The Amazing Edie Eckhart: Book 1

Product Information

A collection of poetry perfect for sharing, this book explores everything from friendship to bullying to school life and technology. When heavily pregnant form tutor, Mrs Adler suggests Edie audition for the school play, Edie gets the lead and decides to nab herself a boyfriend by Christmas.

Sophie loved this one and is already hoping for more middle-grade books from Rosie Jones in the future and more from Edie Eckhart too.

She has to make some new special relationships when she moves to secondary school and her best friend goes into a different class. It is relatable because there are a few cerebral palsy-related occurrences that happen that I have experienced. I’m loving seeing more of these books where gay couples are just a part of the story and that it isn’t the main conflict. But when Oscar scuppers these plans by getting his first ever girlfriend, GROSS, Edie eventually decides to stop feeling sorry for herself and find a boyfriend, so she can prove to Oscar she's grown up too. However, I ended up really liking Oscar after reading the whole book because he becomes very supportive when he realises how much Edie enjoys the theatre club.

I love that the main character in the story has cerebral palsy, as there is definitely not enough representation of disability in fiction, but more importantly, her CP is part of who she is but not what the story focuses on. Edie was a wonderful character but I have to say that I liked her in the end more than in the beginning. When she and Oscar reach school she discovers to her horror that the two of them have been placed in different forms. The Amazing Edie Eckhart is a fantastic middle-grade story about Edie, who is just starting out at secondary school.In case of emergency, at the beginning of the book, Edie only had her family and her best friend Oscar. And then the much anticipated week long drama trip makes everything even more confusing, especially when a teacher says she shouldn’t have a main part as she speaks too slowly - that felt horribly undermining.

We follow Edie's struggles with missing Oscar, making new friends, becoming braver than she's ever had to be before and figuring out why getting a boyfriend isn't the be-all and end-all of her new life. The book contains excellent disability, LGBTQ, young carer, and sausage roll/pizza/Maccy D’s representation throughout. Set in 1900's Nigeria, this historical fiction is an ideal read for anyone worried about making friends and fitting in at their new school. Edie is an average eleven-year-old girl; she has a loving family and a best friend named Oscar who shares her love of sausage rolls and Marvel films.

It's a part of the story for obvious reasons but the story is mainly concerned with the usual sort of stuff.

Edie is excited and thinks things will be just the same, but it turns out a lot of things will change.ok I knoooow this is classed as a “kids book”, but I’ve never felt so represented in a book in my whole life and that’s saying something. As an adult, I have found comfort in reading these stories which now have the answers, the representation and validation that I craved so much as a child. However it takes some friends to point out that just maybe she does use her disability to hold herself back. I’m a society where children’s books don’t often portray the main character - a child - with disability, nor even dare to mention anything remotely LBGTQ+ this has all the elements to give enough info but not rammed down the readers throat. Feeling dejected, Edie throws herself into the school play, where she lands herself a leading role, and begins to develop some very special relationships of her own.