The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy

"... we know Dr Ben certainly isn't perfect - we all know he has a nasty temper. 

He doesn't lose it often, but when he does watch out."

This is such a powerful story, but my descriptions might surprise you. All through the story I wanted Fern to fail. I know that sounds very strange, but she and her mother have fled the cult where Fern has lived since she was just six years old. Fern has of course been totally indoctrinated by the cult leader but readers aged 12+ are sure to insights that go beyond the way Fern sees her former life.

Opening sentence: "Before we came to live at the Ranch, Mom and I were like tumbleweeds."

Early on in the story there are hints that the leader of this place - Dr Ben - is all about control. The girls and women are all sitting in room knitting. Fern is watching her friend Meadowlark struggling with this task. When Dr Ben walks into the room everyone falls silent. 

"He drops in like this occasionally. It's never on a schedule - sometimes he'll surprise us twice in three days; other times he won't come around for months ... I'm not the only one who's nervous. I see a flash of eyes all around me, the tucking of hair behind ears and shifting of bodies."

"Everything we have - everything The Ranch provides us - is because of him. ... And as long as you live up to his ideals, life is beautiful. It all makes sense."

Dr Ben has come to summon Fern to his office. Once there he tells her it is time for her rite. He also says she should 'prepare for the unexpected.'

"After your rite, you're considered an adult, and you're entrusted with a lot more responsibility. Most of the time it happens around the spring equinox of the year you turn fifteen. But I don't even turn thirteen for another six months."

Every part of the conversation between Dr Ben and Fern feels like a manipulation. As a reader I found him very sinister right from the beginning. Something is very wrong here - he is asking her to do the rite when she is so young. The last time some kids were sent to do their rite a boy named Rain died. You will also read that Fern's mum has been put on a water diet so she can refocus her thinking. 

Have you noticed these names - Fern, Meadowlark, Rain and mum's name is Magnolia (real name Jamie Silvana) - yes everyone has changed their name when they joined this cult. 

"Choosing a new name - one that reflects the beauty of nature - is something everyone does at the Ranch. For your first few months you aren't called anything at all. Dr Ben says it's so you can 'readjust your self-perception' ... to strip yourself of your old identity entirely, so you can commit yourself to a new one. ... I'm not sure how the name 'Dr Ben' relates to something in nature, but I'm sure it does. I've always been too nervous to ask, because I bet it's short for something obvious, and I'd feel stupid once it was explained to me."

I do need to say Fern does not even know the word cult let alone have any understanding of what this means. That word is not mentioned until page 242. When she and her mother escape and re-enter the 'real world' there is so much that Fern (her real name is Frankie) has to learn. The children don't go to a regular school at The Ranch. It's purpose is to raise:

"A generation who will understand how to live in harmony with the land. How to be ready to survive the fallout of war, climate change, of disaster. I do not take this responsibility lightly. Because it's coming, sooner than society thinks. And to survive you need to be tough. You need to go through the gauntlet of hardship and come out the other side stronger."

Think about all the things Fern might not know - computers, American history, money, the enjoyment of reading a fiction story, sweet treats like croissants, and that television is not dangerous. She also encounters lots of new words such as Amish, VIP, tag sale, marzipan, and bewildered. Thank goodness for Fern's new friend Eddie, for her wonderful science teacher and for library books and helpful librarians. 

When Fern and her mother reach the other side of America, Fern begins to plan their return. In her mind life at the Ranch was good and that is the place where she felt cared for and supported.  She knows there are no mobile phones (not true) at the Ranch and no computers so she decides she should write a letter to Dr Ben. The post office lady cannot help and of course stamps and envelopes require money. Then she realises she does not have an address. She is enrolled at school and another student reluctantly shows her how to search the internet. Fern finds the name of a local private detective but when she visits his office he asks for $300. How can Fern raise that much money? Luckily Mum didn't pick this town by chance - she knows a lady who lives there. Bab's is so kind. She offers Fern a job clearing out the old rooms above her tearooms. But all of this takes time. Fern is in a rush to get back to the Ranch but this time allows her to grow in her realisation that perhaps life was not quite so perfect and that Dr Ben was not trustworthy - but then she does post that letter, and her world comes tumbling down. I think I held my breath through the final chapters of this book I was so worried about Fern.

