Eighty-nine questions for after by Ashleigh Barton

"Every moment matters"

Ester is a tidy girl who carefully regulates her life. She is also a girl with so many fears that she seems to be way too cautious. Everything is sanitised and all dangers are avoided if possible. Her mind is filled with questions which she notes down in her book - one on each page - mostly about unsolved mysteries. She is sure these questions will be answered in the afterlife. Once her life was actually carefree, then her Dad and Grandma Maggie died and so now all she can see is danger everywhere. She even avoids a flowering bush in their garden in case there are bees which could sting her.

"She hopped in on Mum's side of the car and climbed across the console to get into her seat, just in case the hot pink flowers were full of bees. Not that Ester had anything against bees in general, but she had never been stung before and didn't want to take the chance that she was allergic. She wasn't willing to risk having an anaphylactic reaction and ending up in a real hospital with actual sick people. Or worse."

Ester is terrified of getting sick so when mum tells her that after school she will need to wait at the hospice where she works, Ester is certain this will be the worst place ever. Luckily, she is able to sit in the almost empty sitting room with a lovely view of the garden and there she meets a boy named Peter who, unlike others in her life, IS interested in her big book of questions. They sit together each afternoon doing homework and talking about the questions. 

Ester does not want to meet any residents but her mum introduces her to Joan and it is Joan who sets Ester on a course to solve a mystery and along the way to gain courage and make two friends. I am mentioning two friends because aside from Peter a new family have moved in next door and they have four kids including a girl named Mackenzie (Mack). Mackenzie has an ambition to become a Private Eye Detective.

What is the mystery? Joan lost her sister 62 years ago. They were circus performers. All she has is a faded photograph and a flyer from the circus. Can these fragments give Ester and Mack enough clues to solve this mystery and reunite the sister? They will need to hurry because after all Joan is now living in the hospice and so clearly her life is nearing its end. 

(Did you ever read a book called Boss of the Pool by Robin Klein? The scenes in Eight-Nine questions for after where Ester tries to avoid meeting the people who live in Sunflower Cottage reminded me of that book.)

Publisher blurb: Ester Star is a germophobe and hypochondriac and she's convinced she's going to die. To prepare for her imminent and inevitable demise, Ester keeps a list of all the questions she hopes to have answered in the afterlife - things she knows she'll never have the answers to during her lifetime. What really happened to the dinosaurs? Just how big is the universe? Are ghosts real? She's up to eighty-nine questions and counting. When Ester's usual after-school sitters announce they are moving away, her mum comes up with an alternative arrangement that turns her world upside down. 

Every day after school, Ester is to spend her afternoons with Mum at work. At a hospice. Terrified of all the things she might catch at a hospice; Ester is anxious every second she's there. But soon she meets Joan, an elderly lady who used to be in the circus. Joan tells Ester she doesn't believe in the afterlife, but she does have one question she'll regret never having answered while she's alive. Why did her sister disappear all those years ago, after they had been so close growing up in the circus together? With the help of Peter, another kid who spends his afternoons at the hospice, and her new next-door neighbour, a tech whizz named Mackenzie, Ester sets out to have Joan's question answered. Will Ester realise there's more to life than worrying about dying?

Ester is the main character in this story but it is Mack (Mackenzie) who I really wanted to meet and hug. She is so wonderful in the way she seems to understand Ester and all her fears and phobias but at the same time she is always ready to push Ester to try new, and sometimes, very daring things.

"That's the trick about fear,' Mackenzie said. 'If you act like you're not scared, you'll trick your brain into believing that you're not. That's my theory anyway. It's not always possible, but it usually works for me."

If you grew up in Sydney in the 1960s or 1970s you may well remember the African Safari park - it terrified me. The scene from page 162 onwards would be a perfect way to introduce this book to your library group.

