What's new, Harper Drew? by Kathy Weeks

The Drew family have taken ‘catastrophe’ and ‘disaster’ to award-winning levels. Every member of the family (except perhaps young James, aka Prune) manages to rate highly on the disaster rating at every step. Harper’s mother is a compulsive Supermarket shopper, and hopelessly disorganised; her father seems to have no idea about how to avoid life-threatening situations in his attempts to entertain and solve problems; Harper’s older brother Troy is just insanely focussed on his hair, and his latest attempt at avoiding anything that resembles work. Harper herself seems to be a great friend, a great organiser and perhaps the most useful family member, however even she can slip-up often. This very funny journal recounting Harper’s family life, her catastrophic family holiday to France, her attempts to win favour of the ‘cool’ girl at school and her endeavours to raise money to support her good friend Edward are all documented with a disarming candour.

This is just a very funny story with lots of eccentric characters, bizarre happenings, accidents and extremely wacky events. Children aged 9+ will chuckle all the way through. This is the kind of story where if something can go wrong… it will. And it is all child-friendly and easy to recommend to all children. Harper is loveable and her family are cringe-worthy in their attempts to live life to the full! She is a good friend to her neighbour Priya and wheelchair-bound, Edward. This is not unlike Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries, catering specifically for 9-11 year olds.

Highly recommended.

Themes: Comedy, Family, Friendship, Disasters.

Carolyn Hull