My Other Life

Polly Ho-Yen's My Other Life is a short, thoughtful fantasy for 8 year olds about a girl who sees holes open up in the world around her.

What happens

Mae has had bad asthma for as long as she can remember. She knows her inhalers inside out, and she's been in hospital more times than she'd like (it's always too hot in there, apparently).

It's in hospital that she sees the first hole. It's a little tear by the door, full of black scribbly lines, and then it stitches itself shut again. Nobody else notices a thing.

Her best friend Rav, who picks his nose and always eats her packed lunch, thinks it must be a portal. So when a bad attack starts at home and a bigger hole opens right in front of her, Mae reaches out and touches it.

On the other side, life looks almost the same. Same house, same mum and dad, same school. But some things are very different, and it doesn't take Mae long to work out that different isn't always better.

It's told by Mae herself, and she's a quiet, honest narrator. You feel how tight her chest gets and how cosy it is when Mum and Dad are close by with the nebuliser. The attacks are described truthfully (an ambulance and oxygen) but calmly, with no drama for the sake of it.

Who hasn't wished, just once, that one hard thing about their life would simply go away? That's what this story is really about, and it's a lovely one to talk about afterwards.

If your reader has asthma, or a friend or sibling who does, Mae will feel very familiar. And if they just love the idea of a secret doorway into another version of their own life, it's a quick and satisfying read.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Polly Ho-Yen's The Day No One Woke Up is a longer story about a girl whose ordinary world suddenly stops making sense. Ana is dreading school because of a boy who used to be her best friend, and then one morning she's the only person in the city awake. Well, almost.