You can hear Asheigh Barton reading the opening chapters of her book here (start at 2.38). In this post for Paperbark Words Ashleigh talks about the inspiration for her book and the research she completed. The publisher Hachette have made a set of book club discussion questions to use with Eighty-nine questions for after. 

Both of these reviews have lots of plot details:

This is a tender book, which is equally heartbreaking and joyous, filled with adventure and experiences, and learning to live. Learning to see life as more than dying and asking the big questions. It is also about friendship and acceptance. Peter and Mackenzie accept Ester for who she is. They don’t judge, and they seem to understand she is the way she is, which I thought was beautiful. She was allowed to have her fears and worries, and allowed to grow throughout the novel. The Book Muse

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. Just So Stories

I've been a bit of a reading slump for a couple of weeks - until today! I don't know why but I was sure Eight-nine questions for after would be a good book - and now it discover it is so much more - it is a fabulous book and an absolute page turner. I read the whole 271 pages in one sitting. This book will be a CBCA 2026 Younger Readers Notable and hopefully also on the shortlist. I love the way this book has Australian place names but the story still feels as though it will easily translate to an audience in the US or UK. 

Companion books:

Long Road to the Circus

Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth

The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen

As Brave as You

The Goldfish boy

Busted

Magnolia Wu Unfolds it all

Snap (this is a very old book and long out of print)

If you want to build on the idea of asking questions - Ester has a book with 89 questions and luckily they are all listed in the back of the book. Ester's questions are used as Chapter titles - I really liked this structure. Here are some other excellent books filled with questions:

Pablo Neruda Book of Questions

Twenty Questions

Where does pepper come from?

Ashleigh Barton goes from strength to strength with her writing. Here is her web page.  Check out my previous posts:

Freddie Spector Fact Collector

How to sail to Somewhere

We Go Slow by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie illustrated by Aaron Becker

It's a story about presence, connection, and love. 

The kind that grows stronger with every step we take together. 

Matthew C Winner (podcast)

We go slow opens with a hectic morning scene. The young boy heading to his soccer game is in such a hurry his image is almost a blur and so is mum as she heads out the door to work. How does this link with the title? Turn the page and the pace immediately slows right down.

"Mornings are soft laughter, fresh bread, nutmeg & coffee smells. Mornings are stories, cool crackling records & trying to remember last night's dream".

Crackling records? Where is this child? Who are they with? It is their grandfather. Go back to that hectic (wordless) first story spread. The child of this story is calmly eating breakfast in a side room and the grandfather is preparing his coffee. Neither have the rushed look, that we see in the illustrations, of the other family members. 

The child and their grandfather head out onto the sun dappled street. 

Image source: Simon and Schuster

"Outside we go slow, learn a yellow bird's song & a new neighbors name."

Even the sunflower seems to unfold slowly - oh and make sure you look under the dust jacket - you will see this same sunflower. 

My favourite page is when the child looks up at the power pole and says I "wonder if sneakers like their new view from up high." Have you seen the way people throw shoes and sneakers over electrical wires - I have always wondered why.

Image source: Simon and Schuster

This is another one of those books where I would have loved to be inside the mind of the illustrator when he received the text for this book which I imagine was just one typed page. What image do you think of to go with these words for example:

"We go slow, make a wish & watch someone try."

The opening spread in this book is wordless and so are the final three pages. The colours have changed from yellows and sunshine to muted purples and orange as the sun is setting. The passing of time is not explicitly mentioned but it is beautifully shown by the changes in colour and light. The setting is New York city but really we could be in any urban environment - any busy city. 

Publisher blurb: A child and her grandfather step out of their brownstone and take a walk around their lively city. Together, they practice looking closely. They delight in the world that they see, taste, touch, feel, and hear. Whether learning a yellow bird’s song, tasting a street vendor’s mango slices, or listening to the thumping music from passing cars, they find small wonders in every moment they share—and together, always, they go slow.

