YA BOOK of the week

THE PAPER AND HEARTS SOCIETY by Lucy Powrie, Hodder Children’s Books, paperback £7.99, ebook £4.99

BASED around a group of friends The Paper And Hearts Society is a more literary-style, modern Famous Five book. Blogger and book-tuber Lucy Powrie introduces her characters in this fabulous series opener, with our hero Tabby, who isn’t like everyone else, and she knows it.

Her constant self-talk and checking to make sure she fits in is bringing her down. The one place she feels herself is when she is reading, hunkered down with a good book.

While staying with her gran, Tabby finds an advert for a new book club. Second guessing herself she turns up to a meeting.

Fellow members Olivia, Cassie, Ed and Henry have been friends for a long time, and Tabby holds herself back on the outskirts of the group. Why doesn’t she feel worthy of being with them, and what, more importantly, is she hiding from them and herself?

Powrie has created a cracking book full of nuance, featuring so many of the problems today’s teens are facing.