Diary of a Lottery Winner's Daughter by Penelope Bush

Does money have to change everything?


Charlotte and her family are determined that winning £3.7 million on the lottery won’t change them. But they haven’t counted on how everyone around them will react.


Charlotte’s best friend is acting strangely, and someone’s spreading cruel rumours at school. Can Charlotte use the money to change things for the better?


Penelope Bush goes beyond clichés and creates quirky, truly believable characters with complicated lives.

When we meet Charlotte (who I'm so pleased to say never is called anything but Charlotte) she is about to go on holiday with her mum and dad, her oldest sister Chelsea and Spencer, her older but smelly brother.  They are borrowing their aunt and uncle's caravan and heading to Weston Super Mare for a week's break by the sea.  We very early realise that Charlotte and her family aren't wealthy and that their house on one of the estates in Bristol is too small for them.  Charlotte has to share with Chelsea and everything about Chelsea is hard work.  She seems permanently sulky and miserable.  She kicks up a fuss about everything and makes her parents lives very difficult indeed.

Charlotte is sweet and kind and generous and she's a bookish kind of girl.  She is also quite small for her age.  She is about to turn 13 so finds it very difficult to relate to her older sister.  She is close to her brother, Spencer, which I quite liked and the two of them form a good unit and buffer against Chelsea's bad ways.

When they get back from their holiday Charlotte's mum has them stop at the local Tesco to quickly run in to do some shopping and to buy a new lottery ticket.  In the process of buying the new ticket, she finds the week before's ticket and when the staff check it...they advise her to ring the number on the back of the ticket.  She does when they get home and it's revealed that it is indeed a winning number.

Cue the dramatic screaming and shouting.  Slowly but surely things change for Charlotte and her family.  Chelsea starts househunting for them, Spencer who is clever and good at maths asks to be sent to a better high school and Charlotte, Charlotte asks for more books and some stationery.  A girl right after my own heart.

So, after the initial shrieking and the initial random clothes buying, what next? Life goes back to normal, really.  And that is what happens to Charlotte.  She goes back to school but she finds that her best friend Lauren is acting a bit standoffish towards her but she doesn't really think anything about it.   As the weeks go by, and her mum and dad reveal that they are moving into a new (older house) place, moving away from the estate, all that Charlotte can think about is: a room of her own and also floor to ceiling bookshop. And that is exactly what she gets.

Lauren's not at all happy and immediately makes friends with the new girl who moves into Charlotte's old house on the estate.  Chelsea is having problems too.  Suddenly the girls who used to hang out with her become antagonistic and fights start breaking out.

Charlotte becomes deeply upset when she realised that Lauren and the new girl, Stacey, have become good friends.  And they were basically freezing her out.  Annabel, a girl who lived near to Charlotte (someone she had seen in class but never really spoke to) starts speaking to her and before their friendship can really grow, it all goes wrong.

I enjoyed reading this novel - I thought that Charlotte's character deserved to have everything she wished for her and others.  She is honestly a nice kid and really likeable.  She's just not very adept at dealing with the real world, so that when the new girl Stacey takes advantage of her, she's so shocked that instead of telling her parents, she bottles it up and tries to work through it herself.  When she bungles telling Lauren, Lauren doesn't believe her.

Her fragile friendship with Annabel starts growing but things are falling apart at home.  Chelsea runs away from home after a bad fight with her dad and her parents start blaming themselves.  It's a complete nightmare.

As the story evolves and changes, Charlotte is a complete heroine and does her utmost to find and help everyone.   And of course, we are so vested in Charlotte's story, we can't wait for everything to be fine for her.

I thought that the writing was first class and the characterisation works very well.  The story and situations all make complete sense as they are super-believable.  It's not all sunshine and roses all the time, not even when you've won the lottery, as it brings its own ups and downs.

