What’s New Harper Drew? by Kathy Weeks
Jun. 15th, 2025 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
I’m Harper Drew and my life is completely beyond normal!
Current evidence:
1. My brother Troy … has a skateboarding vlog. But only owns half a skateboard.
2. My uncle Paul … has a diamond toe ring and is apparently a Hollywood movie producer. But no one has ever seen a film he’s made.
3. My dad … has just crashed the school minibus in front of a police officer.
And that’s before I even got started on my mum, my baby brother (the Prune) or the llamas on our disastrous family holiday …
Does anyone else have this much drama in their life?
It’s 25th July. Not only is it the first day of the school summer holidays but it is also Harper Drew’s birthday and the most popular girl in school - Maisie Felix - has given her a journal.
Harper decides to use it to keep a record of everything that happens over the holidays - from the disaster of her birthday (with a failed attempt to have a party at Laser Force), the disaster of the family’s annual vacation to France, the more successful attempts to fund raise to pay for a stairlift at school so that her best friend Edward can access the science labs, and her increasingly desperate attempts to get invited to Maisie’s summer glamping party.
Throughout it all she has to deal with the weirdness that is her family - her older brother Troy (who is determined to make it as an influencer through increasingly poorly thought through plans), her mum’s supermarket and bleach obsession, her dad’s general ineptness and her uncle Paul who claims to be a Hollywood movie producer but has never actually seemed to release a film. Thank goodness for Edward and her other best friend Priya, who can help her to navigate the craziness and the drama …
Kathy Weeks’s debut humorous novel for readers aged 9+ (the first in a trilogy) has a good narrative voice and builds its funny scenes well while Aleksei Bitskoff’s energetic illustrations bring out the absurdity of Harper’s family and the situations that she finds herself in. My biggest criticism is that the family’s attitude to arriving on time for things triggered my anxiety and I would have liked a bit more normality to make it feel grounded.
I picked this up because I always enjoy a good humorous kids’ book and the cover details on this sounded fun and interesting.
This takes the tried and tested format of having the main character recount their adventures in a journal but Weeks gives Harper a strong narrative voice and ties the journal device back to Harper’s desire to be in with popular girl Maisie. Part of the strength of the book lies in the fact that the reader will be able to pick up on things that Harper doesn’t - for example the poor way in which Maisie behaves towards Harper and the fact that while she’s well off, she’s also horribly spoilt. This applies equally to Harper’s Uncle Paul, who claims to be working on a film with Chris Hemsworth but who she keeps seeing at the tills in the local supermarket.
The big recurrent theme in the book is how weird her family are. Weeks mines this for maximum comic effect so everything is exaggerated - her mum is obsessed with visiting supermarkets (in part because she works for one), her dad is a complete disaster zone and her elder brother Troy (who is most definitely the golden child) gets away with murder despite his hare brained influencer and get-rich-quick schemes. Even though this is all for comic effect and it is a comedy novel, there were times when I wanted just a flash of more normality, especially from the parents because it all just got a little too much at times so that I struggled to believe it. This was especially the case towards the end of the book when Troy’s selfish idiocy threatens to set back Harper’s attempts to raise money for a stairlift for Edward and I just wanted to see one of her parents recognise that and call him on it. What I will say is that Weeks does write the antics well - to the point that her family’s persistent failure to make it to the ferry to France in time triggered my anxiety (I absolutely hate being late for things so I thoroughly shared Harper’s increasing frustration).
What’s good about Harper is that while she may be a little oblivious herself at times, she’s driven and organised. I especially liked the way she set about with her fundraising and how she knows how to and has the confidence to try and haggle for things - it’s something that I haven’t really seen in children’s fiction but it’s a great skill to highlight and she is doing it for a great cause. (Although if I am being nitpicky, then I hope that in future books Edward gets a bit more personality and a role more Ethan being in a wheelchair, just as Priya should be more than a neighbour whose dad wants to be a rap star).
My nitpicks aside, this is a solid start to the trilogy and there’s definitely enough here that I’m interested in reading more about Harper and the craziness of her family.
The Verdict:
Kathy Weeks’s debut humorous novel for readers aged 9+ (the first in a trilogy) has a good narrative voice and builds its funny scenes well while Aleksei Bitskoff’s energetic illustrations bring out the absurdity of Harper’s family and the situations that she finds herself in. My biggest criticism is that the family’s attitude to arriving on time for things triggered my anxiety and I would have liked a bit more normality to make it feel grounded.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Current evidence:
1. My brother Troy … has a skateboarding vlog. But only owns half a skateboard.
2. My uncle Paul … has a diamond toe ring and is apparently a Hollywood movie producer. But no one has ever seen a film he’s made.
