The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Eleven-year-old Alastair leads a lonely life in darkest Cornwall: his parents ignore him, his only friend has moved away, and he’s beset by a plethora of embarrassing nervous conditions that ensures permanent ostracism from the rest of his class. But then who should arrive in the village but Saoirse, a new girl, cool where Alastair’s pathetic, smart where he’s confused, unconcerned with school popularity contests and obsessed with unsolved mysteries involving ghosts. In her wake is her adorably potty-mouthed little brother Billy; crazy, reckless, a force of nature, a law unto himself, a sullen enigma one moment and a hurricane of chaos the next, a hilarious liability to anyone in his vicinity.