by Hayley Long
Ronni Runnacles is in a bad place emotionally. Her dad has left, her mum is a wreck, and she just can't concentrate in school - that's if she actually goes. Add to that the very annoying Sadie Slowgrove and the gorgeous you'll-get-me-if-you're-lucky Stuart Bolan, and Ronni finds the easiest way out of all her problems is to create an imaginary world where she is the superfamous popstar Ronni Runaway. But one day, after an accident on the dodgems, Ronni starts to realise that you might not always be happy with what you wish for.This was really rather funny, and a whole lot of fun with it too. I just loved Ronni's teenage language - 'whoop' is one of her favourite words, so just imagine it said in a teenage 'whatever' way. Ronni's nan is great too, with her too-tight clothes and her 'cheesemobile' yellow car. But I think my favourite character is Ronni's Russian classmate Yuri Maximovich Krolik who starts all his sentences with 'Yes' - he's hilarious.
I must admit I much preferred the first section to the second 'upside down' after-the-accident section. It definitely wasn't as funny (apart from Yuri) and I found myself skim-reading through most of it. But I'm sure once young girls have read this one they'll definitely look to read Hayley Long's other books.
I'd recommend this for girls over 10. There is some light swearing (cr*p, b*tch, bl**dy) but you can hear worse in the Harry Potter films!
