I have survived. Today was my first day at this new school. I feel like I’ve run a cross-country or something; I’m exhausted. I drop my bag outside our house and head down to the beach. I don’t feel like answering Mum’s questions about how it went – I just want a bit of space.
…
New schools aren’t such a big deal – some kids move every couple of years, don’t they? But I’ve gone right through to Year 10 at the same school, and now this. It’s the first time for Jerry, too. We’ve changed schools and towns. Well, regions, actually. Sometimes I feel like we’ve changed mums, too. Which is weird ,because we haven’t. I didn’t want all this change, I really didn’t. It’s messed everything up.
Ally and her family have moved from Perth to a small surfing town on the south coast of Western Australia. Yes, it has the beach, but it also has surfies, bogans and hippies. Ally feels like she doesn’t belong. Fitting in to a new school is not fun. It’s not made any easier by Mum’s strange behaviour. Then things get worse as Mum goes to stay with her sister and doesn’t really seem to want to be with Dad, Jerry and Ally. Ally is confused and angry. Even Killer Pythons, her favourite lollies, taste different, stale. She misses her old friends, is struggling to make new ones and is torn between feeling sorry for her mother, and wishing she’d just snap out of it and stop punishing them all. And as for the boy who catches her bus … well, how could he possibly be interested in her prickly self?
Moving and change are never easy. Particularly when you are fifteen years old, and your world still spins with you at its centre. Mum’s post-traumatic stress disorder has shaken everyone in the family, and its in noticing these effects that Ally begins to evolve. Have You Seen Ally Queen? says goodbye to Ally Queen, drama queen, and a halting hello to a new, more mature Ally. Ally has to contend with many changes in this year, but she begins to realise that she has both more control than she thinks, and less. A lesson in growing up. Throughout, she is a likeable character, even when her alter-egos rear their less gorgeous heads. She comes to realise that despite the changes she is surrounded by loving people and that she too might actually be lovable. Recommended for early- to mid-secondary readers.
Have You Seen Ally Queen?, Deb Fitzpatrick Fremantle Press ISBN: 9781921888489
review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
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