Diary of a Lottery Winner's Daughter is a fun read and it's given us a great new heroine who is just a tiny bit fabulous and cool, for all her geeky bookishness.  This is the author, Penelope Bush's second novel and I have to say...I think we've got a new voice for younger girls in the vein of Cathy Hopkins and Cathy Cassidy.

My So-Called Haunting by Tamsyn Murray

Skye, a fourteen-year-old who can see ghosts, is very stressed. Not only is the ghost of a sixteenth-century witch giving her fashion tips, but she’s struggling to settle into life with her auntie, and is developing a crush on the most unattainable boy in the school, Nico.

When her aunt asks her for help with a troubled teen ghost called Dontay, she’s glad of the distraction. But then Nico starts paying her attention, and she’s soon facing a battle to keep her love life and her psychic life separate.

As things get ever more complicated, it looks as though Dontay’s past may cost Skye her future.

This was a bit of a departure for me – my usual fare is miles away from climbing inside the head of a 14 year old girl. But then, half the fun behind the blog is trying new things. And besides which, Liz raved about Tamsyn’s previous offering, My So-Called Afterlife, so I figured why not..?

MSCH hits the ground running, and the first few pages set up Skye’s quirky family and her how she’s come to be at a new school, with all the attendant stresses that are part & parcel of that kind of move. It quickly sets the stage without being obvious about it and makes MSCH both accessible and enjoyable whether you’ve read the previous book or not.

Skye’s day to day life quickly dispels any notions that being able to see and communicate with ghosts is cool. Besides the usual troubles that come with school and peer pressure, she has to balance her gift and avoid being labeled a nutjob, not an easy task when the dead demand your attention. But when Nico, the handsome, somewhat mysterious boy that every girl fancies, takes a liking to her, things start looking up.

But her gift doesn’t care about her personal life, and it’s not long before things go from great to complicated (at best).

As a helper at her aunt Celestine’s halfway house for troubled spirits, both living and dead, she gets drawn into the unfinished story of Dontay, a murdered teenager. As she starts putting the pieces together, it becomes clear that the repercussions of Dontay’s death have yet to run their course, while Nico’s mysterious nature also starts coming into focus, revealing far more than she ever dreamed -or feared. There’s a real sense of things spiralling out of control as her life and psychic gift collide in unexpected ways.

Amongst all of this she has to deal with the prudish, disapproving ghost of a sixteenth century witch, jealous love rivals, detention, and helping Jeremy avoid the obsessive attentions of a lonely suicide victim.

Tamsyn’s crammed a lot into MSCH, but handles it all with a light, fun touch and a pragmatic sensitivity that counteracts the darker themes it touches on. More than anything, it has that extra something that makes you want to read just one more page before you put it down.

I’m happy to admit that I enjoyed more than I was expecting to, and I’m definitely keen to get my hands on the next one..

Ps. More Nico please!

Some girls are bigger than others - by Sarra Manning from Queen of Teen Anthology (SSM)

Before my review, just some random thoughts that have been bubbling beneath my surface for some time now:

Much has been said in the past few months about pink books for both adult females and younger female and teen readers. I'd like to offer my tiny five pence piece here which is basically: I used to be one of those who turned their noses up at pink books. They scream overly girly relationship soppiness to me and boy, that is so not what I like to read about. But after five years of reviewing and shoving my preconceptions firmly in my pocket, I have to say that I'm still not fond of the pinkness, but each book should be taken on its own merits. A lot of hard work has gone into these books by very dedicated authors and honestly, if a reader is too shallow to not look past a pink cover book, and not "get" that that 9 times out of 10 these stories are far more than what meets the eye, well then, it's that reader's loss. I'm sure you'll be happier with those dark romance covers instead where invariably the heroine is dull and gormless and the heroes are all alpha males in training and invariably quite abusive towards said heroines. Pink cover books may seem overly girly but let me tell you what I've discovered about them: the heroines are invariably sweet, caring, tough and ready to learn the error of their ways and usually, by the end of the book, our main character has managed to grow as a person and has probably learned valuable lessons along the way - usually one of independence and how to think for yourself and have a life. I'd rather spend time with these girls who have funny charming characters and eccentric ways than deeply sighing melodramatic heroines who can't think their way out of a Kellogs box.

