It’s the start of the summer holidays and twelve-year-old Bertie is worried. Next year she’s going to a high school in the city, while all her friends stay behind in Merri, the small town she’s lived in all her life.

To help her feel better prepared for high school, her best friend, Claire, makes a list of tasks Bertie has to complete over the summer. They start working through the list together, only to find that some of the cracks in their friendship are beginning to show. Soon, Bertie’s not even sure she’ll have one friend by the end of the summer.

All the Little Tricky Things is a charming, heartfelt novel about a time when everything is changing, and a girl who’s trying to make sense of it all.

‘A big warm hug of a book, tender and true. McEwen writes perceptively about the emotions of growing up and maybe growing apart from everything and everyone you’ve always known. I loved it.’ Danielle Binks