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Goggle-EyesAnne Fine
Goggle-Eyes
by Anne Fine
Kitty hates her mother's new boyfriend on sight, and tells the whole story to a girl hiding in the school lost property cupboard.
A story about children and families, funny and thoughtful in tone. We would put it with children of 10–13, and at a reading age of about 10 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Separated from family
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
Kitty loathes her mother's new boyfriend Gerald on sight — pompous, tweedy, opinionated, everything she has decided to hate — and tells the whole story of how she came round, or half came round, to a younger girl weeping in the school lost-property cupboard over exactly the same situation. Anne Fine, twice Carnegie-winning, writes with terrific wit and intelligence about the reshaping of a family after divorce, and Kitty's narration is sharp, funny and honest about her own bad behaviour. It is a comedy with real feeling underneath, dealing thoughtfully with a parent's new relationship and the family separation behind it, but nothing in it is frightening. For a ten- to thirteen-year-old — and especially one navigating a parent's new partner themselves — it is a clever, consoling, genuinely funny read that respects how complicated those feelings are, and refuses to pretend there are easy answers.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
Boy OverboardMorris Gleitzman
FramedFrank Cottrell-Boyce
Front DeskKelly Yang
MillionsFrank Cottrell-Boyce
No Ballet Shoes in SyriaCatherine Bruton
Pig-Heart BoyMalorie Blackman
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.