It’s always great to find a good middle grade novel that I can confidently recommend to the younger pupils in my school Library and I enjoyed this.

There are a variety of themes in this story beyond it’s description as a story of complex families , forgiveness and new beginnings:
Friendship – between Gemma, Surinder and Jess – seen mainly through their text messages; and then with Flori and Sarah
Mother and daughter – although there are complications – which become more and more evident as the story progresses, Gemma and her mother are clearly very close
Financial pressures/differences – Gemma and her mother clearly struggles to make ends meet – and this causes embarrassment for Gemma – but is addresses sensitively – at least that’s what I think from my admittedly privileged position!
Hasty judgements – I think it’s great that lots of books address this as it’s something we’re all prone to, but younger readers may not recognise that of themselves yet…
Family – the importance of knowing who you are and where you’ve come from
Being willing to step out of your comfort zone – Gemma has never played tennis but is encouraged to try it although she’s very unsure about it…

I liked the tennis theme to the story; I enjoyed Uncle Joe’s character a lot; I liked the gradual realisation that Gemma has regarding past events. There were characters I didn't like who got their just desserts… and those I rooted for who did too!

A gentle read but one that doesn’t ignore some of the harsher realities of life. Grateful to NetGalley for an early copy.

This is a book I will definitely recommend to pupils in my school (probably P5 upwards). It reminded me of books by Cath Howe, easy to read and tackling issues that many children will relate to with their own experiences. Let's be honest, families all have their issues and the breakdown of relationships in families is sadly fairly common. This book deals with this topic very sensitively. Another topic tackled is children not having knowledge of both of their parents and the difficulties this can cause for the children. Again it is handled well. For me, this book demonstrates the importance of children being surrounded with love from as many family .members as possible and how parents need to try their very best to ensure this is the case for their children.

Gemma knows very little about any other family members other than her Mum. Her Mum is reluctant to talk about or see her own Mother and brother, although Gemma has vague distant memories of going to Gran’s house and her Uncle’s disastrous wedding, after which all contact ceased. But when Mum is offered a free cruise holiday for a month Gem works on her to stay with her Gran.
At the last minute she thought she was going to be disappointed when Gran broke her ankle, but Uncle Joe came to the rescue. The holiday cements Gem’s conviction things are being held from her and she is determined to find out more and why tennis is so important.
Family is a central theme in this story for upper key stage two.

Review from my daughter aged 9 & 3/4.

This was a really good book, I loved it. The main character Gemma goes to stay with her uncle when her mum goes on a month long cruise. Her uncle enrolls her in a tennis camp and when there Gemma finds out a huge secret about her mum.

This was a very interesting read but at the start I was bit confused by the names of all the characters and took me a while to work out who was who. That’s the only thing I didn’t like about this book.

I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys books about families. It also made me want to learn to play tennis!

A great book. 5 star.

This is very touching story about family ties and deeper emotions. It is written with a very accessible vocabulary, so in terms of language, this book can be read by LKS2 students. But the emotional depth required to appreciate this story means that it is more suitable for maybe Y6 or up students.

It is a slow burner, so you have to be patient to enjoy the book fully.