When Sophia, Maisie, Bell and Lola finally get the chance to catch up in their first high school break, picking up where they left off isn't as easy as they expected.
When the mayor announces he's going to bulldoze the local Corner Park Clubhouse, the girls have a mutual urgent focus, but saving the community's historical centre seems an impossible task.
This first book in the series, told from Sophia's point of view implies something terrible happened in the girls' final year at primary school. No one seems able to speak about it but the shadow of it looms over them all.
Place names like Handkerchief Park and Sunnystream High might make you think you've landed in a sugar-coated teenage Utopia, but it's worth reading beyond to find each girl's personal challenges and unravel the mystery of a pain so deep it's hard to talk about.
Sophie fights to bring her friends together so they can preserve the good memories Corner Park Clubhouse holds for them but so much has changed.
Realistic tensions within and between family, friends and neighbours, and a simmering political addenda could tear the entire community apart.
Have you read any of the133 titles in The Babysitters Club, which were a raging success in the 1980s? Maybe you've watched the Gilmore Girls, a popular onscreen series that debuted in 2000 and continued for several seasons? Sophia and the Corner Park Clubhouse by Davina Bell is written in homage to these.
Title: Sophia and the Corner Park Clubhouse
Author: Davina Bell
Publisher: Hardy Grant Egmont, $14.99
Publication Date: 1 May 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760503970
For ages: 8 +
Type: Middle Grade Fiction
