KIDS’ BOOK OF THE WEEK

HOW TO BE BRAVE

by Daisy May Johnson is published in paperback by Pushkin Children’s Books, priced £7.99 (ebook £4.99).

In How To Be Brave, Daisy May Johnson has created an amusing adventure full of quirks, heroes and footnotes.

Calla is the daughter of Elizabeth North, who is the foremost expert on ducks – particularly one very rare species that a young and recently orphaned Elizabeth rescued and nursed back to health at her convent boarding school.

Fast forward to now and Elizabeth is given the chance to study ducks in the Amazon.

Making sure Calla will be looked after, she packs her off to the same convent school she attended.

Instead of being the alternative nurturing environment it used to be, where students could learn to fly and maintain a small plane, a cruel headmistress has taken over and is trying to crush the girls’ spirits at every opportunity with lessons like sprout-based algebra and a diet high in kale.

It soon becomes apparent there is a hidden motive, and Elizabeth has disappeared. This twisty tale is truly marvellous.