Willa and Woof 1: Mimi is Missing

Jacqueline Harvey’s new series Willa and Woof follows a smart eight-year-old girl, Willa, and her ‘best four-legged friend’, Woof. In this first instalment, following in the tradition of other spirited young protagonists before her, Willa finds herself in quite the pickle as she takes it upon herself to fix a problem she herself has created. With ‘best same-age friend’ Tae Jin lending a hand, will Willa be able to find Mimi, the pigeon she inadvertently let out of its cage? Willa’s attempts to set things right is entertaining for folks young and old, as we meet the cast of memorable characters who inhabit her local area. Willa is a charismatic character, not least due to her frank and funny first-person narration. It’s refreshing to read a junior fiction book that reflects modern diversity and gender roles, including dads and older brothers cooking, and a cross-age, cross-gender friendship between young Willa and her ‘best old-age friend’, Frank. Dynamic pictures of key dramatic points will engage readers on the younger end of the spectrum who are making the jump from picture books to early readers, and add another layer of humour to an already charming story. Fans of Jacqueline Harvey’s successful Alice-Miranda books are bound to be delighted by this new series. Lefa Singleton Norton is a writer and bookseller from Naarm/Melbourne.

Jacqueline Harvey worked in schools for many years but has had a passion for storytelling since she was a child. She is the author of the popular Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose, Kensy and Max and Willa and Woof series, which have sold almost two million copies in Australia alone. In 2022, she released a picture book, That Cat, illustrated by one of her former students, Kate Isobel Scott. The pair has since gone on to publish The Daring Tale of Gloria the Great and the Kevin the Sheep series. Jacqueline’s books have received numerous shortlistings and awards while her picture book, The Sound of the Sea, was a CBCA Honour Book. Jacqueline speaks to thousands of young people at schools and festivals around the world and says the characters in her books are often made up of the best bits of children she’s met over the years. While she is not a twin, like Kensy and Max she does have excellent powers of observation and has always thought she’d make a great spy. She has narrated over thirty audio books. Jacqueline lives between Sydney, Australia, and Queenstown, New Zealand. The first book in her new middle grade series, The Girl and the Ghost, launches in 2025.