Title: The Power of Positive Pranking
Author: Nat Amoore
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Puffin
Published: 2nd June 2020
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
Price: $14.99
Synopsis: Green Peas is our name and pranking’s our game!
A symphony of alarm clocks at assembly? Yep, that was us. A stampede of fluffy guinea pigs? That’s next on our agenda.
But for me, Cookie and Zeke, it’s about more than just fun. We’re determined to make a difference. And when the adults won’t listen, us kids will find a way to be heard – as long as we can stay out of detention!
No activist is too small, no prank too big… and things are about to get personal.
~*~
Casey, Cookie and Zeke are Watterson Primary School’s best prankers. And so far, they haven’t been caught. Yet they only use their pranks for good – to help people and alert everyone to important issues that the adults in their lives don’t seem to be worried about. It’s all about making sure everyone knows what’s really going on in the world and sometimes, a good prank is what works.
When Casey and her friends find out what Mayor Lupholl has planned for their town at a school assembly, they are catapulted into action to save the park, a beloved tree and the Lego house built in Nat’s previous book, Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire. Yep, Nat has cleverly tied the events and characters, and location of her first book into this one, and both are filled with the same humour and wonderful diversity. Whether it is disability, race, interests, ethics or family make up – Nat has managed to show a diverse world, and one that everyone can relate to in some way. In each book she has had a character or two with an invisible disability – and this is exciting for people who never see themselves represented. In acknowledging invisible disabilities and that disabled people are not to be pitied, Nat has opened the door for more of this representation to follow.
Similarly, with her relationships and the characters races – they just are who they are and this is beautiful to see in a novel for kids so they can see just how diverse the world is.
And we finally learn what positive pranking is and how it works – it mustn’t hurt anyone, but it must send a message – and when Casey needs to pull off the biggest positive prank ever, she has to find a way to get the entire school and her family onside so they can make sure that they don’t lose their beloved town to corrupt forces.
Nat takes issues that might seem complex – politics, the environment, activism – and makes them easy to understand, accessible and of course, fun and humorous. These are issues that affect everyone, as does good representation and it is something that we should all be caring about – which is the message of Nat’s book – to take action where you can and diversity is a good thing! I loved Tess and Toby coming back in – it really tied the two books together nicely, and this is a great way to do so. It’s not really a series based around a concept, plot or characters, as each book can be read on its own, or together. But it could work as a potential series set in the same town and primary school, where you can read any or all of the books – it just makes it more fun to read them together to appreciate all the little nods and hints.
I loved this book, and its predecessor. It took a serious topic, made it fun as well as serious at the same time, and was a nice, engaging read – which also made it a quick read for me. Sometimes there are engaging books like this that can be gobbled up and enjoyed, and then revisited. This is one of those books, and it is one that I think lots of kids will enjoy, and hopefully, relate to and learn something from.
You can read my accompanying interview with Nat here – we agreed to publish the interview and review side by side for publication day.
My third book fills the book by an Australian woman square as well – 
Title: The Desert Nurse
In 1911, Evelyn Northey has just turned twenty-one – the age she believes she will receive her inheritance from her long-dead mother and be able to go out into the world and make her own life, and her own decisions – away from the controlling home of her father. When she finds the conditions of the will – and her father’s ruling – prohibit this – she spends the next three years training to be a nurse in secret – a step towards her goal to becoming a doctor.
A Home for Molly is about a young puppy called Molly – who has been left behind at a beachside town by her owners and forgotten. She befriends two girls – Anya and Rachel, ad plays with them on the beach. When it comes time to go home, each girl leaves with her family, thinking that Molly belongs to the other. Molly’s search for a home, and Anya and Rachel try and help her – before their holidays end and they have to go home. Neither wants to leave Molly alone, but who does she belong to – or will she find a new home with Anya or Rachel?
Title: We see The Stars
Set in the 1970s, not long after the end of the Vietnam War, We See the Stars is a mystery about family and those who care for us, and about ourselves. Simon never articulates why he doesn’t talk, nor does anyone else – they hint at it being like his mother, who is referred to and seen in flashbacks, but his reason for silence and isolation is never made clear. But this makes the mystery interesting, trying to work out all the possible reasons for his silence – some of which, in the 1970s, which is when I think the book was set, were not understood in the same way they are today. So perhaps this is why the reason for his silence isn’t defined.
Title: Differently Normal
Differently Normal is the story of first love, but also about the love of family and what people are willing to do for each other. Maddy Baxter’s life is about routine: the routine of work, and the routine at home she and her mother have to follow to keep her younger sister, Bee, happy and safe. Bee’s autism and epilepsy have meant this rigid schedule has left little time for much else. Bee loves her horse riding though, and a special stable that helps kids like Bee has just taken on a new worker: Albert, saving to leave home and start a new life away from a turbulent family where he doesn’t feel like he fits in. This is where Maddy and Albert meet, and a friendship begins, slowly at first, and but soon blossoms into something else. Maddy soon finds herself allowing Albert in – cautiously at first, to protect her family. When she sees how he genuinely cares for Bee and unlike other people Maddy has known, is willing to help to put Bee first, she finds a way to be happy.
Title: The War I Finally Won