I also love the dark cover dark romances for teens, but have become so inured to the soft weepy heroine who can't stand up for herself, I'm rapidly falling out of love with them. Are these the type of heroines we like to read about? Personally for me, not so much. Which is probably why I like books like Takeshita Demons, Hattori Hachi and Michelle Harrison's books so much - strong can-do female characters that are wonderfully thought out and engaging. Yes, give me books and characters like that I don't care what those covers look like!

From that, let me segue into my review for Sarra Manning's truly excellent Some girls are bigger than others. It is the last story in the Queen of Teen anthology and to me, a strong contender as one of the very best.

In a summer that is meant to be a summer full of boys, secret kisses and sundrenched days at the beach, Cath has the misfortune of having to stay at home whilst her best mate goes off on holiday abroad. She gets a job at the local ice cream stand on the beach and prepares herself for an awesome time of flirting with boys and generally having a great time. Sadly, what she gets instead is a lot of rain and a mousy workmate called Rosie whose only asset seems to be her tremendously large bosoms.

Through Cath's observations we learn that Rosie is quiet, shy, reticent and a reader. Cath and Rosie couldn't be more different. Rosie wears clothes not suited to her body and clearly has no idea about make-up, how to style her hair or dress, especially when it comes to the bra department.

The girls aren't really friends, but when one of the guys from the face-painting hut keeps coming around for ice cream and chatting to Rosie, Cath decides to step in and help her work colleague who clearly has some negative body-issues going on. She drags a very reluctant Rosie to local shopping centre and introduces her to the wonders of stylish underwear and decent clothes.

Rosie turns to Cath at one point and says: "I'm having this major epiphany," Rosie confessed. "I always thought it was superficial to care too much about clothes and hair and it was the inner me that counted. But maybe the outer me should look more like the inner me."

She really needed to come with sub-titles. "What does the inner you look like?" I asked.

Turned out that Rosie's inner me looked like the girls in the books she read: quirky and mysterious which I translated as a muter colour palette and lots of v-neck and wrap tops to minimise her mammaries.

Cath knows that they aren't really friends, but sees their relationship more of a teacher/student variety. She encourages Rosie to talk to David, the boy from the face painting stand and eventually she manages to get them to go out to a movie - The Great Gatsby. As Rosie starts to come into herself, both in confidence and personality, Cath's character reduces slightly. I don't think she initially realises it but she becomes a bit more brash, shinier, a false shine that attracts the wrong type of attention from the local hotshot, Kieran, who eventually asks her out.

The night end in disaster with Cath's deepest shame revealed - the fact that she stuffs her own bra with inflatable bits to make her breasts look bigger. She eventually reveals to Rosie that she desperately wants her boobs enlarged as she knows her looks are her only way out of the shitty seaside town. She wants to marry a rich bloke, maybe a footballer and just get away from her mum and the seaside town. But Rosie, being Rosie sees past this and tells Cath that as she's a very goal orientated person, that maybe what she should do is not wait for a man to take her away, but to do it for herself. Go to uni, get a decent job that pays a lot of money, make herself happy instead of waiting for some man to do it. Cath is completely taken aback. By the end of the summer, Rosie hands Cath a big mysterious box and sends her home. Once there, Cath opens the box and founds a variety of music cd's and books, all of which she's seen Rosie read during their summer at the ice cream stand together.

The letter that comes with the box reads:

"Dear Cath

Before I met you, these were the people who showed me that there's a whole big world out there and that who I am isn't who I'm going to be. I hope they do the same for you.

Love, Rosie."

I regret as a reader that the story had to end - I loved both Cath and Rosie as both were silly and wise beyond their years. I genuinely hope that Sarra Manning maybe takes us on a ride with the full story of what Cath gets up to once she digs out one of those books and starts on her journey of self.

