Home › Find a book › On the Way Home
On the Way HomeJill Murphy
On the Way Home
by Jill Murphy
Claire has a bad knee and tells every friend she meets a different, more spectacular story about how she got it, none of them true.
A story about children, funny and wry in tone. We would put it with children of 3–6, and at a reading age of about 5 for reading alone.
Nothing flagged
We have not flagged any content in this one that a parent would usually want warning about.
Our take on this book
Claire has hurt her knee, and on the walk home she tells everyone she meets a more and more outrageous story of how it happened — a monster, a witch, a dragon — each taller than the last, until she finally reaches her mum and the simple truth comes out. Jill Murphy's picture book runs on the lovely comic logic of a child's imagination in overdrive, and the escalating fibs are a delight to read aloud, each illustrated in full dramatic glory before the gentle, funny deflation at the end. There is nothing frightening here; the monsters are all Claire's invention, and the ending is warm. For a three- to six-year-old it is a charming, funny read-aloud about the stories children spin, and about how what you really want when you're hurt is your mum. Murphy's warmth and her perfect understanding of small children shine through, as they do in all her best-loved books.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
This Moose Belongs to MeOliver Jeffers
Handa's SurpriseEileen Browne
I Want My Hat BackJon Klassen
StuckOliver Jeffers
There's No Such Thing as a DragonJack Kent
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.