Gracehopper by Mandy Hager. Pub. One Tree House, 2024

When I was sent this excellent young adult novel about identity and self esteem, I read the title and thought of Grasshopper, a character in the old TV show Kung Fu. Amazingly there is a martial art aspect to this novel with the main teenage character Grace, drawing strength and advice from the teachings of Bruce Lee.

The start was weird as Grace aged 18 years waits at the railway station and a man comes up to her with a suitcase and asks her to mind it. She is reluctant but the man runs away and the suitcase starts to move by itself. You will have to read it yourself if you want to know why and you will not be disappointed.

The main character is Grace and she is of undoubted Asian extraction and wants to know more about her history but her mother Katherine refuses to talk about it, suffers badly from depression and has attempted suicide. All Grace knows is that she was born during the 1999 Jiji earthquake in Taiwan and her father is dead presumably in the earthquake. Grace agonises about who she is, who her father is and is Katherine her true mother.

Katherine took Grace to New Zealand after the earthquake and settled with Claire, Katherine’s mother and Gran to Grace. She is the strength of the family, is a chain smoker and her death precipitates a decline in Katherine and opens the door to Grace’s past and that of Katherine.

Anya, Katherine’s mental health adviser works to solve their problems with the help of Anoop, Grace’s martial arts teacher and mentor. It is very difficult for all characters

The secondary plot but most interesting is that of the relationship between Grace and Charlie, a dwarf with a strong hang up about being a little person but a determination that it should not dominate his behaviour. He is studying how dwarves were treated in art particularly in the paintings of Velazquez.

Charlie and Grace met on Grace’s first day at school and there are frequent flashbacks to their history together. This part of the novel is superb and my favourite area by a long chalk and you will like it too. From the start I wondered to what extent their relationship would develop but you can find that out for yourself by reading this novel.

As always Mandy Hager’s writing is superb. The dialogue is sharp eg Grace says to Charlie about his attitude to being a dwarf “As long as you wave that Little person flag, it’ll keep you small”. And descriptively Charlie and Grace look down on the harbour from a headland in Khandalla to the “gunmetal coloured sea”.

If you miss this gem you will kick yourself, and look for it in the awards list later this year. Outstanding.