I loved this series of books as teenager and have hung on to them since in case I wanted to reread them. And I have to say that rereading this first volume as an adult who now works at a primary school as a social worker, it's bloody brilliant. Unlike children's books of the last decade or two, there's no scatological humour or epic questing, just warm and wry and well-observed moments in life as a nine-year-old child in a primary school in late 1980s Australia. Standout stories in this first book for me are 'My Dad' and 'Mr Graves is Dead'. Can't wait to reread the next four books.