Review: The Things That Matter Most

Title: The Things That Matter Most

Author: Gabbie Stroud

Publisher: 1st August 2023 by Allen & Unwin

Pages: 368 pages

Genre: general fiction, adult, education, school

Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

The staff of St Margaret's Primary School are hanging by a thread. There's serious litigation pending, the school is due for registration, and a powerful parent named Janet Bellevue has a lot to say about everything. As teachers they're trying to remain professional, as people they're fast unravelling.

There's Tyson, first year out of uni and nervous as hell, Derek the Assistant Principal who's dropped the ball on administration, Bev from the office who's confronting a serious diagnosis, and Sally-Ann who's desperate for a child of her own.

Thank goodness for kids like Lionel Merrick. Lionel is the student who steals your heart and makes the whole teaching gig he's cheerful, likeable and helpful - and devoted to his little sister Lacey. But Lionel has a secret of his own. As his future slides from vulnerable to dangerous, will someone from St Margaret's realise before it's too late?

As secrets threaten to be exposed and working demands increase, each staff member begins to lose sight of the things that matter most.

A moving and compelling novel about teachers and their students by the acclaimed author of the bestselling books Teacher and Dear Parents.

My Thoughts

Being a teacher and, might I add a teacher at the end of her career, I have read and been impressed with everything Gabbie has written thus far about the teaching profession. Her books, Teacher and Dear Parents, were must reads. Gabbie has now extended her repertoire to a fiction novel and gosh! It is everything you could wish for and makes for compelling reading that will break your heart. 

‘You will fall in love in ways you didn’t even know … And you will fail. They should teach you that too. Somewhere very early on in the course. They should prepare you for it, make you do an assignment about it or write an essay. You will fail as a teacher. It is inevitable. Describe five ways you will deal with your certain and ongoing failure. Cite references. Three thousand words.’

Gabbie takes all her knowledge and experience from writing the previous two books and steps into the arena of molding it into a fictional tale that ticks all the boxes. This is a book for teachers, for parents, for the media and for society in general. This is a book with a plot that captures all the love and the loss, all the stress and the success - everything that encapsulates this profession. 

‘Forget the theorists and the child development. They should make it known that teaching is an emotionally exhausting way to make money. You should live with others so you can talk about your day and take it in turns to cook. That should be the very first thing at the very first lecture on the very first PowerPoint slide that they show you.’

Gabbie continues to pursue her advocacy for this wondrous profession and although the circumstance may be extreme and difficult to presume in reality, it's this hard stance and strong words and actions that have made Gabbie into the fighting voice she is for this embattled profession. All the topics and themes covered in her previous two books are here, wrapped around a fictional tale that shines a new and heartbreaking consequence of the strains on this current system. 

‘He’d been teaching for forty years, but suddenly now he had to prove he was accredited - accountable. He had to produce evidence to show he was doing his job, had to have data to justify his choices.’

There are a few debut fictional novel flaws. The main school stereotypical characters are there - graduate teacher, experienced teacher, empathetic teacher, the annoying parent …. even the grumpy office lady. Yet on top of that she endowed each of them with further personal issues which, for me, was just that one step too far. I would have preferred to concentrate on the many, many issues schools face on a daily basis without the marriage or health issues which pulled away from the main message.  Yes, they are connected but I did not want to lose focus from the main school based message. 

‘He also hated the change of plans. It happened all the freaking time. The one constant thing about teaching was change, he decided. Constant change. It messed with his head.’

Is this book perfect? No. Does she push the limits of what could really happen? Most certainly. But gosh it is a great effort and I hope Gabbie continues to pen further fictional tales along similar themes as it will take some time for her message to get across. Keep fighting the good fight Gabbie!

‘Teaching and caring are one and the same thing. People don’t realise that. They’re squeezing out the time we need for caring. It’s all documenting and accounting and data. It makes the job something else, takes away from the caring.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.