So, the lesson I'd like to impart with this review is: don't knock it till you've tried it. I've learned my lesson and I am trying not to fall back into the trap of turning up my nose at pink books, especially for younger readers. I'm still cautious of pinkish looking adult novels, but I'm pretty sure that my aversion will be overcome. I mean, I already love the girls over at Little Black Dress Books! It's a slippery slope, this reading malarky! It threatens to open your eyes!

Ibiza Summer by Anna-Louise Weatherley

Synopsis

Is honesty always the best policy?

At sixteen, Izzy longs to be like her older sister Ellie. Ellie seems to have everything Izzy would like - a devoted boyfriend, highlights in her hair, a glamorous life style, loads of sophisticated friends, and at twenty- two she is treated like an adult by their parents. However, for her birthday, Izzy receives the gift of a lifetime. Ellie is going on holiday to Ibiza with her friends and she offers to take Izzy with her! At last Izzy has a chance to hang out with an older crowd and do all the things she’s dreamed of…

Izzy uses this as a chance to pretend that she is much older, and she manages to catch the eye of Rex, one of the DJs on the island. But can she keep up the pretence of being the same age as her sister? Falling in love with an older man might be ‘cool’, but it has its hardships. And then a tragedy reveals everything to Izzy…

I picked this book up with a whole load of preconceptions. I imagined that Ibiza Summer would be fairly predictable, fluffy and easy to second guess. Happily I was wrong and this book has a little more to offer than the average teen romance.

First off the main character is beautifully written and adorable. She's not perfect, unlike her sister, and suffers from self-esteem issues. We learn quite early on that she hates her curly hair, is insecure and quiet whereas her sister is gorgeous, outgoing and popular. Izzy's recently been dumped (by text - yuck) and is hoping that a holiday in Ibiza will lift her spirits. But there's more to Izzy than this. Her father died when she was eleven and she feels that there's no-one she can speak to about her grief. She has issues with commitment and suffers from anxiety about people that she loves as a result.

Izzy's sister Ellie is six years older and although Izzy idolises her the age difference has driven them apart. Obviously Ibiza Summer is a love story but it's also an emotional journey for Izzy. The reader watches her as she finally expresses her feelings about the death of her dad first to Rex and later to Ellie. The relationship with her sister is perfectly done showing how a gap of six years at sixteen feels more like twenty. Izzy struggles to connect with her and as the story progresses they start to address the issues between them. I also loved her insecurities about best friend Willow who upsets Izzy by finding a new friend in her absence.

The Ibiza background is perfect too. It has just the right amount of hedonism, glamour and beautiful sunsets to transport the reader. Izzy's trip becomes a whirlwind of club nights, parties, days on the beach and boat parties. Rex introduces Izzy to a glamorous world. His appeal as the romantic lead lies in his hot looks, moped and DJ job but he's also incredibly sensitive and sincere - the perfect combination! Through Rex, Anna-Louise Weatherley succeeds in making the most unlikely love story realistic and believable.

There were some elements of the story that I wasn't completely sold on. The character of Jo-Jo is brilliantly bitchy but she disappeared too quickly for me. Also, Izzy's nearly seventeen and Rex is twenty-six but in a three week period there isn't one mention of sex. I found it a little difficult to believe that Rex, thinking Izzy is twenty-two, wouldn't have mentioned it (but hey, that's my adult eye being cynical so ignore me). Also, as I've mentioned, Izzy's journey is beautifully done but I ended the book a little worried about Rex. He mapped out his future for us in the closing chapters but the clean ending that it provided was a little unrealistic for me. However, this makes the book perfect for a very young teen as it's non-controversial and if this book had been around when I was that age I would have loved it. As it was I steamed through it in a day and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a perfect holiday read: lightweight (but not entirely), a lovely main character and enjoyable.

