One Day Soon: A moving verse novel about Motor Neurone Disease

by Cristy Burne

210 pages, Paperback

Published April 28, 2026

About the author

Cristy Burne is an internationally published award-winning children’s author working on the intersection of story, science, technology and creativity.

Cristy has worked at CERN (home of the Large Hadron Collider!), at Questacon (as part of a science circus!), and in a ute (as a rubbish collector!). She has also bungee-jumped, sky-dived, back-packed, and exploded sewage on her neighbour.

Cristy’s books have been shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards and the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature, won the WA Young Readers Book Awards, and been recognised as Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of the Australia awards.

Cristy’s latest titles include Fiona Wood: Inventor of Spray-on Skin, Beneath The Trees, and the co-authored Wednesday Weeks science-meets-fantasy series of comedy adventures.

Reviews

[Anna Davidson]

A powerful, heartbreaking verse novel about families and terminal illness that gently explores emotions during challenging times. It felt fitting that I read this on the same day that Neale Daniher died. I’d love to see more verse novels from Cristy.

[Pam Saunders]

Short but powerful verse novel about a family dealing with an inherited generic condition. Who in the family has the gene for MND? Familiar to many through the football club who has a huge fund raising focus on this. The book provides a good introduction to MND and the impact.

This novel based on fact is well done but may not work in every school.

[Dianne Wolfer]

A magnificent and deeply moving book!