Is Anybody There?: Comedy, calamity and cool characters

by Jean Ure

More comedy, calamity and cool characters from acclaimed-writer Jean Ure. Joanna, Chloe and Dee are the best of friends. They may be seen as outsiders at school, but they’re an inseparable trio. Joanna who narrates the story, lives with her mum. But Mum’s not your normal, average parent – she’s a medium. Cool, you might think, but Jo’s inherited her mother’s psychic ability, which is not really compatible with school life! When one of their classmates goes missing, Chloe and Dee persuade Jo to use her gift to find her – but having a gift is one thing, dealing with the consequences is another…

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2004

About the author

Prolific English children and young adult author.

Had her first book published while still in high school, then studied theater at Webber-Douglas in London. Her most well-known work is the Point Crime novel Dance with Death. Others include Plague 99, After the Plague (previously "Come Lucky April"), Big Tom, Family Fan Club and Shrinking Violet, as well as the fantasy The Wizard In the Woods.

Today, Ure is very popular with British female teenage readers with novels such as Shrinking Violet, Family Fan Club and Passion Flower.

Ure has also translated Danish writer Sven Hassel's WWII novels to English.

Reviews

[andthesix · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book took more of a serious tone than i expected

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is Anybody There? - By Jean Ure
Before I get started there is one thing I have to mention. This book is probably not suitable for anyone younger than 9 or 10 as it focuses on quite a scary real-life subject.
Plot:
This is the story of Joanne and her best friends, Chloe and Dee. It is a journey through Year 8 as they try to get a grip on being a teenager. One night, Joanne did something she deeply regretted, she got into a car with someone she barely knew. This is the story of how she got through it with her best friends on her side.
Characters:
The characters, in my opinion, aren't very well explained. We barely know anything about Joanne apart from the fact that has inherited her psychic powers from her mother. Yeah, that's all we know about her. Dee. Not much information on her either. All we know is that she is smart. Chloe. Loveable, a bit annoying and a bit eccentric. The character we knew the most about was Joanne's mother, even though we don't know her name. She is a fortune teller and gets an object from the person they are getting the information of and she can see into the object. We also know how protective she is of Joanne, and how annoyed Joanne gets from this.

*Spoiler Section*
My thoughts on this:
I think it was almost like the blurb contained clickbait but the book version. It said on the back that she got into a car of a person she didn't know, but actually, she has met Paul before. Also, the bit with Paul being innocent was a bit disappointing because that was the main focus on the story. The blurb should have featured the disappearance of the sixth former instead because that was better. I think we should have found out who did take her in the first place, as it would make it more exciting.
Things I love:
I loved the relationship between the girls was sweet how the always looked out for each other. I like how mad we got at Dee for not believing Jo's story about Paul, but then realise she was right. I love Paul's back story and how interesting it was.

*Spoiler Section over*

I think this is a definite read for anyone who is interested in minor crimes or major crimes.

[Faith]

love this book, it talks about different things and so far it very much adventurous, i would recommend this book if you like adventurous books.

[Jodie F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent for a kids book

[Diyanarahim96 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for me. Like I didn't expect it to be like that I thought it would just be a peaceful story but it turns out something tragic happens which make me want to read more so I definitely recommend people to read this book

[Lucy Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember listening to this one on an audio book CD when I was a lot younger. Couldn't remember much about it though other than the girl gets into a car with someone and thinks they're abducting her.

[Daniella wouters · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book wa gr8 im still reading it now

[Tessie]

This book was kinda good, but I was very annoyed at the pictures in the book.

[Farah Abtar · Rating 5 out of 5]

want to reread this!!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book I read when I was a preteen