Rebecca Rocks

Rebecca Rafferty, star of The Real Rebecca and Rebecca’s Rules, is something of a Books for Keeps favourite. Now she’s back in a new adventure, Rebecca Rocks. Once again, author Anna Carey delivers another lively dose of teen fiction, that feels true throughout and entertains from the first page to the last.

With the main characters now familiar to readers the pace is more relaxed, and Rebecca herself is more contemplative – could she, gulp, even have grown up a little? Unlike books 1 and 2 there’s no romance for Rebecca in this book, instead she watches as her friends’ relationships develop. The main focus is on Cass who comes out to Rebecca and explains that she’s going out with their friend Liz. Carey works the diary format particularly well here to describe Rebecca’s different emotions on hearing the news, from surprise through alarm (does this mean Cass is a different person?) until in her own words she realises she’s cool with it and ‘everything is normal again’. Its honest, real, touching, a terrific piece of writing.

Fans will be glad to know that Rebecca’s band Hey Dollface take centre stage again, spending the summer holidays taking part in a performing arts project for teenagers. This provides lots of opportunities for fun and some very funny moments. Rebecca’s song writing comes on a pace when her mum finds her a rhyming dictionary: an ode to her ex John Kowalski compares him to a tercel, after all she did meet him at a rehearsal. In a separate story line her Mum and Dad are enjoying taking part in a musical production of their own, the local am dram’s Oliver Twist. Despite her fears of public humiliation, Rebecca has to admit they’re actually quite good – see, she’s definitely growing up. The book ends with a stage set for a further adventure which promises to be equally entertaining.