Luna’s World: Friendship Fail by Hayley Gannon. Illustrated by Michelle Conn. Affirm Press 2025. Paperback Junior Fiction graphic novel 139 pages. RRP $14.99. ISBN 9781922992772
Reviewed by Debra Williams
Luna Merrian is 10 years old,
and her mind is always racing. Her mum suggests that she and Luna take up dog-walking.
Luna has wanted her own dog, but they are unable to afford one, so she sees it
as the next best thing, with five dogs to walk regularly.
Mum suggests that Luna should return
to keeping her neglected diary as a way of keeping her focus and preparing for
the week ahead. Luna decides that the diary will be a way to show others
everything that is going on in her world.
She loves her role at school
as a Monday Little Librarian monitor and has a great affiliation with the
teacher, librarian Ms Sunny. Luna shares the monitor duty with her school
rival, Jade Jones. Initially, they are not close friends, but the relationship
begins to develop. As it does, Luna is happy. But when Luna spies a birthday
party invitation from Jade to another girl, she is put
out by the fact that she hasn't been invited and overreacts. Her feelings are
beginning to get out of hand, but she discovers a couple of things about Jade,
which brings everything into perspective, including the fact that Jade is
dyslexic.
Luna doesn’t cope well when a
substitute teacher takes her class, and she has a meltdown. However, Luna is
kind and considerate to other kids who do not seem to fit in with their peers. After
realising that making and keeping friends is hard, she has a brilliant idea to
start a friendship club called ‘Bookworm Buddies’, and the first meeting is a great success.
This book encompasses themes
of friendship, teamwork, dealing with big feelings and staying focussed. There
are also diary entries that
explain how the library system works, along with various terms that are defined
for the reader to understand, as well as some quick tips. Some terms may be
beyond the understanding of younger readers, such as ‘the elephant in the room’
mentioned on page 111, and need to be explained.
The suggested readership age
from the publisher is 6-9 years.
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