Primary school for most is often full of fond memories. It also teaches us the fundamental skills to use in life. One of those skills is reading — arguably the most important one.
Books take us on a journey while we’re reading them, but they’re also part of a larger journey for us — growing up. I, and I’m sure other students were lucky enough to be introduced to reading books in primary school. I remember the days when we used to turn up at school, bag on our back and carrying our small ‘take-home reading’ bag filled full of basic short stories. I remember the times in prep class when a few parents would volunteer their time to have us read to them for 10 minutes every week.
As I moved into grade 2, reading became almost part of my daily life. The rush to the Zac Power series collection for the boys as soon as our class entered the library was always chaotic. The first to get their hands on the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book became a competition. In grade 3, it was about who would be the first to read all of Roald Dahl’s stories. I remember staying up late one night to read The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator in one sitting. Some authors are just really gifted.

Switching schools in year 4, I remember enjoying reading the school librarian’s recommendation — the entire Harry Potter series and being obsessed with it for a while. Later on, going through the library’s collection of Horrible Histories and Horrible Science series became a weekly mission.
Going into high school, the library became like a second home. I was very often the first person to read the books on the ‘new books’ shelf, most of them of the YA genre, sharing thoughts on them with one of the librarians every week. Few books that I got my hand on were left unfinished.
This year, coming to Melbourne High, I have found myself slowing down, reading books less than past years, rather preferring to devour news articles on my phone or computer. Nevertheless, over the past few months, I have read 3 novels that have taught or reminded me of important values in life.
Swim that Rock is a novel by John Rocco and Jay Primando about a boy called Jake growing up in a rural community on the coast. He loses his dad after he goes missing while quahogging. His family runs a diner, but because they didn’t have enough money to buy it outright, are forced to repay a 10 grand loan to the mafia. With help from his father’s friends, he helps his mum save the diner and ends up making a portion of that amount by going quahogging. The loan is later written off after he helps the mafia leader’s son in recovering his quahogging equipment without being asked.
This book helped me realise the importance of family, friendship and perseverance. It also highlighted the importance of treating others with kindness through the key decision of Jake, while quahogging in a ‘competition’ to bring the largest haul of quahogs home, decides to lay down his tools and help one of his competitors recover his lost equipment out of sympathy.

Kindness is a virtue that, these days, is often paid little significance. A few days ago I found myself walking through the gates at the train station. A man on a wheelchair was slowly making his way up the ramp to the platforms when a stranger suddenly approached him and asked if he would like a push up. Although this wasn’t in any way relevant to me, seeing this act of kindness made me smile.
In the past, I have found myself in situations where I chose the wrong words with friends or where a light-hearted prank went significantly off track. I have to remind myself to treat others as to how I would want to be treated, and as my year 5 teacher said, “choose kind.”
The second novel I read, The Last Summer of Us by Maggie Harcourt, is about the struggles of a girl called Rosie (nicknamed Limpet) when she loses her mother. Her dad doesn’t cope well with her mother’s loss and with her aunt caring for her father, goes on a road trip with her two best friends Steffan and Jared to take her mind off the recent events in her life. While on the road trip, the two other friends find out that Steffan is leaving for another city, stressing Rosie out even further. As the story progresses, it is revealed that Jared’s father, who was a crook before being locked up, is one of the reasons why Steffan’s father is broke and has lost almost everything. The two engage in a tense argument in which their friendship is pushed to the limit until Rosie intervenes with positivity and the two reconcile.
One of the best aspects about the story is that it was written from Rosie’s perspective, where she becomes the sort of “middle person” in the friendship. She is like a glue that holds the 3 characters’ friendship together. The flaws in each character helped to make them more relatable for me and less fanciful.
From the novel, it was the importance to stay positive that I took away. Although most of the plot was largely plain and some aspects of the story introduced didn’t make sense, at least one of the friends always stays positive through novel despite the turbulence in the friendship. This is an important attribute in our lives because positive thinking makes us optimistic about the future and helps us to avoid worrying or thinking negatively in situations.
Studies have shown that positive thinking can also lead to better problem-solving skills. According to Barbara Fredrickson, a professor in psychology at the University of North Carolina, “positive emotions expand awareness and attention. When you’re able to take in more information, the peripheral vision field is expanded. You’re able to connect the dots to the bigger picture.” In another report Fredrickson co-wrote on overcoming business failures, she suggests that staying positive can help businesspeople work through obstacles like setbacks and improve decision making, come up with more creative ideas and perform better.

As teens, we aren’t quite the businesspeople as Fredrickson refers to in her report, however that doesn’t void the importance and benefits of staying positive. The results of optimism still apply to our lives as young people. Teachers often tell us at the start of the year to set goals to achieve by the end of the year. Being optimistic will help us work through obstacles we encounter while trying to achieve those goals and problems in our daily lives too.
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta is a novel about a girl named Francesca who starts year 11 at a former all-boys school that has just started accepting girls. It details the struggles she faces moving into a new environment she isn’t comfortable with and her losing her friends who have moved into the old school that all girls previously attended. On top of working through the obstacles at school, her mother faces a battle with depression and starts refusing to get out of bed. Over the next few months, her family starts to fall apart, with her father refusing to let her mother take medication for her mental illness, instead hoping it would heal with time.
I found this novel very relatable, especially at a time when I have also moved to Melbourne High this year. Although I may not run into the same troubles as Francesca did, being in the minority at school and at times facing discrimination based on her gender, it was still difficult changing schools and settling into an unfamiliar environment. It was intriguing to see the challenges Francesca faced in her new school — getting to know how things work, making new friends (which is hard as she initially describes all the girls that moved with her as ‘weirdos’) and working her way through gender stereotypes and to some extent, sexism. The girls aren’t allowed to play as many sports as the boys do and are forced to watch the boys play in matches. St. Sebastian’s also does not provide proper change rooms/toilets for the girls.
Gender stereotypes and sexism is still prevalent in our society today, not just in the workplace, but also in schools. Only recently were students from the elite all-boys private school St Kevin’s filmed on a tram performing the sexist “I Wish All The Ladies” chant. The headmaster of the school issued an apology on behalf of the school not long after, and pledged to change the ‘locker room culture’, but realistically, how and when will it be changed? The line that is typically well-established regarding inappropriate language seems to collapse in changerooms where justification for inappropriate behaviour seems to occur often.
Not long after, another group of St Kevin’s students were filmed singing the same chant again. Looks like “addressing” the problem didn’t change much, did it?
This book helped me reflect on my transition to a new school, and more importantly, to take a good look at the world we live in. Often sensitive topics like stereotypes and discrimination are looked over, and the novel helped to raise my awareness in these sorts of flaws in our society. We are always taught (and tell people) to ‘respect others’, but does this really sink in? Do we walk the talk, or are we just being hypocritical?
Reading is truly a special experience. Not only does it take you into a different world with boundless opportunities, it also teaches you valuable life lessons besides the obvious grammar and vocabulary you pick up along the way. I am sure that the qualities that each of these 3 novels have highlighted, the importance of family & friendships, kindness, positivity and to respect others, will remain with me till the day I rest in my grave. Hopefully my short-term memory doesn’t kick in!
