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The New Road

Name: The New Road
ISBN: 9781928497813

Jump to At a Glance & Reader Fit

Fiske Nyirongo - Author

Book DashISBN 9781928497813ENEbook

CC BY 4.0

Credits & Licence

Originally published by Book Dash. Writer: Fiske Nyirongo. Illustrator: Nicodemus Silingo. Designer: Murray Hunter. Editor: Margot Bertelsmann.

Cover resized and converted to WebP; artwork unchanged. Suitabook’s AI guidance is a separate assessment.

Original Book on Book Dash

A warm story about a child’s attachment to insects, friendship and familiar play, with a change to the local surroundings prompting a worry that is later eased.

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Book Analysis

At a Glance

Discover

Road buildingLocal surroundingsPlay

Consider

Emotional intensity

Personalised Fit

Beyond the Cover

road buildinglocal surroundingsplayconcern for insectsparental reassurance

FictionPicture book

Themes in Context

Change to a familiar place

Roadworks replace the dirt road the girls used for games; the new surface is smooth, but they find fewer inswa and no stones to play with.Provisional reading

Talk about: What might a new road make easier, and what changes might people or animals near it notice?

Care and reassurance

Chapansi worries about the inswa and her mother tells her they will find a way out; the insects later return.

How the book presents it: The story gives space to Chapansi’s concern and warmly presents her mother’s comfort, while the return of the inswa supports that reassurance within the tale.

Talk about: How does Chapansi’s worry change after talking with her mother?

Why It May Be Worth Reading

It offers a child-sized way into talking about how changes to a familiar place can affect people, animals and everyday play, without turning the story into an explanation of road building.

What Deserves Attention

Chapansi becomes visibly worried and asks whether the inswa can breathe under the road. The reassurance and later return may make this concern feel resolved within the story.

A Conversation Worth Having

What do you think Chapansi misses most after the road changes, and what might she and Luano choose to play together next?

Reading Approach

Pause at the roadworks and the girls’ changed games, inviting the child to notice what has changed in the pictures. Let them share their own ideas about the insects’ return.

Confidence & Basis

Theme indicators describe how the book presents a topic; they are not a verdict on the whole book or your family's values. Confidence reflects how much book-specific material was checked. The complete text and illustrations were available for this guide.

What remains unconfirmed

Change to a familiar place: The story does not explain why the road is built or explore its wider effects.
Care and reassurance: The story does not explain how the inswa survive or establish a factual account of their return.

Book Dash — The New Road

Complete story and illustrations · ISBN 9781928497813

Checked: 8 October 2026.

Relevant to: Change to a familiar place; Care and reassurance

Benefits, discussion questions and reading approaches are suggestions. Your knowledge of your child remains part of the decision.

Heidi