Grace

Taking on a cult religion, where all the old bigots are in charge and their grandchildren talk to each other using copious Biblical references, is an easy target. Even so, Morris Gleitzman does it pretty well in this story about how Grace, a pre-teenage girl, and her outspoken Dad, fall foul of their fundamental Christian community. When Dad is forcibly separated from his family, with Mum dithering between loyalty to her horrible father and love of her brave spouse, prospects look bleak until something very like a fairy tale ending comes along to put everything right. But by now a note of sentimentality has crept in, always a slight risk with this otherwise fine writer, with Grace’s habitual state of ingenuousness also starting to grate. But there is plenty of sly wit too, and any novel taking a pop at modern day religious intolerance has to be welcomed.