The Amazing Edie Eckhart: The Big Trip

This is book two of the Edie Eckhart series, and our heroine Edie has now been at secondary school for one term. After her starring role as Scrooge in the Christmas play she should be feeling great about drama, but she is starting to feel a bit unsure about herself. She’s not sure if she’s definitely gay and whether she can call herself Flora’s girlfriend, there are so many unknowns. When her English teacher Mr Messer (her second favourite teacher of all time) gives the class an assignment to explore who they are and give a presentation about it, she just doesn’t do it, earning her first ever detention. And then the much anticipated week long drama trip makes everything even more confusing, especially when a teacher says she shouldn’t have a main part as she speaks too slowly - that felt horribly undermining. So who is Edie, and shouldn’t she know exactly who she is? Everyone else seems to. 

This is a charming series and Edie is a wonderful star of the book. It’s beautiful and important to have such a lovely and loveable main character with cerebral palsy that everyone can relate to. Edie is wobbly - and life can get wobbly when you’re growing up - but that doesn’t stop her! Same-sex relationships are also explored sensitively, as is the changing relationships with old friends when you start secondary school. Great for fans of Jacqueline Wilson and this is a particularly great book for children either about to start or just started secondary school. It’s funny, and the diary format makes it extra relatable plus it’s easy to read. If readers are coming straight to this second book in the series that won’t be a problem either.