A01=Kate Gordon
Age Group_Ages 9-11
Age Group_Ages 9-11
Author_Kate Gordon
automatic-update
Category1=Kids
Category=YFB
Category=YFM
Category=YFN
Category=YXF
COP=Australia
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_childrens
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_teenage-young-adult
found family
friendship
Language_English
nerd culture
nineties
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
puberty
self-discovery
small town
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9781761111709
- Dimensions: 133 x 203mm
- Publication Date: 04 Sep 2024
- Publisher: Wombat Books
- Publication City/Country: AU
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
- Age Group: Ages 9-11
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Its 1993. Beth McMaugh is eleven years old and about to start her final year of middle school. Her best friend since kindergarten is Ashlee, but Ashlee is changing. She wears surf brand clothes now, and watches teenage TV and knows all the words to all the songs by Girlfriend and Peter Andre. Beth is terrified of losing her when they get to senior school, but Ashlee assures her that grade six is going to be the best year ever.
On the first day, though, Beth enters her new homeroom to find Ashlee sitting with Kristy, Abbi and Nikki – the popular girls. The mean girls. What is Beth going to do? Ashlee cant really want to be one of them. They must have trapped her into being part of their group, through some sort of heinous bribery. Beth has to save Ashlee, but how?
Further complicating matters, there is a new kid in class – a strange, loud, smart kid from Brisbane, called Jools, who listens to Queen and is obsessed with science fiction and all things nerdy. So obsessed that, on her first day at her new school, she starts the Cooee Middle School Nerd Club and she wants Beth to be her first member – despite the fact that Beth has never even seen Star Wars! Behind all of this – behind everything – is a secret from Beths past, a secret so terrible it stays with her, every day, whispering in her ear: Wash your hands.
Behind everything is that day at the beach, when Kristy saw her in her worst moment. Is that why Ashlee doesnt want to be friends with Beth anymore? Is that why her mother doesnt want to be near her? Has Beth ruined everything? And if she has, can a nerdy girl with mismatched socks, a rebellious punk, a popular boy and a science fiction movie trilogy set it all to right?
Real Friends, by Shannon Hale, meets Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, meets The Friendship Matchmaker, by Randa Abdel Fattah, this is a story of growing up, of friendship, of finding your tribe and unlocking your hidden talents ... plus Star Wars.
On the first day, though, Beth enters her new homeroom to find Ashlee sitting with Kristy, Abbi and Nikki – the popular girls. The mean girls. What is Beth going to do? Ashlee cant really want to be one of them. They must have trapped her into being part of their group, through some sort of heinous bribery. Beth has to save Ashlee, but how?
Further complicating matters, there is a new kid in class – a strange, loud, smart kid from Brisbane, called Jools, who listens to Queen and is obsessed with science fiction and all things nerdy. So obsessed that, on her first day at her new school, she starts the Cooee Middle School Nerd Club and she wants Beth to be her first member – despite the fact that Beth has never even seen Star Wars! Behind all of this – behind everything – is a secret from Beths past, a secret so terrible it stays with her, every day, whispering in her ear: Wash your hands.
Behind everything is that day at the beach, when Kristy saw her in her worst moment. Is that why Ashlee doesnt want to be friends with Beth anymore? Is that why her mother doesnt want to be near her? Has Beth ruined everything? And if she has, can a nerdy girl with mismatched socks, a rebellious punk, a popular boy and a science fiction movie trilogy set it all to right?
Real Friends, by Shannon Hale, meets Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, meets The Friendship Matchmaker, by Randa Abdel Fattah, this is a story of growing up, of friendship, of finding your tribe and unlocking your hidden talents ... plus Star Wars.
Kate Gordon grew up in a small town by the sea in Tasmania. She is the author of six novels for teenagers, as well as the picture books, Bird on a Wire and Amira’s Magpie, and the junior fiction series, Juno Jones. She now writes middle grade fiction. The Heartsong of Wonder Quinn was published by UQP, in 2020. Aster’s Good, Right Things was published by Riveted Press in 2020. The Ballad of Melodie Rose was published in 2021.
Kate has been long-listed in the 2019 CBCA Awards and shortlisted and longlisted in the 2021 awards. She received the 2016 IBBY Ena Noel Award. In 2018, Kate was shortlisted in the Dorothy Hewett Awards for an Unpublished Manuscript, and was commended in the 2018 Vogel’s Awards. In 2021, Aster’s Good, Right Things was shortlisted in the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards and won the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers.
