Recommended reading books for primary and secondary aged children in the UK
Holly Smale was spotted by a London modelling agency when she was 15 and spent the next two years modelling. She later graduated from Bristol University with a BA in English Literature and an MA in Shakespeare, then moved into writing. Her teenage experience of modelling was used in shaping the premise of Geek Girl, which follows Harriet Manners after she is spotted by a modelling agency.
Her first Geek Girl novel was published by HarperCollins in 2013. The series continued with Model Misfit in 2013, All That Glitters in 2015 and Forever Geek in 2017. Geek Drama was published in 2015 as a Geek Girl novella, and Sunny Side Up followed in 2016. Geek Girl won the Waterstones Teen Prize of the Year and the Leeds Book Award, was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Branford Boase Award, and was longlisted for the Carnegie.
After Geek Girl, Holly Smale wrote the Valentines books. Happy Girl Lucky was published by HarperCollins in 2019, and Love Me Not was published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2021.
Books About Bullying for Children and Teens with titles by Jeanne Willis, Giles Andreae, R J Palacio, Onjali Q. Raúf, Elle McNicoll, Tamsin Winter, Holly Smale, Sophie Kinsella, Alice Oseman, and Benjamin Zephaniah.
Books about fashion for children and teens with titles by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara, Megan Hess, Sophia Bennett, Holly Smale, Juno Dawson, John Peacock, Lesley Ware, Carina Axelsson, Caroline Young, and Sofi Thanhauser.
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