Author: Wilson, Jacqueline

Interest age: from c 9 years

Published on 13 August 2026 by Penguin Random House Children’s UK (Puffin) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 336 pages
223 x 164 x 31 | 508g

A funny, heartbreaking and hopeful story of one girl’s resilience, from the author of the bestselling Tracy Beaker series. Esme’s mum would do anything for her, including trying to steal the expensive dolls house that Esme desperately wants. When Mum gets caught, Esme has to go into foster care.

When a placement proves hard to find, Esme has to stay with an elderly couple who have retired from fostering. She knows she only has to stay until Mum gets back, but she still has to deal with a new school, and a real idiot of a class bully.

Esme might like to cause trouble, but this time she is going to have to find a way to get along.

Jacqueline Wilson wrote her first novel when she was nine years old, and she has been writing ever since. She is now one of Britain’s bestselling and most beloved children’s authors. She has written over 100 books and is the creator of characters such as Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather. More than forty million copies of her books have been sold.