Sometimes feeling bored is just the beginning…
Evie is making plans. Actual plans. She’s going to build her own house – and she’s not talking about some silly treehouse either. She’s going to build a real house.
Only it seems everyone else who lives in Turtle Place has an opinion they’d like to share. Frog and Milo want to build something totally different, Mr Santos is grumpy, Mrs Katz is spying on us, Evie’s sister is the most annoying person on earth and Evie’s parents don’t believe in her at all. But she has a plan! Evie has big dreams when she’s bored…
Matt Stanton is a bestselling children’s author and illustrator. His middle-grade series Funny Kid debuted as the #1 Australian kids’ book and has legions of fans across the globe. He has also published bestselling picture books including There Is a Monster Under My Bed Who Farts, This Is a Ball and Pea + Nut!
In 2022, BR Kids readers were introduced to Bored, Stanton’s hilarious new series about the complicated business of being a kid. In books #1 and #2, we were introduced to Evie, a quirky and strong-willed character who’s the protagonist of book #3, Evie Dreams Big.
A standout of the series is how well Stanton portrays excitement and intrigue in the mundane. The novel opens with Evie, bored at home, dodging and arguing with her annoying sister Grace and looking out for her youngest sister Charlotte, who has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. In an irritated and bored-out-her-brains state, Evie decides she wants to do something impactful but also wants out from her home life.
Evie goes on a quest to build a tiny house, rounding up her cul-de-sac gang of friends (including Milo and Frog) to help her be free from her family and their disbelief in her. But not everything goes according to plan. Evie’s on a pursuit for solitude, though a turn of events with her friends, teachers, parents and sisters lead to healing, acceptance, pivoting from failure to success, and finding a better way to be together rather than alone.
The Bored series is ideal for middle-grade readers aged 8+, and the chapters’ short and punchy style will also appeal to reluctant readers. While this series can be read in order, each book also reads as a standalone, allowing young readers to pick who they connect with, start there and then move on to the next.
Navigating illness, familial bonds and self-belief all wrapped in a page-turning and hilarious read, Evie Dreams Big is an instant standout addition to the Bored series. I can’t wait to see where the cul-de-sac’s adventures will lead them next.
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