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Ella at Eden #1
New Girl
Ella has started at her new high school, and Eden College is everything she hoped it would be. She is getting to know her new friends and enjoying everything Eden has to o er. Until things start to get complicated. She accidently insults Saskia, the school diva, there could be a ghost in the dorm and items have started to mysteriously disappear. Can Ella catch the Eden thief?
This is a new series following on from the Ella Diaries and the next step up in reading level.
This is a new series following on from the Ella Diaries and the next step up in reading level.
192 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2020
37 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 16, 2025
It was An Amazing story
August 13, 2025
I read it the 2nd time. I love this series. Will be reading all the books the 2nd time as well.
Curious to learn new words. I am picking up details that I missed the first time around.
Curious to learn new words. I am picking up details that I missed the first time around.
May 25, 2020
Such a smart idea to follow all-rounder, Ella, through her schooling years! Laura Sieveking, together with illustrator, Danielle McDonald, began with the ever-popular series for early readers; Ella and Olivia, progressing to the junior chapter books of the Ella Diaries fame, and now developing some new titles for middle-graders; Ella at Eden. As Ella has grown in age, height and maturity, so too have her readers, and she has become like the best friend you’ve known all your life. We feel as if we ‘know’ Ella because Sieveking has been clever to maintain that same ambitious, confident and unique first-person voice that we all love.
In New Girl, Ella is now in Year 7 and has just begun a new chapter on an impressive scholarship at the prestigious boarding school, Eden College. Nerves are aflutter, but Ella quickly settles into the school life, along with her best friend Zoe and some other new dorm mates. Ella is met with some challenges, though, making a few not-so-impressionable first impressions with a fellow ‘high-achieving’ student, and the Year 7 Coordinator / Vice Headmistress! She also feels the pressure to make good grades, and is missing home. Adventures and mysteries abound, much to the delight of the reader, of what sounds like glamourous night-time escapades and secrets to uncover, like solving the clues to the treasure-thief in the Year 7 dorms. Her sleuthing skills help Ella win the spot of Junior Journalist for the Eden Press, which beautifully links young readers (and writers) with tips and inspirations for practising their own literacy and language skills. Further to this, Sieveking utilises Ella’s voice to reinforce a range of more sophisticated vocabulary and their definitions neatly into the narrative. There is also the element of digital literacy to take on board, with Ella’s regular emails to her younger sister, Olivia – perhaps it may have been nice to have had access to some of Olivia’s replies, although we get an idea of her responses as they are weaved in to the storyline.
Ella at Eden: New Girl addresses some valuable concepts, including challenging gender stereotypes and the impact of pre-judging others. With its fantasy-fiction element of a typically-tame place like boarding school, this book is fun, engaging and unputdownable. Definitely an exciting new adventure for fans of the Ella series from age nine.
In New Girl, Ella is now in Year 7 and has just begun a new chapter on an impressive scholarship at the prestigious boarding school, Eden College. Nerves are aflutter, but Ella quickly settles into the school life, along with her best friend Zoe and some other new dorm mates. Ella is met with some challenges, though, making a few not-so-impressionable first impressions with a fellow ‘high-achieving’ student, and the Year 7 Coordinator / Vice Headmistress! She also feels the pressure to make good grades, and is missing home. Adventures and mysteries abound, much to the delight of the reader, of what sounds like glamourous night-time escapades and secrets to uncover, like solving the clues to the treasure-thief in the Year 7 dorms. Her sleuthing skills help Ella win the spot of Junior Journalist for the Eden Press, which beautifully links young readers (and writers) with tips and inspirations for practising their own literacy and language skills. Further to this, Sieveking utilises Ella’s voice to reinforce a range of more sophisticated vocabulary and their definitions neatly into the narrative. There is also the element of digital literacy to take on board, with Ella’s regular emails to her younger sister, Olivia – perhaps it may have been nice to have had access to some of Olivia’s replies, although we get an idea of her responses as they are weaved in to the storyline.
Ella at Eden: New Girl addresses some valuable concepts, including challenging gender stereotypes and the impact of pre-judging others. With its fantasy-fiction element of a typically-tame place like boarding school, this book is fun, engaging and unputdownable. Definitely an exciting new adventure for fans of the Ella series from age nine.
April 23, 2020
Ella is disheartened when her best friend, Zoe, tells her she is going to be attending the prestigious Eden College. But on a whim, Ella decides to apply for a scholarship and to her surprise, is accepted into the school! ‘Ella At Eden: New Girl’ follows Ella and Zoe as they start at their new school as years 7’s, completely out of the comfort zone, and all the things that happen in their first year.
