Leeva at Last

Sara Pennypacker's Leeva at Last is a funny, big-hearted story for 11 year olds about a girl whose parents care about nothing but money and being famous.

What happens

Leeva Thornblossom has never been past the hedge round her own garden. Her mother runs the town of Nutsmore as its mayor and cares only about FAME. Her father is the town treasurer and cares only about MONEY (he stuffs it into shoeboxes in a locked bedroom).

Leeva does her father's sums, sharpens the toes of her mother's shoes and lives on their leftovers. She's somewhere between eight and nine, because nobody ever told her when her birthday was. She taught herself to read from her parents' magazines.

Then she spots a notice in the local paper. Nutsmore has a school! Her parents knew all along and never said a word. When she asks why she can't go, her dad fires a question back at her. What are people for, then?

That question sends Leeva crashing straight through the hedge. On the other side is the town library, a gloomy young stand-in librarian called Harry, and an aunt upstairs who bakes cookies and picks out exactly the right books.

The narrator talks straight to you ("Reader, let's pause for a moment") and it's hilarious. The parents are awful in the most over-the-top way. Her mother only decided to have a baby after watching a celebrity TV show. And the story of how Leeva got her name involves a very fed-up nurse (it's worth the wait).

Leeva is lovely company. She collects words from the paper's vocabulary column and uses them the minute she can (commodious is a proud one). She's lonely and brave at the same time.

Under the jokes it's quite sad, though. She's hungry most of the time, and her parents look straight through her. Children tend to find that funny and unfair in equal measure, which is probably the point.

If your reader loves a child standing up to ridiculous grown-ups, with books on their side, this is a treat. It would be a great one to read aloud too, because that narrator voice really wants performing.

What to read next

Another clever girl with dreadful parents and a library down the road? Roald Dahl's Matilda is the obvious next stop.