Ruby's Web by Ellen van Neerven

This is a heartfelt story which covers some very important and disturbing themes. The audience for this book is most certainly High School students although I do wonder if the cover will appeal to this audience.

At times, reading Ruby's Web I became a little overwhelmed by all the issues and extra plot details that the author included in a book of just 126 pages. The timing of this story is the 2023 Voice Referendum. Ruby lives with her mum. Her dad has sadly died. In Primary School Ruby had special friends including her confident and outspoken cousin Amber, but now, in Year Seven, Amber has told Ruby she no longer wants to 'hang out' with her.

There are other indigenous kids at this school but not many. For reasons that are not really explained one girl in Ruby's class - Zara - has decided to bully and ridicule Ruby and she does this via a school based social media platform called Quik. I sincerely hope this program does not really exist but of course there are plenty of other 'dangerous' forms of social media on the internet. You might ask why doesn't Ruby just decide not to interact with this platform but unfortunately (and for me slightly unbelievably) this is the place where students access their class assignments. Wait a minute doesn't the school have a duty of care and a social media policy? This book does paint a very bleak picture of the inaction of teachers and school authorities.

"When Ms Hall asked me if there was anything else she could help me out with, I thought about mentioning Zara and the others who were posting comments about me on Quik. How come Ms Hall hadn't mentioned their posts and online behaviour but she had bought me into her office to talk about the anonymous trolls, people I didn't know? Was it because Zara's comments weren't as bad? Or because Zara was a kid? Or she just hadn't seen them?"

Ruby decides to fight back with a social media post that identifies the web of bullies - think about the title. Meanwhile at home Nan is unwell and she has moved in with Ruby and her mother. Nan shares important cultural traditions and she helps Ruby understand the importance of the YES vote (the 2023 referendum sadly failed). 

By the end of this book Ruby does find her voice. A big piece of the puzzle in this story is a poem written by Ruby that has been entered into a competition. I really wanted to read this poem and expected to find it on the final pages of the book but alas no - we never get to read Ruby's winning poem. 

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of the writing in this book. It took me a while to settle into the style of the writing and in fact I ended up reading Ruby's Web twice (which is not something I usually do).

"The school became a Monopoly board at lunch. Where you could and couldn't sit was was revealed. The spaces were divided up and ranked. The popular group had access to the nice clean spaces, like the new wooden benches in the friendship garden. The cool sporty kids got access to the oval and the area around the basketball courts. The mid-tier kids sat on the benches outside the auditorium. And then there were kids like me."

Zara "was constantly posting stuff about me on Quik and controlling who could see the comments. She would write comments to my classmates about how messy my hair was and how many pimples I had. She took secret photos of my torn second-hand clothing and posted them ... "

"I knew what Zara had posted was about me being Indigenous and it wasn't right or funny. It wasn't fair, no matter if it was me or someone else who was the target."

"I had seen the comments last night. I was old enough to understand that they were attacking my identity. They used words I know were deeply offensive about Indigenous people, like 'Abo', and they even said they would 'kill me'."

Thanks to Magabala for my review copy. Here is the book blurb from their web page: And here are some very detailed teachers notes. My view is Ruby's Web is for readers aged 13+. There is a reference suicidal thoughts and actions by one boy, Jimmy, in Ruby's class although this is not mentioned in the teachers notes. Nan helps to find Jimmy and then she tells Ruby and her cousin Amber:

"No one is more or less Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. It's not a competition. We don't make someone feel bad for who they are or whether they have light or dark skin. That's what the colonisers did to us."

Blurb: Starting high school has been anything but smooth for Ruby. Not only has she become a social outcast for no apparent reason, but her cousin Amber has started pretending not to know her and she has no idea why. When Ruby becomes the subject of vicious racism and bullying on the school’s online platform, she longs more than ever to be invisible and left alone. But as events spiral out of control, online and off, she finds herself more and more in the spotlight…  'Ruby’s Web' is a powerful story about finding your voice, seeking help, and addressing cyberbullying and victimisation.

Ruby's English teacher gives her some interesting books to read: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding 
Sweetgrass and in class they are reading books by Seamus Healey, Annie Dillard, Kirli Saunders and Ali Cobby Eckermann. 

