Dropping In (Geoff Havel, Fremantle Press)

Stick and Ranga are best mates who love skateboarding, PlayStation and dunking arrowroot biscuits into steaming mugs of Milo. Their friendship duo unexpectedly becomes a trio with the arrival of James, the new kid at school—but while James shares Stick and Ranga’s love of the local skate park, his wheelchair means that he can’t join in. As Stick gets to know James and begins to understand how his new friend lives with Cerebral Palsy, he also has problems of his own to deal with—does Jess really want to go out with him? Can he overcome his fear of the tough, older kids at the skate park? And can Ranga’s crazy plan to build a giant makeshift skateboard out of an old couch for James really work? Dropping In is very much an issues-based book, and it attempts to cover a lot of ground—disability, bullying, ADHD and domestic abuse are all touched on, which is perhaps a bit too much for a novel that’s less than 200 pages. Despite this, Stick’s honest and engaging narration keeps the tone light, and Dropping In offers middle-grade readers a feel-good, entertaining introduction to some serious and important subjects.

Carody Culver is a freelance writer and editor and part-time bookseller at Brisbane’s Avid Reader bookshop