A Storm of Strawberries

This is charming. At first, I wasn’t sure where it was going. 12-year-old Darby, a girl with Down’s Syndrome, is upset when her older sister’s best friend arrives for the weekend. She feels excluded. To make her even more upset, her parents are more concerned about the damage an approaching storm might do to their strawberry farm than they are about the annual chocolate hunt that Darby loves.

But what I thought was going to be a pleasant Jacqueline Wilson tale about divided sisterly loyalties (and that’s not intended as a putdown of JW) turns into something quite different with a plot turn I don’t want to give away. Then the storm outside threatening the farm is matched by a storm inside threatening the family and I really wasn’t sure how everything would play out. I read the second half of the book in one long session, turning the pages as fast as I could.

There’s a mean-spirited Amazon review calling the book ‘A very middle-class story’. Well, if it’s middle class to draw all  your characters with a delicate touch, to consider all your characters’ motives fairly, and to build to a conclusion that positively embraces change and difference… then sign me up right this second.

This is a lovely book.