Bim Blake’s Hot Takes: My Pencil Case Doesn’t Define Me

Bímbola Blake (also known as Bím) is a wonderfully warm and relatable new friend for all those tweens anticipating the move to secondary school. Bim is 11 and she is just about to move up. In preparation she has started to compile her personal and private journal on a fictional app called Inner Thoughts and we share this, plus her texts, daily affirmations and glimpses of her public blog: Bim Blake’s Hot Takes. 

These different text types and the lively and very amusing illustrations combine to make a highly attractive and very accessible package, ideally suited to fans of the Dork Diaries and Lottie Brookes et al. Bim has a wonderfully humorous, honest and authentic voice and we can relish her witty and sometimes wise observations of her life at home and at the new school, with all the friendship dramas, peer pressure and a potential first crush that she has to deal with. 

You will laugh aloud at farcical mix-ups and cringingly embarrassing situations but then find yourself filled with empathy. While grief is not an overarching theme of the book, Bim is navigating life as a preteen, including the trauma of an overdue first bra fitting, without her mother who died three years ago, and this absence is sensitively and realistically portrayed. But what Bim does have is the support of three older and occasionally infuriating brothers, a chihuahua called Jerry, two very loud and opinionated aunties and a very endearing father, despite his sudden obsession with experimental cookery and TikTok. Altogether a lovely representation of a vibrant, warm, Nigerian heritage family. 

This is a book and series which really captures the thrills and frustrations of this age group and one which will encourage readers to reflect on self-confidence, belonging and being comfortable with who they are.