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My Name is Jodie Jones leaps out from the shelf.  Michelle Brackenborough’s cover can’t help but be investigated further and the story inside means whoever has picked it up will likely only be putting it down if absolutely necessary, or once they’ve finished.  Even then they might pick it up again.

This book is so full of life and all it might entail.  From tedium to trauma and the most fabulous friendship.  Author Emma Shevah has kindly written for us about how Jodie Jones came to be…

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Writing ‘My Name is Jodie Jones’ was a curious experience. I didn’t plan it out beforehand: I had a voice, a vague premise and three chapters, which sat for eight years in a file on my laptop along with a raggle-taggle assortment of others. I knew the teen protagonist was troubled and had a fractious relationship with her challenging mother, and that she was deliberately causing issues at school, which was making matters worse. But that was all I had. A snippet sitting with other snippets in a folder called WIPs.

Years passed. I wrote other books. My kids grew. The planet rotated on its axis. One day, I came across those three chapters, liked them, and decided to pick them up again and keep going. The narrative unravelled as I went along like an unconscious spool unwinding in my head. Arguably, that could be said of all fiction writing, but for the first time in ages, I didn’t have a contract, an agent or publisher expecting anything from me. I could do something different, so I aimed the language and themes at an older age group, and felt entirely free to write what and how I wished. I wrote in speech impairments, added literary quotations, fun games, witticisms. It was a bit nuts, I thought, but whatever. I enjoyed the playfulness. It was liberating.

Issues that occupy your mind can’t help but make an appearance on the page, so themes emerged— the long-term effects of trauma; the pressure parents can put on their children, wielding control and limiting their freedom—but the process was organic as to how those manifested in the story. And letting literature—my lifelong love—and the world’s greatest authors join me on the page was heavenly.

Other ideas emerged, other characters and threads. When we meet Jodie Jones, she’s at crisis point. The one thing everyone needs to navigate a tough time is a solid friend, so I gave her the gift of Becca. Although Jodie Jones is equally as supportive of Becca, Becca is the friend we’d all hope to have when we hit rock bottom. Beyond being a caring ally, Becca accepts Jodie Jones for who she is, and the world would be a much better place with more of that around. Becca’s family act as a benchmark of what family life could be like: she, the Hichens and their home are the opposite to the Jones’ set up, and that’s useful in narrative.

Writing secondary characters, friends in particular, is delightful. You can consider what you think is sound friendship move, and have their friends do it. Writing a love interest is great, too. Antagonists, I’m sure, are delicious to write if you are fashioning Count Olaf, but a mother can’t be as caricatured, so getting Monica right was hard. A reviewer called her a ‘literary villain’ and I suppose she is: the real villains in life are often, unfortunately, the people we know all too well.

There’s a surprise at the end of the novel, and I’d imagine the reason I didn’t give it away early on is that I had no idea about myself it until it happened. Twists are hard to conceal. Readers are smart. They’re used to noticing clues, inferring, reading between lines, guessing and counter-guessing. They’re expecting them, especially in psychological thrillers and crime novels. With those, I’d imagine you’d have to plot the twist at the beginning and work backwards. I write in a bit of a trance, wondering as I walk and drive and think between bouts at my laptop, where it’s going, and – ding— get an epiphany, and take it there (or somewhere else), and think, oh. Wow. That happened today. Huh.

I wouldn’t be a brilliant plotty crime writer, I don’t think. I’ve always been too interested in people, relationships, what drives people to act or react, how people get into and out of fugs, self-made catastrophes, desperate corners. Always questioning, always inquisitive, I studied philosophy along with English at university because life’s big questions intrigue me: freedom; truth; love; injustice; sacrifice; friendship; spiritual yearning; the nature of consciousness. If I could write a crime novel about those, I’d be fine. Throw in some jokes and weird stuff so I don’t get bored. Maybe one day. I’ll let the planet rotate on its axis a bit longer and see. Meanwhile, what the world can enjoy for the time being is a character that my heart goes out to every time I read and reread her story, and that’s coming from the person who wrote it. Jodie Jones. Bless her heart. You’ve got to feel for her, haven’t you?

Many thanks to Emma for this insight.  You can read more about My Name is Jodie Jones below.  This title would be great in Key Stage 3 or Key Stage 4 and offers a great deal to discuss outside its reading including a huge collection of famous beautiful words.  It is also an excellent choice to add to library shelves or PSHE/friendship/neurodiversity/anxiety & trauma reading lists.