Binny in Secret: Book 2

Binny in Secret: Book 2

By Author / Illustrator

Hilary McKay

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

9+

Publisher

Hachette Children's Group

ISBN

9781444913408

Format

Hardback

Published

04-06-2015

Synopsis

With her awful secondhand uniform and stuck-up classmates, Binny's new school is horrible. And life gets even worse when a storm damages the roof of her house, forcing Binny and her family to move to the countryside whilst it's being fixed. Binny, her sensible older sister Clem, and her rambunctious brother James (and his chickens) begin adjusting to life in the country. Then one of James's beloved chickens vanishes and Binny finds strange footprints in the mud. What kind of creature is lurking in the undergrowth?

Reviews

Hayley

There is an innocence to this book, much like the feeling with any Famours Five or Secret Seven adventures, although this one has mobile phones. Binny is not your normal lead character. She's clumsy and stroppy, and sometimes gets herself into trouble just by acting without thinking, but she has good intentions and an honest character. I haven't read the previous book about Binny, but I don't think this had a negative impact on my reading. There are two timelines in Binny in secret and at first, it's not clear how the two are linked. I would have liked to have learnt more about what happened to the Penrose cousins, but the book is about Binny, so perhaps it is only fair that we are left wondering. As a country girl myself, the books is a good insight on country life from the view point of someone from a town or city. Country life does means you are closer to nature, and with this comes a different way of looking at things. The book explains why this is though, without spoiling the idea that country life is all garden fetes and frolicking animals. There are lots of layers to this book and it is a good example of a children's book that is on the cusp of becoming a book for adults.

Suggested Reading Age 9+

 

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