Driftwood by Cathy Cassidy

Driftwood is a story about Hannah and Joey who have been best friends for ever. Joey  is quirky and preaches individuality while her parents love rescuing things other people would class as rubbish and making them into unique creations. This means their house is full of things made from driftwood, old glass and shells from the beach. They are the type of family who love to find beauty in everything. This is probably why when the girls find abandoned, flea bitten kittens in the bin at school, they end up living in their home. When Joey's parents foster an unlikely boy called Paul, everybody thinks he needs rescuing too. But nobody looks deep enough to see quite how badly. Hannah's brother and Paul quickly become friends and the four of them are inseparable. This is where things start to go wrong. Paul is beginning to get bullied and things quickly become dangerous. People aren't like driftwood or beach shells, a life is something much more precious and hard to rescue on your own.

I first read this book in my last year of Primary school and instantly fell in love with Cathy Cassidy's writing style. Being about 11, my knowledge on depression and suicide was mainly learnt from reality TV like Casualty and misinterpreted rumors about psychiatric wards. Cathy Cassidy always finds a way to make her characters relate-able (even if sometimes in very obscure ways) and make such a beautiful book out of harsh reality and somewhat scary subjects. Another reason I love this book is because of the point of view it is written in.  Rather than being from an adults point of view such as Joey's parents or perhaps Paul's social worker or teacher it's written in Hannah's perspective. What I mean by this is that her opinions are slightly more naive and child like which I found easy to relate to. I also found my self lost in the story. When I started reading it I couldn't stop which is something I really value in a story. Overall I really loved this book and it'll probably be one I find myself re-reading over and over again.