NZ Intermediate School Librarians discussion

Lovely story with themes of family, friendship, hope, trust and fear. Would be good for reading aloud as the chapters are short and type is largish. Suitable for intermediate-aged children. Told in the first person. Positive yet sad ending - I really wanted to know what happened next.

Couldn't agree more. This is always a popular read aloud on year 7/8 classes. A similar book I point readers to is Pictures of Hollis Woods.

I've just finished reading "One for the Murphys" - I bought it because of Marianne's and Gillian's recommendation on this Good Reads group.
So pleased I did! I found it a real page-turner (unusual for me for a realistic story) and I pretty much wept through the last 3 chapters.
I loved the message of how people, even a 12 year old girl, can take control of their own lives and plan to go on to do great things, despite their lousy parents/upbringing/environment.
Needless to say I will be recommending this to students (probably more to girls) and to teachers.

It's one I will read again too. I've just re-read Goodnight Mister Tom and loved it all over again. What a page turner that book is. Looking forward to sharing it with our book group kids and teachers this week.

Yeah I loved this too.... It's a good one to intro the Realistic genre to students..