I really liked this book, it felt authentic and was super enjoyable to read. The narrative just jumps right into it the story, without any stuffing around, and was easy to read. It has great characters, page turning action and mystery, as well a healthy dose of humour.
The protagonist, Ella, is a incredibly likeable character and I kinda wanted to be her best friend. She tries hard at everything, and is really quite funny. I think author Laura Sieveking absolutely nailed the age group and what girls of this age feel and experience and think about. I liked Ella’s quirk of being super informative and explains to the reader when she uses a complicated word, but it isn’t annoying or condescending, it’s cute and what she actually does to other characters in the story.
I think one of the strong points in the story is the great dialogue and believable characters. As I said, I really loved Ella’s character – she is a good girl, but also has a cheeky rebellious streak. I liked the inclusion of emails in certain chapters as well, and felt it added authenticity. The villainous character, Saskia, along with her buddies Mercedes and Portia (whose names gave me a little giggle), were the perfect amount of annoying… how dare she call my new BFF a charity case.
Ella’s home sickness also felt authentic, as well as the friendships that she makes. Laura Sieveking has done an awesome job of creating realistic rounded relatable characters. There was also plenty of action and mystery with ghosts and thieves and threads pulling the narrative along.
It had a satisfying end, and better yet, there are more books in the series such as Ella At Eden: Secret Journal! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it will really suit young readers – a great example of a quality middle grade book!
I really liked this book, it felt authentic and was super enjoyable to read. The narrative just jumps right into it the story, without any stuffing around, and was easy to read. It has great characters, page turning action and mystery, as well a healthy dose of humour.
The protagonist, Ella, is a incredibly likeable character and I kinda wanted to be her best friend. She tries hard at everything, and is really quite funny. I think author Laura Sieveking absolutely nailed the age group and what girls of this age feel and experience and think about. I liked Ella’s quirk of being super informative and explains to the reader when she uses a complicated word, but it isn’t annoying or condescending, it’s cute and what she actually does to other characters in the story.
I think one of the strong points in the story is the great dialogue and believable characters. As I said, I really loved Ella’s character – she is a good girl, but also has a cheeky rebellious streak. I liked the inclusion of emails in certain chapters as well, and felt it added authenticity. The villainous character, Saskia, along with her buddies Mercedes and Portia (whose names gave me a little giggle), were the perfect amount of annoying… how dare she call my new BFF a charity case.
Ella’s home sickness also felt authentic, as well as the friendships that she makes. Laura Sieveking has done an awesome job of creating realistic rounded relatable characters. There was also plenty of action and mystery with ghosts and thieves and threads pulling the narrative along.
It had a satisfying end, and better yet, there are more books in the series such as Ella At Eden: Secret Journal! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it will really suit young readers – a great example of a quality middle grade book!
February 12, 2022
I'm giving this book 4 stars mostly because there's really no major reason for me to dislike it. I just didn't love it.
I liked how Ella will randomly throw out big words and immediately explain them. The mystery is relatively easy to work out, but considering this book is for pre-teens, that's not a bad thing.
Because I'm not super familiar with the publisher (and I usually don't pay too much attention to the copyright page), I spent the majority of the book assuming it was set in England. It wasn't until the second to last chapter that it's pointed out that it's set in Australia. My bad. There's also very little description of what the girls look like. I don't know if that was oversight on part of the author or intentional so you could decide for yourself what each girl looks like (which is what I wound up doing).
The one thing that bugged me was Ella's big speech about science being for girls. When Ella said she didn't like science, I took it as (get this) SHE didn't like science. But Ella goes into a page long speech about how science IS for girls, as if you immediately assumed she didn't like it simply because she's a girl. I mean goodness her grandmother was a scientist and even created a vaccine!! See?!? Science is totally for girls. Just not for Ella. Y'know? Like she originally said. So basically she wasted a whole page defending the fact that she didn't like science, not because she was a girl (because obviously that's what you were thinking), but just because SHE doesn't like it. Just like she said. Anyways, moving on.
Overall, it was a relatively easy read with nothing blatantly wrong with it. I would say it's a good introduction to mysteries for readers who are maybe reluctant to try mysteries. I'm sure plenty of young readers will enjoy it (and it doesn't seem like you have to have read the Ella Diaries to understand it). This book just wasn't for me.