If you share this book in a High School class you should talk about 14-year-old Dolly Everett.

I have a good friend who works for Djirra which was founded in 2002. "Djirra is a place where culture is shared and celebrated, and where practical support is available to all Aboriginal women and particularly to Aboriginal people who are currently experiencing family violence or have in the past."  I have a plan to send Ruby's Web to my friend because I would love to hear her thoughts about this Young Adult novel. I am also keen to share this book with the Teacher-Librarian at one of my local High Schools which hosts Indigenous students from remote regional areas in NSW. The students live in a nearby hostel. I wonder how they might react to this book - Ruby's Web.

Ellen van Neerven (they/them) is an author, editor and educator of Mununjali and Dutch heritage. Ellen‘s first book, Heat and Light (UQP, 2014, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Their first poetry collection Comfort Food (UQP, 2016) won the Tina Kane Emergent Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize. Throat (UQP, 2020) was the recipient of Book of the Year, the Kenneth Slessor Prize and the Multicultural Award at 2021 NSW Literary Awards and the inaugural Quentin Bryce Award. Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity (UQP, 2023), a book that weaves history, memoir, journalism and poetry, received the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non Fiction and was released in North America in 2024 through Two Dollar Radio. They are the editor of three collections, including Flock: First Nations Storytelling Then and Now, Homeland Calling: Words from a New Generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voices and Unlimited Futures with Rafeif Ismail.

Noah's New Home by Zeshan Akhter illustrated by Nabila Adani

Many years ago my Grade 6 students and I used to watch a ABC program where refugee children talked about leaving their homeland, their dangerous journey across the world, arriving in a new place, and their hopes for the future. I vividly remember one young girl who talked about her sister's reaction to planes flying over head. She would run for cover - shaking and terrified - even though she was safe here in Australia, because the sound of a plane meant a bomb was about to be dropped. I watched this program many times but that interview is the one that has lingered with me decades later. 

In this book it is the sound of fireworks that are terrifying for young Noah. He recalls his memories - good and bad - of his homeland. One day a bomb landed and it killed his Baba. This is such a terrible memory.

"The air shook. The windows shook. Noah shook. Noah my darling it's just fireworks ... But fireworks made Noah remember when the sky exploded outside his old home."

Luckily Noah has good friends and neighbours who offer other activities such as drawing, music and delicious food - and each of these allow Noah to remember the good times. Best off all someone suggested headphones so Noah can see the pretty colours without the scary sounds. 

This book is included on the Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) Awards and Read For Empathy – Primary list. Noah's new home is available in paperback for a really good price here in Australia. I highly recommend this book as an addition to your Primary school library. 

Bookseller blurb: In a tale of home and healing, Noah’s family have taken a journey no one should have to make. They arrive in a different country as refugees. While settling into their new house, Noah misses his Baba, Jida and their old home. When a fireworks display brings back both happy memories and difficult moments of their journey and arrival, his family and their new community support him in facing his fears and feeling hopeful for the future. This timely and heartfelt story is a deeply emotional exploration of the lasting impact of the refugee experience and the tragedy of war. The perfect companion to The Suitcase, The Journey and The Other Side.

I am not sure if these are the books the publisher blurb means:

The Suitcase

To the other side

I previously talked about this book by Zeshan Akhter. She lives in Glasgow.

My name is a gift

Nabila Adahi lives in Indonesia. You can see more of her books here. I am keen to see this one:

The Geronimo Stilton Cookbook

This post is not really about this specific cook book but I just wanted to pop in and say books like this simply delight me!  I found The Geronimo Stilton Cookbook in my local Street Library. It was published in 2005 and this copy is in mint condition. I am not sure kids really engage with the Geronimo Stilton series any more - we have a big shelf of them at Westmead Children's Hospital in our Book Bunker Library but over time we have been reducing our holdings. I just read that there are actually over 300 Geronimo Stilton titles including several spin off series. 

I am fairly sure I would not cook any of the recipes in The Geronimo Stilton Cookbook but it is filled with cookery hints and every section ends with a page of jokes. If you have a picky eater in your family the food in this book is presented in fun ways with faces and characters. 

