Chickenpox

Chickenpox

Remy Lai

A&U Children’s, 2025

240pp., graphic novel,  RRP $A19.99

9781761068621

Abby Lai is sick of being trapped at home with her  rambunctious younger siblings – Amy, 11, Remy, 8, Andy, 6, and Tommy, 3 – who seem to take their role of embarrassing her in front of her friends very seriously. All she wants is to spend more time with her friends Monica and Julia, far away from the sticky fingers and snooping eyes of her annoying brothers and sisters, particularly as she eventually loses her temper with them and engages in a mortifying argument as Julia and Monica watch on. But then a case of chickenpox leaves all the little Lai kids covered in scratchy red spots and stuck at home for two weeks of nonstop mayhem. Abby thinks this might be the end of her sanity, and her friendships because she is sure her classmates are gossiping about her childish behaviour, but she feels responsible for the situation, because it was her best friend who brought chickenpox into their home.

Set in Indonesia in the 1990s when chickenpox was still a common childhood disease because the vaccine was still very new and vaccinations programs in their infancy, this is an hilarious story that many will relate to, if not because of having suffered the disease but because the theme of annoying younger siblings is universal. It’s bad enough living with them on a daily basis without being isolated indoors unable to escape – and while today’s readers might not be familiar with that disease (which is explained throughout the story), many will still have memories of the COVID era here.

As well as the familiarity of the theme and the situation, its graphic novel format will appeal to a range of independent readers, and, as Abby helps her mother to take care of the children she learns much about herself and how she can be a better sister and person particularly as she starts to see each child as an individual rather than one of a pack, so, too might they reflect on some of their own attitudes and actions,

But it also gives rise to other, more serious issues such as the role of vaccinations in protecting the health of children such as the elimination of polio , tetanus, measles, mumps and even the decline of chickenpox itself through national, free immunisation programs.   However, running parallel with that is the decline in vaccination rates in Australia since COVID and so, as well as its lighthearted side of sibling relationships and that awkward transition to being a teen where peers seem more important than family, there is also the serious aspect of children getting really sick from preventable diseases, perhaps giving rise to family discussions.   While those of us who have either suffered the diseases ourselves or seen friends left debilitated might not question the power and importance of vaccinations, those who have grown up not knowing the misery and the lifelong consequences or such diseases may dismiss them and the protection on offer, so there is the opportunity for research and informed debate within and without the classroom.