Sequin and Stitch

Laura Dockrill's Sequin and Stitch is a sparkly, heart-tugging story for 8 year olds about a girl whose mum sews gowns for famous people.

What happens

Sequin is nine. She lives on the twelfth floor of Primrose Mansions with Mum and Stitch, who's just a baby. Outside, the block is tall and grey and cold. Inside, home is a palace, spilling over with beads and silks and half-finished frocks.

Mum makes red-carpet dresses for a big designer. But only the designer's name ever goes in the magazines.

So when Sequin tells her whole class about it, Teegan calls her a liar. And her mum weird. Because Mum never leaves the flat, does she? (That one really stings.)

Then Mum gets the job of a lifetime. She's making the princess's dress for the royal wedding! It's top secret, of course, so Sequin can't tell anyone at all.

Sequin tells the story herself in short, chatty chapters and her voice is lovely. One minute she's giggling about Moany Bony Mr Tony downstairs, who bangs on their floor with a broomstick. The next she's worried about Mum, who's frightened of visitors and cries after the posh designers leave.

It's a real mix of sparkle and sadness. And it isn't a long book, so it's great for a reader who wants a big story that won't take weeks.

It does get a lot more serious towards the end. The tower block catches fire in the night, and the escape down the smoky stairwell is frightening, with Sequin screaming for her little brother. A very sad piece of family history comes out afterwards too. It's all handled gently and the ending is hopeful. But a child who worries about fires, or about losing someone, might want you close by for those chapters.

What to read next

If they love a chatty girl telling her own story, noisy neighbour and all, try Hi So Much. Darcy and her little sister are in trouble before it even starts, because their teasing ended with neighbour Cyril breaking his arm.