It’s rather dreamlike and yet still vibrant and urban. Waking Brain Cells

Awards

• ALA Notable Children's Books
• The Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration
• CBC Best Children's Books of the Year
• NCTE Charlotte Huck Outstanding Fiction Recommended Title
• Massachusetts Book Award
• NYPL Best Books

Via spare, poetic language as well as watercolor and pencil illustrations that take hazy, desaturated hues, Tallie and Becker celebrate the time shared between a child and caretaker as they together meander through a metropolitan neighborhood. ... Whether viewed as a depiction of mindfulness in practice or the quiet joys of together time, this tender story is a reminder of the importance of being in the world with unhurried attention and open hearts.” Publisher's Weekly

Here is a rich and insightful interview with Aaron and Mariahadessa - you can listen or read the transcript. Here is a quote from the introduction:

Their new picture book We Go Slow, is a quiet contemplative walk through a bustling city neighborhood where a girl and her grandfather take time to notice the world around them. They listen to bird song, taste mango slices from a street vendor, and feel the rhythm of passing cars, finding small wonders in every moment they share Mariahadessa’s lyrical text.

About the illustrator: Caldecott Honor winner Aaron Becker is the New York Times bestselling author of the Journey trilogy and other award-winning books for children young and old, including The Last Zookeeper, The Tree and the River, and A Stone for Sascha.

About the author: Ezra Jack Keats Honor winner Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD candidate at Brown University. In addition to her award-winning picture book Layla’s Happiness, she has authored several collections of poetry and has performed poetry and taught in the United States, Namibia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England. She was born and raised in Queens, New York, and her journeys across the borough inspired the writing of her picture book We Go Slow.

I am so happy to say that this book is one you might be able to afford for your school library at slightly less than AUS$30. And this is another picture book that would be perfect to share with an art teacher in both Primary and High Schools. Or if you find this book in your local or school library just slow right down and read this book with your young reading companion beside you sharing a very special moment that comes from reading a very special book with a lyrical text and art that will make you gasp!

I previously talked about this book by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie:

Layla's Happiness

Read the Kirkus Star revew

Companion books:

The Night Walk

Outside In

On a Summer Night

Dawn

Nana in the City

Wait wait

The Wonder Thing

One Day

If you listen

World Postcard Day October 1st

Watch this video - it's terrific!

I really love picture books and other children's books that contain letters and sometimes they even contain postcards such as the ones in The Jolly Postman. I have a collection of postcards featuring vintage Puffin books and recently I read that very few people now send personal letters and postcards and that these deliveries from Australia Post have almost disappeared. Putting all these things together, I decided to celebrate World Postcard Day this year by sending a postcard to twelve of my friends. As I write this post (September 29th) three have arrived.

You can read about the history of postcards here. World Postcard Day began in 2020. As an extension of this topic for a group of older students could be the investigation of the very special postcards sent during World War I which were created with embroidery. 

Take a look at this post from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything - October 1st is a day with so many celebrations - not just postcards!

My Bear Grizz by Suzanne McGinness

McGinniss draws Griz in all his furry, naturalistic majesty, his warm coat a mass of scratchy brown ink lines, his heavy head as big as his owner Billy’s whole body. Griz dominates most of the spreads, his bulk echoed in the book’s extra-large type. 

Publisher's Weekly

My name is Billy and I love bears. My bear's name is Griz because he is a Grizzly Bear. 

Bookseller blurb: Billy has a bear called Griz. A Grizzly Bear. And the two friends have all kinds of wonderful adventures together. They go exploring, play hide and seek, eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches, share secrets and tell jokes. Griz is the best friend a boy could possibly have - whether he's a Grizzly Bear or a teddy bear... This is a stunning debut picture book about a boy and his bear, in which the short text and tactile, large scale paintings bring Griz and Billy magically to life.