My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray

Synopsis:

Lucy Shaw is a ghost with problems. First, she’s stuck haunting the men’s toilets on Carnaby Street, not the best place to spend eternity. Second, no-one can see or hear her. And third, the man who killed her last New Year’s Eve is still on the loose. Is it any wonder her mood is blacker than a tramp’s fingernails?

So when a lighting engineer called Jeremy walks into the toilet and asks her what she’s doing there she’s not exactly Miss Congeniality. But given that he’s the only person who can see her, she decides to overlook the fact that he’s drippier than a toddler’s nose and accepts his offer of help. Before she knows it, she’s out of the toilet and meeting other ghosts, including the emotionally unstable Hep and the lip-smackingly gorgeous Ryan.

Together, they track down Lucy’s killer, encountering meerkats, exorcists, and the world’s stroppiest tattoo artist along the way. Will their efforts to catch Lucy’s murderer succeed? What happens if they do? And just how do you go about snogging the boy of your dreams when you don’t actually have lips anymore?

Argh! Tamsyn Murray is the biggest pain in the world. My So-Called Afterlife is annoyingly good. She makes writing look so effortless. It's when you're on a train and you've reached your final destination and you're still sitting there, five minutes on, reading, until your co-passenger gently nudges you with a "Do you think we should get off now?" that you realise you've been hooked.

I wasn't sure what to expect from My So-Called Afterlife, I have to admit. I wasn't sure if it was going to go the melodramatic and heartwrenching way or if it was going to go over the top and utterly silly in a Derek Acorah kind of way. I was in for a big surprise and one I should have seen coming. It didn't go either of these two ways. It went a different way. It went the Tamsyn and Lucy way.

Ms. Murray's managed to write a humourous, pithy novel from point of view of a murdered girl, who for some reason, has not moved on, and haunts the Carnaby Street men's toilets in London. It's not The Lovely Bones at all - it's better because there is resolution, soaring moments, action, angry ghosts, weepy moments, kissing moments, jokey moments, friendship moments and feelgood moments. It works on many levels and it's cheering and heartwarming and lovely.

Lucy's a cool mouthy girl with an amazing sense of humour and with a strong sense of who she is in a world that's gone off kilter. It's not like she expected to be murdered in a public toilet! She's been trying to talk to people for months but no one sees her, until Jeremy walks in off the street and he actually sees her. Their first meeting is a treat to read - I rocked with laughter because it is written to feel very real.

The story focusses on Lucy but her supporting cast is strong. Jeremy turns out to be a genuinely decent guy who takes it upon himself to try and figure out what's preventing Lucy from moving along. He seems taken aback with his own ability to see Lucy the ghost but you know, he deals with it pretty smartish and without much hassle. When Lucy tells him her story he starts poking around and investigating her murder himself.

Through Jeremy she meets Hep, a suicide, who has anger issues. Hep's not moved on either and it's through Hep that we experience the wilder emotions that Lucy no doubt feels to a certain extent but never acts on. Hep's story is particularly poignant and I cried like a little girl as I read it through. Hep teaches Lucy how solidify enough in order to move objects or have some kind of impact on them, and soon the two of them become friends. Lucy's final member in her supporting cast is the vastly sweet Ryan who passed away in a car-wreck but it left his father in a coma. Ryan's gift is unique and as him and Lucy start spending time together it's apparent that they are meant to be together.

Deeply moving and beautiful and funny and quirky, My So-Called Afterlife is a must read. It's being marketed as a teen read from Piccadilly Press and to be honest, if you're an adult and you enjoy books with a touch of supernatural to them, you'll thoroughly enjoy MSCA.

My So Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray is released today - 25th Feb - and should be available online and at all good book stores! Find Tamsyn's website here and this is her blog. Stay tuned for an upcoming interview and competition with the lovely Ms. Murray.

Cinnamon Girl: Expecting to Fly by Cathy Hopkins

Brief synopsis:

India Jane's under pressure from all corners

It's decision time for India Jane: what subjects she needs to take, what career paths are open to her – and who she wants as her boyfriend.

