The Not-So Great Escape

12 year old Hedley likes life to be safe and predictable, especially as his own changed completely after the car crash a year ago.

As part of his therapy, he attends Bridlebank Activities Centre every weekend, where the thuggish Aiden takes delight in tormenting him. Things get worse when their support worker, Nic, insists that they both start a weekend job at Farmer Bert’s Petting Zoo. However, Aiden steals the farmer’s prize alpaca, Duke, hiding it at the activity centre, and convinces Hedley to embark on a quest to take Duke to a release site so that he can live free in the wild.

As you’d expect, disasters ensue, including wrecking a petrol station store, accidentally assisting in a robbery, causing a football match to be abandoned, and – of course – all their exploits going viral. With the latter, it will be an interesting lesson for readers to see how much the true course of events in the story differs from the online reports.

There are themes of family, friendship, grief, courage and stepping outside your comfort zone. It is written in the first person, giving a real insight into Hedley’s character and plenty of opportunities for wonderful one-liners to voice his thoughts. This is writing at its best, with genuine laugh-out-loud moments (especially in the police station and the football stadium) and a well-crafted and emotional ending – a totally unforeseen one for me!

I would highly recommend this for any fans of Jenny Pearson or anyone who enjoys fast-paced comedic adventures. It has been one of my favourite books this year.