The author Catherine Barter lives in East London and Trouble Makers is her first book, it was published by Anderson press in Summer 2017.  Trouble Makers was written after the author finished a course and decided to give non – academic writing a go. In an interview I read Barter describes herself as ‘quite a political person,’ and this is what inspired some incidences in this book. 

This book is about a girl called Alena who was raised by her brother and his boyfriend. Throughout the story she tries to find out more about her mother who died when she was little. Her brother is very against this idea as a consequence tries to discourage it. Alena does some things which get her into trouble but eventually brings them closer. Throughout the book there are feelings of frustration from Alena, Danny and Nick as they navigate life in London. The ideas around this story are to do with politics and Terrorism. Throughout the story we see Alena forming opinions of different political matters. 

I really enjoyed reading this book and I couldn’t put the book down. I think this is because I like real life books about peoples lives. I would give this book 5 stars because it is a gripping story about life in London. This book was on the older fiction shortlist for the 2018 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, it was also shortlisted for the 2014 Bath Novel award.  I would recommend this book to people age 13+ because even though it is a Children’s book, I think it can be enjoyed by people of all ages. This is because people of all ages can relate to the feelings of frustration in the book, felt by all characters at some point. I would definitely read more of this authors work.