So today I've decided to do a little review of the Ally's World series of books by Karen McCombie. I've no idea how to age categorise books but these are probably classed as middle grade and suitable for approximate ages 8-14. A series of 14 books plus separate Christmas and summer specials, the Christmas special taking place before the main series and the summer special after the main series.
The series is told in letter format by 13 year old Alexandra (Ally) Love to her mum who left the family 3 years prior to the books starting. With her mum gone that leaves Ally, her older sisters Rowan and Linnhe (pronounced Linny, prefers to be called Linn), younger brother Tor, their dad, Martin, and countless pets. 2 dogs, 5 cats and many other odds and ends including a tortoise, a pigeon, a lumpy goldfish and a mad hamster, no prizes for guessing his name (it's Max, as in the Mad Max films of old - the new hadn't even been though of at the point of publication). I don't know if it counts as a spoiler for a book series this old (publications between 2001 and 2006) but their mum Melanie does return in book 10 where it's revealed she hasn't been travelling the world (as everyone in the family thought) but living in Cornwall with their surprise sister Ivy after leaving in the midst of prolonged post-natal depression struggles. All the kids have this interesting quirk of being named after the places where they were born/conceived/discovered: Loch Linnhe in Scotland, a Rowan tree (can't remember the exact location), Alexandra Palace in London, Glastonbury Tor and St. Ives in Cornwall.
The series is a light-hearted look into the day-to-day lives of the Love family, their shabby but cosy home, their mis-matched personalities - in particular neat, organised, blunt Linn vs colourful, creative, sensitive Rowan with Ally often the peacekeeper in the middle, whereas Tor is often referred to as 'spook kid' by Ally's best friend Billy due to him being an 8-year-old boy of few words and a major obsession with animals - and their assorted friends and family. Notable extra characters are Linn's best friend Alfie (a lifelong crush for Ally), Rowan's older goth friends Von and Chazza, Grandma (Melanie's mum who knew of her whereabouts the whole time) and her boyfriend, later husband, Stanley with the hairy ears. Then of course Ally herself with her best friends Billy and Sandie and the rest of the gang: Kyra, Chloe, Salma, Kellie and Jen. Kyra is Ally's newest friend and a constant source of stress with her blunt ways and forceful personality, highlights include smuggling a kitten into her house before taking it to school in a sports bag upon being discovered.
While these are light, fairly fluffy books they do dip their toe into a few issues: mental health, divorce, alcoholism, later life pregnancy, bullying, theft, jealousy. Also there are a couple of things I ought to mention, at the time neither of these were issues but times change and things come to light. First the lesser, barely mentioned issue, in one of the last books, possibly book 13 it is mentioned that Rowan has a Johnny Depp shrine - which accidentally causes a minor fire due to faulty fairy lights - personally this doesn't bother me but I know that many people do not wish to associate themselves with Johnny Depp at all due to his accusations of spousal abuse. The other issue is far more prominent and far more serious even affecting a character's name. I have mentioned that Tor is animal obsessed, one of his favourite programmes on TV (and once upon a time one of my favourites too) is Animal Hospital. Brits reading this will already see where I'm coming from, for those not from Britain and therefore not knowledgable on our pop culture Animal Hospital was presented by an Australian artist, presenter and musician Rolf Harris. Rolf Harris was beloved by all until his revelation some years back as a sexual predator. He was tried, convicted and imprisoned for 12 counts of indecent assault on teenage girls. He was released from prison last year. Rolf Harris is mentioned numerous times throughout the series as being one of Tor's heroes, their dog Rolf is even named after him (the other is Winslet after Kate Winslet - also problematic after her recent supportive comments of Woody Allen). Just something to be aware of if you are letting your kids read these. Or even better let your kid read them and if they pick up on the name and ask, use it to open an important discussion about consent, although seriously you should already be talking to them about that.
On that note this is long enough so I will leave you now.
3/5 stars overall.
Stef Out x
