Another fantastic book by Cath Howe. 'The Insiders' features five children from the same class: four are friends, and the fifth character is the class bully, Billy. Callie, Nico, Zara and Ted have been close friends for a long time but recent changes in their lives have affected their friendship. The children are finding the changes difficult and all have things they don't share. Callie, keen to keep everyone happy, is also trying to help Billy who is having a difficult time at home. Both make choices which have big impact on Ted. Ted is no longer able to go to Callie's house after school and realises their friendship ties are weakening - he lives next door to Callie and is able to see her, Zara and Nico having fun from over the fence. He also realises Callie is becoming friends with Billy and when she lies to Ted about this, his feelings of jealousy take over with some serious consequences. This would make a great KS2 class read with lots to discuss and would be a good addition to a school library.

My daughter was is a huge fan of the previous Cath Howe books and this one is another fantastic read. The main characters - Ted, Callie, Zara and Nico - have a strong friendship. Or so they thought. This all changes when Billie, a boy in their class, comes between them. A story woven together with themes of bullying, friendship and family, this book encourages empathy as it shares the inside thoughts and feelings of the characters. Perfect for children 8+.

This is such a creative story from the highly-acclaimed author of Ella on the Outside, Not My Fault, and How to be Me.

Writing from a Child's perspective is not easy but Cath Howe does it SO well.
Children of all ages will face any number of tricky experiences at school - being included, sometimes negatively, being excluded, teased & ridiculed but there will also be times they get to experience real friendship & everything that comes with that.
Young readers might recognise some of the behaviours in the characters but that's a good thing in itself, so they know that everything else outside their own world isn't perfect either. They can also read the positivity embedded in this fantastic story.
It might open some eyes and hearts to learn how to show empathy & embrace others.
Definitely recommended.

I have read all of Cath Howe’s books and this is just as good as her others. The characters and school setting are relatable for children and the themes of friendship, bullying, loneliness and family issues were explored in a sensitive way. I liked the chapters being told by the different characters so we could read about how the same experiences affected different people.

I think this would be a good book to have in the classroom as a class novel as there are many issues to discuss with the children. Highly recommended.

I haven't read any Cath Howe but have Ella on teh Outside and Not my Fault sitting on the TBR pile! So I went for this, and I don't regret it.
Callie and her friends, Ted (who lives next door) and Nico and Zara are a tight bunch of friends. Callie's mum is childminder for the three friends until Ted's mum is looking to cut back on expenses and Ted suggests he doesn't need a childminder - without thinking about how much he'll miss his friends.
At school thy are in the same class, and the same class as Billy. Billy is a pain, he's loud and fidgety and is generally annoying! One day he squirts Ted with orange juice it's just no one notices until he goes on stage, then it causes much laughter and Ted is embarrassed as everyone, including the teacher, thinks he's wet himself. Ted holds this humiliation by Billy in his head as a torment too far.
Billy though has other problems, one day his Dad just moved out - he had a new girlfriend and a baby. His mum is a nurse and when she is due to go away with her friend Billy has to stay at his Dad's - but Dad gets some work so goes away - Billy doesn't feel safe with his new big step-sister. He decided to find somewhere else to stay and ends up - at school...
Callie finds out and tries to help him. One night Ted is very mean and it just gets worse...
I loved this book, the children's friendship is tested to the limit. How far will tormented feelings go? The fact that it would have been so easily sorted just by talking. I will definitely be looking to get one for our school.

The insiders
By Cath Howe
Published by Nosy Crow

Another fabulous book by the author of Ella on the outside, Not my fault & How to be me.
Cath Howe writes honestly from a child’s perspective, touching on all those tricky things kids face throughput school & whilst growing up: secrets, friendships, lies, being included, being excluded.
But each character holds their own chapter and this depicts their innocence, their strength and their determination. And thankfully whilst mistakes are made, friendship saves the day.
It is a great, easy to read chapter book that (sadly) pupils will be able to recognise their own or other’s behaviour within their friendship groups. But if we as adults can get our youngsters to open their eyes and empathise with these feelings, we can only be on the right track.

Joanne Bardgett - Year 3 teacher of littlies, lover of books.
#Netgallery
#NosyCrow

Another brilliant book from Cath Howe that touches on the difficult parts of life for young people.

The story follows the experiences of a group of school children - told through the voices of Callie, Ted and Billy.

Each has their own challenges to face and the book explores the complexity of family life and bullying.

The book is split in to small chapters making it a manageable read. Suitable for children 8+.

The Insiders was a good read but I expected more from it. The themes were great and so was the writing but I wasn't feeling the characters or the plot. The plot felt slow and dragged out and it really wasn"t my cup of tea. Compared to other Cath Howe books I've read this one just want up to the mark. It was still fun reading it however.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc!

