Bill’s New Frock

Anne Fine's Bill's New Frock is a very funny school story for 8 year olds about a boy who wakes up one Monday morning as a girl.

What happens

Bill Simpson looks in the mirror and gets a shock. Before he can argue, his mum has popped a pretty pink frock over his head (with fiddly shell buttons) and dashed off to work. Nobody else seems to notice anything has changed at all.

So Bill spends a whole school day in that frock. And he starts noticing things he never saw before.

The headteacher picks only boys to carry a table. Bill's neat page gets a telling-off while Philip's messy one gets a "keep up the good work". The boys take over every inch of the playground for football. Even in wet play, the good comics go to the boys and Bill gets handed a Bunty.

It's laugh-out-loud funny. The "wumpy choo" bet is a highlight. Bill is sure it's a rare, furry animal that needs rescuing, so he takes the bet. It turns out to be a 1p chew!

You're right there with Bill's outrage all day long. Then there's his horror at the frock having no pockets. How is anyone meant to survive without pockets? (A very fair question, honestly.)

It isn't all one-sided either. Bill finds a few things girls are brilliant at, like the clever plan to let Paul, who's never won a race, finally do well. And he's not above getting it wrong himself.

It's worth a mention that there's a proper fight in the classroom over a comic. Punches and a kick, then lines for both of them. Nothing worse than that.

If you've got a reader who's quick to shout "that's not fair!", they'll be on Bill's side from page one. It's also a lovely, light way into chatting about how boys and girls get treated differently, without ever feeling like a lesson.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, The Chicken Gave it to Me is another short Anne Fine story that turns things round so you see them from the other side. Andrew and Gemma read a tiny book written by a chicken, all about life on the farm they pass on the way to school.