I sometimes wish I could have read a book for kids that I’ve encountered today as a child myself. This is one of those books. At what point does the average reader figure out that Fern may be in the wrong? When do their loyalties switch to the mom? Do they ever? While the adults amongst us are screaming “DON’T GET IN THAT VAN!” at the book, do kid readers feel the same way? I can’t help but think that this book would be an amazing bookclub read with children. Their reactions would be incredible.  ... Fuse8 Betsy Bird - please read her whole review!

Betsy also says: It’s a cleverly written and supremely literary story, while also remaining pretty gripping in its telling. Trust me, you won’t know what hit you after you finish it.   

A strong, emotionally intelligent story. Kirkus Star review

The Wrong Way Home is an unforgettable, propulsive story of a girl learning to trust her inner voice. With a fresh premise, compelling characters, and an atmospheric setting, this book is impossible to put down. It tackles cults, a rarely mentioned subject in children’s literature, with age-appropriate sensitivity and is sure to spark plenty of discussion in and out of the classroom. Reading Middle Grade

I learnt a new word in this book 'kasha' - it is a type of buckwheat.

Here is an interview with the author Kate O'Shaughnessy (note this page is full of advertising). And here is her web page where you can find her other books. 

Publisher blurb: Twelve-year-old Fern believes she's living a noble life--but what if everything she's been told is a lie?  This is a huge-hearted story about a girl learning to question everything—and to trust in herself. Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch's leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn't believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving. Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern can think only of how to get home. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place—the library, a friend from school, the ocean—and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just...not true. Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?

I read an ebook copy of The Wrong Way Home. Here in Australia this book will be available in June [9780593650769]. Watch this video where Colby Sharp talks about his reaction to this amazing book. The wrong way home is a 2025 Newbery Honour book. 

The most obvious companion book in my view is this very old Australian title:

People might Hear You

The Peach Thief by Linda Joan Smith

This was no place for a girl. And the longer she was here? 

The sooner they’d see that’s exactly what she was

Knowing I was travelling for over five hours on public transport yesterday I decided to add a few more books to my Kindle library. I started and ended the day reading the whole of The Peach Thief (384 pages) - such an engrossing story although at times the anticipation that something utterly dreadful was sure to happen to young Scilla Brown meant that regular intervals I had to 'close' my book and take a huge breath.

Scilla is an orphan living in the workhouse where food is scarce and the punishments are severe. She has one good friend - a girl named Emily but she has been taken away to work in a factory or in service. Then Scilla herself is taken by an older girl named Dora. Dora is a little bit like Fagan from Oliver Twist. She needs Scilla to assist her with petty crimes like shoplifting. Dora steals some rancid meat from a market stall and Scilla finds her dead under the bridge where they were sheltering through the night. Long ago Scilla tasted a peach. The beautiful sensation has never left her. She knows there are peaches in the manor house garden behind the high wall. 

She’d risk anything to taste a peach again, so ripe, so delicious— fit for a queen! And here was her chance, before her life spiraled back to the workhouse, her only choice now

Driven by hunger and her desire to find the fruit of her dreams, late at night she climbs over the wall but her feet are caught in an espaliered cherry tree and she falls to the ground and is caught.

Dora has dressed Scilla in boy's clothes and cut her hair short, so the head gardener Mr. Layton thinks she is a boy. She tells him her name is Seth Brown. Scilla is sure she will be sent straight to jail but someone she manages to convince Mr Layton that she can scrub the garden pots.  

She kept her voice low to match her boys’ cap and clothes, her shorn hair. A boy could blend in, get out of scrapes a girl might not, Dora’d always said.

The other workers seem somewhat suspicious of the newcomer so Scilla keeps her distance, but one young man seems friendly. Right from the beginning, to her absolute amazement, he helps her with her tasks. He is a very charming and very good looking fellow and gradually, as readers, we watch on as Scilla falls in love with him - but is he really being honest with Scilla and does he have some other motive for the advice her gives Scilla. Also it is a huge worry the way he invites her to join in his dangerous nighttime adventures especially when they involve stealing precious fruit from Mr Layton who has shown her nothing but kindness. 

Over time Scilla learns more and more about gardens and the wonders of turning tiny seeds in to fragile plants which then eventually provide delicious and abundant produce for the big housel. Mr Layton seems to take her into his confidence showing her the winter stored fruits and allowing her to study books from is extensive collection. He also gives her a special role on the day Prince Albert visits the greenhouses. All of this is wonderful but also dangerous because Phin, that handsome young gardener, is desperately jealous of these attentions. He is sure he is the one who will one day also become a head gardener. 

