Beauty and the Bin is a story about a young high school student named Laurie who finds herself torn between her family’s obsessions utilising food waste and living as ecologically as possible, being a good friend to those who understand her (although her family’s way of life is a closely guarded and embarrassing secret), and pleasing the most influential and popular girl at school who happens to have picked her out for her own benefit.

The book is primarily a tale about the pressures a young person feels as self-awareness, other people’s perception of you, and fitting in, becomes all-important. When she is caught by Charley, the most popular and prettiest girl, and the ‘influencer’ in school, rummaging through supermarket bins for perfectly good food, this is the lowest point in Laurie’s life. However, the ensuing conversation leads Charley to learn of Laurie’s ‘Beauty in the kitchen’ profile, where she promotes her natural skin-products she has made from fresh foods. These appear to be the perfect products to win the school’s enterprise competition and so Charley assumes Laurie’s co-operation and partnership, leaving Laurie to abandon her friends, who go it alone. A fortnight of compromising begins, all which places her on an uncomfortable and chaotic journey as she tries to keep pace with Charley and her manipulation, whilst losing out on her relationships with those that matter – her family and friends.

The main theme is eco-life style and food waste, but this story also offers an excellent example of how the influence and pressure of social media on young people can become more important than reality. Charley’s constant promotion of having the next big thing, including a yet-to-be made invention by Laurie, her use of intimidation in order to remain in control and maintain approval ratings, and her carefully crafted image, begins to take a toll on Laurie, as she realises that she has been taken advantage of and she has compromised her own ethics. What will it take for Laurie to be true to herself? The satisfying ending provides the answer and wraps up a good read, all with recipes for natural facial products for readers to try at the end of the book.

This fun, entrepreneurial adventure is the first in a comic, heart-warming illustrated series, for ages 7 and up and will appeal to fans of The Nothing to See Here Hotel and Charlie Changes into a Chicken .

When a boy called Limpet moves with his mum and evil little sister to the seaside town of Splottpool, he is worried about all the Things That Could Go (Badly) Wrong. His mum wants to open the Shop of Impossible Ice Creams where she will serve all sorts of weird and (possibly) wonderful flavours and his sister will no doubt embarrass him by telling everyone why his nickname is Limpet when he should be called Liam.

He starts a new school and soon meets Norman, who helps him on the adventure that is about to begin. Limpet discovers that Splottpool already has an ice cream shop run by Mr Fluffy and it’s his Mega Emporium of Amazing and Spectacular Ice Creams. But all is not as it seems. How will his mum’s business survive if people don’t like Brussels sprouts ice cream? How can they ever compete with Mr Fluffy? Limpet needs to tap into his entrepreneurial spirit to find a way for the shop to thrive against the odds. After a heart-warming and humorous adventure, Limpet comes to realise that with good friends and perseverance, you make your own luck.

The story is engaging and funny and this, coupled with great characters, leads to a storytime-read that is tricky to put down. The cartoon style, black and white illustrations interspersed throughout the story add to the amusement with a few pages being dedicated to larger pictures on their own.