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Chris Higgins's Alice in the Spotlight is a warm, funny first-term story for 9 year olds about a girl with something to hide.
Alice has been ready for her new school for weeks. Every exercise book is covered and every pencil is sharpened. Deep down, though, she isn't ready at all.
She's starting Year 7 at Riverside Academy for Girls, and she's on her own. All her friends, including her best mate Austen, are going to the local comprehensive instead.
Then her first morning goes horribly wrong. Dad gets into a row over a parking space with a very posh mum. He swears at the driver behind too, who turns out to be the headmistress!
Alice wants the ground to swallow her up. Who wouldn't?
Luckily there's Tash, who links arms with her at the gate and becomes her friend on the spot. There's sporty, cheerful Dani, who everyone mistakes for a boy. And there's Lissa, whose mother is the posh one Dad yelled at.
Alice tells it herself, so you're right there with all her lists and second-guessing. She's serious and eco-mad and quite happy to give the class a very long talk about melting ice caps (the class is less happy). She's also very funny about herself.
She has a secret, too. She's decided NOBODY at her new school will find out about her big sister Nikki. You'll soon see why, and there are no spoilers here about the rest.
A heads-up, though. Nikki is nineteen and a bit wild. She's brought home in a police car after a fight in the street, and the next morning she smells of perfume and alcohol. Dad swears more than once. It's all seen through Alice's embarrassed eyes and played for cringes rather than drama.
If your reader is heading for secondary school soon, this could be a nice way into talking about nerves. It's very reassuring about how quickly friends can turn up.
If they're after another girl facing a new school with plenty of worries to share, The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks is a diary about starting high school without a best friend.
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