The Amazing Edie Eckhart, The Big Trip

Edie Eckhart is now twelve. She enjoys drama at school and has joined the Drama Club. Edie is still worried that everyone else seems to have figured out who they are and that they seem to be secure in their identities while she isn’t.  With great trepidation, she and her friends, apart from Oscar who isn’t into drama but likes football, sign up for a drama trip away at half-term. Edie has to convince her parents to let her go, by stressing the need to practise her independence, even though she’s not fully convinced herself. She does go but actually ends up having a really negative time. Will she recover her passion for drama and will she ever feel secure in herself?

There are two stand out issues in Jones’ second novel in this series. One is that Edie experiences discrimination at the hands of a teacher. She is not allowed a main part in the production because she speaks too slowly as a result of her cerebral palsy. This resonated with the reviewer who has experienced similar discrimination. The other is that Edie meets a wheelchair user during the trip who is dismissive of her. There is a perception that all wheelchair users are always pleasant and do not have the rights to the same spectrum of moods as every other human. Jones disabuses the reader of this notion. This will be an affirming book for all children who have ever felt in some ways different or inferior.