Sophie Beer, Thunderhead, Allen & Unwin, October 2024, 384 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781761180958
Thunderhead is the non de plume of Emma; a girl diagnosed with benign brain tumours that will lead to her eventual deafness. She takes to the internet to blog about all the complicated feelings this brings, especially her heartbreak at losing the ability to enjoy her greatest passion, music.
Each chapter begins with a playlist of top ten songs for various people or occasions. The voice is funny and endearing and the pages are peppered with little cartoons that help break up the text.
I loved that this book explored all the usual middle-grade tropes – finding out who your real friends are, learning that it’s okay for people to like things that you don’t and vice versa – while the theme of chronic illness hovers in the background. I think this will be deeply reassuring for children going through anything similar. This passage in particular struck me:
I may be sick, but I don’t want to be the Poor Widdle Sick Kid. There’s nothing brave or inspirational about me. What if I don’t feel like being inspirational today? What if today I feel like wrapping myself up in my bed sheets like a human misery burrito… (p72).
For Beer, an author-illustrator best-known for her vibrant and inclusive board books such as Love Makes a Family, this is a stellar middle-grade debut. Teaching notes are available at the publisher’s website.
Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Heather Gallagher
