Pea's Book of Best Friends

Life becomes ever more chaotic for the Llewellyn family when, once again, they are on the move, leaving their tiny flat in the seaside town of Tenby for a large house in London. The move, prompted by single mum Bree’s success as a best-selling children’s author, triggers a flurry of emotions in her three daughters, Clover, Pea and Tinkerbell. They all enjoy the idea of city life and having their own bedroom but Pea misses her old school friend Dot. She cheers up at the sight of a young person about her age in the adjacent garden and at the prospect of making friends at her new secondary school. But when the next-door neighbour turns hostile and no one at school wants to sit next to her, she realises she has to work hard at finding a new friend.

Susie Day has a real knack for delving deep into family life and transforming painful upheavals into humorous, everyday situations. Her characters are memorable – boisterous, colourful and above all credible. There’s the Brazilian au-pair who mixes faulty grammar and slang to comic effect, the couple next door, both women – one a family therapist, the other an academic – and many other vividly depicted characters. And, of course, there’s drama queen Clover, mischievous Tinkerbell and warm-hearted Pea from whose point of view the story is told. Incredibly funny and touching, with characters the reader cares about, the book will provide hours of pleasure.