True Friends at Fernside

Fernside #2

by Sheena Wilkinson

Fernside House, nestled at the end of a quiet road, is waiting for eighty girls to disturb its holiday peace …

Cousins Robin and Linnet are back at Fernside and school life is busier than ever – with the animals at Rowanbank, a new science class, netball rivalry and fun in the dorms.

But the end-of-term exams are not the only test for the girls. As the lower fourth face the good and the bad times of growing up and the cancellation of the Christmas Show, a surprise 'new' girl challenges them to understand what it really means to be a true friend at Fernside.

Genres: School Stories

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 13, 2025

About the author

Described in The Irish Times as 'one of our foremost writers for young people', Sheena Wilkinson is the author of eight acclaimed YA novels. She has won many awards for these, and for her short fiction. Her first adult novel, Mrs Hart's Marriage Bureau, a historical romantic comedy, is published by HarperCollins Ireland.

Reviews

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The girls return to school after half-term, and the lower fourth form begins science classes, which some of them really like. This is a book about friendship—the friendship between the girls, but also between them and the animals some of them help care for at the neighboring estate. And learning that friends don't have to like all the same things or even always agree.