Grace the Amazing

By Aleesah Darlinson

Reviewed by Jamie Willis

Aleesah Darlinson is an award-winning author of more than 65 books for children, including the Super Sloth series, the Space Kids series and the League of Llamas series. Aleesah has won or been shortlisted for many awards including the CBCA Awards and the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards.

In Grace the Amazing, Grace, eleven, is a curious and eccentric child with big emotions and a big dream … to be a magician. Unfortunately, she has a strained relationship with her mother, who views Grace’s behaviour as problematic, and has only one friend … her art teacher, Pamela. When Grace discovers Pamela is dying of cancer, Grace is devastated and she develops a plan to cure Pamela with miraculous magic.

Grace is a charismatic character with relatable struggles and kids will turn the pages to find out how she deals with her problems in her own quirky and candid way. Her magical cure is obviously destined to fail; however, Grace’s plan leads her to mend her relationship with her family, forge new friendships and learn to deal with her big emotions, enroute to saying goodbye to her beloved friend.

With themes of family, friendship, loss, grief and mental health, this moving middle-grade novel explores neurodivergence, the special bond between students and teachers, dealing with difficult situations and the loss of loved ones.

Grace the Amazing strikes a beautiful balance of emotive and humorous and ends with a heart-warming conclusion. It offers many opportunities for discussion at home and in the classroom and is ideal for readers aged 8-12.

Wombat Books 2024

Teachers’ notes

Aleesah Darlinson