Jake likes thinking, talking, football and encyclopedias. And fish. But he's not so sure about everything else - especially girls, or little sisters, or stepdads. And most of all, he's not sure if he really likes himself. Then Jake meets a girl called Stella and old Mrs Kennedy next door, and he begins to find that he likes a lot more things than he thought. After all, as Mrs Kennedy says: Life isn't a bowl of cherries, but a bowl of cherries is still a bowl of cherries. But it takes a tragedy to force Jake to look at himself and see that, really, he isn't so bad after all.

 

There are 192 pages in this book. This book was published 2006 by Penguin Books Ltd .

Siobhan Parkinson is one of Ireland's leading authors for children and teenagers, and she has won numerous awards for her writing. Siobhan lives in Dublin with her husband and grown-up son.