Nuanced, richly atmospheric, and exquisitely written. Kirkus Star review

Blurb from the author page: The night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermore’s garden wall, she wants only to steal a peach—the best thing she’s tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when she’s caught by the earl’s head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something more: a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, she’ll have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams . . . maybe even peaches. She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her “Brownie,” and makes her skin prickle. At the same time, the gruff head gardener himself is teaching lowly Scilla to make things grow, and she’s cultivating hope with every seed she plants. But as the seasons unfurl, her loyalties become divided, and her secret grows harder to keep. How far will she go to have a home at last?

Here are some key quotes from The Peach Thief - the first ones are words that Scilla luckily remembers when she is in the worse position of her life accused of a series of crimes she did not commit. 

“An honorable man takes responsibility for his actions, you understand, no matter the consequences."

"You have to care about each plant ... the life and beauty in it. You have to give it what it needs to reach its full potential."

"It is our curiosity that leads us to new discoveries, to new opportunities, to what we most need to learn."

You can read some background to this story here. And Candlewick gives you the first seven chapters to sample on their webpage. There are some fun words in this book such as meddling fussock; as wick as the woods; gawped; summat; and Lorjus.

If you are looking for a character description to use as a writing model this one is great:

"The cook, Mrs Keckilpenny, was round as a teapot. Her skirts rose in the back each time she bent to check the black range at the front end of the low-ceilinged room, revealing red-and-black-striped stockings above her high-topped clogs. Her frilled cap, tied beneath her double chin, looked like a crimped crust around a great pink pie."

I had no idea there were so many varieties of peaches (back notes in The Peach Thief tells me there are 95) with beautiful names such as Royal George, Grosse Mignonne, Bellegarde. And the apples have names such as Ribston Pippins and Gravenstein. You will also read about the lengths these early gardeners went to, to grow exotic fruits like pineapples. 

Here in Australia you will have to be patient and wait to add this book to your library. The US edition published by Candlewick is way too expensive at over AUS$45+ but what I hope might happen is the book will be taken up by Walker Books in the UK and their copy will then come to Walker Books here in Australia and the price will come down. How this happens is a mystery to me, but I have seen this pattern with many other middle grade titles. The publisher says this book is for ages 8-12 but I think the love tensions, age of the protagonist and complex relationships mean it would be a better fit for ages 11+ and certainly a great read for younger High School readers. I absolutely adored this book from beginning to end. 

The Peach Thief is a debut novel for Linda Joan Smith. She has worked as a journalist specialising in writing about gardening. She mentions loving The Secret Garden as a child. 

Here are some of her favourite books that transport readers to other times and places - what a fabulous list:

• A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
• Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
• Chains (and The Seeds of America Trilogy) by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Okay for Now and The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
• Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow
• The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak
• The London Eye Mystery and The Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
• The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
• Wringer by Jerry Spinelli

Ten-Word Tiny Tales of Love by Joseph Coelho

"Here you will find loving tiny tales plucked from wedding bouquets, found in the fur of much-loved pets and neatly folded in the corner of your favourite hobby. These are stories of love of all kinds."

Check out my post about the first book by Joseph Coelho that explored this idea of ten word tales.

Ten-Word Tiny Tales

Once again Joseph Coelho has invited illustrators to create images to go with, to extend, to blow your mind with their interpretation of his ten-word tale - this time with the theme of love. There are twenty-one illustrators in this second volume including our own Bob Graham! See his page here.

Joseph Coelho says: "I travelled the globe by hot-air balloon, hovercraft and llama searching for the best illustrators to help bring a glimpse of these tales to life."

Here are a few of the names you might recognise: Sydney Smith; Jon Klassen; Mini Grey; Jarvis; and  Ken Wilson Max.

Here is the page by Sydney Smith - winner of the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Medal.

Art by Sydney Smith

"As it poured, he taught him to tie his laces."

I do hope you will read this book - Ten-word Tiny Tales of Love and share it with a class. I suggest reading the pages in this book, perhaps one each day, without showing the illustration. Let it sink in. Let the children imagine. Let them draw or write. Then much later in the day you could show the page.

We danced starlight into the rainbows of our broken hearts.

The kisses in her card grew wings and flowery scents.

He wrapped his little sister in a whispered bedtime story.

The love he held for his bike made it amphibious.

Using a ladder he washed the mud from his dog.

Grandma's hot chocolate was a furry hug in a cup.

The rescued cats kept watch as the lost child slept.

