Boy Meets Hamster by Birdie Milano

Book of the Week: 7 October 2018

“She was wearing a shiny, royal blue power suit that looked like she’d pulled it out of a portal to the 80s, and holding a serious-looking clipboard. There are two types of clipboard in the world: ones that make people look like they are going on a Geography field trip, and ones that look like they’re full of Very Bad News.”

The clipboard-holder is Margaret who runs Starcross Sands, a Cornish holiday park, where Dylan, his parents, younger brother Jude and best friend Kayla, are about to enjoy a ‘dream holiday for the bargain price of £9.50. Margaret feels that every carefully-planned event at the park that goes wrong has one common denominator: Dylan!

Bad luck and horrible embarrassment seem to follow Dylan around, just as he’s trying to impress the gorgeous Jayden-Lee from the caravan opposite and avoid the cheery organising attempts of a holiday employee dressed as a giant hamster. Unfortunately, little brother Jude thinks Nibbles the hamster is one of the highlights of the holiday, making him doubly hard to avoid.

The author, Birdie Milano, dedicates the book to anyone who has ever felt different and adds ‘which I’m almost sure is everyone’. Read this for plenty of wisdom and reassurance, whether you are crushing on someone from afar, or trying to avoid excruciatingly embarrassing situations, or doomed holidays in awful places.