Here are some other books like this which I enjoyed collecting for my library and others I wish I had seen. Sadly nearly all of these will be long out of print but you might be lucky and find one or two in your local or school library or at a charity bookfair. If you find others I would love to add more books to this collection - cooking books, craft books, etc.:

The little library cookbook

I would love to see this one by Jane Yolen (2006)

Story Boat by Kyo Maclear illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh

Check out my previous post about Story Boat.

A colleague and I have been working on a video presentation entitled 

"The Refugee Experience through Picture Books".

We plan to share familiar and hopefully unfamiliar titles from Australia, UK, Canada, and USA. If you join IBBY Australia you will find this and other videos on a variety of topics. (The videos are fairly simple but I think over time we have shared some very useful content and book ideas).

Story Boat is a Canadian picture book. 

Here are a couple of other books on this topic you could share with the youngest children in your school library:

Mustafa

Amira's Suitcase

Welcome

The Year we Escaped by Suzanne Leal

I picked up this book (purchased from Gleebooks Kids) to read yesterday and finished it this morning. The Year we Escaped is one of the 2026 CBCA Younger Readers Notable titles.

This story explores a different aspect of the Holocaust and World War II where over six thousand five hundred Jewish people from the German regions of Baden and Saapflaz were transported to the Gurs Internment Camp in the Free Zone of France.

The author of this book Suzanne Leal heard about a small French village called Le Chambon-sur-Ligon. During the war some communities like these gave refuge to Jewish children. Suzanne stayed "at a guesthouse called Chez Tante Soly, where twenty-two Jewish children had been hosted and protected throughout the Second World War. ... What a story, I thought as my mind kept turning to the lives of these children caught up in that dangerous time. Where had they come from, I wondered, and how had they found their way to this remote village?"

This is the basis of The Year we Escaped which covers the period November 1938 to September 1941. We meet children from two different families. Klara lives in Germany and you will watch with horror as she experiences first hand the persecution of the Jews - smashing of her parents shop windows (Kristallnacht), horrible treatment by people in her town and then her dismay as she has to change schools. Her experiences reminded me of Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon by Ida Vos. Klara's mother decides they urgently need to leave but mother and daughter do not reach safety, instead they are taken to the Gurs Internment Camp. It is an utterly horrible place. The descriptions of the latrines will 'turn your stomach'. (There are extensive notes at the back of the book about Gurs and other aspects of WWII).

Meanwhile Lucien and his brother Paul live in Paris. Their father is a doctor but he is left behind when they are also forced to leave with their mother. By chance there are now four kids - Klara, her friend Rachel, Lucien and his younger brother Paul - in this camp. They quickly become friends. Klara works out a way to leave the camp and she and Lucien enjoy picking the blackberries (they are on the back cover of the book) but the kids don't appear to think about escape. Then suddenly Klara and Rachel are 'rescued' and taken by train to Le Chambon-sur-Ligon. Lucien and Paul's mother decides her boys need to find a way to get there too but for the boys it means sneaking out of the camp and embarking on a 750km train journey. This journey takes up the second half of the book - Suzanne Leal creates some terrific tension on their train journey and at every turn I kept anticipating that terrible things would happen to the young brothers. 

Leal blends fact, fiction and feeling so beautifully, crafting a story that’s deeply emotional and brilliantly paced. It’s historical fiction done right: full of heart, action and unforgettable characters. Readings Melbourne

Suzanne builds her story gradually detailing the changes brought about by a war that affects everybody’s life. She has obviously thoroughly researched Kurs as it is brought vividly to life. Klara and Lucien are passionate relatable characters, perfect advocates for peace, tolerance and acceptance, the dominant themes in this carefully structured novel. Story Links

You can read a chapter sample and find teachers notes on the publisher web page.

Awards: Winner 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Children & Young Adult Category

As an adult reader you know that the people left behind in the Gurs camp will be taken to places like Auschwitz but younger readers aged 10+ are sure to feel great relief knowing (spoiler alert) the four children will be safe right through the war years.  

