New Beginnings by Rebecca Emin is a touching novel which highlights the problems of being bullied at school.

After reading The White Darkness  by Geraldine McCaughrean last week, about a fourteen year old girl  being kidnapped and taken to Antartica, I have read New Beginnings by Rebecca Emin this week, about an eleven year old who is bullied at school.
I have got to know Rebecca through placing our books in the Wallingford Bookshop, and I probably wouldn't have come across hers if it hadn't been for that, but I was intrigued because it of the subject matter.
I don't think I've read many schoolgirl novels since Malory Towers, and I can't remember much bullying going on there as everyone was having such a "jolly good time".
However, I began to read this one on my Kindle, and soon became engrossed with the story about Sam Hendry, a girl starting at a new school on her own, as her primary school friends have all gone to another. This is bad enough, but then she is  picked on by Molly and her cronies who destroy her confidence.
The story is told in a style which is very accessible for girls in their early teens with lots of reference to High School Musical and JLS, and has a thread about Sam's drama class so they could identify with that too. I think that they would enjoy finding out how Sam resolves being bullied, and this would help any one who suffers in this way.
I think it would be ideal for mothers and daughters to read it (not necessarily together) then discuss any problems that the girls might have at school afterwards.
After reading two books for young people,  I have just downloaded Summer of the Eagles by Ros Gemmell, about thirteen year old Stevie on a Scottish island.
They say that everything comes in threes!
Have you read any of them?