 Hi everyone, my name is Steph, this is Kid Lit Joy where we talk about all things kids, middle fiction, and young adult books. I am really excited to be talking about the series that I have recently read. It's a trilogy of middle fiction books by Sally Rippon, who is the Australian Children's Laureate for the next two years, as well as being the highest selling Australian female author at the moment, which is incredible. The trilogy that I'm going to talk about is the Polly and Buster trilogy. Now, I only have books two and three here because I forgot and had returned book one, but book one is The Wayward Witch and The Feelings Monster. It's a beautiful blue cover. And these are a gorgeous set of books that all deal with friendship and fitting in, while also talking about dyslexia and ADHD in a very approachable and child-friendly way. So if you're unfamiliar with Sally Rippon's work, Sally Rippon is an Australian Children's author. She has written and illustrated many children's picture books and junior fiction titles. She's most famous for Billy B Brown and Hey Jack, and also The School for Monsters. She's also written a title for adults called Wild Things, and this is a nonfiction book about her journey upon discovering that one of her sons has dyslexia and how that really changed her understanding of how children learn to read because he struggled immensely. As an adult who was able to read from a very early age, Sally had a hard time understanding that for her son, but now she writes books specifically for children who find it hard to engage with texts because they either don't enjoy the concepts, they find them boring, or they have dyslexia, and they just struggle with really complex language in books. And she wanted to write books that were engaging for them that really hooked them in and made them want to pick up a book. And so that was how Billy B Brown and Hey Jack and The School for Monsters were born. And then the Polly and Buster series really focuses on having that representation of neurodivergent individuals in texts in not just in contemporary stories, but in fantasy stories as well. So in this series we follow Polly, who is a witch, and she goes to a magic school, but she really struggles with baking potions because they require recipes and specificity, and because she struggles to read, which she hasn't really told anyone, she is constantly making mistakes and things go wrong with her potions and her spells. She does have a very supportive teacher who recognises that something isn't quite going right. Polly also has a best friend called Buster, who is a monster. And in this world monsters and witches aren't supposed to get along, there's some animosity between the two groups, but they're neighbours and they've known each other their whole lives and they're the best of friends. And Buster is a monster who feels things very deeply. When he's happy, he's big and colourful and light and almost he can float away. And when he's sad, he is small and grey and just the physical manifestation of feeling unhappy. And in the first book, it's the first time that they really encounter people wanting them to not be friends anymore because of the animosity between the witches and the monsters. And Polly finds herself often while she's trying to fit in with the kids at school having to say or do something that hurts Buster, and she doesn't mean for it to happen, but she's also desperate to fit in the other children at schools because she's kind of an outcast. One of the big themes of this story is that even though they both make mistakes at times, they still come back together and they still have this beautiful friendship that lasts the entirety of the series and you know, hopefully the entirety of their lives. At the very end of the first book, Polly is in possession of some magic stones and she's not quite sure how to work them yet, but we realise throughout the book that she is capable of very, very powerful magic with or without spells. And so it is celebrating the fact that, you know, she can still achieve things even though she has trouble reading. In book two, we find out more about the history of the stones and how they're connected to a collapse in one of the local mines that resulted in the death of many people in the town, both witches and monsters, including Polly's father. And then in the search for the Silver Witch, which is book three, Polly goes to her aunt, who was the other Silver Witch, but who left this town. And she goes there for help only to find that perhaps these magic stones have chosen Polly for a reason and not her aunt. So it is a really gorgeous story about friendship and bravery and courage and being able to recognise your inner strengths, the strengths that you have. It's about overcoming that fear of being different from other people and recognising that you are worthy and that you have an innate power to do good in this world, even when other people are telling you that what you think or believe is wrong. The text itself is very easy to read. It's very engaging and fun and fast paced. There is information about the world, but it is not a heavy fantasy world building plot. We sort of exist in the world. And as we need the information, it's revealed to us as we go rather than in massive chunks. Sally Rippen is an illustrator as well. So throughout the text there are illustrations, which is a really lovely touch. So sometimes they are full page illustrations. Sometimes they're just smaller inclusions just to enhance the story. And also I really love this at the very start of the book. There is a little section that is a recap of the previous books so that you can orient yourselves. So even if you read the books a couple of months apart or years apart, you can still remember what happened in previous books. And I think that is a really clever way to keep kids engaged because if they haven't picked up a book for a while, they might have forgotten some of the details. It's a very, very short recap that encapsulates the entire story. I love good recap. So that is the Poly and Buster series. I have been meaning to read it for a very long time and I'm so glad that I finally set aside some time in March to actually just get through all three books. And I had a really wonderful time. Their beautiful characters are very enchanting and it's a heartwarming story of friendship. And I loved the representation in here because it's great for people to be able to see themselves on page, even though they might be slightly fantastical characters. In the comments, I would love to know if you have read these books or any of Sally Rippon's other titles. Feel free to let me know down below. Otherwise, if you just want to let me know that you're here but you don't want to leave a comment, feel free to leave a broom emoji. I hope that wherever you're on the world, you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye, everyone.