Review – The It Girl by Katy Birchall

Everybody wants to be a famous It Girl. Don’t they?

Anna Huntley’s aims in life:

1) Must keep my two lovely new (and only) school friends by not doing anything in usual manner of socially inept dork and outcast.

2) Train Dog (my labrador) to high-five. This is probably the most ambitious life goal on this list.

3) Do not set the school’s Deputy Queen Bee mean girl’s hair on fire (again).

4) Work out whether 2) and 3) constitute being socially inept or outcastish.

5) Go to Africa and give out rice.

6) To hide in a cupboard FOR LIFE with Dog now Dad is engaged to one of the most famous actresses EVER, the paparazzi want to splash my face all over the papers and everyone in school (and The World) is soon to discover the level of my social ineptitude.

7) Is rice a bit done now? Maybe I can give out chocolate in Africa too. I do like chocolate. Must work out how to do it from the cupboard…

Publisher – Egmont

Date Published – 7th May 2015

Pages – 352 pages

Format – Paperback

Category – UK YA, Contemporary

Source –

I was sent a proof copy of this book by the publishers, Egmont for review.  This does not affect my review or my opinions in any way and am delighted to write an honest review.  Thank you to Alice and Egmont for sending me this fab book!

** Please note Tales Of Yesterday Reviews are written as spoiler free as possible**

Okay so I thought I would try something a little different for this review *gulps*

Whilst reading and loving The It Girl there were several exchanges between Anna and her best friend Jess via email with often hilarious conversations.

You can read an extract from The It Girl here which features examples of the emails between Anna and Jess.

So I thought I would email my lovely friend Sofia from www.thereadingfangirl.wordpress.com and tell her all about this book and have a little catch up!

Here’s what happened….

From: Chelley.Toy@zingmail.co.uk

To:  Sofia.STRF@zingmail.co.uk

Subject: Fab Book Alert!

Hi Sofia!

So Kevin and Corey are out at cubs tonight so I have a peaceful few hours at home to myself so I thought I would pop you an email to see how you have been?  I’ve not seen you for ages!  Hope your doing okay and your exams have gone okay too!

What have you been reading lately, except for revision books of course.

Did I tell you about the book I’ve been reading! It’s called The It Girl by a fab debut author Katy Birchall!  The book starts with the main character Anna setting a girls hair on fire with a Bunsen burner!?  I laughed that loud whilst reading it in the garden that my cats looked at me with embarrassment …. oh and also disgust at the sound I made! It seemed to scare all of the pigeons away that they were licking their lips at and eyeing up to pounce on so I am now officially the pigeons saviour!  I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not?

Anyway…went slightly a bit of topic there!  You really must pick up a copy of The It Girl!  It has lots of very funny moments!  I’m sure you will love it!  It’s about friendship too and the friendship between Anna and Jess is THE BEST!

I liked the message of the book as well….friendship and family and the fact that you don’t need to have everything to have everything if that makes any sense at all!

And before you ask…..no it wasn’t my mobile phone that started playing Jar Of Hearts on my iPod in the middle of an author event! *looks guilty*  The thing wouldn’t turn off!  I almost chucked it in my glass of orange juice to drown the embarrassment away!

Speak soon

Love, me xxx

***************************************************

From: Sofia.STRF@zingmail.co.uk

To:  Chelley.Toy@zingmail.co.uk

Subject: Pigeon Saviour!

Hey Michelle!

 So sorry for the late reply! As soon as my exams finished, I just read a lot! I’ve been well, no problems on my end! How about you? It has been way too long.

 That book sounds hilarious! Bunsen burners are a deadly weapon!  I’ve had a few near misses at school myself!

You saved all of the pigeons! Don’t you think that’s a weird word? Pigeons. Pig-eons. Sorry that’s just my brain going at it being weird again.

 Oh god that was you? I thought it was my mum so I was hiding in embarrassment. I’m glad it was you and not my mum! That would have been embarrassing for me. Not that it was embarassing for you…. well it kinda was..I’m so glad I wasn’t sitting next to you!

 Hopefully we can speak soon,

Tell me more about this book!

Love from the slightly weird teenager you somehow put up with  xx

***********************************************

From: Chelley.Toy@zingmail.co.uk

To:  Sofia.STRF@zingmail.co.uk

Subject: Friend?

And there was me thinking you were my friend!  lol

It really was kind of embarrassing ….literally everyone was looking…I’m sure I went the colour of a beetroot!

Talking about beetroots!  Remind me never to sit in the sun whilst reading again!  Chelley + sun = lobster….I took a selfie but I’m too ashamed to show it *presses delete quickly*

So anyway….more about The It Girl!  It was so so funny!   It’s about a girl called Anna who loves nothing more than spending weekends reading comics and watching csi and probably eating milk bottle sweets (yummy).  She is a bit of a geek I guess and fancies the popular guy in school!  One day her Dad brings his new girlfriend to their house and it turns out she’s a famous Oscar winning actress and her daughter is a famous It Girl!  When Anna’s Dad announces they are getting engaged this catapults Anna into the spotlight and she has to learn to become an It Girl herself!  And it turns out Anna and being an It Girl don’t mix!

I totally loved Anna!  I feel like you actually see her grow by the time the book is finished…and you also see her hanging upside down at one embarrassing point in the book in front of EVERYONE!

It’s told in the form of a mixture of emails, voicemails (often to Anna’s Dad when shes watched a horror film and is in the house alone!) and the story from Anna’s point of view.  This actually makes the book flow really well!

Awwwww and guess what!   Anna has a dog who is called Dog….he’s scared of salad spoons and loves bacon and is just adorable!  I loved the relationship between Anna and Dog!  At one point she holds Dog up like that scene in the Lion King….do you know which bit I mean!  Poor Dog!  Anna also wants to train Dog to give a hi five!  🙂

I laughed out loud so much at this book!  I feel I have many Anna moments in my life and often consider if Katie Birchall based her on my life lol *checks for Katy Birchall security cameras in my house!*

There’s also an hilarious scene between Anna and her Dad when his new girlfriend is coming around to the house for the first time…it involves Anna making a jump for the stairs and her Dad grabbing her by the legs to keep her down stairs!  It’s so funny!

Anna is also always hiding in a cupboard with Dog!

Love,me xxx

**********************************************

From: Sofia.STRF@zingmail.co.uk

To:  Chelley.Toy@zingmail.co.uk

Subject: Marvel!