From the author of P is for Pearl comes a heart-warming book about family, friendship and what home can mean.
When 17-year-old Stella and her family find themselves living in ‘Fairyland’, a caravan park with a dubious reputation, she isn’t keen to let her friends know about the move. Her dad has been on a downward slide since he lost his job and his gambling addiction has left them with no choice but to leave their home and ‘downsize’.
This isn’t the only thing that’s weighing on Stella’s mind. She has received a letter from her birth mother and can’t bring herself to open it – she’s been carrying it around for weeks. Fortunately, she has friends Clem, Lara and Zin and her sister Taylor to look out for her, along with all the advice from self-help books she has acquired.
Stella’s hobby is reading self-help books in order to live her best life and become her best self but that’s not working out as planned. Yet she is determined to use her ‘book’ knowledge to help others in Fairyland who clearly just need a few pointers to get back on track. She’s about to learn that nothing is as simple as it appears in her books.
As Stella tries to deal with the chaos of her family, she must also confront her ‘other’ family and the troubling secrets that threaten to overwhelm her. Dealing with themes around family, identity, addiction, trauma, friendship, mental health, love and growing up, How to Grow a Family Tree is a deeply moving story about belonging and identity.
Recommended for ages: 14+, your teens are going to relate to these well-developed characters regardless of their circumstances as Australian author Eliza Henry Jones skilfully portrays the intensity of teenage friendships with insight and understanding. Her qualifications in psychology, grief, loss and trauma counselling are evident throughout.
As we all know, families come in all shapes and sizes and all have their own set of unique problems. How to Grow a Family Tree encourages understanding and acceptance of this.
It’s also quite simply a great read. As a parent with a young teen it was a reminder about the importance of communication and that teens are heading into the unknown and often still need someone to hold their hand. I thoroughly enjoyed this and have passed it on to the teen in the house to devour!
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