The Insiders by develops each character sensitively when they narrate their own chapters. From the outside it seems their problems could be easily solved but Callie, Ted and Billy each have their own reasons for keeping things inside. As the story unfolds, it highlights the value of friendship and how misunderstandings can happen when we bottle things up and how communication and forgiveness is so important. A lovely read.

Another great book by Cath Howe. She really understands the pressures and feelings of growing up. In the insiders Callie tries to help everyone but soon finds that she can’t do that and keep her good girl image. While she’s busy helping the class bully is she ignoring those people closer to her who may need her more than she realises.

The Insiders is a novel that teaches the reader a lot about friendship, kindness and the importance of telling the truth. The story is told through the eyes of three characters (Ted, Callie and Billy) all of whom are very different within their personalities. All attending the same school, they each face their own individual challenges within the book and learn a lot about themselves along the way. The book itself is fast paced and the characters are well developed (each main character having their own backstory told to you within the story). I would have liked some more description throughout the novel as at times I felt that the action was a little rushed but I enjoyed the overall storyline and was happy with the way the story ended. I think that children in Year 5/6 would enjoy reading this novel.

Some books I am immediately drawn to and others I need a little bit of a nudge from my Twitter friends to encourage me to pick them up. This new title, is one that I most definitely needed very little prompting to request when I firstly saw it landing on other bloggers’ doormats and then noticed it was on Net Galley. I don’t think I’ve ever read a title published by Nosy Crow that I haven’t enjoyed, and after devouring How to be Me in a single sitting a year ago when it came in my Reading Rocks subscription box, was keen to read more of Cath Howe’s writing.

Like that, this is another title that readers will find hard to put down. With the action being split between three very different narrators, it is a book that hooks you in immediately and will not let go of you until you have finished. Written with such a deep level of empathy that you will have to know what happens to the children as the story unfolds, it is one that will stay with me for some time after fulfilling its front cover’s tagline to perfection.

Our three storytellers are classmates Callie, Ted and Billy. Callie opens for us, relating how friend the already quiet Ted has got even quieter over the past few weeks since stopping coming to her house after school and being humiliated at the class assembly by Billy. Ted then speaks to us, revealing that money is tight and to cut his mother’s expenditure he has offered to stop going to Callie’s after school to be cared for by her childminder mother, not really expecting this to be followed through.

Following a half term break, there is excitement in school when the children are offered the opportunity to apply to become prefects and Callie is somewhat put out when she and her friends are passed over in favour of Billy, whose behaviour is not at all what she or Ted considers good enough to fulfil the role. Complaining to teacher Miss Reynolds, Callie and her friends are told that sometimes a child learns to set a better example by given responsibilities and that there will be further chances later in the year.

After school, while an envious Ted looks on from his hiding place next door, Callie discovers a gap under the fence in her back garden which leads onto the school playground and he watches as she and some of her mother’s other charges squeeze through to investigate and spot a light on within the building. That light has been switched on by Billy whose mother has gone away for a few days and who after receiving a less than warm welcome from his father’s new family has decided to camp out in school to wait for his mother’s return. When Callie discovers she can get into the school building and finds Billy hiding out, she is drawn into keeping his secret, but can she keep it until his mother returns and what will happen if she doesn’t?

For many children, and indeed many adults, changes are sometimes tricky to navigate. For Callie, who is used to having Ted round after school his absence is a loss to her but not as much as it is to him. While he understands all too well his mother’s financial position, he sees going to Callie’s not just as a practical childcare arrangement but important because he enjoys being there. When this stability is taken away from him, he yearns to join in and torments himself by spying on Callie and the other children within her garden; when he sees her having an adventure by breaking into school, jealousy overwhelms him, with almost catastrophic results.

For Billy, who is one of those children who finds school a challenge, the absence of his mother and loss of that stability is too much for him to cope with. Bullied by his step-sister, leaving his father’s house seems to him to be the only way forward and with nowhere else to turn, he decides that staying in the school is his best option. For those Billies, who we all have experience of in education, school is very often a sanctuary, even if their behaviour tells us otherwise. It’s often difficult for their peers to see why children like Billy sometimes seem to get preferential treatment and this would make a super class read in Year 4 upwards to open discussions about how best everyone in school – both adults and children – can work together to support those who for whatever reason have additional challenges with regard to their behaviour.

A fabulous read, The Insiders publishes on May 5th. The most enormous thanks ahead of that date goes to publisher Nosy Crow and to Net Galley for my virtual advance read.

Every bit as good as previous titles Ella on the Outside, and How to be Me. Loved the short chapters told from different character perspectives. A great read for Key Stage 2.