The Insiders

Cath Howe's The Insiders is a warm, twisty school story for 11 year olds about three children who are each hiding something from everyone else.

What happens

Callie thinks she knows her friends. Then she starts to notice how much is going on under the surface (friends, she decides, are mysterious icebergs). Her quiet next-door neighbour Ted has gone even quieter. He used to come to hers every day after school, and this term it suddenly stopped.

What Callie doesn't know is that it was Ted's own idea. In one split second he told his mum he didn't need minding any more, and now he watches Callie's garden from the top of the tree next door. Who hasn't said something without thinking and then wished they could take it straight back?

Then there's Billy Feldon, the class fidget who sits next to Callie. Just before the class assembly he squirted orange juice down Ted's trousers, and the whole school thought Ted had wet himself. Now, to everyone's disgust, Billy has been made a prefect. He's also secretly sleeping in the school library at night.

The chapters swap between Callie, Ted and Billy, so you're inside all three heads. It's fascinating to see how differently the same week looks to each of them. Callie is chatty and a bit bossy. Ted notices everything and says almost nothing. Billy is jokey on the outside and very alone underneath.

There's real sadness in here, told gently. Ted gets teased cruelly after the assembly. Billy's dad left the family in the summer, and his mum, a tired intensive-care nurse, is away on a week's holiday thinking he's safe at his dad's. A child whose parents have split up might recognise a lot of Billy's feelings.

There's excitement too. A hole under Callie's fence leads straight into the school playground, and going there after dark is thrilling. Then a light comes on in the library where nobody should be...

If you've got a reader who loves friendship stories where nobody is quite who they seem, this is a great pick. It's especially good for the last year or so of primary school, when friendships start to shift.

What to read next

Cath Howe's Ella on the Outside is set at the very same school, Moor Lane, and it's in the library too. Ella is the new girl in Willow class, with a secret of her own and a cardigan that definitely isn't green.