Where Would You Go?

Where Would You Go? By Alison Lester and Jane Goodwin. Allen and Unwin 2025. Hardback Picture Book RRP $19.99. ISBN 9781761181573

Reviewed by Debra Williams

If you could travel wherever you choose, to worlds imagined and new, where are the places that you’d like to go and what in the world would you do?

This book takes a journey through words and drawings by the children of The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. They wonder and imagine where everyone at the hospital might go to visit: doctors, nurses, teachers, and themselves.

Yallingbu Yirramboi – the Royal Children’s Hospital School keeps students connected to their regular school or kindergarten by ensuring that children and young people who spend an extended period in the hospital stay on track with their learning and can achieve their full potential. Students receive individualised teaching and learning programmes via flexible teaching modes. When a child is well enough, Yallingbu Yirramboi supports students to transition back to their original school.

Alison Lester and Jane Goodwin have added lyrical text to the children's hospital artworks, exploring the magic of imagination and celebrating the joy of coming home. The endpapers feature the name of each child whose artwork has been included, and the proceeds from the book sales go to support Yallingbu Yirramboi.

This book is best suited to children aged 5-8 years.