Some people are more prone to birketts than others. Those sorts of people are also usually easily provoked. It’s like they have a San Andreas Fault running through their personalities and even the slightest thing can set them off.
Fourteen year old Gemma Stone vomits when she speaks in public. Just ask Mr Daihatsu. But when the gorgeous Nick asks her to come along to auditions for the school play, Gemma agrees. It helps take her mind off her sister’s weird wedding and her sister’s fiance’s even weirder family. Raven, of the infamous De Head family decides to audition too. Her mother tells her about the ‘dog poo’ test for love, a cake stall becomes something more and Gemma meets a family of boys all named for birds. In the small community of Buranderry the scene is being set for the biggest birkett of them all.
my big birkett is pitched at lower secondary readers although there is much in here for readers either side of the target readership. This novel is wonderfully funny and sad, over-the-top and very real. It’s about learning to tell the difference between what’s right and what just seems right. Along the way, Gemma discovers Shakespeare’s language and the world of themed weddings. Not to mention the power of a well-timed birkett.
This is Lisa Shanahan’s first book for older readers. Some of her other titles include Gordon’s Got a Snookie and Bear and Chook.
my big birkett, by Lisa Shanahan
Allen & Unwin 2006
ISBN: 1741145872
Readers who enjoy this book might also enjoy:
The Slightly True Story of Cedar B Hartley, by Martine Murray
The Wanderer, by Sharon Creech
The Family Tree, by Jane Godwin
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