Book info

• Title Ten Birthdays
• Author Kerry Wilkinson
• Year 2017
• Genre Contemporary

It’s Poppy Kinsey’s birthday. She should be blowing out candles and opening presents – but hers falls on the type of heart-wrenching, agonising anniversary she would far rather forget. The worst day of them all. The day her mother died. But this year is special because the person she misses most in the world has left her a set of letters, one for each of her next ten birthdays. As Poppy opens them year by year, she discovers that no matter how tough life gets, her mum will always be by her side, guiding her along the way.

Thoughts

This is a really lovely piece of work, with a great structure that leads you through what turns out to be a fascinating friendship dynamic. Poppy’s mother wrote her ten letters for the next ten birthdays before she passed away, and we get to check in with Poppy each year to see what she is up to and how the letter affects her.

Initially, the story is gentle - growing up is hard and Poppy isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life. But gradually, real life gets in the way, relationships change, and stuff happens. I really enjoyed the way the characters changed and grew but ultimately kept a big part of what was special about them from the beginning.

Really good work, highly recommended.

Rating: 5 / 5