Seeing Red

LoveReading4Kids Says

Interest Age 9+ Reading Age 8

Back of the net! A new book by Eve Ainsworth is always cause for celebration, and Seeing Red sees the author embrace a subject she tackles like a true playmaker — young female footballers battling struggles on and off the pitch.

While football was once Amelia’s way to feel happy and free, and to forget the pain of hearing her parents argue, her entire world seems to be imploding in the wake of her dad leaving the family home: “He had abandoned her and Mum. He’d left them both when they needed him most”. Her mum won’t leave the house. There’s no food in the house, no clean clothes, and all this has a huge effect on Amelia. She’s late for football, she’s off her game, and can’t seem to stop herself from seeing red and hitting out in anger. At the same time, she’s ashamed and doesn’t want to share what she’s going through.

Authentic, moving, and written in an immediately engaging style that will compel pre-teens of all reading abilities to keep turning the pages, Seeing Red is brilliant at conjuring how difficult it can be to share one’s problems, and at showing how a problem shared really is a problem halved.

Joanne Owen

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