fact, the minute I finished reading it I had to message Ashleigh to tell her so. There have been a lot of books this year, I can assure you, but I am pretty confident that this one has shot to the top of my best MG list for the year and that’s a tough call as there’s been some outstanding titles in this genre so far. I am also confident that this will be coming up on awards lists with regularity so get it on your orders list now and trust me, you will need more than one copy! It gets a fully sanitised big-top 5 🎪🎪🎪🎪🎪 for readers from year 4 to Year 7/8.