On the one hand she feels that she's standing on the threshold of her future, with hopes and dreams to fly with. On the other hand, the harsh realities of life mean that her dreams and the boys in her life never go according to plan!

The fourth book in the Cinnamon Girl series.

I'm not one for overtly girly books. But as I said before, I should know by now, not to judge a book by it's cover or it's initial impression.

I am so vastly pleased I've read this book by Ms. Hopkins. I wish I had this to read when I was the same age as India Jane and still at school. We also had all this pressure on us to decide on what subjects to study, as these would directly influence your career choice. It was insane and scary and I still vividly recall the terror of that time.

Which is why I can probably relate to Ms. Hopkins' writing so much.

Yes, it's quite a girly book but not in the sense that it is candyfloss and a bit silly - the dollops of realisim is there, in the way that it deals competently with getting your first steady boyfriend and where do you go from here? Do you suddenly go blind to all the lovely other boys in the world who notice you and who you definitely notice back? CG shows us how families stick together (even if they are weird and a bit hippie-like) and how you make a go of things, no matter what, and to remain positive. It reflects how various generations can help each other and it deals with relationship upsets, how to stay best friends, how to make decisions about your future...it's a pretty hard-core book, actually, that has some truly valuable lessons adequately camouflaged in this neat little package of unputdownable reading.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed it. It's my first ever Cathy Hopkins book. The lovely Chicklish was laughing at me yesterday as I was gushing about it on twitter and she pointed out how like me to find a series near the end and love it regardless. I suppose this is true and it's my own fault for determinedly walking past these in the past, writing them off as being way too girly for me. When will I learn?

India Jane (also, seriously, the coolest name ever) has this amazing relationship with her cooky parents and her younger brother (who I secretly have a tiny crush on as he sounds so sweet). They are uprooted from their aunt's rather luxurious home into new rented accommodation which sounds pretty dire. But with the help of her friends India Jane comes up with a decent colour scheme and some ideas on how to redo her room. Her parents go at it with gusto and soon the house is transformed into boho chic of vibrant colours and quirky knicknacks and freecycle furniture. Except for her brother's room which remains minimalist.

India Jane has to deal with Joe, who has decided that he does like her enough to officially become her boyfriend. Joe veers from being genuinely sweet and cute to alarmingly boy-like and sulky at times and I felt that Ms. Hopkins may have masqueraded as a boy herself to write him so well. Joe shares a lot of India Jane's likes - art, history, exploring and doing "stuff". But as their relationship is very new both of them make some very silly mistakes and it leads to misunderstandings and "words" are had. But, in the end, both Joe and India Jane remain true to one another. India Jane has her head turned by various boys from her past and it's amusing to see (probably because it felt so real) as she struggled to make sense of her attraction to Joe as well as all these other boys who have unexpectedly turned up in her life.

Then there's school - doing the same amount of subjects as everyone else in her year, India Jane is genuinely struggling. She joined late and is fully expected to pull her weight. She tries her best and yet it seems that it's not enough. Add to this the constant nagging worry of what she wants to do as an actual career. This part really struck home as so many people at that time in their lives have no idea which way to go and go on regretting their choices made for almost as long as they live. India Jane's father turns around and says an incredibly poingnant thing and (paraphrased) it's something like: your work does not define who you are, you aren't a banker/accountant/teacher outside of work, you are you and people sometimes lose track of that, unable to make that differentiation. Pretty grown up stuff, to be honest.

We leave India Jane and her friends at the end of book four in a good place, their futures spread at their feet. I closed the covers feeling that I've genuinely had a good time reading it and that I've got quite a bit to think about myself (at the age of 36).

The novel is out now and I can't praise it enough. Cathy Hopkins writes like a dream and India Jane is a wonderful, funny, strong female character - someone you would like to be mates with and have adventures with. Her friends are highlighed as being from strong backgrounds too and I loved their motto of: mates before boys. Sounds to me like they have their heads on properly, that's for sure! Their honesty with each other was refreshing and I particularly liked India Jane's friendship with her BFF in Ireland who she kept in touch with via MSN and Skype. It gives the reader a sense of the immediacy of their friendship.

