Something Special: 40th Anniversary Edition by Emily Rodda

Title: Something Special: 40^th Anniversary Edition

Author: Emily Rodda

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 3^rd July 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 80

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: The award-winning classic by internationally renowned author Emily Rodda celebrates forty years.

In the spare room, the second-hand clothes hang in rows, stirring in the sunlight. Sam walks through the rows, brushing velvety sleeves, touching lace, sensing memories and magic.

The clothes all have neat price tags. They’re ready to be sold at the school fete on Saturday. Sam knows that some of them are Special. Her mother has told her so. But she is soon to find out just how Special they really are.

A children’s fantasy favourite for forty years, Something Special was Emily Rodda’s debut novel and won the prestigious Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award in 1985.

~*~

 Emily Rodda published her debut novel, Something Special, forty years ago, and to celebrate this anniversary, it has been re-released by HarperCollins.

Sam’s family are collecting second-hand clothes for a stall at the school fete, and they’re all hanging neatly in the spare room in rows. They’re stirring in the sunlight, and almost calling out to same as she walks through the rows of clothes as she brushes the velvety sleeves and touches the lace – and as she does, she feels their memories and magic, eventually falling asleep amidst the clothes and imagining the people who wore the red dress, the green and black dress, a suit and a dressing gown as she finds out what makes these clothes truly Special.

As Sam finds out what the makes the clothes Special and sees how people gravitate towards them at the fete, she learns what makes them magic as they slowly attract people throughout the day. But it’s the clothes that came to life she wants to know more about. The ones that spoke to her and that seemed to have personalities and stories that awoke something in Sam. A sense of wonder threads itself through this short children’s novel that takes place over a brief period of time, which is perfect for the story that needs to be told.

Emily Rodda’s first novel is delightful and timeless – there’s nothing that I found to situate this in a specific time and place, other than the uniquely Australian setting of a school fete and fundraiser for the school Sam goes to. There is a universality within about imagination and creativity, where the very presence of second-hand clothes can evoke a memory, a thought or allow us to imagine the lives of the people that may have once owned the clothes. It brings them to life, and hints at a desire to find the right people for the clothes. This is the beauty of this novel and many of Emily’s novels that celebrate the magic of imagination in a seemingly ordinary world. The magic and fantasy is found in the child characters and joy of the readers.

Another aspect that I loved about this novel was the way people gravitate towards clothes, and what the clothes mean to them, and how they can fit their personalities – the mystery of what these clothes are and where they have come from drives the novel and Sam’s imagination throughout the novel, because the magical possibility of the clothes never leaves her. And at its heart, it is also about a community, coming together to help a school and each other through charity and connection. This uniquely Australian novel captures a slice of life that many Australians will recognise from their school days, especially for kids who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, and open up a window into this world for kids today. It will be the magic and fantasy that will speak to new readers and reach across generations to capture the imagination and bring Emily Rodda’s first book to life for a new generation.