Read The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Middle School free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
David Borgenicht, Ben H Winters and Robin Epstein's The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Middle School is a funny how-to guide for 11 year olds facing the big step up in school.
It isn't a story. It's set out like an emergency manual, with numbered steps for just about every disaster between the first bell and home time.
Some of the disasters are practical. How to survive day one. How to rescue a sinking grade. How to scale a mountain of homework (a snack first, and your phone in the cupboard behind the food you hate most).
Some are social. How to stop a rumour. How to survive having your brother or sister at the same school. How to talk to a crush without drooling. How to handle the two-faced friend and the one who spills your secrets.
The tone is what makes it. Every tip comes with a joke attached, and there are little Be Aware and Worst Nightmare boxes dotted through. Dreading getting changed for PE in front of everyone? Be a speed demon, or take your kit into a toilet cubicle!
Underneath the silliness, a lot of the advice is genuinely kind. Talk to your teacher privately. Tell the truth when you're in trouble. Don't ditch old friends to look cool. If a bully won't stop, tell a trusted adult.
Parents should know it's an American book, so it's all homerooms, lockers, cafeterias and gym class. It's a bit dated in places too, with tips about instant messaging and e-mail rather than group chats. There are separate chapters for boys and girls, which some families will find old-fashioned. And one detention tip suggests working out how you could have got away with it, which is plainly a joke.
It's one to dip into rather than read cover to cover. Is your child the one lying awake worrying about which door to go in on the first morning? This might take the edge off (and make them laugh while it does).
If they'd like the story version, Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life follows Rafe Khatchadorian through his first year. He decides to break every rule in his school's Code of Conduct and gives himself points for each one.
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