The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen

This is a vey well written book about a young girl, Judith, who lives with her strict Jehovah's Witness father in a poor industrial town following the death of her mother. Judith is a clever girl who is bullied by classmates because of her religion, so she seeks comfort in a world she creates in her bedroom from bits of discarded rubbish. I enjoyed this book very much as the characters, particularly Judith who narrates the novel, are very well defined and excite real compassion. The plot is simple but gets increasingly dark, which in my view adds to the depth of this novel. A thought provoking and enjoyable book but be aware that this is not the light read it first appears.