Griz is striking, drawn in densely hatched and layered pen lines of browns and blacks, too big to fit on the page yet dominating the space. Griz has a wildness about him, an unrestrained vibe, but he never feels dangerous. Billy trusts Griz implicitly as they explore, share secrets and eat peanut-butter–and-honey sandwiches. Backgrounds are abstract, mellow watercolor, balancing the energetic lines of Griz’s fur. Billy’s enthusiastic, just-learning-to-write printing runs over the pages, crowing “Griz loves honey!” and “Grrr! Roar!” One aspect of Griz isn’t revealed until the final page, though discerning readers may note hints of make-believe in the fancifully colored forest trees (site of hide and seek) and the fluid size ratio of boy to bear. Kirkus

Art in this book is created with biro (and water colours). A really new book by Matthew Cordell has art also made with biro pens.

102 by Matthew Cordell

Clearing out old display materials in the library where I work as a volunteer I spied the dust jacket of My Bear Grizz and I was immediately drawn to the art.

This will seem very odd but up until the last page I enjoyed this book and especially appreciated the huge format and wonderful textured illustrations of the bear with his almost tactile fur. What happens at the end I hear you ask. Well, the story uses that old trope of "it was all a dream" or "this was all my imagination" and while I do appreciate other books that follow this form I somehow felt dreadfully let down here although I think all preschool children will love this 'twist'. My reaction probably came from reading this book way too quickly and not stopping to think about the visual clues. 

It’s a tribute to the imagination of children, simply chronicling one day in the life of young Billy, who loves bears and whose bear’s name is Griz, “because he is a Grizzly Bear.” They explore, snack, play hide-and-go-seek, share secrets, nap, and much more. In the final spread, we see proof that this boy’s imagination is as big as his imaginary friend, though discerning readers will notice other clues before the closing illustration. Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast

The other delightful aspect of this book is the way the author/illustrator has included graffiti - as a commentary on the action. The end papers are also covered with Billy's scribbles.

Using a pen for the art and the graffiti could be ideas your art teacher might like to include in their program. Of course this book from 2011 is now out of print but you might find a copy in library.

If you want to find another book where the last page is a good surprise try to find this one:

The Witches of Winderry Spires by Karen Foxlee

"You are the Clock Tower Girl for a reason. That reason is for you to decide. If that makes you feel worse, remember: everyone has felt the same way as you."

I am going to unpack the opening sentence: "Lucy Broadmeadow was the very last person in all of the Kingdom that anyone would have expected to receive the green ribbon letter."

The letter has come from the Ticking Witch but why has Lucy been chosen? What is a green ribbon letter?

"Lucy was neither academic nor good at public speaking. She was good at doing dangerous things, though. She could cartwheel very well and hang upside down from tree branches just using her legs (and she was good at) ... pretending she was an explorer."

What do we know about the Kingdom? Early in the story we read that there are five Kingdoms but no one goes to the fifth one in the North. Lucy comes from the South and Winderry Spires is in the Middle Kingdom. Lucy has been selected to be the new clock tower girl. She has been sent a green ribbon to wear in her hair. Green smoke has signaled that the letter has been sent from the Winderry Spires. Lucy has to leave her home and travel to the Spires. The clock tower itself is part of the Spires.

"The clock was situated in the right spire, only it wasn't just one clock face, it was several faces jammed into one large face, all of them doing different things, some hands whirring fast and other hands jerking slowly."

Clearly something is wrong with the clock and as she arrives Lucy notices it hasn't stopped chiming. That is of course only the start of things. On the kitchen table Lucy finds her instructions. They seem very strange and very specific. She has to clean the kitchen; make a plain cake; feed Mustard; tell Sig to practice swimming; read a book entitled 'How to be the Clock Tower Girl'; and only open the door to wizards.

