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|title=The Secrets Club: Alice in the Spotlight

|sort=Secrets Club: Alice in the Spotlight

|publisher=Puffin

|date=June 2012

|website=http://www.chrishigginsthatsme.com

|summary=Alice is starting secondary school, but no one else from her old school will be there. She soon finds a new group of friends, but she worries that they might find her a bit boring. Worst of all, she has a huge secret that she doesn't feel able to share with them.

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This is a cheerful, feel-good story which nonetheless manages to capture exactly that feeling of anxiety and self-doubt that people experience when going into a new situation. Moving to secondary school in particular is a huge change (which Alice's school does not seem to have managed as efficiently as many real-life schools do these days) and it's a time when even the most confident of children must wonder, in the depths of their hearts, if they will find new friends. Alice in particular is so used to being in the shadow of her loud, cheerful, pretty sister that she spends half the book fretting about whether the other three members of the Gang of Four really like her or not. After all, half the class seemed to fall asleep when she gave a talk about the environment, and even Lissa, Tash and Dani admit she did go on a bit.

Some parts of the ending of this charming book won't be a total surprise to the attentive reader, but there is one big stunner in the final pages which is wonderful, almost tear-jerking in its rightness and exuberance. In fact, this book should be prescribed for all girls about to leave the safety of primary school, for reassurance, for information, and most of all—for fun!

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