Chartbreak

Chartbreak

by  Gillian Cross

Gillian Cross has been writing children's books for over twenty years.- Before that, she tool English degrees at Oxford and Sussex Universities; and she has done various jobs, including working in a village bakery , and being an assistant of Member of Parliament. She is married with four children and lives in Warwickshire. Her hobbies include orienteering and playing the piano.

The main characters: 

Janis Mary Finch: a 16 year old girl, who has troubles at home and meets "Kelp" and joins the band.

Christie Joyce: the lead singer and "boss" from "Kelp"

Rollo: is the drummer of the band

Dave: is the guitarist of the band

Job: plays the keyboard

Himmler: is the friend of her mother, Janis hates him

The Plot:

The book is about Janis Mary Finch, she is 16 years old and lives with her mother in a small house in Birmingham together with the friend of her mother, Himmler who is hated by Janis because she wants her mum for her own.

One day they have an argument again and Janis runs out of the house and goes to her favourite café. She takes her last money to buy a coffee and sit down. Suddenly four boys come in and one of them looks really frightening, he stares at the people until they can't bear it any longer, but when he stares at Janis she stands his evil eye and that fascinates the boys. They sit next to her and tell her that they have a band called "Kelp" and want to know more about the girl who stands Christies' evil eye. Janis tells them that she can sing too and Christie wants a duel. They are quite impressed, and when they take a look at the watch they see it's time to go on. They suggest her to go with them on a gig and she agrees.

First Janis doesn't like their music but then they make a break and Christie comes to her and says that she must come on stage to sing one song with him. But he thinks Janis is not a good name for a band like Kelp so he decides to call her Finch. They go on stage and he introduces her to the audiences. They sing the song they sang in the café  and it is not bad.

A week after this evening Rollo comes to her and suggests her to come with them, at first it seems impossible for her, but when she thinks of Himmler she decides to ran away from home and go to London and join Kelp.

All was different like she imagined she thought it would be easy like the one night on the gig, but she notices that she has many work to do before she can go on stage with Kelp. Christie takes her to a hair dresser and she must cut her hair 3mm short. Christie takes her to a ninja teacher and she learns to fight. By the time she is going to be Finch and not Janis, a wild young women who is incalculable.  Soon they are discovered and they make their first demo record.

Finch often thinks about her mother and how it would her go. She really regrets that she left home without saying her goodbye. But now she doesn't want to tell her where she is, first she must have success.

And soon they bring out a single and at first it seems to be a big flop, but then it goes from 0 to 37 in the charts. Now she thinks is the time to call her mother, but a few hours later she reads in the newspaper that her mother died a few days before. She decides to go home to go on the funeral.

When she comes home all relatives are there and stare at Finch, the "bad daughter who left home". She feels really miserable and then Himmler comes and says that he is disappointed from her because in front of the door are much reporter and he didn't thought of her that she makes  the funeral of her mother to her advantage for the band. Finch can't believe it, why there are so much reporters? She says that it is not her fault, but no one believes her. It is a real horror trip for her. Then she thinks about it. It must have been something big, why the reporters are her, then she realises, the single must be in the top three.

After the funeral she goes home to London and find out what is going on. Their single was number one! Her mother died a few days before she gets success.

I liked the book very much because it is really emotional and it gets under your skin.