'Aster attends a school for gifted kids, but she doesn’t think she’s special at all. If she was, her mother wouldn’t have left. And if she isn’t careful, everyone else will leave her too.
'Each day Aster must do a good, right thing – a challenge she sets herself, to make someone else’s life better. Nobody can know about her ‘things’, because then they won’t count. And if she doesn’t do them, she knows everything will go wrong.
Then she meets Xavier. He wears princess pajamas and has his own kind of special missions to make life better. When they do these missions together, Aster feels free…but if she stops doing her good, right things will everything fall apart?' (Publication summary)
Indigo in the Storm
Capalaba
:
Yellow Brick Books
,
2023
25912878
2023
single work
novel
young adult
'"We are the storm and the stillness." Indigo Michael isn't like other kids. And her mum isn't like other mums. Life for people like them isn't meant to have meaning- it's just something to survive in whatever way you can. When her mum abandons her, Aster's Aunt Noni becomes her foster parent. Suddenly Indigo has a new 'family'-one she didn't ask for and isn't even sure she wants. Then she meets Liam. He graffiti's revolutionary words across the world, words that make Indigo want to run towards something, build something, be something. For the first time in a long time, Indigo feels she has made a genuine friend, which makes it even harder when that friendship is betrayed ... This poignant companion novel to the CBCA Award winning Aster's Good, Right Things explores the different shapes of friendship and family, and how a girl who longs for all she's never had, learns what it means to truly belong.' (Publication summary)
Aster's Next, Good Thing
Capalaba
:
Riveted Press
,
2025
29178255
2025
single work
children's fiction
children's
'Things have changed in Aster’s life, and she’s really not okay. Her dad is the one person who has always been there for her, but now Aster feels like she’s being pushed out—like the space that used to be hers is getting smaller and smaller. The good, right things – she did them because she was scared of not being seen, of being left, but they don’t work anymore. Instead of waiting for someone else to do the leaving—like her mum did—Aster decides she’ll be the one to make that change. Overwhelmed, she makes a decision that could have awful ramifications for two families, not just hers. Facing up to what she’s done is hard—but doing the right thing is very different to doing the easy thing. Change can be scary and family life can be tough. But as Aster discovers, the very thing you fear may actually be the gift that brings love and light into your world … ' (Publication summary)
