My Review: I’ve got lots of Cath Howe fans in my school library, they’re keen and loyal and I can pretty much guarantee that if they enjoy one of her books then they will happily devour the others. This is the first one of her books that I’ve read myself since Ella on the Outside and I was deeply impressed by the sensitivity, insight and sympathy with which Howe tells this story about having huge things change in your life and how to find yourself and your place in amongst these changes.

Stories set against the move between primary and secondary school are an established sub-genre of ‘real-life’ MG fiction but what makes this book stand out is the main character Hattie’s authentic and distinctive voice. Hattie’s life has been pretty good in primary school but when she makes the move to secondary her best friend goes off with someone else and worse still, her mother’s goddaughter, Seren, comes to live with them and takes the box room that she was hoping would be hers. She’s jealous, she’s angry, she doesn’t get the hints dropped by well-meaning adults about her ex-best friend’s actions until her desertion is made painfully obvious to her and as a result of all of this she acts up in school and gets into lots of trouble in a place where no one really knows her. As a reader you can totally relate to Hattie but through Howe’s clever writing and close observation of family life you also know that she’s being pretty unfair to poor Seren who is just as much at sea as she is in this new reality.

Howe’s writing is clear, concise and the plot is streamlined and straightforward which makes it an accessible and attractive read. Hattie’s emotional journey, especially her spiral into becoming the ‘naughty kid’ at her new school, pulls you in. I found some of the simple lines very moving. I particularly loved this line, it really encapsulated the heart of the story- “I am a deflated balloon. I had lost the loud me but found no one in her place.” Ouch! The book is generally light-hearted and funny in places, it skips along at a happy pace and the level of drama and upset is very much of the every-day order. It doesn’t focus on horrifically bad things happening to characters (despite poor Seren’s backstory- which is traumatic but passed-over briefly) but is filled with the more mundane every day difficulties that children have to face and it treats them with the level of emotional importance that they deserve. It would have been easy to have drawn an unfavourable parallel between Seren’s situation and Hattie’s but Howe draws back from that and meets the girls where they are- both in a difficult situation and both feeling lost but reacting in very different ways.

I was also very impressed by Howe’s innate understanding of how children feel about finishing primary school and moving to another. It’s a huge move from being the biggest, most important and trusted pupils to feeling like the least. This passage is a great example of Howe’s insight and ability to understand Year 6 sensitivities:-

“Now school was nearly over, no one told me off any more. We were the rulers of our school. The office staff gave us errands to do. No one was making us answer questions or do maths. People are different in the sunshine. We were wiped out by the heat. Our classroom turned into an oven, and we all went outside to spend our afternoons on the grass under the tree. Teachers told us stuff about their lives. Miss Malcom said she was marrying Mr Amin and all the teachers had hired a minibus to take them to the wedding. It was like living each day in capital letters. I didn’t want it to end.”

“It was like living each day in capital letters”

I remember that feeling so clearly, even though I am old and it was a long time ago now! Every year I watch our leavers go through this same process and I think that readers about to go through it, in the middle of it, or still reeling in the aftermath will particularly enjoy this story.

Suggested For: readers who enjoy realistic, contemporary stories about school life and friendship.

If You Like This You Might Enjoy: Bigg School: Best Friends Forever by Lisa Williamson, The Overthinker’s Club by Nat Luurtsema, My Best Friend and Other Enemies by Catherine Wilkins, The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks by Katie Kirby and for slightly older readers (12+ because of a more teenage subplot) Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead which I love with a fiery passion!

Blurb: Two is a crowd. But one is a nightmare.

A stunning contemporary real-life story from the brilliant author of Ella on the Outside, with beautiful illustrations by Miguel Bustos.

Hattie’s life is already complicated enough. She’s about to start secondary school, her best friend is going off with someone else and her dad seems to have completely forgotten his promise to let her have a room of her own.

So when her mum’s goddaughter, Seren, arrives and gets special treatment, Hattie feels pushed out.

Could it be that Hattie’s family actually prefer Seren?

Thanks to Nosy Crow for the review copy via NetGalley.