Patrice Lawrence is an award-winning author from a Caribbean and Italian family. She has always written - poetry until her teens, short stories in her twenties, screenplays in her thirties, and now a mash up of all of it - and is the winner of the Bookseller YA Prize and the Waterstones Prize for Older Children's Fiction. Patrice was born in Brighton and now lives in East London with her daughter, partner and Stormageddon, the tabby.

A quirky family comedy set in the Caribbean from prize-winning author Patrice Lawrence.

Shayla can't wait to see her cousin Michael again. Last time, they had great fun chasing Granny's chickens and playing hide-and-seek in the bamboo by the river. But Michael thinks everything in London is better than in Trinidad where Shayla lives, which makes him better than her, doesn't it? Soon everything's a competition, especially when there's hot pepper sauce involved!

This humorous story featuring characters from Trinidad by Patrice Lawrence, the winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017 for Older Fiction, has fun black-and-white illustrations by TBC and is perfect for children who are developing as readers.

The Bloomsbury Readers series is packed with brilliant books to get children reading independently in Key Stage 2, with book-banded stories by award-winning authors like double Carnegie Medal winner Geraldine McCaughrean and Waterstones Prize winner Patrice Lawrence, covering a wide range of genres and topics. With charming illustrations and online guided reading notes written by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), this series is ideal for reading both in the classroom and at home. For more information visit www.bloomsburyguidedreading.com.

Book Band: Brown

Ideal for ages 7+