A Dash of Adventure

A Dash of Adventure

Julie Williams & Mitch Oates

Caroline Keys

Little Steps, 2025

32pp.,. hbk., RRP $a26.99

9781923306424

Going to the supermarket for groceries is hardly the most exciting way to spend your time, especially if you’re in a wheelchair . 

BUT, if you  have a big brother with a healthy, lively imagination who helps you see your wheelchair as a tractor, and the supermarket aisles as a farm, then it can be a whole lot more fun. 

Co-author Mitch Oates lives with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), and this story reflects his belief that his disability is not a limitation but rather “an opportunity to discover things in my own unique way.”  Through Millie, he and Julie, his support worker and best friend, want to show that kids are kids regardless of their circumstances and they just want to have fun, even if that means exploring the world from a new perspective.  How much more fun is shopping when the fruit aisle is an orchard and the dairy shelves a busy farm?   It’s about possibilities rather than limitations, and hopefully will open up conversations around inclusion and connections,  and anyone can make the ordinary extraordinary. Just as importantly, it is one of a few books that has the main character in a wheelchair  – others might include such kids in the illustrations but seldom in the lead role – and so it is an opportunity for others like Millie to see themselves in a story -we can never underestimate how self-affirming that is.

This is a joyful celebration of inclusion and teaching notes to further discussion and understanding are available.