This book is about a girl, her age is not given in the book but she is older than 9 for sure – she can go swimming on her
own and you have to be over nine to, who has to look after her step brother, Maxie, and step sister, Vita, and also her own mother after Vita’s and Maxie’s father leaves them. Thankfully her grandma is there is it is a lot of help. The main character is Em, which is short for Emily (and also for Emerald by her step father although she liked him more than her real father who smacked both her and her mum). Em thinks she is fat and she got teased about it in school. She thinks none of her clothes look right on her and she has a very good imagination and writes brilliant stories for Vita and Maxie with the help of a reindeer hand puppet.