As a bonus there are story writing hints at the back of this book and a page of ways to extend the ten-word tale into a longer story. I love that Joseph Coelho explains his story parts can be presented in any order - this is a wonderful counterbalance to the prescribed (paid) writing programs adopted in many of our Australian Primary schools. 

Joseph Coelho shares his book on Instagram. Here is a full list of all the illustrators in Ten-word Tiny Tales of Love:

Katherine Child * Fruzsina Czech * Diane Ewen * Jim Field * Bob Graham * Katie May Green * Mini Grey * Mark Janssen * Jarvis * Baljinder Kaur * Heather Kilgour * Jon Klassen * Fiona Lumbers * Steve McCarthy * Rikin Parekh * Natalia Shaloshvili * Sydney Smith * Beth Suzanna * Victoria Turnbull * Ken Wilson-Max * Myo Yim

OR you could check out their Instagram pages: @blahjinder @bethsuzanna @bobgraham75 @creativedewen @fiona_lumbers @fruzic @heatherkilgourillustration @jarvispicturebooks @_jimfield @jonklassen @katherinelobster @katiemaygreen @wilsonmaxken @markjanssenpicturebooks @mini3grey @myo.yim.drawing @nataly_owl @r1k1n_parekh @mrstevemccarthy @sydneydraws @vic_turnbull

Art by Natalia Shaloshvili

"The kisses in her card grew wings and flowery scents."

This Morning I met a Whale by Michael Morpurgo illustrated by Christian Birmingham

Michael, as the title tells you, meets a whale. But whales are not supposed to be in his part of the river Thames. And whales are not supposed to be able to communicate directly with humans but this whale can and he has come specifically to talk to a child. His grandfather has told him a child will listen and a child will share his important message about degradation of the environment and the distress humans are causing whales. 

"He showed me the bottom of the sea, a coral reef lay dying and littered with rubbish. I saw a sperm whale being winched bleeding out of the sea, a leatherback turtle caught up in vast fishing nets, along with sharks and dolphins. There was an albatross, hanging there, limp and lifeless. ... He showed me skies so full of smoke that day had become night, and below them the forests burning. ... You are killing the world. Tell a child ... only a child will put it right."

Companion book:

Bookseller blurb: At sunrise, young Michael spots a whale on the shores of the Thames and thinks he must be dreaming. But the creature is real and it has a message for him – one that only an open-minded child can deliver to the rest of the world. The whale warns that the earth’s days are numbered and that humans must put right the damage they are doing, but how can Michael fulfil his promise to tell others when neither his teacher nor his classmates will believe his story? Within hours, the city and the wider world have learned of London’s remarkable visitor, and all eyes are on the whale’s struggle against the receding tide. Michael must now join his new friend in a race against time to reach the ocean, and hold fast to his promise in the race to save the world itself.

Do you have a favourite children's book illustrator? I have lots - but one that would most certainly make my top twenty list would be Christian Birmingham. 

This is a slim book with only 80 pages but it is also a powerful story with a strong environmental message. Even though the publication date is 2009 I think this book is still available. Readers in your library will love this story even more when they discover it is based on real events. In 2006 a whale did swim up the Thames as far as a Battersea Bridge and sadly, like the whale in this book, she did not survive. 

You might have this book in your school library because it is a Premiers Reading Challenge title Grades 5&6 [1038]. 

Michael Morpurgo was 2003–2005 Children's Laureate, has written over 100 books and is the winner of many awards, including the Whitbread Children's Book Award, the Smarties Book Prize, the Blue Peter Award and the Red House Children's Book Award. His books are translated and read around the world and his hugely popular novel War Horse is now both a critically acclaimed stage play and a highly successful film. 

Christian Birmingham is considered one of the best young illustrators working today. After receiving a degree in Illustration from the Exeter College of Art he has gone on to illustrate many books for children such as A Kitten Called Moonlight by Martin Waddell and several titles by Michael Morpurgo, including The Wreck of the Zanzibar, named the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year in 1995.

Jane Austen 250th Anniversary

Illustration from Ordinary Extraordinary Jane Austen 

by Deborah Hopkinson illustrated by Qin Leng

2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, a monumental milestone in the literary world. I have been doing an adult education course reading or in some cases rereading her six novels. These things were not all covered but in the course I paused to think about common themes explored between the novels along with unrequited love; finding love; measures of beauty and worth; the modern relevance of these stories; superficial ways of measuring character through looks, money or manners; deception; false impressions; truth and lies; the linking of these stories to fairy tales; courtship; communication; plot devices such as side stories; the importance of letter writing especially as a way to express true feelings; Jane Austen's own attitudes to love and money and status; and human nature - virtue, vanity and jealousy.

