Ten-year old Samantha is about to start her fifth school. After living in Nepal for several years, she and her family have returned “home” to Australia, but Sam has had a hard time fitting in.
Assigned to sit at a table with the “mean girls”, Sam feels excluded. When she is teased for ineptly explaining her parents’ jobs, she defends herself with a wild story about her mom, but that only makes things worse. As she gets in deeper trying to defend the lie the mocking gets meaner and Sam becomes more and more miserable until things finally reach a breaking point.
Though the story is about a young TCK the major theme of the book is how to recognize and handle subtle and overt bullying.
Ages 8-12
Available on Kindle here