Things are very hard for everyone in the Gurs camp but I kept expecting harsher descriptions of the starvation and inhumane conditions. Parts of the story were filled with tension for example when Klara is used to demonstrate the awful Nazi doctrine in class and when everyone is forced to leave their suitcases on the station platform but if you have a sensitive reader this book is nowhere near as harsh or confronting as other holocaust middle grade novels. Older students could compare the conditions in the Gurs camp with those described in Let the Celebrations Begin.

Companion books:

All the Beautiful Things

Anna at War

Hiding Edith

Beyond Belief

Interned

Crow: Thief of Magic by Fiona Dixon

Crow is a street kid. He works for an underground gang called The Reavers. Their leader is a cruel man named Yarrick. As this story opens Crow has been ordered to take an object to a manor house on the edge of the city. When Crow holds the object - an orb - it feels different:

"It flared again as it dropped into Crow's outstretched palm, brighter this time. It was smooth and warm against his skin, but the strangest thing was the way it felt comfortable in his hand."

Crow has no idea that he has magical abilities. At the manor house he meets Victor - he is a Dreamcatcher. Previously Crow had wandered around the rooms in the house and he found this:

"The entire room was filled with row after row of tall wooden stacks ... but ... these shelves didn't hold books. Instead each was filled with glass bottles of varying shapes and sizes. ... There had to be thousands of bottles here. The bottles were filled with coloured liquid in every hue imaginable."

These bottles contain dreams. Over the coming weeks Crow learns that some are simple and harmless others are powerful. Dreams are good but there needs to be a counterbalance - nightmares. Crow is so sensitive to magic that he can hardly bare to enter the room with the nightmares and then Victor tells him about the most powerful and dangerous magic of all. It is called a mara. If you are book talking this story with your students (aged 11+) you could use the scene at end of Chapter 17 which describes what happens when Crow enters the cellar and sees the cabinet that contains the mara. 

Victor offers Crow an apprenticeship but his loyalty is to his friends back in the city. Then Yarrick sends the three kids on a dangerous mission and Crow watches as his friends run into a fire - he is sure they have both been killed.

With nowhere else to turn Crow goes back to Victor and his apprenticeship begins.  Crow learns how to make dreams using the grimoire in Victor's laboratory.. You are sure to love all exotic sounding ingredients. 

"cardamon, four-leaved clover, yarrow, mugwort, willow bark, extract of milk thistle, crystallised raindrops and an eagle's feather." "valerian, quarrix feather, ... venom of a burnished snake, a wishbone stone, birchbark, mountain skullcap, charcoal and moonflower root."

As well as combining ingredients, Crow also learns how to collect dream essence out in the city at night - the essence come from actual dreams. Crow is able to follow a dream trail and then collect the magical energy of the dream. 

Meanwhile time is ticking.   Each chapter is a countdown to the arrival of the comet named Oros the Changebringer. Crow and his friends Sal and Jonas have a plan to leave the city and escape from The Reavers and Yarrick on All Soul's Eve. In the scheme of things, though, this plan seems impossible and also a huge amount of magical power will come from this comet - power that others plan to exploit. 

One of the best features of the writing in this book is the way you will keep trying to guess the motivations of Victor. He is so kind and patient with Crow. He feeds him really delicious food. Cares for him when he is unwell. Provides him with a comfortable bed and brand-new clothes. Is all of this just because he is happy to train Crow as his apprentice or is there a more sinister motive? There are some tiny clues which you need to stay alert to recognise and of course there is that ghost girl who tries to warn Crow. The other mysterious character is Nekima, the cat. She seems to be so wise and protective of Crow, but I kept wondering where her true loyalties lay. Crow is also very tuned into his own senses. He hears music in room filled with Dream bottles; some objects respond to his touch; and there are vivid descriptions of the smells he encounters. The writing in this book is so atmospheric - you will feel you are standing, albeit watching from the outside, of so many scenes. This reminded me of how I felt when I read A Very Unusual Pursuit by Catherine Jinks Book One City of Orphans.

There is also very strong theme or undercurrent in this story relating to the misuse of power.

Crow: Thief of Magic is the first book in a planned series but fortunately nearly everything is resolved by the end of the first book.

