Nosy Crow Ella on the Outside

Ella has a secret. She can’t tell anybody. No one can know. But Ella has just started a new school and she is struggling to make friends. So telling just one person can’t be that bad, can it?Ella on the Outside is a lovely story about what it means to truly be friends with somebody. You instantly fall fo Ella even more so when you know what she has gone through and how difficult her young life is. And even when she makes some questionable choices you still want Ella to do well. Ella on the Outside is only a short novel but it is on that packs a punch and really does put the reader in someone else’s shoes. The narrative style is very reader friendly – it is told in short chapters and letter form and it really allows the audience to empathise with Ella.A great book to start a discussion about lifestyles with younger readers.Ella on the Outside by Cath Howe is available now.

My 11 year old daughter absolutely loved this book. She’d highly recommend it for any 11 year old girls.

This book is about a girl who moved schools and had a HUGE secret! I found this book difficult to read because it had no pictures but I do like how the author described the characters really well. My favourite part of the book was when she finds a friend but she is too shy. I would not recommend this book because it gets a little bit boring as the story goes on. It really wasn't that exciting.

As a writer, Cath Howe will surely become a parent’s (or grandparent’s or teacher’s) treasured friend- a storyteller whose work will be enjoyed as much by adults as by children.Her characters spring from the page as we are drawn immediately into their lives. The grownups, always seen from the child’s perspective, are not villains, but human beings with real and recognisable foibles and struggles. There’s the dizzy Vanessa, Lucas’s banker father’s fiancé, ill-equipped for the role of stepmother which has been thrust upon her, her future stepson an afterthought in their wedding plans; Irena, the reluctant au pair, if not exploited, certainly taken advantage of by her wealthy employers, missing her family in another country. Dad, trying to fix his shy son like he fixes his expensive bike, splashing the cash on holidays to compensate for his emotional and physical absence, and burying his own grief over the loss of his first wife, Lucas’s mother. You wonder what he and Vanessa have in common. And, of course, Keely’s gran, dispensing flapjacks and hugs, who quickly becomes simply "Gran".Howe’s writing has great immediacy. "Not My Fault" took me straight back to the mixture of excitement and dread I felt at the outset of the school residential, bringing back forgotten memories of the planned midnight feasts, and the daunting huge breakfast hall. In "How to be Me" her spare prose brings places vividly to life: the sour smelling hut where the drama club meets, without a fan to alleviate the stifling heat, “which must be against the law”; Vanessa’s dressing room, where – displaying Howe’s gift for understated comedy - Lucas and Keely play with the electric massage-chair until there is “an odd charred sort of smell”; the empty ballroom - big enough for rollerblading - with its chandeliers and polished floor, where lonely, shy, Lucas, missing Mum, plays piano with only his beloved cats for an audience, and most of all Bakewell’s, the slightly chaotic cafe, with its delicious aromas and eclectic mix of customers.The scene in "How to be Me" where Keely trains Lucas to work in the café made me laugh out loud, but you’ll be a hard cookie if you don’t shed some tears whilst reading this book. Although the story ends on a positive note, as an adult you’re left wondering how your new friends will fare in the years ahead.

This book is so good! Its filled with twists and turns, jaw dropping moments, friendship problems and sad moments.This book is sad but trust me the ending is very happy! I enjoyed this book very much and i could relate to Ella because i have also moved schools and it is hard. It made me laugh and also cry but over all it was ⭐Amazing⭐ - by Lucie, Age 10