Given the events of the last six months, both in this country and abroad, it is easy to understand that young people will perhaps wonder what the adults are doing and how it will affect them.

The heroine, Natalie, is suddenly aware that her home is being filled by an assortment of people, including her father, and they are spending hours folding leaflets and then going out and putting them through doors.  Her mother calls them ‘revolutionaries’, but as we find out during the story, they are actually local labour party activists.  The situation is not helped when her mother moves out and a couple of days later her father says that one of the female helpers, Kali, and her son Avinash are going to be moving in.    As an addition to all of this, Nat is an avid fan of Rats and all of the campaigning makes her decide to try and improve the image of her beloved pets, both at school and in the wider community.  Of course utter chaos ensues and the rats begin to proliferate at a rapid rate.  Can Natalie and friends find homes for these new additions and how will the situation at home resolve itself?

This is an extremely funny story in parts, but it is then mixed with some very serious elements.  The breakup of a family unit is always traumatic, and in this case not helped when their father springs the situation on Nat and her sister. We also have the election campaigners who are so keen to help the cause, but who were in this scenario, doomed to failure.  It is fascinating that Nat is so unaware of the  world around her;  she is only eleven years old and like many of that age, thinks that she knows a lot about life.  However, as adults we grow to realise that we are always learning something new and that youth has much lower horizons than their adults, but we should be encouraging young people to think about the world they want to live in.  This is one of those books that make a great read for young enthusiasts, but it could also be used as a discussion point for classes looking at the world of politics and how the normal citizen can get involved in a positive way.

The author

Lucy Ann Unwin worked as a music journalist at BBC 6 Music for 10 years, where she was privileged to interview the likes of Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Adele. Brought up in Birmingham, she lived for a year in the Chilean city of Valparaiso and for three years in San Francisco, where she tutored children and young adults in creative writing as part of the 826 Valencia writing programme, set up by Dave Eggers.

Now settled in Sussex, she divides her time between writing, editing and reading as much children’s fiction as she can. Her first Book, The Octopus, Dadu and Me, was shortlisted for multiple awards, including The Brilliant Book Award.