I liked how Ella will randomly throw out big words and immediately explain them. The mystery is relatively easy to work out, but considering this book is for pre-teens, that's not a bad thing.
Because I'm not super familiar with the publisher (and I usually don't pay too much attention to the copyright page), I spent the majority of the book assuming it was set in England. It wasn't until the second to last chapter that it's pointed out that it's set in Australia. My bad. There's also very little description of what the girls look like. I don't know if that was oversight on part of the author or intentional so you could decide for yourself what each girl looks like (which is what I wound up doing).
The one thing that bugged me was Ella's big speech about science being for girls. When Ella said she didn't like science, I took it as (get this) SHE didn't like science. But Ella goes into a page long speech about how science IS for girls, as if you immediately assumed she didn't like it simply because she's a girl. I mean goodness her grandmother was a scientist and even created a vaccine!! See?!? Science is totally for girls. Just not for Ella. Y'know? Like she originally said. So basically she wasted a whole page defending the fact that she didn't like science, not because she was a girl (because obviously that's what you were thinking), but just because SHE doesn't like it. Just like she said. Anyways, moving on.
Overall, it was a relatively easy read with nothing blatantly wrong with it. I would say it's a good introduction to mysteries for readers who are maybe reluctant to try mysteries. I'm sure plenty of young readers will enjoy it (and it doesn't seem like you have to have read the Ella Diaries to understand it). This book just wasn't for me.
February 3, 2020
Ella is excited and nervous at the same time as she hugs her family goodbye. She is about to start at Eden College Boarding School. She never thought she’d be able to attend this exclusive school along with her best friend Zoe, but after receiving a scholarship, her new life away from home is about to begin.
Ella is in a dorm room with three other girls, and is yet to discover all the amazing activities available at Eden College. She loves to write, and act and is a good gymnast, so decides to look at those options. There are also streaming tests looming, to decide which Year 7 class she will be part of, and there are new girls to get to know.
Everything is going relatively smoothly (besides upsetting a snooty girl called Saskia), when things begin to go missing from the Year 7 dorms. Have they just been misplaced, or is someone stealing from them all? There is also the mysterious Clink Clink Clink that Ella hears late at night. Is it really a ghost like the older girls say?
While reading Ella at Eden, I felt her nerves and excitement of her first day at Eden College. I enjoyed Ella’s courage dealing with Saskia, and the relationships between the girls, and the mystery thread was intriguing. Ella is a wordsmith and constantly uses rich language then explains the meaning of the word. Her friends don’t mind this personality quirk and it is enriching reader’s vocabulary at the same time. This is the first in a new series of Ella moving on from the Ella of the hugely popular series – Ella Diaries.
Ella is in a dorm room with three other girls, and is yet to discover all the amazing activities available at Eden College. She loves to write, and act and is a good gymnast, so decides to look at those options. There are also streaming tests looming, to decide which Year 7 class she will be part of, and there are new girls to get to know.
Everything is going relatively smoothly (besides upsetting a snooty girl called Saskia), when things begin to go missing from the Year 7 dorms. Have they just been misplaced, or is someone stealing from them all? There is also the mysterious Clink Clink Clink that Ella hears late at night. Is it really a ghost like the older girls say?
While reading Ella at Eden, I felt her nerves and excitement of her first day at Eden College. I enjoyed Ella’s courage dealing with Saskia, and the relationships between the girls, and the mystery thread was intriguing. Ella is a wordsmith and constantly uses rich language then explains the meaning of the word. Her friends don’t mind this personality quirk and it is enriching reader’s vocabulary at the same time. This is the first in a new series of Ella moving on from the Ella of the hugely popular series – Ella Diaries.
April 9, 2020
The first in a new series about ‘Ella’.
Ella is growing up, is now in Grade 7 and is off to a very posh boarding school.....on a scholarship.
Still with best friend, Zoe, Ella has left Olivia and Max at home to have new adventures at Eden College.
The 3 hugely popular series about Ella have all been written by different authors. (Ella and Olivia; Ella’s Diary; Ella at Eden), which I find to be quite odd....it’s like passing a baton in a relay....as Ella grows up the writing baton gets passed to a new author. I’m not saying it doesn’t work....it works so well that I was sure I’d google and find out that Yvette Poshoglian, Meredith Costain and Laura Sieveking are all one and the same person :).... but no .....unless the conspiracy goes deeper and their different biographies and pics are part of the plot to fool unsuspecting library folk. :)
Danielle McDonald is the common denominator amongst ALL the Ella books and she has once again illustrated the cover and chapter headings in this new series ......but Ella has grown up and there are none of the cutesy illustrations throughout this new novel. Neither is it written in diary format. We have proper chapters with just the odd email home to younger sister, Olivia.
