By Ali Benjamin (author)
Paperback In Stock £8.99 £8.09
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Twelve year old Suzy’s confusion following the death of her best friend fuels this roller-coaster debut novel. When Franny drowns in a freak accident during the school holiday Suzy finds herself dealing not with the death of her best friend as her mother thinks but with the far more devastating loss of their friendship sometime earlier.
Suzy copes by becoming electively mute and by constructing a story to explain what happened to Franny. Moving back and forth between Suzy’s obsessive behaviour after Franny’s death as she finds out everything she can about the lethal jellyfish who is, she is sure, responsible for it and, the last few months before Franny’s death when the friendship unravelled is clever as she loses Franny to the cool set.
It's peculiar how no-words can be better than words. How silence can say more than noise, or a person's absence can occupy even more space than their presence did.
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Suzy is 12 when her best friend, Franny, drowns one summer at the beach. It takes two days for the news to reach Suzy, and it's not something that she can accept: Franny has always been a strong swimmer, from the day they met in swim class when they were just 5. How can someone all of a sudden, just no longer be there?
Suzy realizes that they must have got it wrong: Franny didn't just drown - she was stung by a poisonous jellyfish. This makes a lot more sense to Suzy's logical mind than a random drowning - cause: a jellyfish sting; effect: death. Suzy's journey to acceptance is quiet - she resolves to either say something important, or say nothing at all.
But it's also bursting with bittersweet humour, heart-breaking honesty, big ideas and small details.
An astonishing debut novel about a twelve year old girl coping with the death of her best friend. Perfect for fans of Wonder , Counting By 7s and My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece .
Ali Benjamin has written for the Boston Globe Magazine, Martha Stewart's Whole Living, and Sesame Street. Ali is a member of the New England Science Writers. When not working, Ali wrangles children, drinks too much coffee, sometimes runs, hangs out with friendly dogs, gazes at electron microscopy images of bugs, and teaches kids about storytelling and writing. She serves scrambled eggs for dinner far too often.
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The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Thing About Jellyfish and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
The Thing About Jellyfish features in the following genres: Books Reviewed by our Reader Review Panels, Recommendations, Debuts of the Month, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Stories about Family and Friends, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, PSHE: Bereavement and Grief, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), School Stories, Recommended Children's eBooks, Featured Books for 9+ readers
Paperback, Hardback, CD-Audio. £8.09, down from the £8.99 cover price. In Stock.
The Thing About Jellyfish was written by Ali Benjamin and published by Macmillan Children's Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Thing About Jellyfish has 343 pages
£8.09, reduced from £8.99. In Stock.
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