How to be…the new person
Written by Anna Branford
Walker Books Australia 2022

The introduction threw me at first. I’m not keen about kids on YouTube and the premise of the story is about a girl who secretly creates ‘How to’ YouTube videos in her mind. It is her coping strategy. Thankfully I read on. The book is so much more than a grab at engaging non-readers who are obsessed with the internet. This is a book with themes of friendship, bullying and courage. It is what might be classified as a ‘High interest, Low challenge’ text because it is pitched perfectly for a tween readership in content, however, it is a short 17 chapter read with large font and non-challenging vocabulary.

Hazel Morrison, the protagonist of the story is being forced to move house and change school because of something dramatic that is happening in her older sister’s life. The story hints at bullying and harassment without going into detail, and Hazel finds herself getting lost in the shadows of her sister’s drama. She must leave the school and best friend that she loves, and start fresh in a new neighbourhood. Everyone thinks that Hazel is made of ‘tough stuff’ and forgets to ask how she is feeling about all of the changes. When she starts at the new school, fitting in is not a smooth process and Hazel finds it difficult to make friends.

The story concludes with examples of characters speaking up and supporting each other, allowing Hazel to finally settle in to her new life.
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Anna Branford is an Australian author and creator.

If the world were 100 animals
Written by Miranda Smith
Illustrated by Aaron Cushley
Red Shed 2022

I was really excited when I began reading this book and an immediate desire to teach maths overcame me. Maths? You might ask- but why? Well Miranda Smith and Aaron Cushley do something really clever in this non-fiction picture story book about animals. The whole book is a beautifully illustrated lesson in animal classification (so I’m keen to teach some science lessons too- and that’s from a self-proclaimed science novice!), however, the way that it helps young minds to imagine these classifications for over “20 billion billion animals all over the world” is through the introduction of percentages. Initially, the book demonstrates how, if we were to imagine only 100 animals in the world, we could understand that 6 of them would be vertebrates and the other 94 would be invertebrates. It then goes on to further classify the vertebrates into birds, amphibians and fish, again breaking these into percentages by asking the reader to image only 100 vertebrates. And the classifications become more intricate and detailed as the book continues.

Illustrator, Aaron Cushley, has created stunning colourful images of the animals in their classifications. The engaging visuals, intriguing facts and ingenious structure make this book perfect for a vast age range starting from 6 to around 12 years, and a wonderful teaching resource for maths, science, reading and writing (and probably plenty more!).