Mango Delight

Mango Delight Fuller enjoys running and being with her best friend, Brooklyn. She is not so keen on the Cell-belles, a super-clique of girls at her school who have cell phones. As she and Brook are not allowed to have phones until they are 13, they make a happy team of two. However, things suddenly turn sour and not only does she lose Brook's friendship, she finds herself excluded from the running club too.

Just when she thinks nothing else can go wrong, Mango finds a cruel prank designed to humiliate her has been played on her. However, this is a pivotal moment for her which leads her to new experiences and new friendships.

What a lovely book! Mango is perfectly named as she is a complete delight and has the reader cheering her on from the very first page. The story is told in a chatty, friendly style, like a stream of consciousness, making all Mango's thoughts and feelings very vivid.

Brooklyn's treatment of Mango makes her vow to go slowly with friendships in the future and to take time before she trusts others, but she soon realises that there are those, like Izzy, who she used to know at pre-school, and the Dramanerds, who can be trusted and who encourage her to believe in herself. Mango is also forced to consider her own actions and how her reluctance to be honest with people if she thinks it will upset them can lead to even more upset in the end.

The story also explores Mango's relationship with her mother and their family trait of being stubborn. The family scenes in the story are wonderfully drawn and I adore her descriptions of her baby brother, Jasper, so rich with love.

I cannot recommend this one highly enough. I have just started Summer in the City, the second book about this loveable young lady, and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more!

224 pages / Ages 10+ / Reviewed by Susan Wilsher, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 9+