Lani and the Universe
By (Author) Victoria Carless
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
3rd January 2024
Australia
Children
Fiction
Childrens / Teenage personal and social topics: Families and family members
Childrens / Teenage fiction: School stories
Childrens / Teenage fiction: Humorous stories
Childrens / Teenage personal and social topics: Life skills and choices
Paperback
336
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 20mm
246g
Lani Scrub has a plan: study hard and become a double PhD like her idol, celebrity scientist Kit Galway, who wrote The Meaning of the Universe, a handy reference book for well, everything.
Lani's life plan is tracking well until her mum decides on a tree change. And Lani is somehow coerced to leave their two-storey house in the city for a dank cabin in an alternative lifestyle community called Passing Waters.
The signs were all there. Lani should have known things were up when they got backyard chickens.
Lani is not a happy camper at Passing Waters and fails every test the community throws her way - Green STEM studies, candle making and even interpretive dancing. Despite coaching from nine-year-old-nature -loving Lentil and a vegan chef/astronomer named Meadow. Turns out failing is hard, and what's worse is Lani apparently has a murky aura.
But when the community's future is threatened, can Lani put aside her judgement of the locals and apply what she has learnt from her surprising new friendships
Will Lani Scrub pitch in to save the day
Victoria writes works of fiction and for theatre. Her novel for young adults, The Dream Walker, was nominated for the Queensland Literary Awards and the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards. Recently Victoria was commissioned by the Museum of Brisbane to write a work for The Storytellers, an interactive exhibition celebrating the layers of the city's history. Victoria lives in Brisbane with her family and a blue heeler who is 98 in dog years. She often googles rescue cats, even though she is allergic. When not writing stories Victoria works as a communications nerd. Gus and The Starlight is her first book for Middle Grade readers.