The Dangerous Life of Ophelia Bottom

A refreshingly comic and fast-paced mystery about a girl learning the value of not fitting in, from acclaimed author of School for Nobodies and The Three Impossibles

Ophelia Bottom longs for an ordinary life: to have normal, well-behaved parents rather than embarrassing actors, and to live in a house that stays still. Instead, she’s stuck living in a rickety converted van – and having to manage her parents’ often disastrous plays at Bottom’s Travelling Theatre.

When the family are forced to stay in the idyllic town of Stopford, Ophelia’s dream appears to be coming true. But someone is trying to drive the Bottoms out, and there’s the issue of the strange Stopford motto: PLASTIC IS FANTASTIC – DIFFERENT IS DANGEROUS. Can Ophelia discover what lurks behind Stopford’s perfect appearance, before she loses everything that makes her family so special?

Sales Points

• This delightfully funny middle-grade fiction with a charmingly different heroine is perfect for readers of Maz Evans, Lisa Williamson and Rebecca Stead
• Susie Bower's two previous novels earned strong media and bookseller support