A powerful and heart-rending exploration of a teenagers journey through grief, rage and getting caught in the criminal justice system from award-winning author Patrice Lawrence. Charlene is a demon knitter. Its the only thing she enjoys and the only thing she believes shes really good at. So when her foster mums son destroys her latest creation, Charlene loses it and stabs him in the hand with her knitting needle. It damages a nerve and she gets sucked into the criminal justice system for assault. Charlene's not sorry and shes never apologised to anyone in her life. But people keep telling her that if she says sorry, theyll go easier on her. Can she bring herself to say it and not mean it when her freedoms at stake?

 

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards

This book has been graded for interest at 12 years. This book has been specially written for struggling readers. This book has been specially written for reluctant readers.

This book is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed. This book was published in 2022 by Barrington Stoke Ltd .

Patrice Lawrence is a half-Trinidadian writer born in Brighton. Her first published story, Duck, Duck Goose was included in the Decibel Penguin Prize Anthology. She is currently working on a longer novel for children, and we are looking forward to reading more from this talented young writer.