Most days, Ellie is somewhere between invisible, and not very cool. But suddenly she feels different. Maybe it's the new boy at school who makes her brain explode into rainbows, or maybe it's her new drama teacher, who seems to have noticed she exists. Suddenly, her misfit style, her skin colour, her songwriting, all seem to be okay too. Because maybe standing out isn't a bad thing after all.

My name is Ellie. Ellie Pillai . . . And I suppose I am a little bit weird, but then, aren''t we all, just a little bit? Most days, Ellie Pillai is somewhere between invisible, and not very cool - and usually she''s okay with that. But suddenly, Ellie feels different. Maybe it''s the new boy at school who makes her brain explode into rainbows every time she sees him (and also happens to be going out with her best friend), or maybe it''s her new drama teacher, the one who seems to have noticed she exists. Suddenly, her misfit style, her skin colour, her songwriting and all that getting lost in the music in her head seem to be okay too. Because maybe standing out isn''t a bad thing after all.

Autorentext

Christine Pillainayagam is a writer and retail strategist, who lives in Kent with her young family and a collection of records, CD's and minidiscs (remember those?) that she refuses to be parted from; despite being aware what decade she lives in.

In her spare time, she volunteers with the charity Crisis, whose aim is to end homelessness. She is also known to some* (*her husband), as a very average wife, and a well-meaning, but often ineffectual parent to 2 brilliant boys - who inspired her to write books with more diverse characters to reflect both her own, and their backgrounds. She is 4ft 11", but if you ask - she's 5ft 2".

A mild obsession with The Beatles and the desire to write a story that reflected her own experiences growing up as a first-generation immigrant, led her to put that love of music and words into a book. Ellie Pillai Is Brown, is her debut novel and the winner of the Bradford Branford Boase Award.

She is also a singer and songwriter, and writes a blog: thelittlebrownbook.co.uk - a diary of style moments and mid-life epiphanies, firmly rooted in her experience as a brown woman.

Zusammenfassung
The perfect coming-of-age romance by the most spectacularly funny and original debut UKYA voice.