Just Benny by Alex Banwell has penned a heart warming story of the struggles of a young boy with epilepsy who desperately wants to be ‘normal’.
Benny’s mother cossets him, forever hovering, always anxious. His father, who wanted a boy’s boy, cannot cope with his babied son, while Benny’s big sister Emma tries her best to balance their mother’s spoiling of her little brother and their father’s apparent indifference.
But as Benny grows into his teens, he slowly finds he doesn’t have to be ‘rubbish’ and he’s not entirely ‘stupid’. He makes a friend, two, and then the older teen Nettie moves in across the road, and Benny’s life takes a course no one could have predicted, least of all Benny.
Find Just Benny by Alex Banwell here.
Banwell’s characters come alive, their flaws and strengths are real as each member of the family navigates the storms of their relationship with, and love for, Benny. And he for them. This family saga keeps you turning the pages, engrossed in their lives.
A lovely coming-of-age tale, and the first in a series so more to enjoy..
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