Golden Ticket

Kate Egan's Golden Ticket is a school story for 9 year olds about a girl everyone thinks is the cleverest in school, and who knows she isn't any more.

What happens

Ash McNulty is eleven and in her last year at primary school in a small town in Maine. She's been in the school's gifted class since she aced one test when she was seven. Last year, as a fourth grader, she won the school Quiz Bowl against all the older kids. This year everyone expects her to win it again.

The thing is, Ash is hiding something. She's falling behind. There's an essay marked Needs Improvement, a report card hidden under a pile of stuffed animals, and a whole book (Animal Farm) that she didn't realise was about something else entirely.

Then, three days before the Quiz Bowl, she opens her teacher's drawer to fetch the masking tape and finds a folder of the answers.

What would your reader do?

Ash takes photos. She hasn't even looked at them yet, and already she feels awful.

You're right inside her worry the whole way. The butterflies every morning. Pretending her red eyes are allergies. The little lies to her teacher about forgetting the report card again. It's very easy to feel for her, even when you want to shout "don't!" at the page.

There's a lot more going on around her, too. A new girl, Tilly, who tells Ash to her face that knowing lots of facts doesn't make you smart (ouch). A best friend who always takes over the project. A classmate who leaves pencil shavings on her chair. Parents so busy with their pub that the sisters make their own breakfast.

If you've got a child who's used to being "the clever one", this might be a real comfort. It's a kind, honest look at what happens when school stops feeling easy, and at how hard it is to ask for help when everyone thinks you don't need it. Her teacher even offers her a second chance on that essay, and she can't bring herself to say yes.

It's an American school story, so it's fifth grade and junior high rather than Year 6 and secondary, but that won't slow anyone down.

What to read next

For another class of children feeling the pressure to be perfect, Rob Buyea's The Perfect Score follows a group of sixth graders through one very difficult year, each of them telling their own side of it.