Double Backflip by Rose Lu is a warm, emotionally rich short story that follows Annie as she navigates change within her family while striving to be seen and celebrated for who she is. Set around Annie’s passion for gymnastics and her determination to master a double backflip, the story gently explores sibling adjustment, shifting family attention, and the quiet feelings that can emerge when a new baby arrives. Through close character perspective, sensory detail, and authentic dialogue, readers gain insight into Annie’s inner world and her need for connection, reassurance, and belonging.

Blending moments of humour, tenderness, and triumph, the text supports students to think deeply about relationships, empathy, and resilience. It invites discussion about how families adapt to change, how emotions are expressed, and how perseverance and support help young people find their place, making it a strong and relatable text for upper primary learners.

This pack contains wide range of response activities including:

• A guided reading plan exploring key literacy elements including inference and deduction, language use, making connection and text organisation, along with key questioning to promote emotional intelligence, metacognition and compassionate inquiry. 
• An independent learning contract complete with explainer videos for activity clarity
  
• A wide range of response activities to support developing and embedding key literacy skills including sentence and word work, spelling, and cloze activities. 

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2

Year Level: Year 5

English: reading for meaning, analysing character motivation and emotional change, exploring narrative voice and dialogue, inferring themes and messages, summarising key events, and supporting ideas with evidence from the text
Health and Physical Education: emotional wellbeing, managing change, resilience, confidence, perseverance, physical activity and safety
Social Sciences: family structures, relationships across generations, identity and belonging, understanding change within families and communities

Fiction: realistic narrative, short story

Key words include: change, character development, China, emotional wellbeing, empathy, family, grandparents, gymnastics, identity, narrative text, parents, perseverance, realistic fiction, relationships, resilience, siblings, short story, sport, trampoline, wellbeing