Secret Friends

This is a marvellous and moving short novel from the author of the award winning Kiss the Dust and the wonderful Red Sky in the Morning. On their first day at secondary school, Lucy starts a nervous conversation with new classmate, Rafaella and, without meaning to be hurtful, calls her 'Earwig' because of her big ears. Rafaella then finds herself teased and cut out of social contact at school - not, interestingly, because she is 'foreign as Lucy thinks of it, but because of her ears. Lucy guiltily joins in this ostracism but outside school she becomes Rafaella's secret friend, meeting her kind parents (so much warmer than her own) and sharing in her excitements. The ending is a shock, delicately and skilfully handled so that the reader is swept up in the drama in the most moving way. This short novel about, among other things, friendship, bullying and betrayal, is beautifully handled, a treat to be enjoyed by readers of all ages and a treat to read aloud- a box of tissues at the ready. It is illustrated with powerful and evocative pencil drawings.