Age 9-13

Saffy’s Angel, McKay’s comic, touching introduction to the eccentric Cassons, deservedly won the Whitbread children’s book award; this book now focuses on Saffy’s brother, Indigo. We meet again the four siblings named after colours and Eve, their artist mother, who works in the shed and never remembers about meals. Beautiful Caddy (short for Cadmium) accumulates and discards boyfriends at university with insouciance — her heart belongs to her driving instructor; Saffron and her best friend, wheelchair-bound Sarah, courageously fight the boys who bully Indigo at school; Rose, the youngest Casson, writes melodramatic letters to their absent father, hoping to terrify him into returning. Central to the book is Indigo’s friendship with Tom, who is angry with his father for starting a second family, and who behaves insolently to teachers and tells stories of captivating braggadocio to his classmates. In the Cassons, Tom, who has barricaded himself against caring about anything except his guitar, finds people to love again. Great jokes, irresistible characters and emotional conviction make this skilled and delightfully whimsical book unmissable.

INDIGO’S STAR by Hilary McKay

(Hodder £10)

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