Brave New Girl

by Catherine Johnson

Seren is 14, passionate to support the various branches of her stepfamily, and has a great talent for putting her foot in it! Johnson’s heroine narrates her tale of woe, in which her very best endeavours unerringly seem to go wrong. Her friends desert her, her sister won’t speak to her, she mistakenly thinks her form mistress hates her, and her Dad might be forced to move back to Cyprus. Working with Keith on a film competition entry is her only hope, but even that goes wrong.

Johnson creates a likeable heroine, with whose dilemmas and catastrophes many readers will empathise. The importance of family, however it is constructed, is the linchpin of the story, together with tolerance and compassion.

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Catherine Johnson

Catherine Johnson is a novelist and screenwriter. She has written ten novels for young adults including Stella, Landlocked and Face Value.

Her book for Barrington Stoke, Arctic Hero, was published in February 2008. Her newest book, A Nest of Vipers, was published in April 2008 by Corgi. Catherine also has a story in Unheard Voices, a collection of stories edited by Malorie Blackman.

She was co-writer on the hugely acclaimed award winning British film Bullet Boy, directed by Saul Dibb and starring Ashley Walters.

Catherine also works as a mentor for the British Council and was writer in residence in Holloway prison. She was Reader in residence at the Royal Festival Hall's Imagine Children's Literature festival and runs creative writing workshops in secondary schools.

Catherine was born and brought up in London, by her Welsh mother and Jamaican father. She now lives in Hackney with her partner and teenage children.

Catherine Johnson Photo: Laurence Cendrowicz