After reading all six of these famous novels I am not entirely at ease with the repeated idea that the 'pretty girl' gets the guy and the happy ending but perhaps that is an immature or trivial way to think about these important books. 

If you live in the UK there are a multitude of events in various locations to mark the 250 years.Of course there is also a big festival in Bath later in the year. Here in Australia you might check out the Jane Austen Society.

One of my set texts in Grade 11 was Emma and I remembered I did not enjoy reading it - in fact I don't think I read it all. So when we reached the week in the course to discuss Emma I reached for a simpler version first.  These are designed for young teenagers and are a good way to get a quick plot overview but they are no substitute for the real book as they do not contain the rich language and wonderfully complex sentences created by Jane Austen.

You can read more about each of these here

If you have a younger reader, you could introduce them to Jane Austen through these two biographies:

Read more here

I found a few useful Jane Austen resources:

List of the characters (major and minor) in every novel The Republic of Pemberley

Jane Austen rich vocabulary - book by book Literature Vocabulary

For example do you know the word suavity from Persuasion? Or the word ebullition from Sense and Sensibility?

Thinking about Austen views of love and marriage Reading Vintage

Why Jane Austen's Novels matter

The Secrets of her Appeal

15 quotes (some less well known)

24 quotes to share on Valentines Day

In our course the tutor gave us lists of modern texts based on or related to each of the six Jane Austen classics. Here are a few (I have only included the more recent ones):

Persuasion

2013 Loving Longest: Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” Meets the Modern World  by Lisa Van Gemert 

2015 Second Chances: An Amish Retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion by  Sarah Price  

2016 Mrs Clay: The Austen Expert’s Companion to ‘Persuasion by Dorothea-Sofia Rossellini 

2016 The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot 

2017 Disturbing the Dust: A Variation on Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’  by Ivy May Stuart 

2020 Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev 

Northanger Abbey

2014 Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid 

2016 Miss Eleanor Tilney: or The Reluctant Heroine by Sherwood Smith 

2018 Banff Springs Abbey: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey Reimagined by Samantha Adkins  

2019 The Bride of Northanger by Diana Birchall 

2020 Murder at Northanger Abbey by Shannon Winslow 

2021 Woodston: A Sequel to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey by Kate Westwood

Emma

2013 The Highbury Murders by Victoria Grossack 

2014 Only with You by Cecilia Gray 

2014 Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith 

2015 Wrong About the Guy by Claire LaZebnik 

2018 The Other Miss Bates by Allie Creswell, A Lady

Mansfield Park

2014 Revisit Mansfield Park: How Fanny Married Henry by Sarah Ozcandarli 

2016 Mount Hope: An Amish Retelling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park by Sarah Price 

2017 A Contrary Wind: a variation on Mansfield Park by Lona Manning 

2017 Seeking Mansfield by Kate Watson 

Pride and Prejudice

2014 First Impressions: An Amish Tale of Pride and Prejudice by Sarah Price 

2016 Christmas at Netherfield by Nora Kipling 

2017 Mr. Darcy’s Kiss by Krista Lakes  

2017 Death at the Netherfield Park Ball by Amelia Littlewood 

2017 Netherfield Prep: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice' by Elizabeth Stevens

2020 The Price of Pride by Abigail Reynolds  

2022 Initial Impressions by L.J. Shaw  

Sense and Sensibility

2013 Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope 

2016 Sense and Sensibility: An Amish Retelling of Jane Austen’s Classic by Sarah Price 

2017 Jane of Austin: A Novel of Sweet Tea and Sensibility by Hillary Manton 

On my own shelves I have this book - which I hope to read later this year:

Read more here

Finally a few years ago I fulfilled my ambition to see this rock from the 1995 Pride and Prejudice television series.

Image source: Film Locations

International Children's Book Day 2025

In 2025, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is sponsored by IBBY-Netherlands and the poster is made by two Dutch creators of children’s books. The theme of the 2025 International Children's Book Day is The Freedom of Imagination.

It is just one week until International Children's Book Day. This year our IBBY Australia members will be sent a wonderful video celebrating eight organisations from around Australia associated with children and reading and children's literature. Organisations that reflect three of our goals:

·       to give children everywhere the opportunity to have access to books with high                 literary and artistic standards

·       to provide support and training for those involved with children and children's                 literature

·       to protect and uphold the Rights of the Child according to the UN Convention on             the Rights of the Child

If you have an art teacher in your school you might like to enter the internation competition for ICBD 2025.

