Hello everybody! Today, we have another blog tour review, this time for Kathy Weeks’ brilliant debut MG comedy, What’s New, Harper Drew?. Onto the post!
As soon as I got the email about this one, I knew I wanted to read it because it just looked like such a FUN book, and it did indeed bring a little burst of sunshine into my life when I read it last weekend. It’s about a girl named Harper who has a very eccentric family (to say the least!) and it’s extracts from her diary, which is always such a great format for a comedy, especially when there are super fun illustrations too (which are by Aleksei Bitsoff, who also does Simon James Green’s MG books!). I’d say the plot is quite slice of life, which always makes for an enjoyable read, but some of the things Harper is trying to get through without disaster over the course of the book are: fundraising enough money to buy a stair lift for her school (I’ll explain why in a second), get an invite to the most popular girl in school’s party and survive the family holiday.
The fundraising aspect was undoubtedly my favourite aspect of the book. Not just because it puts Harper in a great many hilarious, awkward situations, such as the car boot sale, but also because of what the fundraising is for. Harper’s best friend Edward is disabled and their school is inaccessible to him, and while I don’t want to make this all about me, I’ve been in similar situations, so seeing Harper be such an ally made me love her even more than I otherwise would have.
That said, the characters are also amazing and an absolute joy to read about. We’ve already covered that Harper is a brilliant ally, which makes me like her straight away, but she’s also very long suffering and witty in terms of the antics her family get up to, and she really reminded me of Ally from the Ally’s World series (which is a huge compliment!! Karen McCoy is the best!). I also loved her vain, slightly self-obsessed brother Troy’s part in the story, and her parents quite often made me howl with laughter. I don’t know what it was about her mum’s supermarket and bleach obsession and her dad’s habit of inventing dangerous games, but it just really appealed to my sense of humour.
Thank you so much for reading! Are you planning to read this, or what did you think if you already have? Which comedy MG books do you love? I’d love to chat with you in the comments!
Amy xx
Golden Books Girl 