The Things That Matter Most with Gabbie Stroud

A moving and compelling novel about teachers and their students by the acclaimed author of the bestselling books Teacher and Dear Parents.

"This is gut-wrenching and important real-world stuff inside a rattling story that feels like it was lived before it was written...As a parent, it was a deeply welcome insight into the lives of those noble, flawed, terrified, brave and brilliant individuals who have chosen to devote their evidently harrowing and wondrous working lives to the education of the things that matter most to me, my kids."

- Trent Dalton, best-selling author of Boy Swallows Universe

"Gabbie Stroud is a teacher whose classroom has expanded to embrace an entire nation. First in non fiction and now in moving, powerful fiction, Stroud educates us all about the tender, excruciating burden on the hearts of teachers today."

- Annabel Crabb

The staff of St Margaret's Primary School are hanging by a thread. There's serious litigation pending, the school is due for registration and a powerful parent named Janet Bellevue has a lot to say about everything. As teachers they're trying to remain professional, as people they're unravelling fast.

Thank goodness for kids like Lionel Merrick. Lionel is the student who steals your heart and makes the whole teaching gig worthwhile: he's cheerful, likeable, helpful - and devoted to his little sister Lacey. But Lionel has a secret of his own. As his future slides from vulnerable to dangerous, will someone from St Margaret's realise before it's too late?

While their working demands increase and secrets threaten to be exposed, each staff member struggles to recall the things that matter most.

Gabbie Stroud is a freelance writer, novelist and recovering teacher. After years of juggling the demands of the primary classroom, she made the painful decision to leave the profession she had loved.

In 2016, her critical commentary of Australia's education system was published in Griffith Review's Edition 51 Fixing the System, which went on to be shortlisted for a Walkley Award. Gabbie's smash-hit memoir Teacher was shortlisted for Biography Book of the Year at the 2018 ABIA Awards and continues to contribute to the national dialogue on education. In 2020 her book, Dear Parents, offered a passionate call to arms for all parents. Gabbie lives on Yuin Nation; the far south coast of New South Wales, with her totally awesome kids Olivia and Sophie.