Cathy Cassidy

After an eight-year absence, Dizzy's "New Age traveler" mother suddenly shows up on her twelfth birthday and whisks her away to a series of festivals throughout Scotland in her rattletrap van.

A Novel

Dizzy

Aleisha Stapleton

This was my favourite book as a child, and as I re-read it the childhood nostalgia came flooding back. I thought this was the best thing I’d ever read at the age of 9.

Grace Ashford

I might be, no I definitely am, biased in giving this rating.

16 years ago I purchased a total girl magazine and this book came with it. It was the first book that ever introduced me to a world of adventure, and the first book that ever made me ache for an experience I’d never had. This book went on to push me to go camping, to want to travel, to be okay with being the weird kid even when strangers stared at me. It was also the first book I was able to lose myself completely in. Cathy Cassidy very quickly became one of my favourite authors throughout my teen years along side of Anthony Horowitz, Veronica Roth and some other notable names.

Today, at 24, I decided to re-read it out of curiosity and I wasn’t disappointed. My copy is old and tattered and has seen a lot of different times in my life. There’s tea stains on the pages and what even appeared to be smudges from some of the first ever makeup I owned. I was nervous to potentially ruin what I had remembered so lovingly but I needn’t have been. From the very first page I was hit with a strong sense of nostalgia. Dizzy is a book that encapsulates all of the basics of being a young teenager, of your first crush and does so in a way that makes it seem cool and fun. It shows that sometimes it’s okay to be the odd one out, to be different and take a risk. 

I can’t wait to one day be able to (hopefully) pass this on to a young girl I know and love, be it my own daughter or another’s. I think I might even make a habit of re-reading ALL of the Cathy Cassidy books now!

Rahmat Junaid

Mel 

nina 

a ragdoll a postcard from Marrakech a rainbow-stripe hat a dreamcatcher a silver necklace with a pink stone in Dizzy's mum left when she was small. But every year, on her birthday, something arrives in the post - a present or a card with her mum's loopy writing on. Dizzy has kept everything. But this year is different. This year's present is her mum, in person. Tanned and skinny with loads of earrings and a huge smile, Storm is a human whirlwind. She whisks Dizzy away for a summer that puts her whole world in a spin.

becky oh

Anita Olaide Lewis 

Perseus Allen

Ash Dhaliwal 

Ellie 

Jennifer

Dizzy's mum left when she was very small. But, on each and every birthday, she would receive a present or card in the post with her mum's big, loopy writing on it. But this year is different - nothing comes in the post. However, something does arrive on her doorstep which will put her whole life into a spin.

Dizzy A Novel

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