 Hi everyone, my name is Steph, this is Little Bookish Teacher and today I'm going to share a middle grade picture book review for Zady Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon by Gabrielle Wang. Gabrielle Wang is the current children's laureate here in Australia. This book is absolutely beautiful. It is a bit of a historical fiction slash magical realism story for middle grade audiences and I just had a really wonderful time reading it. So I'm going to read the blurb to begin. It says, meet Zady Ma, a girl who writes magical stories that sometimes come true. One day she starts to write about rescuing a poor unwanted dog called Jupiter. Can Zady bring to life her most important story of all, the one where she finds Jupiter, the dog of her dreams? This heartwarming tale of courage and friendship from the Australian Children's Laureate will make you believe in the power of stories, just like Zady. Now this is set in 1950s post-war Melbourne and Zady comes from a Chinese-Australian family. She has a younger brother. Her mother runs a milk bar and her father is dealing with PTSD from the war. He really struggles. He spends most of his time on his own and like they celebrate the days where he's able to go out to the garden or he's able to spend some time with them. Zady is obsessed with having a dog. However, her mum has put her foot down and said, no, that's not happening. And we know that there is something obviously that has happened to Zady's mother in the past and that things were obviously strained. We read between the lines and we know that the milk bar is probably struggling. Her mother is having to do a lot on her own because her dad is just not capable of doing it at the moment. And alongside that, Zady meets or knows a lot of the local community, including a new boy who moves in next door. And as it says, Zady figures out that her stories have power and that they begin to come true. And so eventually she does, she starts to write the story about Jupiter and she ends up finding this dog. And it brings her closer to her neighbour. It also brings her closer to people in her local community and also unraveling a little bit of her mother's history and the complications that all of that brings to their lives. And then there's also a series of events that happen to the milk bar, including a fire. Everything that occurs really helps to bring this family that has suffered through a lot of things over the years closer together. One thing that I really liked about this story is that because Zady is a writer, she writes a lot of stories. Her stories are included in the text. So quite often we'll have a chapter. There'll be something of significance that refers to a story that Zady has written and then we'll get her story. And there's even a comic in here as well that's fully illustrated and is a comic. And I loved these stories really accented things that were happening in Zady's life. And also she gifts people that she meets stories that reflect what's happening in their lives as well. And so it's a really nice way to link in the power of storytelling. In a classroom I mean this would be great for talking about the power of having a writer's notebook or having a place to write down the things that you think of that your stories are important. And to see that actually represented in a text I think is great. And you could also pull a lot out of those individual stories on their own. It was really beautifully written. It was a wonderful, wonderful book and I really enjoyed Zady Ma as a character. And the resolution to the story felt really satisfactory by the time you get to the end. So yes that is Zady Ma and the dog who chased the moon. I will leave links to where you can find out more information about it down below. If you've read it I would love to talk to you about it otherwise feel free to leave a dog emoji down below to let me know that you're here. I hope that wherever you are in the world just staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.