Read more here

Here is the 2025 official poster and poem. And here are some lesson suggestions. This is the link to the three lessons or you can access this from the previous link.

The Language of Pictures
Rian Visser
Translation: Laura Watkinson 

Can you draw pictures
for the words,
for the things I say?

Then draw
part of the picture,
cold,
wind,
a lump in your throat
or tough luck,

draw a cough,
a sigh,
the scent of fresh bread,
time,
a moment,
the beginning or the end
of a plan,

draw the place wherever,
the place where never,
the place where soon
something is going to happen,

draw the pain of a push,
the taste of the sea.

There is so much
that I want to see,
like love,
one day,
and maybe for me.

Make pictures
for my poem,
and please feel free:
these words
belong to you
even though they came from me.

Poster Illustrator: Janneke Ipenburg (b. 1979) is a Dutch illustrator of children’s books. She has made two poetry collections with Rian Visser, including Het is een zachte dag vandaag (2024). As an author/illustrator, she created the picture book Voor altijd bij jou (2023), a story about being connected in spite of an immeasurable distance. In addition to her work as a children’s illustrator, Janneke has worked on a number of animation films, and she is currently working as a character designer on a large Chinese stop-motion animation. In 2023, Janneke was on the longlist of the World Illustration Awards.

You can see her books here.

Message author from the poster: Rian Visser (b. 1966) is a Dutch children’s book writer and poet. She writes funny and exciting books that are a perfect match for children’s interests. Together with the illustrator Janneke Ipenburg, she has created the poetry collections Alle wensen van de wereld (2021) and Het is een zachte dag vandaag (2024). In 2022, Rian Visser won a Zilveren Griffel and the Gouden Poëziemedaille (Gold Poetry Medal). Rian Visser is very active in education. She designs digital lessons about creative writing and reading promotion, which teachers can use for free. From 2024 to 2026, she has officially been appointed Dutch Children’s Laureate.

You can see more books here. 

Something like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango

Laura is sure it is all her fault. The authorities have taken her mum and dad away. Laura now has to live with an aunt who she does not know. She has to go to a new school. And she is not allowed to phone her mum or dad she can only write letters to the rehab facility. She is wracked with guilt. Why did she make that 911 phone call? This was such a bad decision, or was it?

Her aunt has so many house rules - Laura is constantly on edge worried about doing the wrong thing. Luckily school is okay and without even trying she does make a really good friend - a boy named Benson who is also an outsider. Benson has Sickle cell anemia which means he cannot join in sport activities and he has to spend long periods in hospital. Laura is not sure at first if it is wise to make a friend because surely she can go back home very soon - any day now - but then days become weeks, and weeks become months. 

I love books where a dog helps with the healing of a character - Laura finds an abandoned puppy. Her aunt does let him stay and Laura names him Sparrow. She finds out about a program where dogs can go into care facilities like the one where her parents are. They work as therapy dogs so all Laura needs to do is train Sparrow, pass the training test and then find a way to visit Harmonic Way. This is a good plan but then her parents discharge themselves, they disappear and even though she writes to them every week she never receives a reply. 

The review by Ms Yingling will give you lots more plot details (Spoilers too). Colby Sharp talks about Something Like Home: "Beautiful, powerful, unforgettable." I totally agree - this is a perfect Verse Novel - you can find more of them by selecting that label from my sidebar. Highly recommended for readers aged 11+.

Arango’s writing is a joy to read, combining strong storytelling, compelling characters, and rich language. Kirkus Star review

Arango’s writing is intimate and heartbreaking, tackling such hefty issues as cultural identity, addiction, the pain of displacement and the anxiety it causes, and the adulation and rationalization that a child in pain can offer to adults they love. Arango accomplishes this with the believable voice of a girl in crisis and by tapping into compassion for all the characters amidst moving scenes of joy and connection. Horn Book

Haunted by her guilt and lack of autonomy, Laura is struggling to find a place in a new school and in a house with rules she doesn’t understand when she discovers an abandoned puppy and sets out to train him as a therapy dog. Maybe he will be the key to visiting her parents so she can apologize and they can all go home together. School Library Journal

Companion books:

Waiting for Normal

Wish

When Friendship followed me Home

Almost Home

Scarlet Ibis