Some udder-ly unmissable new fiction arrived in the Crow’s Nest recently: finished copies of Cowgirl by G.R. Gemin, an exciting debut for 2014 from an outstanding new writer.
Growing up on the embattled Mawr Estate in South Wales, all Gemma sees are burglaries, muggings, sadness and boredom. With a dad in prison and a mum who has given up hope, she, like everyone around her, is holding on to memories of the times when happiness wasn’t so hard to find.
When her search for the scene of a perfect childhood day takes her up into the surrounding hills, Gemma is forced into a meeting with the legendary Cowgirl. Everyone at school knows she’s a weirdo: the only conversations she has are with the twelve cows on her dad’s farm. But with her abrupt arrival in Gemma’s life, everything starts to look different. And with her only friends in mortal danger of the abbatoir, it turns out she and Gemma have a mission on their hands.
It’s an absolutely brilliant story – great for 9+ readers – with strong female characters and big-hearted social realism: Michael Morpurgo meets Jacqueline Wilson.
Here are the first three chapters:
Cowgirl won’t be published until March, but you can pre-order it online here.
