Where do baby apes sleep? In apricots!I'm Elsa, and that's one of my jokes (I tell LOTS of jokes and I'm going to be a big star one day). I do my best to cheer my family up - but no one seems to laugh much any more. Not since we lost our lovely house and had to move into a bed and breakfast hotel...

Two sisters have to cope with living in a very dysfunctional household where their tattoo-crazy mum. Dolphin adores her mother: she's got wonderful clothes, bright hair and vivid tattoos all over her body. She definitely lives a colorful life. Dolphin's older sister, Star, also loves her but is beginning to wonder if staying with a mum whose temper can be as flashy as her body-art is the best thing for the girls ...

India lives in a large, luxurious house with a mum she can't stand and a dad she adores, though he hasn't had much time for her recently. She seeks solace in her journal, which she keeps in sincere imitation of her heroine, Anne Frank. Treasure lives on the local council estate with her loving and capable grandmother. She is devoted to her nan but lives in fear of having to go back to live with her mother and violent stepfather. A chance meeting sparks a great friendship between the girls. And when Treasure has to run away to avoid her stepfather, India comes up with a hiding place inspired by her favourite writer. India hasn't got a real secret annexe like Anne Frank - but she has got a hidden attic . . .

Amy, Bella, Chloe, Daisy and Emily are friends at school and have their own Alphabet Club -- look at their initials! Daisy is the newest member and is desperate to fit in, even though Chloe is sometimes unfriendly towards her. Throughout the school year, the girls plan ever more elaborate sleepovers. Daisy is dreading the time when her turn comes as she doesn't know what her friends will make of sleeping over at her home, with her rather special older sister. The story is both a superb handling of both the complexities of young, female friendship, and the joys and problems of having a sister with learning disabilities.