Description
Spirals and Stars is a timeless story of friendship loss and gain, finding your place in the world, and breaking free from expectations. Set in a small town, “nerd culture” and the big life moments that many young people experience, Spirals and Stars is a wealth of ‘90s era fun.
It’s 1993. Beth McMaugh is eleven years old and about to start her final year of middle school. Her best friend since kindergarten is Ashlee, but Ashlee is changing. She wears surf brand clothes now, and watches teenage TV and knows all the words to all the songs by Girlfriend and Peter Andre. Beth is terrified of losing her when they get to senior school, but Ashlee assures her that grade six is going to be the best year ever.
On the first day, though, Beth enters her new homeroom to find Ashlee sitting with Kristy, Abbi and Nikki – the popular girls. The mean girls. What is Beth going to do? Ashlee can’t really want to be one of them. They must have trapped her into being part of their group, through some sort of heinous bribery. Beth has to save Ashlee, but how?
Further complicating matters, there is a new kid in class – a strange, loud, smart kid from Brisbane, called Jools, who listens to Queen and is obsessed with science fiction and all things nerdy. So obsessed that, on her first day at her new school, she starts the Cooee Middle School Nerd Club and she wants Beth to be her first member – despite the fact that Beth has never even seen Star Wars!
Behind all of this – behind everything – is a secret from Beth’s past, a secret so terrible it stays with her, every day, whispering in her ear: Wash your hands.
Behind everything is that day at the beach, when Kristy saw her in her worst moment. Is that why Ashlee doesn’t want to be friends with Beth anymore? Is that why her mother doesn’t want to be near her? Has Beth ruined everything? And if she has, can a nerdy girl with mismatched socks, a rebellious punk, a popular boy and a science fiction movie trilogy set it all to right?
Review
Eleven-year-old Beth generally has her spirals under control. She has her best friend, Ashlee, and together they are looking forward to their last year of middle school. So you can imagine how she feels when she arrives on the first day and Ashlee ghosts her - and is instead sitting with their most hated person, the horrible Kristy.
Luckily new girl Jools arrives and decides that they should be best friends, and Beth quickly gets swept up in a new world - one where it is encouraged to accept your differences and possible to be liked just for who you are. Jools encourages Beth to help her to start the Cooee Middle School Nerd Club, but Beth doubts that anyone else will want to join. She is pleasantly surprised when a cool, sporty boy and Ashlee’s older sister, Lix, both join. It turns out not everyone is how they seem ...
Beth’s insecurities date back to an incident that happened when she was very young. She believes that her highly driven, cold mother has never forgiven her but as the book unfolds we discover the real truth and realise that misunderstandings can cause so much grief later. And when the truth comes to light we see the hope that is now starting to flood into Beth’s life.
With a message that good people make all the difference, this is a wonderful middle grade story that is filled with love and hope, and explores toxic versus positive friendships, OCD, and the effect of grief on both family dynamics and a young person’s ability to develop. Kate Gordon writes terrific middle grade fiction exploring the issues facing these readers, and this is another great novel that is best suited to readers aged 9 to 12 years.
