It represents how people build up layers and layers of hard shells to protect ourselves from being hurt by others. I felt that the author introduced many issues (see above) and in doing this did not develop the story. But I didn't and it wasn't, although I would strongly recommend it for girls Mira’s age – 10-13 year olds – as they will be going through the same experiences of starting secondary school, having their first period, experiencing their first love (though I really feel she was a bit too young to have a boyfriend and felt uncomfortable reading about snogging between two twelve year olds, even if they acted much older and you often forget that they are only in Year 7).

There was a huge range in the types of people with this book and I really felt like it showed what living in England and particularly near London is like today with multicultural societies. In a way this book is about death but I think it would be more accurate to say that it is about life. I do not know whether or not it was intended or whether it would strike other people in the same way, but as I read this book I found myself reading into some of the characters, a sort of other-worldliness which at times Mira herself does wonder about. I feel like Nana Josie needs a subtitle of her own, seeing as the book wouldn’t exist without her and she is that awesome.

This was such a warm and lovable story about a young girl beginning to figure out her place in the world and the kind of person she wants to be. Before starting to read this one, I was a little unsure about what I was going to think seeing as the main character is younger than most of the characters that I prefer to read about.

She is drawn to mysterious Jide, a boy who is clearly hiding a troubled past and has grown hardened layers – like those of an artichoke – around his heart. Not that I don't read books with teens as the protagonists, it is in most YA, but Mira is young even for most YA.British children’s fiction, particularly contemporary realistic fiction, is full of amazing slang that I wish I could adopt in my life without my roommates looking at me funny. I felt like I was reading Sita trying to be a 12 year old, rather than being swept away solely by Mira's thoughts. I would recommend this book especially to anyone who has lost a relative to a terminal illness as there is something unique about it which makes this representation of loss and bereavement and of growing up, really beautiful. Mira lacks confidence and finds it difficult to make herself heard amid the chaos of her family life and the hierarchy imposed by her more extroverted classmates.