Millie Mak the Maker by Alice Pung, illustrated by Sher Rill Ng

Title: Millie Mak the Maker

Author: Alice Pung, illustrated by Sher Rill Ng

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 30^th August 2023

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 288

Price: $22.99

Synopsis: An inspiring series for young and old makers by the award-winning author-illustrator team Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng.

Nine-year-old Millie Mak has discovered she has a superpower!

Using everyday objects, Millie turns them into something new, beautiful, and useful. Who would ever think that a sunhat could be made from an old bedsheet, a skirt from a tea-towel, or some hair scrunchies from a scarf?

Through her creativity and clever thinking, Millie also deals with different friendships, tricky family challenges, and contributes to the school fete.

You can make the special objects Millie creates from the detailed and yet easy-to-follow instructions included in the book. And best of all, nothing needs to be bought!

From award-winning author-illustrator team, Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng, comes the first book in an inspiring new series for young and old makers.

~*~

Nine-year-old Millie Mak lives with her mum, her, dad, her Chinese Ahma and her little sister, Rosie, but also likes to spend time with her other grandparents, who have Scottish heritage, so Millie is an interesting character, who looks like she is going to be lots of fun. Millie’s Granny loves to pick up stuff during hard rubbish collection or bits and pieces to create all sorts of things and make new items from older pieces. Across two stories, Millie learns how to take fragments and rubbish, old clothes and all sorts of things and make a doll’s house, sleeve savers for her little sister, and various accessories. The first story is set during the school holidays, and Millie is off to a school holiday workshop where she is going to be doing all sorts of arts and crafts. Here she meets Veesa and Glee, who teach her more about making things, Gelati Party skirts and having fun. She also learns about appearances and assumptions throughout the first book, as well as the role of family and why Ahma seems to be upset with everyone. In the second story, new student Amrita, or Rita, starts at Millie’s school, and she’s slowly drawn to Millie and her creative side as they watch Rita’s younger brother grapple with bullying. And they choose to defy stereotypes and expectations when they’re asked to create a stall for the school fete – they decide to make scrunchies and headbands instead! In this story, Millie is also grappling with various issues at home – being treated like she can’t do anything, her dad being injured and needing a new job, and her grandmothers who often seem to be fighting. Yet in this story, it is Millie’s creativity that will bring the family together and her grandmothers especially.

As someone who loves to sew and dabble in various crafts, I knew I would love this book. Millie’s creativity sings and flies off the page, and she creates some very cool things. Alice’s story is filled with humour, love, family, and friendship, coupled with creative interests and pursuits and family conflicts – things that all readers can relate to, because we all have these things in our lives in some way. I liked that the way Alice wrote about these was specific to Millie and her friends in some ways as well, allowing children and readers who might experience the world differently based on race or other people’s incorrect assumptions that what they feel and how they might react is valid. It allowed several ways of seeing the world and understanding it to be represented. The little family quirks of Millie’s family made sense as the stories went along, as Millie was able to ask questions, and give insight into what was going on at home, or how her family lived. Stories like Millie Mak are a window into another world, showing the different ways families live, their traditions, how they do things, and the sacrifices that some parents have made when they move to Australia or help relatives move to Australia for a better life, for a life where they can work towards something they really want to do beyond what they might have done elsewhere. And it is also an important story that illustrates whatever your background is, everyone has a range of experiences and that just because you or your family are from a certain background or identity, doesn’t determine where you will end up in life or how your family will cope in the world and what they have to do to support their families. I liked that it allowed for the characters to show this spectrum across a range of characters and that it also explored the idea of underpaid workers and class in a way that younger readers can understand. This aspect of the novel is eye opening. We never know what is going on in someone’s life, and I think this made the stories powerful – and I liked the way Millie’s family used their sewing skills to create things they needed.

I also loved Sher Rill’s illustrations. They brought the characters and the creations to life, giving the text a delightful vibrancy that younger readers will love. Illustrated novels are always fun, because the illustrations break up the text and give it life – I think more novels for all ages should be illustrated. I really enjoy them and seeing the way the images and words work together on the page, because the illustrations in novels are often an addition to the text, and add to the story, whilst in picture book, illustrations often tell part of the story. In this instance, I loved seeing what the characters and their creations looked like. The illustrations also invited us into Millie’s world and showed how she interacted with her friends and family.

Millie Mak also has the instructions to make what Millie, her grandmothers, and her friends make throughout the book and the stories, and I loved this. I think it is a great addition because it can be used in many settings – in art classes, at home, in clubs – so many settings where children can use their creativity and explore different ways of making things. I loved this book and its celebration of creativity, family, and friends, and I cannot wait to see what other stories and making Millie gets up too.