So That Happened…But Maybe You Already Knew That by Tami Sussman

Title: So That Happened…But Maybe You Already Knew That

Author: Tami Sussman

Genre: Contemporary Middle Grade Fiction

Publisher: Walker Books

Published: 8^th March 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: This hilarious and heart-warming middle-grade debut tackles how to be a good friend (and realise when you’ve been a bad one), leaving childhood behind, and, most importantly, how to get back up when it feels like the world has knocked you down.

Natalie (Nutty to her friends) knows turning 12 is a big deal, and even though she doesn’t like change AT ALL, she’s prepping for:
a) having the best bat mitzvah party anyone has ever been to
b) graduating from primary school and
c) hopefully getting a boyfriend.

But there’s even more headed Nutty’s way that might change everything, like her parents running out of money and selling her childhood home, along with the reassuring family smell. Or when her best friend no longer feels like a girl and wants to leave the bat mitzvah group altogether. It seems only Natalie can keep her family, her friendships and her party from falling apart.

~*~

Natalie – known as Nutty to her family and friends because she loves Nutella, is about to turn twelve, and is getting ready for her bat mitzvah, but things are changing as she looks forward to her bat mitzvah party and graduating primary school – she’s not going to be able to attend the Jewish high school with the rest of her friends, and she’s starting to feel like her best friend, Avi, is pulling away from her. Nutty becomes friends – sort of – with the other girls getting ready for their bat mitzvah and starts spending time with Shayna because they have similar interests. But as her family starts to run out of money and have to move, and leave the comforting Family Smell behind, and Avi starts to not feel like a girl anymore, Nutty is confused. And because of this, is drawn into a group that doesn’t feel genuine but at almost-twelve, Nutty feels like she has to fit in with everyone else – bowing to pressure, until things get bad, and she starts to realise what real friendship is about. In this new coing0of-age story, we get to meet a young Jewish girl who is facing what every twelve-year-old will face at the end of primary school, and along the way, learn about the Jewish faith and what shapes Nutty’s family and her community.

In this wonderful novel, we get to read about the Jewish community in Sydney, seen through the eyes of Natalie as she navigates a difficult year, where she will find out who her real friends are – and what it means to grow up and start to understand the adult world, gender identity, religion, and history when she learns about what her Bubi experienced during the Holocaust. I absolutely loved this book, because I got to learn more about Judaism and bat mitzvahs, which is always interesting, when I get to learn about things I don’t know a lot about in a fun way like reading, but I also loved that Nutty had some experiences that we all go through – moving, worrying about her family, growing up, leaving primary school, and finding out who your friends really are. Setting these universal experiences against the experience of being Jewish and living in a Jewish community ensured that the story will capture the imaginations and appeal to a wide audience, and including other forms of diversity – Ling, as a Chinese-Australian, Nutty’s Greek neighbours, and some characters who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community shows a diverse community and Sydney – and gives these voices a chance to be heard whilst letting people learn about these identities as Nutty does during her last year of primary school and what it means to accept people for who they are.

I felt that Nutty’s way of understanding and explaining why some people could only accept people being a certain way worked for her age – it is probably how many of us start to come to that understanding when we are learning about the spectrum of identities and how everyone is an individual and there are many ways of being who you are, not just the ways that society has determined. And I also felt like Nutty’s experience of being twelve or about to turn twelve is something that may readers can relate to – the anticipation of almost being a teenager coupled with the anxiety of heading to high school, and potentially without your friends – it is an age where so much changes and I can remember that year of changes – there was a lot going on for me the year I turned twelve, and I think Nutty as a character perfectly captures the understanding of the anxieties of that year and the final year of primary school.

I’ve read lots of books lately where the main character is finishing primary school, and I am really enjoying them – I think kids need them, and I would have gobbled all of these books up if I had had them at that age as well. Even as an adult, reading about how these child characters cope with anxiety is helpful. I think knowing that at any age we can experience things like anxiety or confusion about who we are is reassuring – it lets us know we are not alone and that we have never been alone – it is just more common to talk about it these days. As I said before, I liked learning about Nutty’s Jewish identity and family, and the glossary at the back was awesome – I could usually work out the word in the context of the sentence, but it was great to have that glossary so I could check that I was right without having to rush to Google every time. And whilst the book is mostly light-hearted, I think the inclusion of the Holocaust – of Nutty’s family link to the Holocaust – was powerful and allowed readers to understand Bubi more.

Finally, I liked that the phrases ‘so that happened….but maybe you already knew that…’ were repeated throughout so it linked it to the title. And it felt like a real twelve-year-old speaking, as I would imagine one might as it is the world seen through her eyes, so we get everything filtered through that, and the repetition was I think comforting and reassuring – as though Nutty was letting us know everything but she was letting us know it was okay if we knew some of the things she was telling us. The voice of the child in this story is powerful and I liked that Nutty was open with us as the reader, and I think getting to watch her grow and realise things when she needed to worked well as well – it’s how many of us learn as kids and it ensured that nothing was forced.

I definitely want to read this one again -I loved it so much, and it is an awesome debut novel! Well done, Tami! I hope those who pick it up enjoy it, and find something within it that they can identify with.