Bigg School: Secret Crush – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Senior school, relationships, heartfelt, understanding.
Children’s book title: Secret Crush.
Children’s author: Lisa Williamson.
Genre: Children’s fiction.
Published by: Guppy Books.
ISBN: 9781916558298.
Recommended for children aged: 8-12 year-olds.
First published: Paperback September 2024.
This children’s book is ideal for: Anyone about to embark on their senior school journey. This book is probably more suited to the future experiences of girls in the age range but as each book has a different main protagonist this isn’t the case for the whole series. The first and third are girls and the second and forthcoming fourth books are boys. The characters are also recurring, so there are always familiar characters to reconnect with.
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Our review:
Astrid likes reading, writing, and spending time with her friends. She isn’t into fashion, boys, or the complexities of senior school life. Astrid is confident in her abilities, for example, the story she’s entered in a writing competition is absolutely going to win! She’s happy as she is and if people don’t like her, well that’s their problem! So when new boy Teddy starts at Bigg Academy she is amazed at how much she wants to spend time with him, and is delighted to discover that he reads and loves the best dragon book series ever written, just like she does!
Surprised to realise she has a crush on Teddy, Astrid has no idea what to do next until she notices Valentine’s Day is coming up and so she makes him a card! The trouble is you don’t sign Valentine’s Day cards so how will he know it’s from her?
When Astrid finds out Teddy also sent a Valentine’s Day card but not to her she is devastated. To add to her problems the competition judges didn’t shortlist her story! Disillusioned and upset she has no idea what the point of continuing to do anything she used to enjoy is, so instead she writes a letter to her favourite author ever, not thinking she will ever get a reply.
Our verdict:
Secret Crush is a great book for showing how changing emotions in our early teens can surprise us. Astrid is confident, she doesn’t follow everyone else, and she’s quite glad some of her classmates think she’s a bit weird! Her parents are divorced and she lives one week with her mum, partner, and brother, and the next with her dad. This is treated as normally as it should be, with the focus on Astrid’s inner thoughts which start out as very confident, travelling through confusion, upset, and disappointment before she begins to realise she’s fine, just as she is, although she knows has to start taking other people and their opinions into account when she is making plans for her future.
Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:
- How much did things change when you started senior school? Was it better or worse than you thought it would be?
- How difficult do you think it would have been for Teddy to start a new school halfway through year 7?
- Is it important that your friends like everything you do? Would you try things they enjoy, as Teddy did, or does it matter?
- Why do you think Astrid’s friends didn’t like her make-over while the rest of the class treated her differently, rather than ignore her like normal?
- Have you ever written to someone famous you really admire? Did they reply? If you were to introduce yourself in a letter to your favourite star what would you say?
- Free resources for teachers.
Many thanks to Guppy Books for the review copy.
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If you like Bigg School: Secret Crush by Lisa Williamson you might also like: our reviews of Work It, Lara Bloom by Dee Benson, The Boy in the Suit by James Fox, Moving Up by Christian Foley, Best Friends Forever by Lisa Williamson and Nowhere Island by Tania Unsworth
Browse our Year 6 reading list.