Huge thanks to Gleebooks for allowing me to read the Advance Reader Copy of Crow: Thief of Magic. This book will fly off their bookshop shelves and off your library shelves. A perfect magical story with just the right amount of tension and the ever-present possibility of betrayal.  This book is due for released on 12th May 2026. Crow Thief of Magic is a debut novel for UK author Fiona Dixon.

With an incredible story, a stunning, richly detailed world, and a wonderful cast of characters, Crow: Thief of Magic is an unputdownable, exciting and hugely ambitious fantasy adventure. Love Reading4Kids

Publisher blurb: Twelve-year-old Crow is a thief. Scraping a living on the winding streets of Starsgard, Crow works for the leader of the criminal underworld, stealing from the city’s wealthy ruling class. But when a routine job takes Crow to the home of a mysterious sorcerer, his whole life is turned upside down – and after a planned heist goes wrong, leaving Crow alone and with nowhere to turn, he finds himself a new position as the sorcerer’s apprentice. Before long, Crow is introduced to the ancient art of dream magic – catching dream essence and using it to create dreams for the rich citizens from whom he once stole. But when Crow learns of an ancient strain of nightmare magic that threatens to unleash devastation on Starsgard, he must make a terrible choice… and decide who he can really trust.

Companion books:

The Book without Words

The Last Ember

Stitch

The Threads of Magic

This is a picture book - The Mirrorstone

The Ash House

Gossamer

Content warning this book contains disturbing domestic violence

No Purchase Necessary by Maria Marianayagam

I got to the section with the Mercury bars and stared at the chocolate bar in front of me, my heart pounding so loud I was sure Scary Al could hear it from behind the till. I glanced up at the cash register. Scary Al was ringing up a customer. I should do it now, I told myself, but my hands trembled in my pockets. What on earth was I doing? This was not me. ... “Some people must steal to survive,” I whispered to myself. I needed to do this to survive Bridge Creek. I’d find a way to pay for it someday.

Ajay and his family (father, mother and younger sister) have come to America from Sri Lanka. Amma and Appa have very high expectations for their children. Ajay does not want to disappoint them, so it seems easier to tell them a lie about the grade for his poetry assignment. His father expects Ajay to always score over 90 but for this assignment, set by Ms Livingston, where students had to respond to the Robert Frost poem ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay', Ajay scored 79. This lie, telling his parents he scored 90, is the first of many. You could think of the term 'slippery slope'.

Ajay is a new student at Bridge Creek Middle School. Jacob is also fairly new too, but Jacob is a bully and has already acquired a couple of thuggish friends. Early in the story there is a terrible scene where Jacob sees Ajay eating a Sri Lankan Sandwich: 

"Just as I was about to take a bite of my sandwich, Jacob walked up with his goons. He stopped in front of me, blocking out the daylight, and my insides went as cold as my outside. He looked at my sandwich and scrunched up his face. “What’s this stinky sandwich, Uhh-jay?” That also wasn’t my name. ... “Swi Lunk what?” Jacob howled. “What kind of meat is that?” Brad and Eric snickered again. ... “Yeah, it’s gross,” I said, and immediately felt guilty. It was my favorite. “You should throw it out,” he said as he munched his chocolate bar mindlessly. I’d never tried a Mercury bar, and here he was chewing it like a piece of stale gum. He was testing me, and I was ready. I needed to prove to Jacob Underson that I could be cool. Carefree. I shrugged. “Okay.” I walked over to the trash can and threw out my uneaten sandwich. Jacob smirked, then turned around and walked away."

From that day on it broke my heart to read that Ajay always bought a simple ham and cheese sandwich to school. He also cleared his locker every day and carried every book home just in case he needed one for a school assignment. Ajay puts so much pressure on himself. Thank goodness he does excel at maths and karate. 

It's that chocolate bar that leads to the next problem and the incident that 'snowballs' into so many terrible lies and dilemmas for Ajay. Jacob tells Ajay to steal a Mercury Bar from Scary Al's store. Ajay is terrified but also desperate for approval so he takes the chocolate and stashes it in the waist band of his trousers. Jacob is 'mock' horrified and he tosses the treat away. When Ajay picks it up he finds he has won the prize. But how can he claim this million dollar prize when he didn't buy the chocolate; and how can he tell his parents; and what about Scary Al, the store owner - surely, he will contact the police; and then there is the complication of his new friend Mindy - the way all of this happened this chocolate bar should have been her purchase. Oh and what do the words "no purchase necessary" actually mean?

