- Published: 5 February 2019
- ISBN: 9781760147006
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 384
A Lot of Stuff Happens
- Published: 5 February 2019
- ISBN: 9781760147006
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 384
Highly recommended. For a tome (thick book), thiscollection of humorous stories set in the fictitious Monvale schooland featuring overlapping characters, is a quick easy read. Fourseparate stories combine despite separate narrators. The great thingabout continuity is learning that a minor character floating in themargins of one story, like Dale the dopey nose picker, can have hisown set of challenges and strengths when it's his turn to tell hisstory. Dale plans on a loser's revenge on the popular kid during thefinale of the school play but his conscience gets the better of him.Ned overcomes the new teacher's incessant praise of his oldersiblings. Sean is the new boy desperate to make friends and prove heis responsible and Ethan learns the fine balance between fitting inand being true to his inner bookworm. Whilst Adrian Beck and Andrew Daddo aim for laughs, Will Kostakisand Oliver Phommavanh, keep pace by serving up unpredictablesituations that cause upheaval, hard choices and growth. Aptlytitled, 'a lot of stuff' is always happening! Of course it's thekind of stuff that happens to every student - changing schools,making friends, getting into trouble, school plays, group work,playground issues etc. These writers remember what it's like to beboys at school but more importantly the kind of boys whosuccessfully navigate dilemmas by focusing on character strengthsrather than stereotypical male masking behaviours. It helps that allfour authors master their realistic dialogue and inner monologues.While a potentially good read-aloud to enjoy and discusscollectively, this book will have a strong appeal to middle primarystudents - enough to warrant extra copies.
Deborah Robins, www.readplus.com.au