Fruit and Nutcase

Fruit and Nutcase is the successor to Skinny Melon and Me and Becky Bananas: This is Your Life. Mandy Small is a ten-year-old with learning difficulties, whose teacher, Cat, suggests she tells her life story into a tape recorder. Mandy's story is both funny and sad. With loving but irresponsible parents, Mandy's home life is certainly eventful. Her mum cannot get her act together in the mornings, her dad is a window-cleaning Elvis lookalike, whilst interfering Nan thinks Mandy's parents are not fit to look after her. School life is made miserable by teasing bully Tracey Bigg - a character carefully crafted to cause discomfort to some readers! With its touching storyline, empathetic central characters and occasional line drawings, this is an enjoyable read.