Synopsis

"There was on kid, Alison Ashley, and because no one was sitting next to me, Miss Belmont put Alison Ashley there. And from the first day I hated her."

So says Erica Yurken when the oh-so-perfect Alison Ashley turns up at Barringa East Primary...

Comment:

Unbelievably, I managed to live the first thirty years of my life without ever reading this book. Since it is a classic of Australian children's literature, I thought I'd better read it before I give it out at the xmas fair. I'm not sorry I did. This was a great story of what it is like to be jealous of someone and embarrassed about your own family. Definitely worth the read.

Yurk is jealous of Alison, who is elegant, poised, well dressed, has healthy lunches and lives in a nice house. Even as she hates Alison, Yurk strives to be like her. Until she finds something about Alison that she is not jealous of. A great book for tweens and teens.