The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Twelve-year-old Mira comes from a chaotic, artistic and outspoken family where it’s not always easy to be heard.

This book is diverse with many of its characters from Mira and her family who are Indian-Jewish and range from Mira's dark skin and brown hair to Krish's blonde hair and blue eyes. There are so many other little side stories with the secondary characters that, even though subtle, are so heart-wrenching. Those of you who have read my book Words That Start With B and its follow up, Love is a Four-Letter Word will understand why I love Artichoke Hearts. So imagine my delight when the two sides of Mira merged into one and she remained humble and still a little shy but capable of standing up for herself and finding her own voice.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. However this shouldn't put anyone off reading this book if they don't think that this is what they want to read about. In a way this book is about death but I think it would be more accurate to say that it is about life. Alongside these usual teen worries, the author also included some more serious problems - such as grief and the loss of loved ones, subjects that are really hard hitting. He’s a cheeky scamp who hides his intelligence and goofs around in class because it’s, like, totally lame to be clever in school, right?

Sita Brahmachari has certainly made her mark in children’s fiction and I look forward to reading her next book. Nana Josie's way of seeing life is not simple, but, in an extraordinary way, it seems to make a kind of joy seep through the book even when the themes are very sad. She's also finally finding her voice in public after too many years of trying to be invisible for her own protection.

And to make things more frustrating Mira keeps on lying to her parents and friends aND FOR GOD SAKE HER FRICKEN HALF DEAD GRANDMA! Being brought up in Central London and surrounded by so many different cultures and languages I really connected with this aspect of the book. Her best friend Millie, who she feels has been drifting away from her, along with loud-mouthed Ben and mysterious Jidé are also in the class. I wasn't expecting this to be such a coming of age novel, but I'm so glad that it was - I was very impressed and will certainly be reading more by the very talented Brahmachari in the future. Mira is only twelve and at first I thought it was going to be really difficult to relate to her, but she was such a glorious narrator….