My Second-Best Friend

Bel's family - 'Travellers us, not didicois nor nothing, Romany's - sets up home next door to Lucy, and the two become 'second-best friends' for a time. While the welcome Bel receives when she turns up at Lucy's school is rather more enthusiastic than might realistically be experienced in many schools, the author takes the opportunity to give some information about 'gypsies', and about racial tolerance generally, emphasising the value of mingling cultures and their skills. The reality of the transient nature of the traveller's life is handled well, and Lucy is enabled to accept Bel's inevitable departure by a simple and effective device. This is an unusual subject, handled well, with the slight tendency to sentimentality kept at bay by realism. Issues are introduced (for example, by asking what alternatives are available to travelling people), but not overstated. Well-written in a detached style, and very readable.