Former Australian Children’s Laureate Morris Gleitzman is back with a funny and moving story featuring plasticine – lots of it. Eleven-year-old Arkie has been sent to the city to live with his Nan while his parents stay behind to try and sell the family farm. Armed with lots of bush practicality and common sense, Arkie sets out to do something about the number of potholes in the local roads which have been the cause of several accidents, including the broken leg of his new friend Dot.

What Arkie discovers is that there is no one official body responsible for mending the potholes. It involves a co-ordinated effort by the local council and all the utility companies whose manhole covers (sorry, Access and Inspection Covers) have sunk into the holes. He and Dot become determined to see the roads get fixed. With Dot in hospital and then on crutches, it is up to Arkie to meet local council officials and utility company representatives who all tell him that he and the other adults are childish.

As the book progresses, everyone except the online trolls is cheering Arkie on and the scheme he and Dot come up with to draw attention to the problem involves the Years Three and Four Plasticine Club and a tonne of plasticine. But it is the friendship Arkie has made with Dot and her dumpling restaurant-owning family, plus the encouragement he gets from his teachers and Nan, when he has only ever been schooled online in an isolated setting, that warms his heart and that of the reader.

This is a feel-good novel with warmth and humour – but we don’t ever find out if the potholes get fixed!

Reviewed by Lynne Babbage

Age Guide 8+