Lenny’s Book of Everything

Lenny, small and sharp, has a younger brother Davey who won’t stop growing – and at seven is as tall as a man. Raised by their mother, they have food and a roof over their heads, but not much else.

The bright spot every week is the arrival of the latest issue of the Burrell’s Build-It-at-Home Encyclopedia. Through the encyclopedia, Lenny and Davey experience the wonders of the world – beetles, birds, quasars, quartz – and dream about a life of freedom and adventure. But as Davey’s health deteriorates, Lenny realises that some wonders can’t be named.

Melinda Marchetta, author of Looking for Alibrandi, stated that Foxlee’s debut novel is a ‘beautiful read’ with ‘such a big heart and not a beat out of place’, while Glenda Millard, author of The Stars at Oktober Bend, praised Lenny’s Book Of Everything, saying that it is a ‘tough, tender and beautiful piece of work’. Tashi author Anna Fienberg applauded the way in which it is ‘told with the piercing honesty and clarity of a child’ and ‘holds life lessons for everyone’, and Wendy Orr, author of Dragonfly Song proclaimed that it is ‘warm, humorous, absolutely real, and above all, uplifting’ and ‘the best book [she has] read this year’. Australian Bookseller and Publisher also commended Foxlee’s novel, saying that it ‘is the kind of book that makes a reader feel grateful it exists’.

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Click here to read Good Reading’s Q&A with Karen Foxlee

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