The Isabelle stories: Izzy and Belle by Jane Godwin and Robin Cowcher

The Isabelle Stories is a treasure of a novel with four stories about six-year-old Isabelle and her growing friendship with a new year one student called Isobel (Izzy). Isabelle strives so hard to earn Star of the Week, only to see other class members receive it. It doesn’t seem fair. Isabelle just lives with her Dad and they occasionally need to babysit her baby cousin. On a shopping trip for her seventh birthday party, Izzy’s big sisters kindly come to her rescue. Isabelle wrongly believes Izzy has stolen her prize pen and has to admit she was wrong. Finally, Isabelle’s friends and the community create an outdoor house and have a celebration.

These stories are heart-warming observations of real-life situations. Families with diverse structures, school life and friendship issues are very relatable. Readers will identify with Isabelle’s yearning to get Star of the Week. Godwin creates believable characters and captures Isabelle’s point of view so well – a slight puzzlement and timidity with the world, which subtly changes as Isabelle becomes more confident. Isabelle is a thinker and has a great moral compass. Mr. Riled is the perfect older generation deputy principal, who doesn’t know student names and calls them Sonny or Miss. Once again Jane Godwin proves her mastery of writing for young people of all ages. The Isabelle Stories is ideal for newly independent readers, akin to Billie B Brown books. Illustrations by Robin Cowcher effectively compliment the story and help display Isabelle’s talent for picture writing.

Themes: Friendship, Families, Confidence, School.

Jo Marshall