Will the Real Gertrude Hollings Please Stand Up?

This story is set in Manhattan where the school system has labelled Gertrude Hollings 'learning disabled' because she finds indulgence in imagination games preferable to struggling with the arbitrary symbolism of classroom workbooks. When Gertrude's parents take off on a business trip, she is forced to stay with her cousin Albert, an obnoxiously smart child who has been reduced to a tic-ridden complex of scholastic achievements by his pathologically pushy parents. In spite of the counselling inflicted on Gertrude by her classmate Jessica, a precocious career woman with an authentic line in psychobabble, the visit goes drastically wrong, and Albert's academic certainties are charred in the fire of Gertrude's imagination. Leaving aside a suspiciously neat ending, this is a thought-provoking book which acknowledges the therapeutic value of fantasy. It largely avoids simplistic commentary on constructs like 'dyslexia', and suggests that one of the main differences between achievers and non-achievers lies in the social acceptability of their respective illusions. The book would provide a good starting point for discussion among older pupils. Some of the details of middle-class behaviour in Manhattan may sound like life on Mars to British readers, but this could add to the charm of a very interesting story.