Harper Collins Australia
Imprint: HarperCollins AU
July 2026
Series: Amira Swift
RRP: $15.99
Talent Show
ISBN: 9781460766675
Fair Day Fun
ISBN: 9781460766682
And here comes another new series for your younger readers who, I predict, will fall in love with Amira, her family and her friends along with her everyday adventures. This is just delightful as it embraces not only a multicultural Australia but a multicultural family!
Amira’s mum is Lebanese, her dad is not – so there’s a delicious blending here which will give kiddos insight into that experience to which, no doubt, some of them will also make connections to self. Amira is in Year 1 at St Joan of Arc school, she has friends also from different cultures and she loves to dance, and has only just started dancing lessons.
In book #1 Amira and her friends decide to enter the school talent show but Amira’s attempts to teach Ellie and Naya a routine end up in near disaster as she comes across as too bossy and demanding and her two friends become very disenchanted. Amira learns a valuable lesson in how precious friendships are and that sometimes no matter what our own vision is, we need to modify it for the sake of others.
In #2 Amira’s quandary is that while all her friends are bringing foods typical of their culture for the class food stall, she is from two cultures? Which one she should choose to represent? This is especially difficult as she loves to cook with both her grandmothers who want to share their favourite family recipes. She can’t possibly choose one and not the other – so what is the solution? A compromise can usually be worked out, as Smalls will discover as they read.
All in all, these are incredibly valuable for those burgeoning readers of first chapter books with simple plot lines that contain valuable themes, relatable incidents so plenty of opportunity of text-to-self connections and extremely likeable characters. Sarah Ayoub has deftly created a very authentic set of characters and events which are ably enlivened by Nina Nill’s plentiful illustrations. I had real pleasure in creating some ideas for classroom use around this series.
A winning choice for your enthusiastic kiddos from year 1 upwards with my 5 👧🏽🩰🎒🥄🎪rating.
Just So Stories 
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