What Zola did on Sunday by Melina Marchetta and illustrated by Deb Hudson

Title: What Zola did on Sunday

Author: Melina Marchetta

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Puffin

Published: 28^th September 2021

Format: Paperback

Pages: 96

Price: $12.99

Synopsis: From the author of Looking for Alibrandi comes this gorgeous series to engage and entertain newly independent young readers.

A wonderful children’s series celebrating community, friendship and kindness from the bestselling author of Looking for Alibrandi. Fun, heartwarming stories full of mischief and humour, sure to charm and engage newly independent young readers.

Zola loves living on Boomerang Street with her mum and her nonna. Every day of the week is an adventure. But Zola has a problem. No matter how much she tries, she can’t keep out of trouble. Like on Sunday, when it’s St Odo’s fete and Zola and the gang join in the fun . . .

Collect all seven stories in the series. One for every day of the week!

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Zola and her friends in Boomerang Street are back -and this time, everything they’ve been doing every day for the past few months has all come together – the cakes, the art, the knitting, the music, and the baking – to bring the St Odo’s fete to life, where they will raise money for charity. Yet Zola’s penchant for trouble will see something go wrong at the fete that they’ve all been planning for carefully for months!

The delightfully charming and cheerful conclusion to the Zola series is full of heart, community and cheeky dogs that make those disastrous moments in life special. The joys of afternoon activities that unite creativity and community come together in this final story that each has been leading up to, and allows the reader to engage with each story, and find new friends, new activities, and a new way of seeing how they can engage with the world beyond one of screens. Aimed at early and newly independent readers, this series can also help build reading confidence and vocabulary, and an understanding of how stories work.

It is also a celebration of friendship, family, and community, and allows the reader to explore a diverse world that is representative of the one that we all live in and see that the things that make us different are what makes us special and unique, and we don’t all have to be the same, or like the same things. This lesson is taught surreptiously through the fun and engaging story and illustrations that come together to create a fun story that pulls together everything that has happened in the previous six books and shows how a diverse community works together to support each other and those less fortunate.

I have loved going on this journey with Zola and her friends in this light-hearted, joyful series filled with laughs, dogs and a zest for life that is so utterly charming, it will enchant readers of all ages, and is sure to become a fast favourite for those aged seven and older exploring the bounds of their reading abilities and what they enjoy. This series is one that will be loved by many for a very long time.

I loved that it introduced readers to new words and new ideas, new activities and a diverse world that captures as much of our brilliant diversity and difference as possible and allows for discussions around diversity and identity to be had whilst reading the books. It explores the idea that we all have different interests and that it is okay to try different things to decide what you like to do in your spare time, and goes children a sense of time away from the devices – that there are activities that can be done without one and are enriching, fun and bring a community together in different ways, depending on what everyone likes and creates a sense of belonging in a world where we can feel separate from everyone else.

What a lovely reading journey it has been with Zola and her friends.