Book-review post!

Mix of MG and YA here…

Hayley Long – Sophie Someone

Sophie lives in Belgium, and doesn’t quite know how her parents have ended up there. There are some things that don’t seem quite right – the way her mum stalks Facebook profiles of people in England she’s sure they don’t know. Or the way someone seems to recognise her dad one day, even though he pretends he doesn’t know who they are. And shouldn’t she have a birth certificate of her own? Once she investigates, she realises that there’s a dark secret in her family’s past – and the only way to uncover the truth is a trip to England, whether her parents know about it or not. Aside from the mystery element, part of this book’s charm is the secret code Sophie uses to tell her story, a shorthand that may take a while to get used to but very much reinforces the sense that this is a teenage girl telling us a story she’s still trying to make sense of herself.

Candy Harper – Perfectly Ella

Ella’s the middle child among her sisters, all of whom have vivid personalities and skills. Even the new baby, her new half-sister, has the advantage of being new and cute. Ella’s not sure what her own role is – not in her family, and not in school, where her two best friends are squabbling. This is a sweet story about finding your identity, perfect for readers 9+.

Cathy Cassidy – Fortune Cookie

Jake Cooke – Cookie – has just discovered he has a whole family he never knew about, five girls who seem to have a picture-perfect existence. His own family life isn’t going too well – his mum’s always struggling, and a disaster in their flat convinces him that his mum and younger siblings are better off without him. If there’s any place that seems worth escaping to, it’s the Tanberry-Costello house, where chocolate treats are crafted and dreams seem to come true. And it seems the only way Jake can get in touch with his birth father – and demand the money to help get his mum out of a tough situation. This final book in the Chocolate Box series ties up some loose ends, as well as offering us some insight into what the world looks like to an outsider; like all of the books it offers hope without dismissing the difficulties young people have to go through.