All We Know

All We Know (1987) is a novel by prolific and award-winning Australian author Simon French. Partly a coming of age story and partly the chronicling of a preteen girl’s rites of passage, the novel is intended for middle grade readers. The story follows a tumultuous few months during which the protagonist must come to terms with several mundane but life-changing events like the loss of a key friendship, the realization that other kids’ family lives can be quite chaotic and harmful, and the discovery of a new creative outlet. Drawing on his firsthand knowledge of middle-schoolers from his experience as a teacher, French leaves his novel just as open-ended and ambiguous as it begins—he is capturing just a small slice in the life of his main character, rather than neatly sewing up every narrative thread. To do this with greater realism, the novel is a mix of third-person narration and first-person italicized commentary from the main character’s point of view. The novel drew critical praise upon publication and won the Children's Book Council of Australia Award for Book of the Year: Older Readers.

Twelve-year-old Arkie is caught in the middle of many transitions, which have somehow all occurred at the same time.

For one thing, she is in sixth grade, which in Australia marks the last year of middle school. In just a few months, she will become a high school student, which worries her because she has little idea of what high school will be like.



For another thing, she is not entirely sure how to fit into her lively and spirited family, now that her little brother, Jo—whom she has always thought of a kind of helpless baby—has grown up enough that he needs his own room in the house. Somewhere between two teacher parents, her pet dog and cat, and her newly independent brother, there should be a place for Arkie, but right now the only place she feels at home is her new bedroom—a room she no longer must share.

School doesn’t offer any respite from upheaval. Arkie’s best friend, Kylie, has suddenly decided to break up with her in a dramatic and hurtful way. Not only is Kylie now best friends with someone else, but she has stopped speaking to Arkie altogether for no reason that Arkie can understand. To add insult to injury, Arkie’s favorite teacher has just announced that she will be leaving the school soon.

Calm and measured by nature, Arkie does her best to quietly cope with her life, but she is not entirely sure how to do this until she finds an old camera in her new bedroom. As she learns how to use the camera, Arkie begins to photograph everyone and everything around her. She can’t quite verbalize it, but she enjoys the contrast between how quickly and permanently the world changes, and how taking a picture of something forever preserves a moment in time. Because the novel prizes realism, Arkie doesn’t suddenly learn that she is an incredibly gifted photographer. It’s more that in physically placing herself behind a lens, she can see her surroundings from a more removed perspective and thus handle them more easily.



During school vacation, Arkie’s family goes on a trip to the beach. There, she discovers a group of kids conducting a mysterious meeting. Spying on them through her camera and taking clandestine photos, Arkie covertly follows them to a hidden cave. Inside the cave, she overhears the kids adding objects to an elaborate shrine they have constructed to their dad. It turns out that the kids are siblings whose father drowned. Arkie’s photographs of the group and of their memorial take pride of place in the cabinet where she has started to save the pictures she takes.

The dark discovery of the fatherless children puts some of Arkie’s pre-adolescent angst into perspective, allowing her to consider how her loving family fits into the larger scheme. Both Arkie and the reader suddenly become aware of the real story of her friend Ian, a kid who often spends a lot of time at Arkie’s house. It turns out that Ian is there to find safety and shelter—his own home life is full of neglect and abuse. This discovery doesn’t spur a perfect solution, though we do get the sense that going forward, Ian’s situation will improve.

The novel ends without resolving most of its plot lines. High school is still six weeks away, and Arkie is just as unsure about what it will bring as she was when the novel started. Her friend situation is still up in the air, and no new favorite teacher has stepped in to fill the gap left by the one who left. Some readers find this impressionistic, slice-of-life approach frustrating, but the ambiguity and open-endedness are clearly what French intends as a way of heightening the novel’s realism.