Description
I mean, Mum didn't drink that much. All of my friends' parents loved their champagne or whatever. Everyone drank in The Village, too. I'd only been there for about a month and there'd already been five wine and food festivals. Mum's drinking wasn't a big deal. Right?
Phoebe's non-Indigenous mother, a busy event manager, and her father, an Aboriginal man and uni lecturer, have split up and she's moved to sleepy old Willunga with him and his new health-obsessed girlfriend. It's only a few kilometres from Phoebe's old friends and the city, but it feels like another world.
Her new school is full of hippies, but some of the kids are cool and the local basketball team is tight, and before long Phoebe's fitting in. But as her mum becomes increasingly unreliable, Phoebe's grades begin to suffer, her place on the basketball team is under threat and her worries spiral out of control.
Phoebe can't tell her friends and is worried her dad will get angry, but pretending everything is fine is breaking her heart. How can she help her mum without tearing her family apart?
Review
Phoebe has just started at a new school. Her parents have split up, and Phoebe is living with her Dad and his new girlfriend Caitlin.
Phoebe knows her Mum is drinking too much, and now her Mum is becoming more and more unreliable. But what can Phoebe do? Who can she even tell?
Phoebe feels like her whole world crumbling around her, and she doesn’t know where to turn. How can she help her Mum and keep it all together?
This is a wonderful book that I absolutely loved. It is full of characters that you will fall in love with — they are complex, raw and authentic, that it had me in tears at times.
It is an uplifting story of friendship, facing hard truths, growing up and learning to forgive yourself. Phoebe’s story will stay with you long after you finish this book.
Perfect for students in Year 9 and up.
Reviewed by Michelle
