Emily Rose Hedge is a sassy, savvy, confident and popular 13-year-old girl, and very much the centre of her own universe, the Jasper Carrot Community School and Art Academy in Solihull, England.
Her crowning glory is her hair, perfect in every way. She is admired, envied even, by many in her school, and doesn't feel she has to give time to those around her, those who themselves face challenges in their daily lives that Emily would herself find difficult.
Nothing could shake her confidence, or could it? One day, something happens that turns everything in Emily's perfect life on its head, where she lives, even what her name is and, devastatingly, her perfect hair.
This episode, traumatic, in a low-level way it is, teaches Emily about what's really important, and she grows up and finds herself in a way she would never have imagined.
The story traces how she reacts, fights this change, then deals with the realisation that, although it was so real to her, it didn't actually happen at all. Dealing with that makes her re-evaluate the people around her and who the real Emily actually is before she starts to make a new life for herself, all while everything goes on as normal around her.
There are a number of central characters, Emily herself, Salma and Kasia, Bangladeshi and Polish immigrants respectively, who Emily initially dismisses as irrelevant.
Her Head Teacher, Richard Mills, has had an interesting life, full of change in its own way. His story intertwines with Emily's in ways that could not have been foreseen, as does the life of Josh, the unrequited object of Emily's attentions.
The climax to the story places them all centre stage, quite literally.
The themes will resonate with anyone who has experienced change. The change that we go through in our early teens is often trivialised, and yet, for many, it is the biggest single transformation they experience in their lifetime.
"I Am Emily Hedge" contextualises this for a readership who are either in the throes of dealing with those changes, or about to. It should also resonate with an older audience who will recognise those very experiences.
Although the story has serious themes, it is written with humour and am eye for the ridiculous.
