Caddy's world (by Hilary McKay)

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I have quite a few books by Hilary McKay on my shelves, most of which I haven’t read in over a decade. She’s a children’s author whom I only discovered in 2011, and I have loved all her books. My favourite series is the one about the Casson series. The first book written was ‘Saffy’s Angel’, but there’s a prequel, which was written later, called ‘Caddy’s world’.  I decided that this time I would read the books in chronological order, rather than order of publication.

I had totally forgotten what this book was about, and hadn’t really remembered any of the characters. I read ‘Caddy’s world’ in 2012 and all I recalled was that I liked it very much. And it was good to read it afresh, without having the later happenings in the family in my mind. 

Caddy (Cadmium) is twelve in this book. She has three best friends: Ruby, who is very clever; Beth, who is considered ‘perfect’; and Alison, who hates everybody. They all started school together aged four or five, and were put at a table by their teacher who informed them that they were going to be friends. And she was right. They did things together right the way through primary school and are now at a secondary school. 

Caddy is considered to be brave, because she is happy to rescue spiders, but she just wants to be an ordinary person, without too much change in her life. She becomes afraid when things spiral out of control, or when she doesn’t know what’s going on. Which is a bit of a problem as her parents are both very bohemian and often forget things. Their house has things everywhere; her mother is an artist, their father often works in London. 

Ruby is orphaned, but lives with all four grandparents, who love her very much. Alison is an only child who lives in an impeccably clean house next door to Caddy’s. Beth has a younger sister, Jools, and loves riding more than anything. And Caddy has two young siblings, Saffy and Indigo. She can remember being an only child, then Indigo was born and Saffy arrived at age three. She is quite fond of them, and they can be amusing; but she knows that money is tight and that her parents argue a lot more than they used to.

This story is basically a coming-of-age book, as Caddy has to learn to deal with some major changes. Alison’s family have been talking about moving away for years, but now, at last, it looks as though it might be happening. Ruby has been offered a place at a prestigious grammar school. Beth is growing faster than she wants to, and is worried that she won’t be able to ride her pony much longer. And there’s a big change coming in the Casson family too, which Caddy is trying to ignore…

Oh, and all four of the girls are rather keen on a boy at their school who goes by the rather odd name of Dingbat. 

The writing is excellent, the characterisation good. Some of the adults are a bit caricatured, perhaps; but Caddy comes across as a thoroughly likeable child who deals well with rebuffs and shouting, and really just wants to stay in the background. I suppose the four girls could be considered to have the four different ‘temperaments’ of classical and other literature: one academic, one loyal, one nice, one spontaneous. But they get along very well, balancing out each other’s quirks and problems. 

There’s some ongoing tension as Beth decides on a drastic diet, Ruby resolves to ignore all paperwork relating to the school, Alison adopts more and more dramatic make-up or hair styles, and Caddy has to deal with many tensions in her family. It’s handled well, with enough tension to make it very readable, but not so much as to scare a child. These books are, after all, written for older children: I would think they’re intended for the 9-12 age range, since the four main characters are twelve. But there’s enough to interest adults too, and a couple of dramatic incidents which, as a parent, I found very moving. 

I’m already looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, and would highly recommend them all to anyone who has not yet discovered them. Suitable for fluent readers of about eight and upwards, although there are some minor swear words (mostly used for effect by Saffy’s siblings) and a few incidents when one of the girls is rather ill. No gratuitous detail, but possibly disturbing for a young child.  It would make a great read-aloud for children in this age-group who like listening to books, as there’s a lot that could trigger useful discussion.

Definitely recommended.

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