PURPLE RIBBON

When twelve-year-old Maddy’s parents drop the bombshell that they’re splitting up, they promise life will go on as usual for her and her younger brother, Tom, but Maddy knows they’re lying. Dad moves out a few days later and suddenly the only time she’ll get to see him is when he picks her up every Sunday morning.

Painfully shy and struggling to fit in at her new secondary school, Maddy is desperate for everything to go back to how it was before: For Mum to stop crying, for Tom to stop getting into trouble - and for Dad to stop treating her like a stranger.
As Maddy withdraws further in to herself, her form tutor suggests that she joins a small nurture group led by the school counsellor, Mrs Lacy. Reluctant at first, Maddy dreads the sessions and does everything she can to get out them. But over time, she comes to realise that the nurture group is the one place where she can be herself and open up.
Also attending the group, and with his own issues, is ‘bad boy’ Kieran. Total opposites, but with far more in common than they realise, Maddy and Kieran reach out to each other and for the first time in years, Maddy feels she has a real friend she can trust.
But then Maddy finds an anonymous note stuck inside her homework diary. Just four simple words: Who is your dad?
At first Maddy tries to ignore it. But a week later she finds a second note, and then a third...
Terrified that her whole life has been one big lie, Maddy is desperate for answers and fast. How does someone know so much about her life? Why do they want to hurt her? And who can she turn to for help?
Anne-Marie Conway is a teacher who specializes in drama and runs her own children’s theatre company. Her novel, Butterfly Summer, won the Oxford Book Award 2012 and was Booktrust selected. She lives in London with her family.