Bad Alice: In the Shadow of the Red Queen - Jean Ure

The Hodder Reading Project Level 4-5 identifies blocks to progression and takes pupils from National Curriculum Level 4 to Level 5. It comprises the Teacher's Resource, Pupil's Book and 6 Readers.

Reader 4, Bad Alice by Jean Ure. With his mum and seriously ill baby sister in America for a life-saving operation, Duffy is left with his gran for the holidays. What is he going to do for six whole weeks? His Tourette's Syndrome means he can hardly string a sentence together let alone go out and meet friends - and then Alice appears on his gran's garden wall. Bold, brave, bad Alice - she's loud, foul-mouthed, bruising for a fight and not in the least fazed by Duffy's Tourette's. As their friendship grows, Duffy suspects that her home life might not be quite what it seems - Alice has entrusted the story she's been writing to him, Malice in Blunderland, and he's disturbed by what he reads. Surely her adoptive dad, Big Norm, the charismatic local hero, can't be the abusive Red Queen of her story? With the help of his gran, Duffy must convince Alice to face her situation in reality even if it means breaking up her whole family.