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Anne-Marie Conway's Butterfly Summer is a mystery for 10 year olds about a girl who turns up an old photo of her mum holding a baby that isn't her.
Becky and her mum have just moved to Oakbridge, the village Mum left before Becky was born. It's the hottest July on record. The new house is gloomy, the spiders are massive, and Becky misses her best friend Laura like mad.
Then she finds a box under Mum's bed. Inside is a scrap of fabric stitched with I LOVE YOU, and a photo of Mum in a hospital bed with a baby in a pink blanket. The date on the back is twelve years before Becky was born.
Who is the baby? And why has Mum never said a word? Any mention of the past brings on one of Mum's headaches, so Becky can't bring herself to ask.
The next morning a note comes through the door asking her to come to the Butterfly Garden. That's where she meets Rosa May (also known as Fish). She's wild and funny and a bit bossy, and she dives into the lake and stays under for ages. Becky can't swim and is terrified of water, so watching her is agony!
Reading it is like carrying Becky's secret around with her. You're right there with all her questions, and with the daydream she uses to fall asleep, where the dad she's never met finally knocks on the door. The whole village seems to know more than it's saying. Even the old ladies at the Garden think she looks familiar.
The friendship is lovely. The two girls make a pact to spot the rare Silver-studded Blue butterfly, and there's an old story about what it means if you see the first one of the summer.
This is a thoughtful read rather than a light one, built around a family secret and a mum who clearly finds the past painful. If you've got a reader who likes a story with an eerie, dreamy feel and clues hiding in plain sight, they'll probably have a theory of their own before long.
For another girl whose family is hiding something, Forbidden Friends begins with a missing dad and a mysterious pink letter nobody will explain.
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