Now that secondary places have been allocated for September, you might be looking for some books to support making that tricky transition from KS2 to KS3. ‘The Overthinkers’ Club’ perfectly taps into the themes of tween anxiety, friendship dramas, and relationships in a hilarious and accessible format.

“Birdie is an overthinker, and she has a lot to overthink. Her BFF Chloe wants new friends (BETRAYAL), she will be a teenager in one year(BREATHE), yet owns ZERO bras (surely some mistake?!), and a boy at school maybe has a crushon her (BUT HOW TO BE SURE?!).

So Birdie has made a Happy List to tackle all the awkward and emotional challenges of being a tween. THEN she will stop being an anxious ball of stress and be happy!

That’s the plan anyway…”

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Readers are going to love the humorous take on life as a not-quite teenager as Birdie struggles to navigate a new blended family, the death of her beloved hamster, and the complexities of life a tween. Birdie and her anxieties will be very relatable to a lot of people and will hopefully offer some comfort that things will often turn out better than you expect them too.

As a parent of an anxious now just-teenager, I feel that this book will be incredibly useful in helping them understand that they are not the only person who worries about things and that those words can sometimes feel all-consuming. I liked that the book focussed on the creation of a Happy List as a way of switching your mindset from the negative to the positive.

My happy list would include:

• Sitting outside wherever there’s a glimmer of sunshine.
• Curling up in the rocking chair with a blanket and a good book.
• Buying myself flowers.

How about you?

I would definitely recommend this book for readers aged 10+

Jo.

*Many thanks to Usborne Books for sending me this title to review*