Description
Grace Marshall is eleven years old. She’s curious, precocious, and eccentric. Her only true friend is her art teacher, Pamela. When Grace discovers that Pamela is dying, she embarks on a journey to find a cure for Pamela using miraculous magic. While doing so she asks the big questions about life, love, friendship, and death.
Review
Grace is a strong, stubborn and quirky character, who doesn’t really fit in at school. She loves art and dreams of being a magician.
Her Mum describes Grace as sometimes being a handful, and she certainly does know how to push the boundaries. Grace is easily distracted and feels that she is never really enough.
Grace lives with her Mum and her Dad, who is a FIFO worker so he is away more than he is at home, and her little brother, Jet. Sheconsiders Pamela, who is her art teacher at school, to be her only friend.
Pamela is kind and caring and has always seemed to understand Grace. She seems to know just what to say at the right time to make her feel safe and valued. Her Mum and Dad encourage her to make other friends, but Grace really isn’t that interested in putting herself out there again, as she is sure that no one really wants to be friends with her anyway..
But Grace’s world falls apart when she discovers the truth about Pamela, and why she hasn’t been at school recently. How is it possible that her one friend is someone that she is now might lose?
Although Pamela tries to shield Grace from what is happening, Grace is determined to try and save her. But Grace soon realises, that even with all her good intentions and hoping, that not everything can be fixed by magic.
This is a story that is extremely emotional and sad (there were a few tears shed by me while reading), but it is also a story that deals with the important themes of mental health, friendship, love, and acceptance of loss and grief, growing up, letting people into your life, and how important great teachers can be and the influence that they can have on our lives.
It will best suit readers in middle to upper primary.
