The Amazing Edie Eckhart: Book 1

Product Information

The book is written in the format of Eddie’s (main characters) personal diary in which she talks about her CP and how it impacts her life but she also talks about the fun, hard, exciting and sometimes boring things in life just like any average teenager. LOVE IT! Wat mij betreft een must-have qua thematiek. En fantastisch lekker geschreven voor en vanuit kind/tiener(perspectief).

De 11-jarige Edie en haar beste vriend Oscar gaan naar de middelbare school. Maar hoe moet het nu Oscar ineens in een andere klas komt en gelijk een vriendinnetje krijgt? Ze heeft altijd genoeg gehad aan haar beste vriend Oscar, maar nu hij druk bezig is moet ze er aan geloven.... ze zal andere vrienden moeten maken. En...zal het haar lukken om tijdens haar eerste schooljaar een date te scoren? Edie has Cerebral palsy, but she's used to it because she's spent her whole life being a bit wobbly. She can't wait to start secondary school with her best friend Oscar and share sausage rolls with him at breaktime. But when Oscar scuppers these plans by getting his first ever girlfriend, GROSS, Edie eventually decides to stop feeling sorry for herself and find a boyfriend, so she can prove to Oscar she's grown up too. She muses: 'when Thor was stripped of his power and banished to Earth by Odin, did he mope around and throw his hammer out of the pram? No he got on with it, bossed around Earth and found love like an absolute legend'. On top of that Edie is trying to figure out where she fits in: do you have to define all friendships? And can you be a writer AND a performer, or do you have to choose between the two? My daughter read this book just as she started high school and RAVED about it, so I thought I would see what she was talking about.

I read this with my 7 yr old daughter and we loved it. She says her favourite part is the end but then she does enjoy a good love story. I love that the book is written in diary format, it feels like you are right there experiencing it all with Edie and not just viewing her life from a distance. The story is laugh-out-loud funny, with great one-liners and comments that make you think ‘yep, because it’s TRUE’! There is just the right amount of angst and cringe, it is fully relatable to teens/pre-teens. It’s a really lovely story that captures exactly what it is to be eleven and starting a new school - the new routines, the navigating of friendships, new hobbies and becoming more independent. This was an outstanding book from a new author who also lives with cerebral palsy, giving the story real insight into the experiences of a disabled tween taking those first big steps into real independence. Edie’s disability is obviously a key element of her story, but it never takes over to *become* the story. Instead, we see how Edie faces some big changes in her life, dealing with the occasional unthinking comment or obstacle as a result of her cerebral palsy but being a very average tween girl at the same time. This is very far from the kind of “inspiration porn” stories that are often shared regarding disability and is instead a story that is genuinely heartwarming and also laugh-out-loud funny, Sophie was also surprised and delighted to spot some strong, unexpected LGBTQ representation here too.

I liked the messages about giving peoplea chance and getting to know them, and following your heart and not doing something just becauseit’s what everyone else seems to be doing. Welcome to the totally hilarious and utterly daft life of Harper Drew and her VERY eccentric family. Queen Bee Maisie's birthday is coming up and Harper is desperate for an invite to her party - but that's easier said than done when her family are SO embarrassing! But there was one day I looked forward to all year: World Book Day. World Book Day meant costumes and games and reading. It meant talking, all day, about my favourite thing: books. For a day, my classmates and I became witches, wizards, kings, and queens. We could become someone else. Edie and her best friend, Oscar, are about to start secondary school. Edie is excited and thinks things will be just the same, but it turns out a lot of things will change. Edie must learn it’s good to make new friends, try new things, and become even more independent.Story: Eleven year old Edie writes in her diary about starting a new school, her best friend Oscar and living with cerebral palsy. As a child I found solace in books. I loved going to the local library bus and taking part in reading challenges. Fictional adventures accompanied me through the school hallways and on the playgrounds of my youth. It’s also equally as important that non disabled children have access to these types of books because it helps them learn and understand their peers better. The fact that it is created as diary entries is cool because it has a personal touch. It gives you an idea of how Edie is feeling throughout the book which is especially good at some of the more tense moments in the story. The fact that it is written from Edie’s point of view is interesting because you can read how she felt in different scenarios and you can think whether other characters like Flora or Oscar would have felt acted in a different manner. If you are in Australia or New Zealand (DVD Region 4), note that almost all DVDs distributed in the UK by the BBC and 2entertain are encoded for both Region 2 and Region 4. The UK and Australasia are in the same Blu-ray region (B).