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Do Not Read: Or Else! (Finch's Secret Diaries) ISBN: 9781846160820
Moon, Pat
Published by Orchard, 2006
Finch is 12 and very into friends (including boyfriend Jay), talking on the phone (she's desperate for a mobile), her rabbit and guinea pig, and her mum and step dad who are expecting triplets. But most of all she wants to know who her real father is. Amongst a sometimes riotous account of her mum and step dad's wedding, the training of a large and smelly dog, sleepovers with friends and snogs with Jay, we get the running thread of the importance to her of finding her dad. As she was conceived at a party when her mum was only 16, and as the only thing mum remembers is that the boy's name was Tom, this takes some doing. She succeeds in spite of Jay's remonstrances that she's not doing the right thing, and 'Tom' turns out quite nice if somewhat gobsmacked that he has a daughter he didn't know about. That his wife and other daughter are less than pleased provides the cliff-hanging end to this story which promises a further installment. There have already been two diaries by Finch: 'Do Not Read This Book' and 'Do Not Read Any Further', and this is a saga that could go on and on. If one suspends disbelief ever so slightly and accepts that Finch could have done all she has done without her mum and step dad being upset, one can enjoy the very real emotions and the light-hearted funny and funky style. Finch is both a little girl and a teenager and a very determined one at that. Girls will enjoy this confection but will also learn something of the difficult choices to be made in life and their consequences.
Age: 10+