There is so much tension in this story which is driven by the complex moral dilemma of what to do if you win one million dollars but actually it seems impossible to claim the prize.

Here are a couple of text quotes:

My throat tightened. That was the thing about Appa and Amma. They could be one hundred percent scary and one hundred percent loving at the same time. And maybe we were all like that. Not a list of things, but a messy pile—jumbled, overlapping, and contradicting.

I wanted to tell them about the chocolate bar, but my heart started palpitating when I thought about it. I couldn’t. The right thing to do was to let it go, I decided. I’d paid Al back. I wasn’t redeeming the prize. It was time to move on and start over. But for some reason, it still felt like I had miles to go before I got some sleep.

I had all these rituals because I wanted my life to be perfect. Perfect student. Perfect son. Perfect everything. And what about my life was perfect anymore? Nothing. I was a thief. And now I’d nearly killed someone.

He cleared his throat. “We put high expectations on you because we don’t want you to ever struggle the way we have. We do it because we want you to have better lives than we’ve had.” He turned to Aarthi. “But maybe, somewhere along the way, we became too hard on you.”

For more plot details read this detailed plot summary by Ms Yingling - I love her final comment:

This made me SO anxious the whole time I was reading it, which just shows how good the writing was, but it was not a good feeling! I thought of a dozen different ways that Ajay would have been able to claim the prize, and it was frustrating when he didn't take any of my advice! 

Here in Australian you will need to wait to read this book. I read an ebook version. The print copy (256 pages) is only in hardcover so far and it is very expensive but hopefully a paperback edition is planned. This book will be devoured by readers aged 10+ and it fits that expression "windows and mirrors". For some this book will be a window into the life of a migrant family and the cultural expectations of parents and while others are sure to relate (mirrors) to the pressures placed on Ajay and his sister and the unfairness of the way Amma and Appa are treated in their new country. 

Maria Marianayagam lives in Alberta, Canada: "My stories call upon a childhood and adulthood of multiple identities. I am a Canadian who was born in India. I am a Catholic but also Tamil Sri Lankan. I love writing but have a degree in chemical engineering. We all contain multitudes–and I draw on our intersections to inspire, empower, and engage young readers."

The novel’s plot twists will especially entrance and surprise younger audiences and those able to suspend disbelief and go with the flow of this completely age-appropriate and appealing story. Utter fun. Kirkus Star review

No Purchase Necessary is a warmhearted coming-of-age story about figuring out who you want to be and standing up for what’s right. Marianayagam has crafted an enjoyable, humorous, and thoughtful story that sheds light on immigrant struggles and the pressure kids face to be like their peers. Reading Middle Grade

Bookseller blurb: Ajay Anthonipillai has a million-dollar problem. Ajay has lived his life dutifully following the rules set by his Tamil parents.

• Rule #3: Straight As only
• Rule #5: There is no such thing as a no-homework day.
• Rule #10: Never watch scary movies.

However, moving to a new school gives Ajay a new rule to follow: Get on seventh-grade all-star Jacob Underson's good side. When Jacob asks him to steal a Mercury bar from Scary Al's convenience store, Ajay feels this is his chance to finally "get cool" and stop eating alone. But Jacob rejects the stolen chocolate bar, leaving Ajay to unwrap it and discover that it contains Mercury's Twenty-fifth Anniversary Grand Prize...one million dollars. Faced with an extreme dilemma, Ajay will have to bear the weight of his actions and battle his morality in deciding whether to claim the prize that may change the life of his family forever.

There are some interesting book and poetry references in this story. Ajay loves The Hardy Boys book series. Mindy loves Nancy Drew. Ms Livingston sets assignments on famous poems by Robert Frost: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; and The Road Not Taken.

Companion books:

Scar Town

The Eleventh Trade

These two are for younger readers:

Bored Book One: Milo finds $105

Mr Chickee's Funny Money