Luna's world: Friendship fail by Hayley Gannon. Illus. by Michelle Conn

Luna and Jade both have lunchtime roles as Little Librarians for Ms Sunny, the librarian.  After a rocky start Jade opens up to Luna about monopolizing the circulation desk and taking all the cushy jobs. Tensions rise but ultimately Luna understands why Jade needs to use the scanner for loans and returns. Things are looking up on the friendship front for our neurodiverse protagonist.

Friendship Fail is the second book in the Luna’s world series - we remember Luna to be the epitome of the book loving child. Intelligent and buzzing with ideas and sketches generated by Michelle Conn’s illustrations, Luna is not the most popular or socially confident student and her burgeoning friendship with Jade really gives her a boost.  But everything changes when Luna accidently sees one of Jade's birthday party invitations…

Her diary entries reflect her pain as she grapples with her perceived marginalization. The relief teacher and a different routine see Luna struggling with extra stress and she takes off. It is Ms Sunny who locates Luna and calms her and Mum gives her a rest day after she collects her from school.  

Hayley Gannon is the creator the irrepressible Luna Merrin, who engenders most of the traits of child bibliophiles. Immersed in the school library setting with its regular patrons, Gannon is actually a qualified teacher librarian. Her writing styles cover several genres, including useful information and facts about books, schools and neurodiversity.

Gannon’s dialogue captures the feelings and antics of young readers through the diary fiction genre and Michelle Conn has fun embellishing Luna's World with  sketches, squiggles and large font appropriate and appealing to this middle primary age group.

Themes: Friendship, libraries, school, neurodiversity, gifted an talented.

Deborah Robins