3. My dad … has just crashed the school minibus in front of a police officer.
And that’s before I even got started on my mum, my baby brother (the Prune) or the llamas on our disastrous family holiday …
It’s 25th July. Not only is it the first day of the school summer holidays but it is also Harper Drew’s birthday and the most popular girl in school - Maisie Felix - has given her a journal.
Harper decides to use it to keep a record of everything that happens over the holidays - from the disaster of her birthday (with a failed attempt to have a party at Laser Force), the disaster of the family’s annual vacation to France, the more successful attempts to fund raise to pay for a stairlift at school so that her best friend Edward can access the science labs, and her increasingly desperate attempts to get invited to Maisie’s summer glamping party.
Throughout it all she has to deal with the weirdness that is her family - her older brother Troy (who is determined to make it as an influencer through increasingly poorly thought through plans), her mum’s supermarket and bleach obsession, her dad’s general ineptness and her uncle Paul who claims to be a Hollywood movie producer but has never actually seemed to release a film. Thank goodness for Edward and her other best friend Priya, who can help her to navigate the craziness and the drama …
Kathy Weeks’s debut humorous novel for readers aged 9+ (the first in a trilogy) has a good narrative voice and builds its funny scenes well while Aleksei Bitskoff’s energetic illustrations bring out the absurdity of Harper’s family and the situations that she finds herself in. My biggest criticism is that the family’s attitude to arriving on time for things triggered my anxiety and I would have liked a bit more normality to make it feel grounded.
I picked this up because I always enjoy a good humorous kids’ book and the cover details on this sounded fun and interesting.
This takes the tried and tested format of having the main character recount their adventures in a journal but Weeks gives Harper a strong narrative voice and ties the journal device back to Harper’s desire to be in with popular girl Maisie. Part of the strength of the book lies in the fact that the reader will be able to pick up on things that Harper doesn’t - for example the poor way in which Maisie behaves towards Harper and the fact that while she’s well off, she’s also horribly spoilt. This applies equally to Harper’s Uncle Paul, who claims to be working on a film with Chris Hemsworth but who she keeps seeing at the tills in the local supermarket.
The big recurrent theme in the book is how weird her family are. Weeks mines this for maximum comic effect so everything is exaggerated - her mum is obsessed with visiting supermarkets (in part because she works for one), her dad is a complete disaster zone and her elder brother Troy (who is most definitely the golden child) gets away with murder despite his hare brained influencer and get-rich-quick schemes. Even though this is all for comic effect and it is a comedy novel, there were times when I wanted just a flash of more normality, especially from the parents because it all just got a little too much at times so that I struggled to believe it. This was especially the case towards the end of the book when Troy’s selfish idiocy threatens to set back Harper’s attempts to raise money for a stairlift for Edward and I just wanted to see one of her parents recognise that and call him on it. What I will say is that Weeks does write the antics well - to the point that her family’s persistent failure to make it to the ferry to France in time triggered my anxiety (I absolutely hate being late for things so I thoroughly shared Harper’s increasing frustration).
What’s good about Harper is that while she may be a little oblivious herself at times, she’s driven and organised. I especially liked the way she set about with her fundraising and how she knows how to and has the confidence to try and haggle for things - it’s something that I haven’t really seen in children’s fiction but it’s a great skill to highlight and she is doing it for a great cause. (Although if I am being nitpicky, then I hope that in future books Edward gets a bit more personality and a role more Ethan being in a wheelchair, just as Priya should be more than a neighbour whose dad wants to be a rap star).
My nitpicks aside, this is a solid start to the trilogy and there’s definitely enough here that I’m interested in reading more about Harper and the craziness of her family.
The Verdict:
Kathy Weeks’s debut humorous novel for readers aged 9+ (the first in a trilogy) has a good narrative voice and builds its funny scenes well while Aleksei Bitskoff’s energetic illustrations bring out the absurdity of Harper’s family and the situations that she finds herself in. My biggest criticism is that the family’s attitude to arriving on time for things triggered my anxiety and I would have liked a bit more normality to make it feel grounded.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
