SuitabookSweet Hearts
Jo Cotterill
- Reading
- If competition or romantic uncertainty feels significant, read alongside the child and pause after auditions or confrontations. Talk about expressing feelings, respecting other people’s choices and seeking support without taking over.
- Themes
- Finding confidence: Fliss is shy, avoids conflict and may miss opportunities unless she finds confidence; a reader account says she eventually stands up to Samantha. The situation supports discussion of speaking up, but the book’s overall judgement about confidence-building is not fully established.
- Friendship and first love: Fliss’s friends encourage her in the theatre company, while she develops feelings for Tom and struggles to express them. The story clearly includes friendship and first love; whether it treats romance as the main route to fulfilment is not established.
- Competition in performance: Fliss auditions for Juliet, performs opposite Tom and faces Samantha’s determination to obtain the role and his attention. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- The story includes romantic attraction, jealousy around a role and a leading boy, conflict with a determined rival, and family tension involving a parent’s initial lack of support for Fliss’s acting ambitions.