I don’t think there’ll be any problem promoting this one. I can hear them squealing (Ella style) with delight now.
(Thanks to Scholastic for the Advanced Reader Copy)
Ella is growing up, is now in Grade 7 and is off to a very posh boarding school.....on a scholarship.
Still with best friend, Zoe, Ella has left Olivia and Max at home to have new adventures at Eden College.
The 3 hugely popular series about Ella have all been written by different authors. (Ella and Olivia; Ella’s Diary; Ella at Eden), which I find to be quite odd....it’s like passing a baton in a relay....as Ella grows up the writing baton gets passed to a new author. I’m not saying it doesn’t work....it works so well that I was sure I’d google and find out that Yvette Poshoglian, Meredith Costain and Laura Sieveking are all one and the same person :).... but no .....unless the conspiracy goes deeper and their different biographies and pics are part of the plot to fool unsuspecting library folk. :)
Danielle McDonald is the common denominator amongst ALL the Ella books and she has once again illustrated the cover and chapter headings in this new series ......but Ella has grown up and there are none of the cutesy illustrations throughout this new novel. Neither is it written in diary format. We have proper chapters with just the odd email home to younger sister, Olivia.
I don’t think there’ll be any problem promoting this one. I can hear them squealing (Ella style) with delight now.
(Thanks to Scholastic for the Advanced Reader Copy)
December 3, 2019
Ella, formerly of the Ella Diaries series, has finished primary school and with her best friend Zoe, is at the prestigious Eden College to start Year 7.
Excited and nervous in equal measure Ella has a mystery to solve, a thief to catch, and new friends to make. Touching lightly on issues that can arise in life, like the pressure to be the best, or the fear of being seen as different, the Ella at Eden series looks like it will be both relevant to it's audience and innocent enough to please the pickiest of parents.
Perfect for the 8+ crowd this new series will bring current fans of Ella Diaries along to a new reading level and be attractive to fans of series like Alice-Miranda by Jacqueline Harvey.
Excited and nervous in equal measure Ella has a mystery to solve, a thief to catch, and new friends to make. Touching lightly on issues that can arise in life, like the pressure to be the best, or the fear of being seen as different, the Ella at Eden series looks like it will be both relevant to it's audience and innocent enough to please the pickiest of parents.
Perfect for the 8+ crowd this new series will bring current fans of Ella Diaries along to a new reading level and be attractive to fans of series like Alice-Miranda by Jacqueline Harvey.
March 19, 2023
Love this series where Ella is a middle schooler ( US Terminology ) Great themes of friendship, growth, and learning how to get along in new situations. Ella loves sharing interesting words. Has a young girl with Type 1 Diabetes which resonates with us as my son has Type 1 Diabetes. Fun story about solving the mystery of the disappearing items.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 22, 2024
I admit that I thought this was a predictable story at first, but it actually didn't end how I expected it to. It also had great representation of a student with diabetes and the importance of not jumping to conclusions about others and how we can help others by asking them about themselves and taking time to learn.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 21, 2021
I really enjoyed it. I liked that they did lots of dares and that Ella made lots of friends. The maps were really cool. I liked that she got to send texts to Olivia and I like how it ended. 😍 (review written by a 7 year old girl)
October 13, 2024
I liked this book and it was really easy and quick to go through but I’ve read more interesting books. However, it is a less mature book and I definitely enjoyed it way more 3 years ago than I do now.
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June 9, 2022I love it
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2022
Harmless, predictable. Not the audience it is written for.😁
October 23, 2022
I liked the Ella at Eden series because it is a light book if you want a break from reading something heavy.
February 25, 2023
Such a cute book for girls age 10+ who love school and often wonder about what boarding school like would be like. I would have enjoyed this as a young girl!
May 6, 2024
This is a great book with a clean story line. A bit of a mystery
June 18, 2024
4.5
Ahh yes Zoe, Ella, Grace and Violet my childhood power girls!!!!!
Ahh yes Zoe, Ella, Grace and Violet my childhood power girls!!!!!
October 22, 2024
I loved this book i've read the whole series!
April 24, 2025
Full of mystery’s definitely recommend for 7-11 Wasn’t expecting saskia to be the theft but the mystery isn’t to big if it was more exciting I definitely would rate this 5 star’s but pretty good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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