SHORT-LISTED: 2024 CBCA Book of the Year, Older Readers
SHORT-LISTED: 2024 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature 


Frances is in a new house in a new neighbourhood and going to a new school, but no amount of new can make her forget the old, sad secret dragging at her heart. Not the pictures of bacteria that she draws with painstaking precision, not even Picasso, the puppy with the long soft ears and the cute black circle like a target on his bottom. Then Frances meets Kit, the tall, quiet boy with the two-coloured eyes. Kit is a real artist. His coloured pencils fill page after page of exercise books. He sees wonder in the rocks and ferns and sky. Though Kit has worries of his own.

But when secrets are spilled, Frances's life turns grey and drab. Not even Picasso's wet nose can brighten her up. Frances and Kit will need to face the truth of their pasts to find colour in their world again. After all, don't the most brilliant sunsets need a cloudy sky?

A beautiful novel about finding the remarkable in the ordinary and celebrating the wonder of every day, from the award-winning author of Borrowed Light.




'Marvellous, mind-opening, and deeply moving. The best book yet from this irresistible author.' Morris Gleitzman



'A beautifully written novel that encompasses such big things ... Frances, Kit and Picasso will stay with me for quite a while.' Karen Foxlee



'I loved this book with my whole heart. It's truly beautiful. And a gift to readers, young and old.' Maryam Master

'Push this into the hands of anyone who loved Storm Boy or Lenny's Book of Everything.' Books+Publishing