Hannah In the Spotlight
Twelve-year-old Hannah is in a dreadful panic. It’s the summer holidays and she was planning to practise her acting – something she adores – with her friends, but her hard-pressed Mum wants her at home instead to help mind her four younger siblings. Hannah loves her brothers and sisters, but the thought of playing teddies over and over again fills her with dread. Especially if it keeps her from her beloved drama. She has to find a solution!
And that certainly isn’t easy when you’re the only twelve-year-old in the Western World who doesn’t have a mobile phone and your best pal Ruby is over-scheduled with ballet and Mean Tracey from school lives only two doors down. That is, until mysterious Meg moves in next door…
The first in the Star Club series, Mac a’Bhaird’s latest novel features a plucky, grounded character in Hannah, accurately describing the warm glow the youngster feels at being part of a tribe, a big family, while also craving time out. And she’s so creative! When this 12-year-old feels a surge of happiness after coming up with a new plan, we experience it too. My only quibble: is Hannah a tiny bit too saccharine for today’s tech-savvy kids and who are mostly from smaller families? Maybe not. One thing is for sure, parents will surely love this book which is, for the most part, good old-fashioned fun and sensitively explores serious pre-teen dilemmas.