Cinnamon Girl: Expecting to Fly is out now, from Piccadilly Press. Find Cathy Hopkins' site here.

Hattori Hachi - The Revenge of the Praying Mantis by Jane Prowse

Synopsis:

Fifteen year old Hattie Jackson’s apparently normal life in Camden changes forever when her Japanese mother Chiyoko disappears one night under mysterious circumstances. Hattie is understandably startled to discover that she and her mother are, in fact, the last in a line of renowned ninjutsu warriors and that, if she is to stand any chance at all of rescuing Chiyoko, she must face her ancient family’s most implacable enemy – Praying Mantis. Before she can do that, however, she has much to learn …

Hattori Hachi - The Revenge of the Praying Mantis by Jane Prowse took me utterly by surprise. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Maybe a book filled with a little bit more fluff with a teen angsting about boyfriends, clothes and whatever. Instead what I got was a girl called Hattie (Hachi) who was strong, independent, clever and remarkable in every way. Within the first 3 pages we know exactly who Hattie is, what her parents do, the fact that they used to travel quite a lot for her dad's work (he's a police officer) and that what's normal for Hattie isn't quite normal for us...her mother creates fun and exciting excercises for Hattie and had been doing so since she was a small child: running along high beams, climbing, kicking, punching, running, mental excercises and riddles.

It's only when Hattie's mother goes missing that Hattie realises her mother's been training her to become a ninja. Just like her. And that they are part of a long line of ninjitsu warriors. With the help of the fantastically named Mad Dog (Michael in real life) and their Japanese neighbour who is incredibly adept at disguises and is feroricious in her training of Hattie (her Western name), Hattie strengthens both body and mind. She goes through an entire and very intense training regime whilst trying to a) figure out what's really happened to her mother b) who the viscious enemy really is c) how to overcome the enemy and save her mother and try and fix the awful things the enemy had been doing in the area.

The big question in Hattori Hachi is: who to trust? Nothing is quite as it seems. As Hattie learns more about her inheritance, who she is, who her mother is, her place in the world, we can't help but root for her. Here we have a strong and individual young female character who is sporty, funny, intelligent and knows her own mind. She has a true friend in her BFF Neena and in Mad Dog she has the support and strength and training partner for her ninjitsu lessons. I am very impressed with Hattie, I love the fact that she can kick butt if she wants to but holds back and thinks things through - but not always. I love the fact that she comes across as this strong individual who is proactive and maybe a bit stubborn. She stays true to herself and to her family and most importantly, she believes in her training and knows that her mother would not have started her out on this path if she didn't think Hattie couldn't cope with it.

Jane Prowse has given us our own female Alex Rider. And I can't shout loud enough about Hattori Hachi. There's so much to her that it feels like she should have her own tv show or something. Her escapades around Camden with Mad Dog and Neena are well written - you never get the impression that the author has tried talking down to her audience. There is a strong sense of place and familiarity and Hattie's voice is loud and clear - her motivations easy to read and her enemies suitably scary, twisted and terrifying. It's this that makes Hattie unique and loveable. She's cool under pressure and can indeed kick the butt I mentioned earlier on.

Hattori Hachi is an involved tale of lost family, found family, lies and deception. All in a day's work for the training ninjitsu warrior.

I'd like to add that although most boys would look at the cover and the title and think "girly book" - it's anything but. If you've enjoyed writers like Eoin Colfer and Chris Bradford's Way of the Warrior (Young Samurai), especially when it comes to the action and the training scenes, this is definitely up your street! Hattori Hachi is definitely a 2009 recommended read.

Find the website for Hattori Hachi: Revenge of the Praying Mantis here. The follow-up novel: Hattori Hachi: Stalking the Enemy is due for release shortly.