Cringe Club by Emily-Jane Clark
The trials and tribulations of pre-teen life and the start of secondary school are the subject of this first volume in a new comedy series.
Kennedy King is having the worst time of her life. Her parents’ divorce means that her Mum has moved the family from the countryside to London. She has to start Year 7 in a brand new school, away from her two best friends Liv and Devon. Kennedy’s perfect big sister is a pain, the girls at her new school are mean and everything she does to try and fit in is just CRINGE. To survive their new lives, the three friends create a social media group chat: Cringe Club, where they can secretly share all their most embarrassing moments as they try to navigate the first half-term of the new school year.
If you have spent any time around 11 year olds recently, then this book will be very familiar (or, as I suspect, the author really did model the character of Kennedy on my child!). Clark does a marvelous job of creating utterly convincing pre-teens and the narrative format is unique and fun.
The entire story is told in a series of social media chats, with each page illustrated beautifully by graphic artist Wotto. The struggles of the three friends to cope with friendship issues, identity, puberty and school will make this novel appealing to all pre-teen readers but it feels especially aimed at young girls. The ending leaves a cliff-hanger to take the story on into the next book and I look forward to seeing where the series goes in future.
Cringe Club is a perfect summer read for any child in Year 6 or Year 7 who is making the jump to secondary school and the heavily visual style will be popular with fans of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries who are looking for a new series to get stuck into.
PWT rating: ♥♥♥♥
Cringe Club by Emily-Jane Clark, published by Gallery Kids a division of Simon & Schuster, is available from bookshops and Amazon.
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Elaine Hewlet is a secondary school librarian.