Little Ash: Friendship fix-it! by Jasmin McGaughey and Jade Goodwin

Tennis superstar Ash Barty has worked with Jasmin McGaughey and Jade Goodwin to create a laugh out loud series of books set around family, friendship, school and sport.  Every Wednesday Ash in year two is allowed to play tennis with the older kids. She can’t wait, Wednesday seems to take ages to come around. Today is also the day to present their projects in class, and Ash has brought in hers all about Evonne Goolagong Cawley. James is late and in his rush to get to class trips and breaks his project. Their teacher tells him that he will have time at lunch to repair it so James looks to Ask for help. But lunch is tennis! What a dilemma.

In this seemingly simple way a conflict occurs which Ask must resolve. Should she support her friend in his problem, or play tennis. It is a choice that she has to make, and all children will be aware that choices such as this must be dealt with quite often.

It may appear to be a simple choice but many other things impact upon the problem, and Ash must make up her mind.

Complemented by numerous illustrations, the story will be well received by its target audience, in a setting they all understand, the children lovingly supposed by family and friends. I love this series. It reminded me of the Little lunch series (Danny Katz and Mitch Vane). It is great to have a set of books which parallel children’s activities, set in a place they know and giving both sides of a moral dilemma. It is also wonderful to see a set of books aimed at junior primary, well written, thought provoking and accessible, giving readers something other than the bland offerings seen lately, purporting to be issues based and educative.

This is a great set of stories for kids to mull over, there are four in the series so far. (Perfect match, Tennis rush,  Goal getter and Friendship fix-it) and looking at the HarperCollins website, there are now two more.

Themes: Tennis, Determination, Problem solving, Friendship, School, Humour, Little Ash (series).

Fran Knight