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

Title: Millie Mak the Mender

Author: Alice Pung, illustrated by Sher Rill Ng

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 4^th September 2024

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 256

Price: $24.99

Synopsis: The second exciting book about Millie and her superpower of making everyday objects into something beautiful and useful.

Millie Mak is now ten, and often feels shy and awkward. But by using her special gift to make handy and beautiful things, Millie befriends residents at the aged care home where her mum works. When the whole school becomes involved in making hats for the residents, a tricky situation arises between Millie’s friends. Millie is a maker – but can she also mend friendships?

Millie also discovers her sewing superpower can attract the attention of important adults. And when she and her friends are invited to be on TV – on Young Hero Hour! – they must work out how to stay true to themselves.

From the creators of Millie Mak the Maker comes further exciting adventures, plus detailed but easy-to-follow instructions to make the beautiful things that feature in the book.

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Millie Mak, the ten-year-old girl who uses leftover fabric and items to make clothes, toys, and all sorts of things is back. She’s shy and awkward, and prefers quiet times to noisy times. The second book in the story features two stories.

The first story explores Millie’s trip to the local nursing home, where she notices a need for beanies and hats for the residents. She decides to use her skills to create hats for the residents, and her friends, Veesa and Rita get involved. But there’s tension at school, and Geri, the super popular girl who likes to steal other people’s ideas decides to turn it into a school project. And when everybody appears to take more interest in Geri’s idea and give her more credit, Millie and her friends get help from an unlikely source: Shanelle, who is often prickly towards everyone.

This draws Shanelle into their group, and Millie’s discovery that she shares some similarities with Shanelle are surprising to her. As the story goes on, they decide to unite and create more than just hats. Shanelle and Millie’s mums both work at the centre, and this connection creates a new friendship between the two. I loved the way that Millie accepted Shanelle into her group and did her best to understand her. It highlighted that everyone has their own stories, and we never really know what someone is going through. This first story is a beautiful examination of class, diversity and creativity explored through friendship.

I think it importantly highlights the disparities between class and how the different ways people live, where they live, and the struggles they may go through can affect how people treat us. Or even how we see ourselves. Though she is shy and awkward, I felt that this made Millie able to have a deeper understanding of people, and to read their feelings. It meant she was able to talk to Shanelle. And I thought it was powerful when she subverted Rita’s beliefs about old and op-shop clothes that many people rely on. I also loved the diversity in this and the second story – each character has their own racial, cultural and family background that makes them who they are, and this is exactly what children need to see in their literature.

In the second story, Millie and her friends have been asked to be on Young Hero Hour because of what they do. Millie is unsure, but her new friend, Shanelle wants to help her find a way to do the show. The conflict in this story comes through the split in the group: Millie and Shanelle want to show off what they’ve made, whilst Rita and Veesa are happy to talk about it and look fancy. The girls think they’ll be talking about what they do, not posing and playing cultures for the sake of the show. And poor Millie is constantly contending with Amah’s favouritism of her baby sister, Rosie – who can do no wrong in her eyes.

These tensions are working alongside Millie’s worries about a school project. Ultimately, this is a story that is about staying true to who you are. This was a theme that I felt Millie and Shanelle understood from the beginning, but perhaps felt pressured to give in and make sure other people were happy. I found that this story presents young readers with a good message about not letting other people define who you are in anyway. It does so using the very concrete example of stereotyping based on a name, a gender, or race and culture. I felt that this gave the book its power whilst still celebrating the diverse nature of Millie’s world.

These stories celebrate diversity, creativity and friendship in a wonderfully accessible way, and they deal with issues that children will relate to. This fabulous follow-up to Millie Mak the Maker also has projects you can do that are related to the stories, and I think it will be a perfect read for creative kids.