Children's Book review

Zelah Green, Queen of Clean

By Vanessa Curtis

Published by Egmont

Zelah Green lives her life in a permanent state of germ alert but doesn’t think her rituals– which involve washing each of her hands thirty one times– are a problem.

Her life started to go wrong when her beloved mother died and then her father goes missing, leaving her alone with her unfeeling step-mother.

One day Zelah’s neighbour, Heather, intervenes and takes her to the Forest Hill treatment centre, where she meets a host of other teenagers with problems to rival her own and slowly finds the strength to help herself and others (including a gorgeous boy called Sol) too.

Despite some of the heavy issues dealt with in this book, the story is ultimately hopeful and Zelah is an endearing and believable protagonist.

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