Parrot Palace by Susanne Gervay and Pooja Mathur

Title: Parrot Palace

Author: Susanne Gervay and Pooja Mathur

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Big Sky Publishing

Published: 10^th March 2025

Format: Paperback

Pages: 176

Price: $12.99

Synopsis: Three inventive and daring kids, along with their families, live in a three-story apartment block called’ Parrot Palace’.

Hari, Lily-Rosa, and Mikey come from different cultures, but their differences unite them as they form a close-knit team. They share their secrets as they navigate their dreams and challenges.

Will Mikey become a joker or follow in his dad’s footsteps as a builder? Can Lily-Rosa balance her dreams of becoming a firefighter, and a ballerina? And will Hari fix the disaster he created for his Nani and mother?

They join together and confront their arch enemy, the neighbour Mr Crabtree. It is here, that they eventually find the real answers to friendship.

~*~

Welcome to Parrot Palace, a three-storey apartment block filled with diverse, inventive and daring kids, ready to start making the world a better place. Hari has just moved in, nervous about making friends and attending a new school. He’s unsure about making friends – until his neighbour with googly eyes on his hat, Mikey shows up and invites him to play. They’re joined by Lily-Rosa, the third kid and so their adventures as a diverse group of friends begins.

Like any kids, they all have dreams. Mikey wants to be a builder, whilst Lily-Rosa wants to become a ballerina and a firefighter. And all Hari wants to do is fix a special Hindu alter for his mother and Nani, and keep out of the way of nasty Mr Crabtree, who doesn’t want any of the kids around. He’s mean and grumpy, and the kids decide to confront him and show him what real friendship is, what real unity is. Hari, who is Indian, and Lily-Rosa who has Chinese and Hungarian heritage, together with Mikey, who is white, are a great example of diverse friendships and that the things that bring us together are what we like, and things we have in common more than our race or heritage and our gender. These kids are amazing, and such fun to spend time with.

The power of friendship and imagination is at the heart of this novel, where diversity is celebrated. Where everyone is allowed to be who they are, share their interests and find things in common to help each other and their community. Kids like the ones in this book show that acceptance is powerful, that diversity is important and that we become friends with people for so many reasons: we live near them, we go to school with them, we share the same interests with them, or we share the same values as them. And there are probably many more that I haven’t listed here that can impact who we become friends with. It shows the hope we have for the world.

I liked that it showed that there are simple things we can do to help people and include them. Even when they’re not very nice all the time, like Mr Crabtree. And another important thing is that it understands that everyone sees the world differently, and is written to help people grow and start to see things a little differently, even if it might take them some time to do so. Some things take time, and it’s important to remember that change won’t happen overnight. Gradual change through small actions is just as powerful and just as meaningful change as the big acts. Everything can combine to create change. Everyone can help bring about change in ways they can manage – I think that is one of the most important message about this book, and all sorts of diverse books these days. There are different ways to educate people. To talk about things. To celebrate culture and the things we love. This is a beautiful book about friendship and acceptance that should be widely read to show this power.