Handle With Care – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Pacy, intense, surprise, baby, roller-coaster.
Children’s book title: Handle With Care.
Children’s author: Louisa Reid.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction.
Published by: Guppy Books.
ISBN: 9781916558311.
Recommended for children aged: 14+ year-olds.
First published: Paperback October 2024.
This children’s book is ideal for: Exploring social issues around neglect, mental health and postpartum depression. It’s a fast-paced read with huge emotional depth to the characters.
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Our review:
Handle With Care begins right in the middle of the action, and the fast pace continues until the final page. Opening with a dramatic and unexpected birth in a history classroom, the mysteries surrounding the situation are gradually revealed. Ruby, the teenage mother of the newborn, struggles to come to terms with her circumstances, while her best friend, Ashley, embarks on her own journey in the aftermath of the birth.
This story is guaranteed to break your heart. Bear that in mind before you begin reading. Also, bear in mind that the rapid pace and well-timed plot developments make it hard to put down. You’ll need some free time and emotional energy. Teachers and lecturers, you’ll want to pre-read this before sharing it with students, as it contains numerous potential triggers, intensified by the fact that the reader can feel deeply involved in Ruby’s isolation as the plot develops. Her chapters beautifully illustrate her loneliness.
The narrative alternates between Ashley’s and Ruby’s viewpoints, starting with Ashley witnessing the sudden birth of Ruby’s baby girl. The way the writing is laid out for each character, along with the font and spacing, provides an immediate indicator of the contrast between their mental health. Even without reading the words, you can see from the page that Ruby is dissociated, confused, and in a state of shock, in contrast to the more typical spacing in Ashley’s chapters, which shows her comparative calmness. This aspect of the text offers an interesting literary device to discuss with students.
As the storyline progresses, it becomes clear that Ruby is neither well-cared for nor nurtured. She is used to putting on a mask and coping by focusing on academia, leaving her with almost no emotional tools to manage her situation. She also finds very little support from the adults who should be there for her as an underage mother, even those who initially seem supportive. Furthermore, the developing situation with the father of her child delivers repeated emotional blows, leaving you feeling bewildered and abandoned on Ruby’s behalf. The unfairness of how things unfold had me muttering out loud on my bus journey to work!
The way in which other characters ultimately favour the father, despite his poor treatment of Ruby from start to finish, is deeply uncomfortable for the reader, who has insight into Ruby’s thoughts and experiences that none of the characters possess. Even her best friend, Ashley, loses patience with her at times, and the misunderstandings between them highlight how far we still have to go as a society in truly understanding, tolerating, and supporting mental health issues.
Social media is a strong theme in the book, with much of the plot hinging on careless and boastful posts, making your heart ache alongside Ruby’s. This topic is highly relevant to young readers, offering plenty of depth and scope for exploration.
Although many of the adults in Ruby’s life express a desire to support her, when she puts up the defences expected of someone in her situation, no one makes enough effort to break through and be there for her unconditionally. Both Ruby and her baby are victims of these circumstances. Unsurprisingly, Ruby begins to show increasing signs of something akin to depression, but she is never offered proper professional support. And well… I won’t spoil where this leads her—you’ll have to read for yourself!
- Downloaded free resources.
Many thanks to Guppy Books for the review copy.
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If you like Handle With Care by Louisa Reid you might also like: our reviews of We Have Everything We Need To Start Again by Koleka Putuma, Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Twenty-Four Seconds From Now by Jason Reynolds and Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley.
Browse our Year 11 reading list.
