Changes

|author=Vanessa Curtis

|reviewer=Jill Murphy

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=256

|publisher=Egmont

|date=January 2009

|isbn=1405240539

}}

Zelah's mum died. Her dad married again and her stepmother is awful. Life isn't good and it's complicated further by Dirt Alerts. And as if Dirt Alerts weren't bad enough by themselves, they also have an alarming knack of escalating to fully-fledged Germ Alerts. Zelah copes by washing her hands thirty-one times and by jumping on the top step one hundred and twenty-eight times. Several times. Every day. She also spends a great deal of time checking power switches, changing her shoes, and taking plastic gloves on and off.

So while there aren't exactly many laughs, there are plenty of light moments to balance the tragic ones. At one point in her therapy, Zelah asked to touch the inside of a toilet bowl with her bare hand. As she runs an internal commentary on her stress levels - ''Zelah Green wins the gold medal for toilet touching!'' - you just can't help but laugh. At the same time, you feel an overwhelming sense of solidarity with her suffering. Zelah herself is fascinating both as a person and an OCD sufferer. She's sparky, original, bright, and - most of the time - she's honest with herself. As a character bringing awareness about a horrible illness to thousands of readers, she's an absolute triumph.

My thanks to the nice people at Egmont for sending the book.

{{toptentext|list=Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2009}}

{{commenthead}}

Kind regards

Vanessa}}