Ellie, 12, is in her first year at secondary school when her mum's mental illness suddenly takes a turn for the worse. Older sister, Lucy, who has a learning disability, goes missing the night of the house fire. Ellie wonders if anything else can go wrong. But then new neighbour, Ruth, who works for an African charity, becomes a helpful and inspiring friend. Ellie becomes intrigued with Ruth's true story about the life of a girl called Jamala who lives on the other side of the world. Although their lives are very different, Ellie realises that Jamala's family's difficulties and solutions are really just the same as her own. Ellie decides it's time to do something positive. Through her 'big message' of understanding and kindness she makes life better for her family and others. Reader age guide: 11+ Strawberry Jam Books produce stories and resources for children from preschool to age 12 that promote kindness, friendship, acceptance of differences and disabilities and understanding of ourselves and others.

 

There are 118 pages in this book. This book was published 2014 by Strawberry Jam Books .

Hilary Hawkes grew up in Fareham, Hampshire. She loved listening to stories and started to write her own at the age of eight. By the time she was sixteen, Hilary had already written two novels of 70, 000 words each, but she couldn't find anyone to publish them. She persevered and, when she reached nineteen, Hilary "got lucky" - a magazine recognised her as a brilliant storyteller and, at last, dozens of her newest short stories were published. Hilary took a degree in English and Publishing, and started work as an editorial assistant. Later, as a mother of three, she discovered the joys of assisting in a nursery class - subsequently training as a Montessori teacher - and began to write stories again. Two of these, '125, Go!' and 'There's a Grandad in my Soup!' - were published by Scripture Union Publishing and a number of contributions by Hilary have been included in books published by Learning Development Aids (LDA). She now lives in Oxfordshire with her husband, Peter, and sons David, Richard and Matthew. In between teaching, being Mum-the-Taxi-driver, walking Hattie the dog and doing things like mending the ceiling where the electrician fell through, she's thinking up lots more stories for us all.