How to be . . . The New Person

Description

Delightful and insightful story from the author of the Violet Mackerel series Hazel Morrison has a secret habit - pretending to make videos about everyday things. Eight important tips for successfully buttering toast! Putting your hair in a ponytail: a step-by-step guide! But when her family move to the outer suburbs, Hazel has to cope with starting at a new school where she doesn't exactly feel welcomed. A school project inspires her to create a real video - a how-to guide for being "the new person" . . . because everyone, sometime, will meet one, or be one!

Anna Branford was born in the Isle of Man and spent her early childhood in Sudan and Papua New Guinea before moving to Australia. Creative writing was her favourite subject at school and she wrote stories in all these different countries. Anna is a doll maker and a sociology lecturer at Victoria University. Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot was her first published work for Walker Books Australia and was Honour Book in the 2011 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards, Younger Readers category. In 2013, Violet Mackerel's Personal Space won the Young Readers/Picture Book Award category of the Australian Family Therapists' Award and was short-listed for the 2013 Children's Peace Literature Awards. Violet Mackerel's Possible Friend was short-listed for the 2014 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, Younger Readers category.

Younger readers who enjoyed the Violet Mackerel books are sure to recognise Hazel because she has a very similar outlook on life and a lovely straightforward manner of sharing her problems * Sue Warren * This book, written for young independent readers, deserves to be shared with our students to open up conversations that allow them to share their anxieties, to learn that they are all feeling the same way, and to develop strategies so they can believe in Veronica's observation that Wherever there are lots of people, there is always at least one nice person. You don't always find them right away but sooner or later you usually do. And after that, things get easier. * The Bottom Shelf * A special aspect of How to be the new person is the important and protective friendship that develops between Hazel and the old lady next door called Veronica. The message that change is not confined to when you are young but rather is a life-long issue that has to be faced again and again is an important one * ReadPlus *