By now I imagine you are filled with questions. I won't answer all of them because, well, this is a five star book, so you need to read it for yourself (quickly head to your bookshop and grab this book today). I will however fill you in about the main characters. You have already met Lucy Broadmeadow. Sig is Sigehelm Effra Aethelwold the Second and he is a small water dragon. I loved the way Lucy can read his emotions which are expressed as colours. He is a very important character so it is lucky you can just call him Sig! Mustard lives in the stable just past the garden wall. You should have spotted Mustard on the cover - yes he is the winged horse but please, if you meet him, do not mention his wings. There is also Boy**, an apprentice wizard and a sky-ulf who Lucy names Midnight. As you read this book you will discover each of these characters has a back story and that participating in this quest will help them answer their own life questions.

"Everything is a journey. Whether it is climbing the stairs to deliver supper of sweeping the Spires or stepping inside the clock when it's your time. The most important part of a journey is not who is by your side, where you have come from, and where you are going. It is you. How will you approach the journey. Will you be brave? Will you be kind? Will you be happy?"

Wait a minute though, why haven't I talked about the Ticking Witch? Well, that's the crux of this story - she is missing and it will be Lucy's job, with the help of her friends, to find her and in turn restore the balance to the Kingdoms. Yes, this will be very dangerous and yes Lucy will be frightened at times and filled with doubt that she can do this but (spoiler alert) of course she can. 

Why is the Ticking Witch missing? What happened to the other past Clock Tower Girls? I cannot tell you - you do need to read this book.

Do spend time taking a close look at the cover of The Witches of Winderry Spires (Lucy Zhang) - I didn't do this until I finished my reading. I am glad I waited because it is only after reading this book that all the tiny cover details will make sense - even the little green ribbon in Lucy's hair!

Reading The Witches of Winderry Spires (I know this sounds strange) I kept feeling that Karen Foxlee was smiling a huge smile as wove her storytelling magic with her special heroine Lucy Broadmeadow and her unique cast of friends. And the setting made me think of the television program Midsummer Murders. I could so easily visualise the village and all the groups of magical people who arrive when Lucy summons them for the Grand Counsel.

When I saw this book I just knew it HAD to be fabulous. It is hardcover with green edges to the paper and spot varnish used for the embossed title. This book comes from Allen and Unwin (thanks for the advance cop) and it is only AUS$24.99. Today - 29th September - is publication day. Huge congratulations to Karen Foxlee (and her publisher) this book is certain to one that readers aged 9+ will enjoy and it could also be a wonderful book to read in your family. I also expect to see The Witches of Winderry Spires on the CBCA Younger Readers 2027 Notables list. 

Image source: Allen and Unwin

Publisher blurb: No one ever knows what happens to the Clock Tower Girls ... The last thing Lucy Broadmeadow expected was to become the Clock Tower Girl and be sent to live with the witch at faraway Winderry Spires. But when she arrives the witch is missing, the clock won't stop chiming and an injured winged wolf-pup appears – all signs that there is a Rift tearing the world apart. Lucy might not be magical, but she is kind and brave. And she does have the help of her new companions – Sig the water dragon and Mustard the gloomy Pegasus. Can Lucy and her friends find the witch, save the wolf-pup and heal the Rift before time runs out?

If you enjoyed The Phantom Toll Booth, you will love The Witches of Winderry Spires. The cast of eccentric characters that I already mentioned who arrive for the Grand Counsel are especially delightful and reminded me of the creative names used by authors like Margaret Mahy.

Do take a minute to read the labels I have assigned this post. You could talk about book tropes with your library group or young reading companion:

• The Chosen One or the Everyman turned Hero
• The Quest
• The Hidden World
• The Helpful Friends
• Overcoming fear and facing danger
• Destiny

Companion books to read after The Witches of Winderry Spires:

The Hotel Witch

A Wolf for a Spell

The Girl who drank the Moon

Yesterday Crumb and the Storm in a Teacup

You may know I am a big fan of Karen Foxlee - here are other books I previously talked about. It is interesting that this newest book references the main character in Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy**. 

Lenny's Book of Everything

Dragon Skin

The Wondrous Tale of Lavender Wolfe

A Most Magical Girl

Ophelia and the marvelous boy

The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm